WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.240 ever go back. So to all of you friends and family who traveled to be here with us, we are so thankful 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:14.300 to God for you and we are so happy that you're here. Just a couple of days left before we celebrate 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:20.539 Christmas. As Kevin said already, this is the final Sunday of the Advent season and Advent is 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:26.199 a time of preparation. It's a time when we contemplate why Christmas is such good news, 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:32.600 why it's not just a time for food and drink and celebration and sentimental sort of Hallmark 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:38.679 movies. All that stuff is good, but there's a deep hope here and a true hope here for the world and 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:45.420 that's what we're here to think about. We've been thinking about the brokenness of the world and 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:52.539 why isn't the world the way it should be? And the way Christians would answer that question, why is 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:57.899 the world not as it should be? We would answer this question by talking about a kind of relational 00:00:57.899 --> 00:01:15.960 breakdown. That at the heart of our understanding of the brokenness of the world, there is a brokenness 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:21.399 in our relationship with God. And then if you can imagine concentric circles out from that, 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:26.799 because our relationship with God is broken, we then have a broken relationship with ourselves. 00:01:27.299 --> 00:01:31.259 We don't fully understand why we do what we do. We don't have access to all of ourselves. 00:01:31.619 --> 00:01:36.839 And then as a result of that, our relationship with one another is broken in all kinds of ways. 00:01:37.179 --> 00:01:40.639 And over the last few weeks, we've talked about each of these kinds of brokenness. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:45.840 And then finally, our relationship with the world is broken. And when we talk about our 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:51.879 relationship with the world, another word for that is our work. What we do in the world, 00:01:52.019 --> 00:01:56.939 what we make of the world, even that is broken. And so this week, this final Sunday, we're going to 00:01:56.939 --> 00:02:03.519 talk about why Christmas is good news for our relationship with the world. How Jesus can bring 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:10.120 renewal to our relationship with God, self, other. And then this week, how Jesus renews our relationship 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:16.020 with the world. And so we're going to look primarily at Genesis chapter 2, but we're going to take a 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:20.439 number of other scriptures into account. And we're essentially going to look at three things about our 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:25.539 relationship with the world, our work. We're going to look at the way it ought to be. We're going to look at the 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:31.460 way that it is. And then we're going to look at how it can be because Jesus came at Christmas. 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:42.080 Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your work. We thank you that you came. We thank you that the 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:54.260 eternal became enfleshed, that the unknowable, unsearchable vastness became vulnerable. And we thank 00:02:54.260 --> 00:02:59.740 you that because of that, because of your life, because of your work, because of your finished work 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:07.700 on the cross, we get to gather here in an unshakable hope, knowing that the future is secure. I pray that you 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:12.659 would speak to us this morning through your word. I pray that you would tell us what we need to hear. I pray this 00:03:12.659 --> 00:03:20.460 by the power of your spirit in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. So our relationship with the world, how 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:30.640 ought that relationship, what should it look like? The creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 was not 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:37.540 written down to tell us much about how things were made in terms of how long it took or the mechanisms 00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:43.780 or order by which things were made. We know from looking at other ancient Near Eastern literature and 00:03:43.780 --> 00:03:50.879 understanding this genre that the focus of Genesis 1 and 2 is not about how, it's about why. It's about 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:58.439 helping us understand what all of this is for. How's it meant to work? And it does that very well. 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:04.960 In Genesis 2, the passage that Ellen read a little while ago, shows us the relationship that we as human 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:11.500 beings ought to have with the world. And in short, it goes like this. God made the world to provide for us. 