WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.400 So we're going to continue in our theme this evening of work, faith and work, and looking 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:16.719 particularly at the idea of work being fruitless and pointless because of sin, or at least 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:24.440 being at least infected with a sense of fruitlessness and pointlessness and how we deal with that 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:31.600 as believers. But before we do that we'll pray, so let's put our heads in prayer. Father, 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:37.520 we come before you tonight and we ask that you would bless our time together. We recognise 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:42.320 that we need to be shoulder to shoulder, that we need to support one another in this Christian 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:49.040 walk, that we live in a time of battle, as has always been the case. But we know who 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:56.560 are kings. We know where the victory lies and we are called to call out to you. We're 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:03.280 called to focus our attention and stay close to Jesus, called to learn from you, to set 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:09.680 your feet as disciples. And we pray that we would do that and we would do that together. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:16.920 And we thank you for the encouragement of church family both here and throughout the 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:22.040 world and that we can join together in a way like this. And we thank you for those too, 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:27.879 who can join on the live stream. We pray and ask for your blessing on us and our thoughts 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:33.799 together for a few moments and that Christ would be the centre of all we do. And that 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:39.760 you would hear our prayers, Lord, as we cry to you. We cry and plead and we'll make our 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.760 petitions and we will worship together. And we pray that you would help us to do that 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:50.520 in the middle of the week as we gather in your name. We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:55.400 our Lord, our Redeemer and our Saviour. Amen. 00:01:55.400 --> 00:02:05.960 Okay, just a couple of questions before we start. For those of you, well, take work in 00:02:05.960 --> 00:02:13.920 its broadest context, not just employment, but your studies or even your retirement, 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:19.359 whatever you do in your retirement. Just going to ask you a couple of questions. What do 00:02:19.359 --> 00:02:29.039 you love about work? Well, let's hear you. What do you love about your work? Just throughout 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:37.479 some things. You what? When it's five o'clock you get to go. There's a great answer of the 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:46.239 pointless burdensome sense that he has of work. I always love about working, clocking 00:02:46.239 --> 00:02:54.919 off. What else? Anything actually positive about work? Getting stuff done, achieving, 00:02:54.919 --> 00:03:05.679 performing. Anything else? Making a difference. Excellent. Getting paid to do interesting 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:15.840 things. Yeah, being rewarded and enjoying it. Networking. Yeah, meeting other people, 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:22.000 maybe people with a common interest or a common ability or gift that you have. What then makes 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:36.240 work frustrating? What can make work frustrating? Deadlines. Okay, yeah. Sorry, people, of course. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:46.280 People can make work very frustrating. Anything else? What are you, students? 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:54.240 You're a graph, hard graph, sweat the brow, yeah. Can make it frustrating. If you had 00:03:54.240 --> 00:04:00.120 an opportunity to make things better, what would you do in your workplace? You had an 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:07.120 opportunity to change things or what would be the one thing that you would really enjoy 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:13.360 that would make your work life better, your study life better or whatever it might be? 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:23.920 Come in. If other people changed, yep, if other people changed, that would possibly make 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:36.319 your work a much better place. Anything else? Fairness. Yeah, a sense of equity and fairness 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:41.600 in the workplace. Yeah, that would make a difference. Good. We'll kind of touch on probably most 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:48.200 of these things just for a moment this evening. Because we've seen so far that work is good. 00:04:48.200 --> 00:04:53.240 In our studies so far, we've seen that work is not a result of the fall. It is a good 00:04:53.240 --> 00:05:00.120 thing. It's a reflection of being made in God's image because God is a worker, is a creator 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:09.720 and he mandated us to create and to cultivate and to develop a civilization and culture 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:18.240 within the world. And I think towards the end of last time that you met, Cody spoke 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:26.920 about how in Christ we're called to recapture that sense of dignity and importance of work. 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:33.120 And we're empowered to do that in the Holy Spirit. But of course there's a bit in between 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:41.240 that, isn't there, that links both these things together. And we've assumed the crisis of sin. 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:49.079 Sin that's the destroyer and that's what diseases every aspect of God's creation, every aspect 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:53.840 wasn't just Adam and Eve that were affected by the fall. It was the whole of creation 00:05:53.840 --> 00:06:03.079 and it introduces tension and strife and abuse. And so it's very important that as workers 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:09.399 we recognize that and we recognize that we don't just need grace in the Holy Spirit in 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:15.759 church or for our Christian stuff or even for our Christian heart. We need it in the workplace. