WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.679 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:07.679 --> 00:01:19.039 This morning, I have the pleasure and honour of reflecting on Psalm 127 together. So if you have 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:24.560 your Bible, feel free to have that beside you and keep it as a reference. 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:36.080 Well, life is work. Life is work. How many of you have been told this by your parents maybe growing up? 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:44.000 Or how many of you have told this to your children? We use this as an expression to shock our systems, 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:51.920 to somehow come to grips with the fact that rest and leisure are but the exceptions, while work is the 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:59.760 norm for our waking hours. Life is work. When you hear this, there's something that probably resonates 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:07.680 as true. Everything in life that's of value takes work. And yet we resist it. We don't want it to be true. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:16.400 I think this is because, for many of us, work is defined as the opposite of rest. We feel crushed 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:23.360 under the weight of our never-ending to-do lists, home projects that never finish, self-improvement 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:31.360 plans that are never realized. We work for the evening, we say, or we work for the weekend, you might say, 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:41.280 or we work for an early retirement. Work is a means to an end, and so work is done as the necessary evil. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:52.000 And of course, for many of us, our work is done in frustration. Well, in Psalm 127, we read that there's 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:03.039 two ways to work apart from the Lord or with the Lord. If we build on our own without the Lord, we can 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:11.439 expect our projects to fail. More than this, the building process itself is filled with anxiety. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:18.960 Staying up late, rising early, eating the bread of anxious toil, and never succeeding in our plans. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:29.200 The end is failure. The end is failure. The means is anxiety. However, if we build with the Lord, we will not 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:36.640 build in vain. We will build fruitfully. And more than this, we will sleep soundly in the process. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:45.760 The good life shown in this Psalm is of a roof over our heads, a protected city, the blessing of children. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:53.519 This is ultimately, these are gifts from God, not anything we can achieve on our own. 00:03:54.639 --> 00:04:01.280 So there's two ways to work. One which is probably sadly familiar to many of us, that of stress and 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:09.359 striving. And then another type of work that feels all too distant, resting, and at peace. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:17.600 So how can we participate in that greater work, that greater work to which Psalm 127 speaks to? 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:25.439 Well, the scriptures invite us to see the world in quite a different way than we can see with our eyes, 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:32.560 than we can see naturally. In our work, we're invited to see God as the chief builder, the master architect. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:41.280 And so as we build, or probably buy our homes, as we undertake our study programs, 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:48.480 as we raise our families, as we take on hobbies, as we grow our gardens, care for communities, 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:57.279 as we work, the idea is that we see God as the chief worker over all these things, even as we work. 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:04.479 So God did not simply create the world and leave it to its own devices. He sustains the world. And more 00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:13.599 than this, he's working to redeem it. He's working through you and me. God is a worker. He's in the 00:05:13.599 --> 00:05:22.000 nitty-gritty with us. And yet we need eyes to see him at work. Now lots of ink has been spilled over 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:30.480 hundreds and hundreds of years over how it is that God works and how we work at the same time and in 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:36.879 the same action. Who is ultimately responsible for each action? And do we have free will? Well, 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:43.279 we won't get into those questions this morning, per se. However, however we might try to explain this 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:49.839 relationship, the scriptures clearly teach two paradoxical realities, that God is at work 00:05:49.839 --> 00:06:00.000 and that we are at work. And in this mystery, we need to resist holding one of these truths over and 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:06.079 against the other. So we're to resist the extreme that God works over and against our wills. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:14.559 I don't know if you've heard a Christian who, upon achieving some great Christian feat, has said, 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:21.600 it wasn't me, it was God. Right? That's not what the scriptures here are saying. And we're to resist 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:29.840 also the other extreme that I am the master architect and builder of my own life. I did this, no thanks to 00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:38.560 you, God. So bringing this back to our psalm, the point is this. We're to adjust our perspectives to see 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:44.480 that our building is to be secondary to God's building. That when we cook for ourselves and for 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:53.040 our families, God is the true master chef. When we make a breakthrough in our work, God is the chief 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:59.920 innovator. In the perspective of this psalm, our effort is at the periphery, while God's work is at the center. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:08.400 Now, if we're honest, I don't know how many of us think like this from day to day. And I think there's 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:15.280 a couple of reasons why we might struggle to see this. For one, many of us have been fed a certain 00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:21.360 materialistic and disenchanted worldview where we're taught to reduce everything to scientific explanation, 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:29.920 which in no way requires the hand of God. And so, for example, you're in a nice summer evening 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:37.280 looking up at the night sky and you see the stars. Many of us see stars that are first and foremost the 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:44.879 product of some scientific explanation, scientific cause. And we need to remind ourselves that taking 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:54.159 the eyes that the scriptures give to us that these are, on a very primary level, God's handiwork. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:08:00.800 It doesn't negate all the scientific explanation, and yet these are primarily to us God's 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:08.159 handiwork. And so, when the scriptures teach another way of seeing our work, where God is the chief builder, 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:19.760 many of us strain our eyes to see this. So, we need eyes somehow to see behind apparent natural processes 00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:28.480 and behind good work that there is a God who has authored these things. As the scriptures say in 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:34.560 Colossians 1, for in Christ all things were created, in him all things hold together, that his fingerprints 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:42.959 and workmanship are all over creation, all over the sustaining of this world, and all over the 00:08:42.959 --> 00:08:49.039 reconciling of all things to himself. So, that's one thing. I think one reason why we struggle to see 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:56.559 God's work in our work is this materialistic worldview. Secondly, I think for many of us we've 00:08:57.439 --> 00:09:03.119 ingested a certain hyper-spiritualism where we saw where we see God primarily at work 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:11.360 in spiritual things. Things like saving souls or making sure church services happen, 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:18.399 and where God is somehow less concerned about the rest. But of course, the scriptures say that God is 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:25.279 reconciling all things to himself. So, it is not just the spiritual work that he's interested in, but all 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:32.240 things. Not just our souls, but our bodies. Not just our bodies, but our families. Not just our families, 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:41.600 but our communities. Our institutions. Our nations. That God is at work all around us. Not just in the 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:49.680 quote-unquote spiritual stuff. And we're invited to evaluate our work in light of his. To ensure that 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:58.480 our work is connected to the things that he cares about. Now, probably for some of us, we can connect our 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:04.960 work more easily to God's work more easily to God's work than others. Particularly for those of us in the 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:14.240 provision of primary services, or those in governance and civil service. We can connect these somehow to 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:21.519 what God is doing in our world. For others, it may be a bit harder, but it doesn't mean that the Lord is 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:26.639 not or cannot be a part of it. The development of systems and products that will serve clients, 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:31.600 for example, that we can invite the Lord into our work in the way that we treat others, in the way that 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:39.360 we work as unto the Lord. As we work to be a part of steering our teams and organizations to do good, 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:46.559 to do the maximum amount of good wherever we find ourselves. And so, our God indeed is at work, 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:54.879 and we were made to work under him, to work for him, to work with him. And so, do we have eyes to see it? 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:02.719 Do we have eyes to see him at work? And of course, all this begs the more challenging question, 00:11:03.839 --> 00:11:12.799 are we indeed working with the Lord or apart from him? Scriptures warn us that when our work is 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:20.879 disconnected from the Lord, when we work by ourselves, unto ourselves, that we build broken buildings, 00:11:21.599 --> 00:11:30.639 we work in the wrong direction, we lose our North Star, we lose the plot. In a word, we work in vain. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:39.519 A couple examples for us to ground this in our lives. Consider your work, consider our work at home. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:47.279 Last week, a friend spoke to me about the time and effort he put into his lawn and garden, and he 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:53.679 asked himself the question, am I doing this for the love of it, or am I doing it to impress my neighbors? 00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:00.720 Consider our work as parents and homemakers. How much are we driven by the work of the Lord to bring up 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:06.319 our kids in the way of the Lord, to create spaces of flourishing, all these good godly desires? 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:13.440 Or how much do we turn our home building into another avenue for working on our own insecurities, 00:12:13.760 --> 00:12:20.260 for working to impress others? We're invited to homemake with the Lord. 00:12:22.260 --> 00:12:28.900 Consider our work at the gym. An old youth pastor would like to say to young guys getting into bodybuilding, 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:36.579 he would say, looking good. Why are you doing it? Connecting our work to God, we are working to 00:12:36.579 --> 00:12:44.179 steward the body. He has given to us a temple of the spirit, optimizing it for service and play and all 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:50.860 the things we've been created to do. Or do we obsess over our appearance, working to impress others or 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:58.100 working to have power over others? We're invited to work out and exercise with the Lord. 00:12:58.100 --> 00:13:06.980 And as a last example, consider our work at work, where we're building jobs and careers. When we forget 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:14.159 that God has given us our worth, we go out into our organizations looking to please, looking to grow 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:20.139 our resumes. We can easily drift away from our values and become swept in whatever direction 00:13:20.139 --> 00:13:30.740 the organization goes, not necessarily for good. The extreme example here, of course, is the Nazi officers 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:37.899 who went along with the commands given to them, playing their small part in the atrocity of the 00:13:37.899 --> 00:13:46.200 Holocaust. We too can become co-opted in some ways into the wrong building projects if we lose the plot. 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:53.400 If we lose the plot about what our work is for, what our work is supposed to be connected to. Our work is 00:13:53.400 --> 00:13:57.800 not simply about our own advancement in the world, but it is a means to participate 00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:03.240 in God's sustaining and redemptive work on this earth. 