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:19.540 And then God made us to provide for the world. It's a reciprocal relationship. It's a symbiotic 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:26.199 relationship. And so we see in chapter 2, verse 9, out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:32.000 every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. This shows us the earth is meant to provide 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:40.740 all our needs. And we likewise are meant to provide for the needs of the world. Verse 15 says, 00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:48.720 the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work and keep it. This is our original 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:58.500 job description. And if we compare Genesis 2 with Genesis 1, verse 28, where we see God instructing 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:05.199 human beings to fill the earth and to rule over it, and then we understand the nature of that filling 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:13.219 and the ruling is actually working and keeping, we begin to see why God put human beings in his world. 00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:19.120 We are here to work it and keep it. And I actually think a better translation of those words is cultivate 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:26.419 and protect. We are here to cultivate and we're here to protect. So our job is to take the wilderness 00:05:26.420 --> 00:05:36.740 and to turn it into a garden. Our job is to take this unfinished world and to bring out the best of 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:44.600 what it has to offer and then to protect it, to protect it from harm, to make sure it survives from 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:51.120 generation to generation. And so what does that actually mean today? Because most of us are not 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:56.639 gardeners. Some of you are, and I think that's really cool. I've tried it and failed miserably. 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:03.579 So what does this mean today? Well, it means any way in which we take the raw material of creation 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:09.620 and we make something out of it. In other words, the best way to think about human vocation, and I'm 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:15.100 talking all human vocation, all human vocation, the best way to think about what you do in the world 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:22.640 is that you are making something out of the world. You are a kind of, maybe not an agricultural 00:06:22.640 --> 00:06:29.160 gardener, you're a cultural gardener. You're a cultural gardener. And you are making culture, 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:37.620 you're making cultural goods. We cultivate creation by creating new ideas and by starting businesses 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:46.699 and by building cities and by developing new technologies. This is how we create and cultivate 00:06:46.699 --> 00:06:55.300 in God's world. So some of us here create art. Some of us create music or some of us work in fashion 00:06:55.300 --> 00:07:05.040 maybe or some of us write literature. Some of us create experiences through hospitality or cleaning or 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:12.900 design. Some of us cultivate children through parenting or teaching or coaching or mentoring. 00:07:13.140 --> 00:07:20.000 Some of us manage teams. And, you know, management is cultivation. You are drawing the best out of your 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:26.500 people. You're maximizing what they have to offer. Some of us serve in politics. Some of us develop 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:31.700 strategies. Some of us write software. Some of us work in healthcare, right? We could go on and on and on. 00:07:31.699 --> 00:07:38.120 And all of these are forms of cultivation. We're creating culture. And when you're doing that kind 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:46.860 of work, you're doing what God put human beings here to do. So every single human being is here to 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:54.560 make something out of the world, to be productive. And what's interesting is we even see this on a 00:07:54.560 --> 00:08:01.459 neurological level, right? Your brain has what's called a pleasure center in it. And its job is to produce 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:07.479 dopamine that makes you feel good. And the reason that pleasure center is there and the thing that 00:08:07.479 --> 00:08:14.279 activates it is meaningful work, right? When you make meaningful progress toward a goal, 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:22.139 your brain releases a hit of dopamine. That dopamine makes you feel good. And then you think, 00:08:22.299 --> 00:08:28.000 you know, that felt good. I want to do more of that. And so your brain rewards meaningful, productive 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:34.720 behavior. And what's interesting is once you attain that goal, that pleasure center shuts down. 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:42.820 Its primary purpose is to motivate you to pursue the goal. And another way of saying it is to say that 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:51.200 we are, in general, happiest when we are meaningfully pursuing goals and making progress. That's when we're 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:57.200 happiest. We're actually not as happy when we get the goal. We are happiest when we are pursuing it. 