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:22.199 It's not like you just need God when you go to church or for your own personal devotion. 00:06:22.199 --> 00:06:29.360 You need Christ, you need God and you need the Holy Spirit to redeem work and to transform it 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:33.319 and to help us to understand what sin has done. So we're going to look at a couple of things, 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:41.319 fruitlessness and pointlessness that sin has introduced into the whole concept of work. 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:48.920 And we're going to read firstly in Genesis 3, 16 to 19. It's the famous chapter about the fall 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:57.520 of humanity, rebellion against God. But we're only going to look at verses 16 to 19 and it'll 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:04.279 come up on the screen. Hopefully God has brought judgment. We've seen what's happened, we know 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:12.319 what's happened and God has brought judgment and he has brought judgment on the evil one, 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:17.199 on the serpent and the enmity that he's brought. And then he speaks to the woman, 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:23.799 to the woman he said, yeah, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:29.680 bring forth children, your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And to 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:34.600 Adam he said, because you listen to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:40.920 I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:46.080 eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:53.720 shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:59.320 return to the ground for out of it you were taken for your dust and to dust, dust you shall return. 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:10.600 So we know it, we know well the story, the truth of the fall of humanity. Humanities representatives, 00:08:10.600 --> 00:08:16.240 would they be the ones who would love and who would trust God's goodness and provision and 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:23.759 relationship enough not to eat from the tree of life? Even if they didn't know why they were 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:29.639 being asked not to eat of it, would they obey him as representatives of humanity? No. We know that, 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:35.000 we know that they wanted more, they weren't content just with their position before God, 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:40.680 they wanted to be like God, they wanted to have that independence. Now there's mystery in all of 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:50.159 that as we recognise that every single human being would have made the same choice. Had you 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:55.079 been there, had I been the representative, had anyone been the representative we would have 00:08:55.079 --> 00:09:03.000 made the same choice and would have brought sin and rebellion into our experience. And as it unfolds 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:10.399 as the maker is rejected and as instructions are rejected nothing works as it should, nothing 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:18.279 is as God created it. Just very quickly I want you to look up Romans, I mean it's a well known 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:34.919 verse Romans chapter 8, it's very significant Romans chapter 8 and verse 20, for the creation was 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:41.479 subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation 00:09:41.479 --> 00:09:47.279 itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:53.919 of the children of God for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:03.199 of childbirth until now, not only creation but we ourselves. So it's that great truth that humanity 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:11.240 and creation is groaning under the sense of fruitlessness and frustration because of God's 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:20.160 judgment and there's two massive areas that are spoken of here by God in his act of judgment in 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:30.120 Genesis chapter 3, really major legs of humanity as it were that are part of our whole creation 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:37.080 life and that is love and work. That's the two elements that are dealt with in these words 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:43.799 that we have and in verse 16 and in verse 17 we have the same word used to link them together 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:49.519 which is pain, you will surely multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring four 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:59.720 children and then we also have later on in verse 17 because you've listened to the voice of your 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:07.759 way, in pain you shall eat of the ground that is cursed and there's this linking, this word toil or 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:16.440 labor or pain that is used, travail and it links all of life really work and love the two major 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:22.360 elements of life and in English we link the two together as well in the English language we use 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:29.639 the word labor, so we use the word labor of childbirth and we use the word labor of hard work, 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:37.159 effort, sweat, hard labor, we use the same words and it brings the two together and we see that that 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:45.800 is very significant in relationships and gender, you've got that whole area not only of childbearing 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:52.839 and the pain but also the tension between man and woman comes in because of the fall and it's a 00:11:52.839 --> 00:11:59.319 tension and it's a pain and it's a reality that we all know, we all understand and