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:14.360 It's amazing to think that work, the very thing given to us to draw us closer to God, the way to connect 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:21.899 to God's work, becomes the very thing that often alienates us from God. That when we build apart from 00:14:21.899 --> 00:14:29.200 God, at best we build projects that exhaust us, that frustrate us, and at worst we build projects that 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:36.400 exalt us, that build up our own kingdoms over and against God's. We might call them mutinous building 00:14:36.400 --> 00:14:43.280 projects that make our name great, that make us feel self-sufficient, builders in our own right, 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:51.480 builders independent of a sovereign God, projects that make us question our very need to be saved. 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:58.120 I think what's especially scary in all of this is how much of our lives are spent building, 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:04.279 building and not completing. We put our heads down and raise our kids, we put our heads down and build 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:10.000 our careers, we work on our papers, we work on our certifications, we work on ourselves, these 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:17.500 never-ending projects, and we can forget to ask whether we're building with or apart from the Lord. 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:27.720 And so this morning we're asked to reflect on this question, how do our building projects, 00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:35.679 how does our work match up against the things that God is building? What is in our hearts as we improve 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:41.960 our homes, as we build our careers, as we choose which program to study? Is the Lord in it? 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:51.940 Now Psalm 127 shows us good things to work towards. If we're building with the Lord, if we're building 00:15:51.940 --> 00:16:03.920 homes, watching over the city, raising children, these three things, home, community, raising children, 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:10.980 or the next generation, if this indeed constitutes a well-diversified building strategy, 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:16.320 how well balanced are your building efforts? How well balanced is our work? 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:23.740 Do you feel the temptation to put all efforts into building up home without much priority for 00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:30.399 building community, or for building up the next generation? How might we take up the call to watch 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:37.519 over the city? How might we work to build our communities that desperately need it? 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:46.399 The point is not to have a never-ending to-do list. The point is not to do everything, 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:52.480 but it is to match up our work in building projects with what God is up to in the city, 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:59.759 with what God is up to in this church, with what God is up to in our communities, and in our homes. 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:11.240 And so Psalm 127 is a warning for us. Pay attention to how you work. Pay attention to what you build. 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:18.220 There's a way to work in fruitful cooperation with the Lord, and there's a way to work which sets us up 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:26.620 against God's purposes for us, and will result in failed building projects. Perhaps you get the promotion. 00:17:27.100 --> 00:17:33.500 Perhaps the building stands. But are you part of the work that will truly last? 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:48.559 And Jesus, of course, says to us famously, he says to us who labor, and to us who are heavy laden, 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:54.779 to us who strive in vain, to us who build apart from him, he says to us, 00:17:54.779 --> 00:18:03.000 come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:11.299 Jesus came to us who strive, to us who create broken buildings and who become broken in the process. 00:18:11.859 --> 00:18:17.839 He came to us and died for us. He died for our sins, that we might be reconciled to him, 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:24.119 that we might take his yoke upon us in order to join in his work. 00:18:24.779 --> 00:18:32.579 To work differently, to work, we might say, as we were created to work. The yoke that Jesus puts 00:18:32.579 --> 00:18:39.619 upon us, a tool for pulling heavy loads given by him, is easy, he tells us, compared to the yoke 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:48.220 from this world or the yoke of our own making. And of course, with us under this yoke is the humble 00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:55.860 and lowly Jesus, the king who shares it with us. And so rather than working on our own, 00:18:55.860 --> 00:19:01.660 we are connected to the one who supplies all that we need. Rather than fighting for our worth, 00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:08.480 eating the bread of anxious toil, we're invited to set down our work at the end of the day, 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:16.079 entrusting it to the Lord who builds with us. In Christ, we are the beloved of God, and he gives 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:26.660 to his beloved sleep and rest. In Christ, we are freed from our broken work so that we can join his work. 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:33.140 And we're told this great promise that no work done in the Lord is in vain. 00:19:35.140 --> 00:19:36.279 Thanks be to God. 00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:40.980 Please join with me in prayer. 00:19:45.340 --> 00:19:51.700 Father, we thank you for your good promises to us this morning, that in our work, 00:19:51.700 --> 00:19:59.539 as so much of our work of our life is, that you invite us to do this differently, as unto you, 00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:07.660 in partnership with you, not under heavy burdens, but under your light burden. 00:20:08.580 --> 00:20:15.100 Not striving on our own, but connected to you and your good work with us. We ask this morning that 00:20:15.100 --> 00:20:20.620 you'd give us eyes to see your work with us, that you'd give us eyes to see 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:28.839 where you are at work in our homes and in our communities and our workplaces. You'd help us 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:34.179 to connect our work to yours, and most importantly, that you would call us to participate in that which 00:20:34.179 --> 00:20:42.059 you are doing in our midst. We long to see your reconciliation in all things. We ask that you would 00:20:42.059 --> 00:20:50.940 surprise us by seeing your work in our midst. Thank you that you call us to be a part of it. 00:20:52.500 --> 00:21:01.079 We pray that we would see you glorified in this city and in all the places where you would have us be. 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.399 We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. 00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:12.220 Amen. 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:12.220 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:42.200 Thank you.