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:04.220 And when we see measurable progress, right? So, you know, I even see this in my two-year-old, 00:09:04.300 --> 00:09:09.600 Imeline. The other day I was trying to cook and she obviously wanted me to do other things. And so I 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.020 said, Imeline, I would love for you to help me cook. I said, could you please go get the cutting board 00:09:13.020 --> 00:09:17.580 out of the drawer? And could you please get this bowl and hold it? And I started just kind of giving her 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:23.000 orders. I was like, if you want to hang out, you're going to be my sous chef. And the greatest thing is, 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:27.720 I mean, Imeline, she could barely lift the cutting board. But the entire time she's doing it, she's 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:36.100 saying, I'm happy. I'm so happy. I'm happy. And she's trying to get it up on the thing. And she was 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:43.660 beaming, right? And it's because she realized that she was meaningfully contributing to something that 00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:48.519 was happening in the house. And I think her brain was just filled with dopamine at that point. I 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:53.719 think she was loving life, right? And so every single human being is made to be productive. 00:09:54.100 --> 00:10:00.399 You know, kids need meaningful chores, even if it's hard to get them to do it. They thrive when they 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:06.799 know they're contributing to your house. I think we need to rethink retirement for some people, 00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:11.000 right? I was talking to somebody this past week who, we said, what are you planning to do when you 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.120 retire? And he said, well, I'm planning to do absolutely nothing. And absolutely, right? I'm 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:20.919 not there yet. And probably for a while, doing nothing is going to be really great. But depending 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:25.799 on how long this person lives, that's probably not going to be the answer, right? Because most 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:30.019 people figure out after they're in retirement that they don't necessarily want to do nothing. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:35.740 They just may want to redirect their energy and their efforts in another direction, right? Because 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:40.399 human beings by nature, we need a purpose. We need a mission. We need a goal to pursue. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:45.439 And this is why we should be very concerned to make sure everybody in society is able to 00:10:45.439 --> 00:10:50.480 meaningfully contribute to society. That everybody in the church is meaningfully contributing to the 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:54.139 life of the church. Yes, we need volunteers. Yes, we need people to sign up for things like 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:59.259 children's ministry. Yes, there's a need, but actually we have a need in us to be contributing. 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:08.439 It's what we're designed to do. So we are here to be productive, to create and cultivate. We're 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:15.000 also here to protect, to protect the world. Which is interesting. The world by design is not only an 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:21.800 incomplete place when God finishes creating it, but it's also a vulnerable place. And it needs to be 00:11:21.800 --> 00:11:26.820 protected. It needs to be cared for. It needs to be preserved. That's our job as human beings. 00:11:27.780 --> 00:11:34.200 So this means that however we may disagree on a policy level, hopefully we understand that caring for 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:38.980 and protecting the environment is not a political issue for Christians. It shouldn't be. This is just 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:45.600 a natural part of our job description to want to make sure that our world is clean and that we're not 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:50.560 doing undue damage to it and that there's something to pass on to the next generation of children. This is 00:11:50.560 --> 00:11:57.100 simply a part of human vocation. So this is how our relationship with the world ought to be. 00:11:57.100 --> 00:12:02.659 It provides for us and then we provide for it by cultivating and protecting it. Now the question 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:07.440 is what went wrong with all that? And something's gone very wrong. I don't have to tell you that. 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:16.300 One of the consequences of human sin, which means our choice to ignore God and the world that he made, 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:24.899 one of the consequences of that is that our relationship with the world is broken. So instead of providing 00:12:24.899 --> 00:12:34.980 for us, nature can be a cruel and harsh place. Instead of us providing for the world, human beings can be 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:41.319 pretty cruel and harsh. We've done enormous amounts of damage to it through various forms of environmental 00:12:41.319 --> 00:12:49.240 degradation. And so we see this brokenness in Genesis 3 where God says to Adam, cursed is the ground 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:55.460 because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall 00:12:55.460 --> 00:13:02.399 bring forth for you. So no longer fruit but thorns and thistles. You know, literally the ground is cursed. 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:11.180 Crops fail. There are droughts and blights and food shortages and famines. We also have terrible 00:13:11.179 --> 00:13:21.939 earthquakes and hurricanes and floods. We also have disease and infertility and entropy and decay, right? 00:13:22.059 --> 00:13:30.620 All of these are evidences that show us that the world is broken, that our relationship is broken. 00:13:31.179 --> 00:13:40.539 And our work is now thwarted by thorns and thistles. Whatever you do, whatever field God has put you in, 00:13:40.539 --> 00:13:49.500 you are facing thorns and thistles. We run up against broken systems. We run against corrupt bureaucracies. 