we all experience 00:11:59.319 --> 00:12:07.799 that friction and that difficulty and we know, we speak a lot about relationships don't we, 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:14.599 about how grace should change our relationship not just with God but with one another in marriage 00:12:14.600 --> 00:12:21.879 and in work and with our colleagues and our neighbours and we know we need the gospel to 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:27.879 enable us to do that to relate to one another better but maybe we don't think so much about it 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:35.800 in relationship with work because the same curse, the same judgment is brought on humanity with 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:41.240 respect to work where this great gift that God gave to humanity, this great responsibility 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:47.320 is now cursed, is now under his judgment and it's with painful toil with the sweat of our brow 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:54.840 that we work and that we see the thorns and the thistles and the fruitlessness coming into work 00:12:54.840 --> 00:13:00.919 unproductive, frustrating, unfulfilling, you mentioned some of the things tonight, there's 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:06.279 conflict in work, there's competition with other people, you get tired, you get fed up, 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:12.199 you blame other people for the mistakes that are being made in the workplace, you fail yourself, 00:13:13.079 --> 00:13:19.159 there's personal frictions, there's interpersonal difficulties and there's that sense of inability, 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:26.679 you fail exams or you fail a piece of work in the workplace or whatever it might be and that's 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:32.519 frustrating and difficult and it's there's tension and there's the sweat of our brow 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:38.039 and we live with that tension as Christians and you live with that tension as Christians, 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:46.279 recognizing that work is intrinsically good but sin has made it difficult to value it and to 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:54.600 honour God in the workplace as we ought so it's important for us to recognize this biblical 00:13:54.600 --> 00:14:01.159 truth as workers, as those who will spend our lives and have maybe even more or less spent 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:08.919 our lives working, expect frustration when you're studying, when you're working, when you're labouring, 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:17.240 recognize it, expect challenges every day because that's why we're not living in a world where 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:25.000 we all find our dream jobs and everything goes swimmingly, we need Christ to redeem our attitude 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:33.480 to work as well as work itself and in response to frustration and opposition and boredom and 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:41.320 fruitlessness we need to take Christ into these difficult days of work and these challenging 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:50.440 days where we may struggle. I think today it's interesting for many people in 21st century western 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:56.360 world there's many options for work, you can make many choices about where you want to work and what 00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:02.040 you want to do and almost there can be too many and people look for a dream job, they look for a 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:09.400 brilliant job, look for full filming every day of life and use their gifts to the full and maybe 00:15:09.400 --> 00:15:17.560 some would even believe that that is God's will that we work in that way and I think that can 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:26.199 be quite difficult because sometimes even that is seen not in a gospel-centered way but in a way 00:15:26.199 --> 00:15:33.239 that will enable us to find the kind of lifestyle that we want, to fund the kind of lifestyle that 00:15:33.239 --> 00:15:40.519 we want, we're looking for jobs that not only just give us personal fulfillment but will pay us enough 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:45.239 to really live the rest of our lives so that we can clock off at five o'clock in 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:53.480 C.C.Rio to the rest of the week and that's a challenge for us, it's a challenge to recognize work 00:15:54.360 --> 00:16:01.000 as something that needs redeemed and needs Christ to be involved in. I think it's different from maybe 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:06.680 my grandparents generation just post-war where they simply just did anything because there was 00:16:06.680 --> 00:16:12.039 hardly any work, there wasn't a choice or there wasn't opportunity, they went to go to university 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:19.079 and all of these things they simply had to do whatever they could, they simply worked and again 00:16:19.079 --> 00:16:25.639 maybe there was a danger in that as well in just cursing the fact that they couldn't do 00:16:26.439 --> 00:16:31.799 what they dreamed of doing but nonetheless were called to bring Christ into that. 00:16:32.839 --> 00:16:37.399 So we are not to be and we can never be as Christians, we shouldn't be because of the 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:42.199 fall and because of our understanding of the gospel, we should never be fatalistic about work, 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:49.559 we should never think it's godless nor another level should we think there's nothing we can do 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:55.079 about it, we're called in everything to redeem the environment in which we live, Christ changes 00:16:55.079 --> 00:17:03.639 everything. Why does that matter in work? Because he took the curse, he wore the crown of thorns, 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:10.200 the thistles and the thorns, he wore them and because he sweated drops of blood, 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:18.440 he sweated not by the just the sweat of his brow but he sweated drops of blood all speaking of 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:25.559 him taking himself, taking on himself the curse of the fall and the curse of what it means to be 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:35.639 affected in the workplace by the fall and he did that to redeem us, to breathe life into us, transform 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:44.279 who we are and what we do to transform these two areas of curse, love, relationships, 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:55.720 men and women, marriage and work and so we have that recognition that we're called to make our 00:17:55.720 --> 00:18:04.279 workplaces as fruitful as they can be in Christ and it may be, in other words I don't think in 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:08.519 terms of being we're not fatalistic, it doesn't mean that if you're in a job you're stuck in it 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:15.160 forever and say well I just got to make the best of this, it means that we can look at who we are 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:21.160 and where we are, we can seek better jobs that are more fitted to our gifts, our temperament, 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:28.119 that are more valuable jobs maybe, that are more beneficial to others and to society, it's not 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:35.160 fatalistic in that way that we don't do anything about our situation, that's not what we're called to 00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:43.880 do but there's a balance within that and we're to recognize the attitude we are to have in our 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:50.759 workplaces, we're to be those who give glory to God in the workplace, whatever you do, Colossians 3, 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:56.759 23, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:01.640 you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your Lord, so we're not working just for salary, 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:06.920 we're not just working for approval and for our boss or for promotion, we're working for the glory 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:14.040 of God, giving our best even if no one sees us because we recognize and see and understand 00:19:14.040 --> 00:19:20.600 our perspective which is a heavenly element to it, a better future so we redeem the now, 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:26.360 okay, we will call to redeem what we have now because we know there's a better future in Christ 00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:32.039 and I think we're also called to recognize and work that it should be useful and we should be useful 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:41.240 members of society, anyone, Paul says to the thieves who are converted in Ephesus, anyone who's been 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:45.879 stealing must steal no longer but they must work doing something useful with their own hands that 00:19:45.879 --> 00:19:50.119 they may have something to share with those in need, so it's not just all about ourselves, 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:57.239 it's not just about our careers, not just about just our satisfaction, it's about the glory of God 00:19:57.239 --> 00:20:03.799 and being useful for humanity and those around us and of course as providers, we're providing for 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:08.119 ourselves and others, anyone Timothy Paul says to Timothy doesn't provide for their relatives and 00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:12.439 especially their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever, pretty strong 00:20:12.439 --> 00:20:19.000 stuff, it's importance of providing not just for self but for family, for community, for church, 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:26.519 those around us, so we're not to be fatalistic about work but we do recognize that Monday morning 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:33.720 will often be a battle, not for me, Monday morning is a good morning for me because I've done a lot 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:39.480 of work but for most people working on a Monday morning is tough, at least maybe a Sunday night's 00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:49.160 worse and there is that battle that we have but we go into the week, we recognize that there's a curse, 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:54.759 we recognize that we're part of the problem and we don't go into the workplace always wanting to 00:20:54.759 --> 00:21:00.440 justify ourselves or blame other people for mistakes that are happening which is very often a 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:07.319 temptation for us, we take that battle to Christ, we recognize that it calls us to look into ourselves 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:14.679 and to work in a way that is God-honoring and glorifying to Him and that involves a lot of 00:21:14.679 --> 00:21:21.399 different things, so it may be for as I mentioned earlier you might not ever get your dream job 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:28.679 or told today to reach for the stars all the time, reach for the stars, believe what you want, 00:21:28.679 --> 00:21:35.399 believe in yourself and you'll get whatever that you want, that doesn't often happen, very few people 00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:46.440 change the world but there is a balance recognizing that we can flourish where we are, don't be cynical 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:53.000 about work, don't be unenthusiastic about work even if it's not the greatest work that you 00:21:54.040 --> 00:22:02.040 hope to do, recognize that we might fail sometimes in our goals, be realistic rather than idealistic 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:09.559 and recognize that there will be opportunities and you can discuss this more I think in city groups 00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:18.279 about staying in one job or moving on or seeking change and what does that look like and what 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:24.599 wisdom do you need and how do you deal with the reality of coping and with frustrations 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:34.359 and a lack of fulfillment and should we act on that, should we change our situation, so there's 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:40.119 interesting questions there about life and about fruitlessness and the struggle that sin has brought 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:46.839 into the world and