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:57.259 We run up against unjust institutions. We run up against inept managers. We run up against disgruntled, 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:06.279 resentful employees, right? In all these ways, we live in a world where you can do your best, 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:13.519 you can do everything right and still get the wrong outcome because the system is broken. 00:14:15.339 --> 00:14:20.699 And so because of this, you know, work can be rewarding but can also be tremendously frustrating 00:14:20.699 --> 00:14:27.019 and exhausting because of the thorns and the thistles, the futility. And then without God at the 00:14:27.019 --> 00:14:32.959 center, if you look at this image again, without God at the center of things, everything starts to 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:39.600 become distorted, including our work. We begin to lose perspective on the work that we do. And this 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:44.620 moves in a couple of directions. So some people, because God is no longer the center, their work 00:14:44.620 --> 00:14:52.440 becomes the center. Their work becomes the ultimate thing in their life. It becomes the source of meaning, 00:14:52.680 --> 00:14:57.780 the source of identity. They can't imagine being in the world without the work that they do. 00:14:57.779 --> 00:15:03.720 And so you see some people going in this direction and then they sacrifice all of the time and energy 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:10.480 that they have for their work. And so their family gets neglected, their kids get neglected, 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:17.819 their health gets neglected, their friendships get neglected, all in pursuit of the idol of work. 00:15:18.699 --> 00:15:23.559 For other people, they go in the other direction and they begin to feel like without God at the center 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:30.319 of things, their work seems meaningless. Everything seems meaningless. They wonder why they even show up, 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:35.199 right? They wonder if they're making any difference at all. They run into that futility and they think 00:15:35.199 --> 00:15:40.699 none of this matters anyway, right? And this isn't just something that people in offices experience, 00:15:40.939 --> 00:15:45.679 right? This is something I think that a lot of new young parents experience, you know? You're sitting 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:51.079 around kind of more or less isolated, feeding and changing diapers all day and just feeling like 00:15:51.080 --> 00:16:00.560 your entire life is this sort of routine. And you long to be able to use adult words and have adult 00:16:00.560 --> 00:16:06.960 conversations, right? And there can be a kind of sense of meaningless to it all. Other people just push paper 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:11.720 around all day or answer somebody else's emails or help other people make more money. And you just wonder, 00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:18.360 why am I even doing this? It all feels meaningless. There's no joy in it. And then within that, 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:25.840 there's a whole other set of issues that comes into play regarding meaningful productive activity. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:31.419 So remember the pleasure center I just told you about that's designed to reward you for meaningful 00:16:31.419 --> 00:16:36.700 progress by giving you a little hit of dopamine, right? Well, that system can be hijacked. 00:16:37.820 --> 00:16:44.879 It can be hijacked, right? So every addictive drug there is, from nicotine and caffeine all the way to 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:51.500 heroin and cocaine, every addictive drug there is operates by hijacking that pleasure center, 00:16:52.299 --> 00:16:57.480 right? It operates by giving you a hit of dopamine. It floods your system with dopamine and makes you 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:04.720 feel great and makes you want more of it. That's why it's addictive. And so we have to understand that 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:10.859 all of these substances are hijacking a system that is meant to reward meaningful progress. 00:17:10.859 --> 00:17:20.519 But it's not just drugs. It's also things like food and drink and shopping and, you know, many of the 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:27.039 activities that we do around the holidays. Also, trigger that pleasure center, right? Flood our system 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:32.219 with dopamine. Make us feel good. And I'm not knocking all of that. I hope we all have great food. And I hope 00:17:32.219 --> 00:17:38.859 we all have great celebration this week. But we just need to be aware that this is part of why it's so 00:17:38.859 --> 00:17:43.740 enjoyable, right? And we need to think about the fact that it all sort of ties together, that it is 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:49.019 actually our overconsumption that in some ways is contributing to environmental degradation, right? 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:54.419 So it's all kind of connected together. And then, you know, what else activates that pleasure center? 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:01.979 Your smartphone. Which some of you knew this. Your smartphone, right? So you pull out your phone. 