I think along with that there's also a set, I think sin has brought a sense of 00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:53.799 pointlessness, if not for Christians at least for many people and if we take God out of the equation 00:22:53.799 --> 00:23:00.599 then your work is a waste of time and my work is a waste of time because it comes from God so we've 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:07.960 got another short section to read before we turn to prayer and it's in Ecclesiastes 00:23:15.639 --> 00:23:23.000 Ecclesiastes chapter 2, a lot of Ecclesiastes speaks about work, this amazing book, Ecclesiastes 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:33.880 chapter 2 from verse 17 to verse 26, so I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:40.200 to me for all his vanity and a striving after one, I hated all my toil, same word, in which I toil 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:44.839 under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who comes after me and who knows whether he 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:51.079 will be wise or a fool, yet he will be master of all which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun, 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:56.839 this also is vanity, so I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my 00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:02.119 labours under the sun because sometimes a person who is toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:07.159 must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone else who didn't toil for it, this is also vanity 00:24:07.159 --> 00:24:12.919 and a great evil, what has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils 00:24:12.919 --> 00:24:18.679 beneath the sun, for all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation, even in the night 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:25.080 his heart does not rest, this also is vanity, there is nothing better than for a person that a 00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:31.799 person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil, this also I saw is from 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:40.120 the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or have any enjoyment, for to the one who pleases him 00:24:40.120 --> 00:24:46.519 God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy but to the sinner he is given the business of gathering 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:52.920 and collecting only to give to one who pleases God, this also is vanity and a striving after wind, 00:24:53.480 --> 00:24:59.319 now we can't go into the complexities of interpreting all of the details of Ecclesiastes 00:24:59.879 --> 00:25:09.400 but as a general interpretive rule for that book you've got the teacher, the co-haliph, the wise man 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:17.640 and he's looking at life philosophically from two, he's putting on two hats, one hat is as a unbeliever 00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:26.759 or as someone which is always used in the book entitled Under the Sun without reference to God 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:33.960 and he lives that life as and he tries out that life living to the full as someone without knowledge 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:40.680 of God or without reference to God and then he reverts back to his conclusions each time about 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:48.759 the difference it makes to have God in his life and here in this section for the most part he's 00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:58.039 making that judgment about the insignificance and the pointlessness of working with no reference to 00:25:58.039 --> 00:26:05.319 God with only doing it for your own benefit, for your own wealth, for your own pleasure because well 00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:09.079 when you die and someone else gets your inheritance, someone else gets the benefit of all the work 00:26:09.079 --> 00:26:14.920 you've done, what's the point of all of it, why do we do that and there's no ultimate meaning or 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:24.119 reason or design or fulfillment or permanence, it's a chasing after the wind and that I think 00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:31.719 for many people is a reality if they allow themselves to think about it. Work for most people 00:26:32.439 --> 00:26:41.319 is purely utilitarian, serving their own needs, it's just serving up a particular need and we 00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:53.239 find that when there is no noble reason for working, no noble God to work for then motives and desires 00:26:53.240 --> 00:27:03.000 and sinful attitudes begin to dominate in the workplace so that profit for example becomes the 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:13.720 great motive rather than God. The shareholder and the provision for the shareholder is everything 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:23.079 before the employee, work becomes a means to an end whether it be wealth or power for many and 00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:29.639 we see that in the society as society is developed, as production is developed 00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:40.679 often work alienates individuals and alienates people's dignity and people's gifts and people's 00:27:40.679 --> 00:27:49.000 value and that's done by human design, sinful human design, mass production, economies of scale 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:57.160 where someone is stuck putting a widget somewhere all day, that's all he ever does, moves one thing 00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:07.319 from one table to another table or anything like that where there's no sense of valuing the end 00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:19.639 product, no sense of pride in seeing what is produced and it's all very utilitarian, there's a 00:28:19.639 --> 00:28:28.359 tremendous inequality can come from leaving God out of the picture, the employees of John Lewis just 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:38.439 now or not the employees who are also shareholders are questioning the latest moves of John Lewis to 00:28:39.639 --> 00:28:50.919 make part of the business owned for profit in a different way as it has been and so we see this 00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:59.480 constant drive towards more and more profit where individuals and workers can be