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:10.000 It says 86% of Americans report constantly checking their phone. I mean, 86% of Americans say that they 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:18.140 check their phones constantly. So likes, retweets, texts, notifications, buzzes, dings, chimes, every 00:18:18.140 --> 00:18:22.460 single time, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, right? So you're flipping through Instagram, 00:18:22.620 --> 00:18:27.160 looking at pictures of other people's dogs. Dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. And it's 00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:35.120 Pavlovian conditioning, right? It's a Pavlovian conditioning machine, right? Bell reward, 00:18:35.259 --> 00:18:42.120 bell reward, bell reward, right? You're being conditioned. And so here's the point. All of these 00:18:42.120 --> 00:18:50.220 things create the illusion of meaningful, purposeful behavior. In other words, they trick your brain into 00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:55.740 believing that you are doing something meaningful with your time and energy, but in reality, you're doing 00:18:55.740 --> 00:19:03.359 nothing. You're doing nothing. And so the point is, it's ridiculously easy. And this is, man, I am, 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:10.180 this is coming right from my heart, from my own life. It is ridiculously easy to fill our time 00:19:10.180 --> 00:19:17.440 with food and drink and shopping and smartphones and fritter away decades of our lives. 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:22.620 Christmas. And this is why, you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? This is why, 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:32.920 this is why Christmas is such good news. Because Christmas gives us all an opportunity, a breather, 00:19:33.840 --> 00:19:40.160 to reorient, to reorient ourselves back to the one who came to put things right. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:45.720 Right? And we have to understand that Jesus came into the world not just to renew our relationship with 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:51.559 God, not just so that we could get saved and someday escape the world. He came because the 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:58.100 promise is that one day he's going to renew the world. And the purpose of saving people is so that 00:19:58.100 --> 00:20:06.980 they can join in that effort of making all things new. That's what a Christian is. We become co-partners 00:20:06.980 --> 00:20:12.940 with God in the renewal of all things. In other words, we take back up that original mantle that was put 00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:18.059 on our shoulders. The original human vocation of creating and cultivating and protecting that which 00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:27.039 God has made. So, Jesus brings renewal to our work. And there are a few, let us say, Christmas gifts 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:35.980 that Jesus offers us that change how we think about our work. I'll just give you a few here as we close. 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:43.960 Number one, to all of those in this room, all of us who are workaholics, to all of us who can't take 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:51.539 a day off, to all of us who tend to make idols out of our work, Merry Christmas, Jesus gives us the 00:20:51.539 --> 00:21:01.839 Sabbath. In Mark chapter 2 verse 28, Jesus says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. In other words, he's the one 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:08.419 who can give Sabbath rest. He's the one to whom the Sabbath points. So, when Jesus cries out on the 00:21:08.419 --> 00:21:15.459 cross as he's dying, it is finished. He's not just talking about his death. What he's saying is that 00:21:15.459 --> 00:21:22.179 he's accomplished everything necessary to reconcile us to God and make us whole again. And so, every 00:21:22.179 --> 00:21:30.579 Sabbath is an opportunity. It's a God-given gift-wrapped present to you to cease from your work and to focus 00:21:30.579 --> 00:21:37.139 on God's work, to remember that no matter how important your job is, at the end of the day, 00:21:37.299 --> 00:21:45.319 nobody's work here on earth will save anyone or anything. The finished work on the cross 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:52.960 will save everything. And that's the hope of the Christian, right? Your work is important, but it 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:58.439 cannot save you. There's this article in The Atlantic recently that I think some of you saw that I loved. 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:03.820 It's about a local pastor here in D.C., African-American pastor, a pretty well-known guy who's 00:22:03.820 --> 00:22:07.980 planning to take his first sabbatical. And especially in the African-American church, 00:22:08.100 --> 00:22:13.980 sabbaticals are pretty controversial, and there's not a lot of support generally for people taking 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:19.059 sabbaticals. And so, it's a bit of a countercultural move. And so, a lot of people are interested in this 00:22:19.059 --> 00:22:23.900 because they think it might set a trend among other pastors. And so, they interviewed him, and he says this. 00:22:23.900 --> 00:22:29.900 He says, at one point, when I started, I was working seven days a week. And a member of the church at the 00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:37.280 time, an older lady, said, why do you work every day? And the pastor responded, well, the devil doesn't 00:22:37.280 --> 00:22:46.560 take a day off. And she said, why is the devil your role model? Can't you just imagine that? 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:53.799 This older, wiser woman and this young, idealistic pastor, why is the devil your role model? She said, 00:22:53.879 --> 00:23:00.720 Jesus should be your role model. And he says, take a day off. I love that, right? So, to all of us 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:06.779 workaholics, Merry Christmas. Jesus has given you the Sabbath. To all of us who feel like our work is 00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:14.460 meaningless, Jesus gives us an entirely new motivation. Colossians 3.23, whatever you do, 00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:19.880 work heartily. And you know that actually literally translates, work from the soul. 00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:28.440 Whatever you do, work, pour your soul into it. As for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:33.539 the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. So, the entire motivation is different. 00:23:34.100 --> 00:23:43.680 Most people work for some combination of money or influence or power or meaning. If your job gives 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:49.299 you one or two of those things, you're probably doing pretty well, right? If you get power and 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:55.980 influence and money and a sense of meaning and all, man, that's pretty rare, right? So, most people 00:23:55.980 --> 00:24:02.420 work for those reasons. And those aren't bad reasons to work. But Christians don't ultimately work to 00:24:02.420 --> 00:24:11.300 seek a reward. Our work is a response to the security that we feel because of our inheritance, 00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:16.180 which is what Paul is saying here. Now, what's the difference? What's the difference between seeking 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:24.720 a reward and resting in an inheritance? Well, you can't earn an inheritance, right? It's not based on 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:29.080 performance. The only way to get an inheritance is to be born into the right family. 00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:36.839 The inheritance is something that you're given because of your family name. And so, becoming a 00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:44.519 Christian means taking the family name of Jesus Christ. It means taking the inheritance of Jesus 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:51.000 Christ, which he freely and joyfully offers. Which means that everything that matters is already yours. 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:58.799 It's already yours. It's there. It's secure. It's waiting for you. It's yours. Your place in God's 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:05.460 kingdom is secure. So, Jesus would say to anybody here who feels meaningless about what they do, 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:11.779 he would say this, hey, good news. Merry Christmas. You work for me now. You work for me now. 00:25:13.299 --> 00:25:19.700 I don't care if you wait tables or change diapers or negotiate international business deals. You work 00:25:19.700 --> 00:25:26.200 for me. So, every single thing that you do, you're doing for an audience of exactly one. 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:33.200 And when you do that work that I have given you to do and you pour your soul into it, when you work 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:42.640 from the soul, right, that glorifies me. It delights Jesus to see us doing what he has put us here to do. 00:25:43.460 --> 00:25:53.059 It delights him. His value system is utterly different from ours. I couldn't get away from the wonderful 00:25:53.059 --> 00:25:59.919 illustration of Eric Little, which some of you know. Chariots of Fire. But as some of you know, 00:26:01.299 --> 00:26:07.179 Eric and Harold Abram are rivals throughout the entire movie. They're rivals all the way to the 00:26:07.179 --> 00:26:13.720 very end. They're both runners. They're both fantastically talented. And the entire story is 00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:19.960 about this rivalry between Eric Little and Harold Abram. And the medal race comes up. The thing that 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:27.000 we've been building toward, but the medal race is going to happen on the Sabbath. And Eric refuses to 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:35.039 race. And so, Harold ends up running and winning and he wins his medal, but the medal doesn't actually 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:45.480 end up satisfying him. It's just a medal. It's just a... By contrast, Eric leaves. He goes on in his life 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:51.519 to serve the people of China for years before being put in a Japanese prison camp where he eventually 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:57.160 dies. And, you know, a lot of people in the world look at that and they look at this profoundly gifted 00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:03.700 runner like Eric Little and they say, what a waste. What a waste. Imagine if he had kept racing. Why would 00:27:03.700 --> 00:27:09.559 he go do something like that? But then if you understand Eric's motivation, you begin to understand 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:15.099 that the reason he ran had nothing to do with the applause. It had nothing to do with the medals. 00:27:16.139 --> 00:27:22.039 You know, it wasn't because of fame or money. When he was asked, he said he runs because when he runs, 00:27:22.299 --> 00:27:29.839 he feels God's smile. He feels God's smile. He feels God's pleasure. That's the source of meaning 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:35.000 in our work. It's all we need. You know, you say, I'm not making a difference. I'm not having an impact. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:40.359 When you do what God has put you here to do and you pour your heart into it, it delights God. 00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:50.819 He'll make the difference. Last gift to those of us who feel overwhelmed. With all of the problems 00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:58.740 of the world, Jesus gives us hope. Merry Christmas. One day, Jesus will bring about a new heavens and a 00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:03.819 new earth. You see in Mark chapter 4, Jesus has the power to rebuke the wind and the sea. 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:09.439 He's the Lord of creation. There's nothing that happens outside of his sovereignty. There's 00:28:09.439 --> 00:28:15.240 nothing he can't redeem or renew. We see in Romans chapter 8, this great language, we are now in the 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:21.980 birth pangs, right? Creation is groaning with expectation, but one day, all of this pain will 00:28:21.980 --> 00:28:28.759 give rise, will give birth to a new world. All of our present suffering is not worth comparing 00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:34.279 to the glory that will be revealed. And if you're sitting here and you're thinking, all of this 00:28:34.279 --> 00:28:37.619 sounds great, but I really don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life. And people keep 00:28:37.619 --> 00:28:43.019 asking me, what are you going to do with your life? And I just have no idea. I think that's the wrong 00:28:43.019 --> 00:28:48.680 question. It's just too big. It's too vague. I don't have anybody who can sit down and think, 00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:53.059 here's what I want to do with my whole life. And you know, if you're one of these people who does have a 00:28:53.059 --> 00:28:58.779 plan, I would just suggest you hold it lightly. I have yet to meet a person who got their plan A. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:04.480 You know, most of us are like in the, you know, the lower half of the alphabet. You know, most of us 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:11.179 are starting over. It's like plan like double B, you know, plan, you know, we sort of lost count, 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:21.440 you know. And that's good news because we never get our plan A. But whatever life you're living, 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:29.600 that's God's plan A. That's God's plan A. And it's always going to be God's plan A for your life. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:35.039 So we can trust him. And so if you trust God and trust that you're living his plan A, 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:39.960 then you can just have the freedom to look around at your little corner of creation where God has 00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:46.340 placed you and to begin in trust and love and desire to serve him, begin to ask, what here needs 00:29:46.339 --> 00:29:53.059 to be cultivated? Is there anything here? You know, it was interesting. We threw a party the 00:29:53.059 --> 00:29:56.500 other night for some of our neighbors and we were terrified that nobody was going to come to our 00:29:56.500 --> 00:30:03.159 Christmas party because we don't know anybody. And a lot of people came, including these two 00:30:03.159 --> 00:30:09.879 neighbors who have been in this bitter feud for I don't know how long. And they had to stay 20 feet 00:30:09.880 --> 00:30:15.740 apart from each other to be in our house. But they were both at the party. And we didn't even know 00:30:15.740 --> 00:30:20.160 about this, right, until we had the party. And we just started wondering, well, maybe one of the 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:24.200 things that we're called to cultivate here on this street is just relationships between the people 00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:30.280 who live here, many of whom we don't even really know each other. And so we look around and we ask, 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:36.200 what, you know, what might need to be cultivated here? And then we ask, what needs to be protected here? 00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:41.920 You know, are there kids that need my attention? You know, is there somebody who lives down the 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:45.539 street that needs my focus, right? Is there something that needs to be cultivated, something 00:30:45.539 --> 00:30:50.539 that needs to be protected? Is there anything that I can do in my life to make the world a little 00:30:50.539 --> 00:30:58.620 cleaner, a little more sustainable? So this Christmas, I think my final word to you would be to take some 00:30:58.620 --> 00:31:03.840 time to think about all of these relationships, right? Your relationship with God, your relationship with 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:10.819 yourself, your relationship with other people, and then your relationship in the world, your work, 00:31:10.980 --> 00:31:16.099 your calling, your vocation. Think about all of these things. And then think about the gift of Jesus 00:31:16.099 --> 00:31:23.519 Christ and how he offers renewal. And then maybe take some time and pray and ask God, what might that 00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:30.720 renewal look like if this hope and this Christ became the center of all of these relationships in this 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:36.960 coming year? And spend some time reflecting and thinking about that. And then for the love of God, 00:31:37.259 --> 00:31:44.420 put down your phone. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your son, 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:52.920 Jesus. And Lord, as we celebrate him in a couple of days, we pray that this would be a celebration of real, 00:31:52.920 --> 00:32:00.620 true, true, deep hope. We pray that this renewal would be something that we glimpse and taste in all 00:32:00.620 --> 00:32:06.360 kinds of ways. That instead of simply having eyes to see the brokenness, that you would give us eyes to 00:32:06.360 --> 00:32:12.720 see the renewal. The places where the blossoms are already breaking through the cracked asphalt. 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:21.940 the beams of sun that break through the clouds. Lord, we pray that you would give us the eyes to see 00:32:21.940 --> 00:32:28.339 what is already afoot because you are here in the world. And we pray this in your son's holy name. Amen.