oppressed, there 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:06.680 can be injustice, quality control can go out the window, materialism can become rampant, 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:17.240 the creation of need where there is no real need, a sense of employee, worthlessness, corporate 00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:23.480 monsters chewing people up and spitting them out, now that's not a political statement, 00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:30.759 it's a recognition that when God is left out of the picture when everything is simply 00:29:31.799 --> 00:29:38.039 moving forward under the sun without absolute truth, without absolute authority, absolute 00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:44.920 accountability then there's always a spiral downwards for us so it can become pointless 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:54.360 and that's a desperate reality of the world in which we live so a couple of things just as we 00:29:54.360 --> 00:30:01.720 close, one about choosing work and one about our attitude to work, in terms of choosing work 00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:08.680 I think it's important that we choose as much as we can to do things that we do well, 00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:17.880 the gifts and capacities that God has given us but not allow that to become an idol so that we say 00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:25.720 that that's all we can ever do and yet it becomes our risen detre, our work becomes our life, it 00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:31.799 becomes our identity, it becomes our significance, nothing should replace Christ as our significance, 00:30:32.360 --> 00:30:38.440 not our calling, not the letters before our name or the letters after our name or the influence we 00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:46.759 think we have, nothing should replace our identity in Christ but it is nonetheless important that we 00:30:46.759 --> 00:30:53.960 seek in our workplace to do things that we do well and when that's the case that we do it well, 00:30:54.680 --> 00:30:58.920 that we do it to God's glory, that we do it to the best of our ability that people are watching 00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:06.360 or not, things that we can do well in choosing work, work that benefits others, I think that's 00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:15.079 significant, we should look for work that's worthy, that is adding value to society, that's adding value 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:25.159 to people, adding value to the community, that your part, your role is adding value 00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.519 to other people, not just from what you produce but from your very person, 00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:40.440 and now I would argue in that case that we should prefer and I know it's not always possible but 00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:46.839 we should prefer working in a social environment as long as we can with other colleagues and of 00:31:46.839 --> 00:31:52.599 course with everyone working or having the opportunity to work at home and there's lots of 00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:58.200 reasons for that, I think we should be aware of the danger of that because it's isolating, 00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:07.559 it's lessening our ability to live as salt and light in community, working with people, 00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:12.279 sharing our faith, giving a reason for the hope that's within us in the workplace, 00:32:14.200 --> 00:32:20.759 so we recognize that we are there to benefit others not just by our product and by our productivity 00:32:20.759 --> 00:32:28.599 but by our person, by our character, you know how damaging is it when we hear of Christians 00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:39.319 who are rotten in the workplace, who are bullies, who are careless, who are cutting corners, 00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:46.359 who don't take Christ into the place of their work, who don't take the principles of godliness 00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:51.000 into their workplace, so we need to benefit others by the standards we uphold, 00:32:52.279 --> 00:33:00.919 the pressures we withstand and stand against when we're called to do things that we are unable to do 00:33:02.199 --> 00:33:07.399 and I think choosing work we should also recognize that we can benefit the field of work itself, 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:16.120 we can add value to the industry or the work that we're involved in, we can develop creativity, 00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:22.360 a specialism because work is valuable in and of itself whether that's in education or 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:30.440 industry, whatever it might be, we can add value to work itself because work is good, 00:33:31.320 --> 00:33:35.960 so they might be one or two things you might consider in choosing work and I hope that there'll 00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:40.759 be lots of things to discuss when you meet together and lastly just our attitude to work, 00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:48.840 recognizing the reality of toil and frustration and the temptation to feel that your work is pointless 00:33:50.360 --> 00:34:00.840 as if it has of no value, as in every other area of life have a god perspective, recognize that god 00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:07.000 perspective again and Ecclesiastes 3, 13, great, also to everyone, also that everyone should eat 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:15.719 and drink and take pleasure in all his toil, this is God's gift to man, that's the alternative to 00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:22.920 under the sun, it's recognizing that being satisfied in the workplace is a gift from God 00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:29.719 and we need that god perspective, we need to keep Christ in the center and know that the wisdom 00:34:29.719 --> 00:34:38.279 that he brings to us in our lives and the balance that he gives in chapter 4 and verse 5 and 6, 00:34:38.279 --> 00:34:44.359 it talks about the fool has folds his hands and eats his own flesh, better a handful of quietness 00:34:44.359 --> 00:34:49.719 than two hands full of toil and a striving after the wind and so that's that balance isn't there 00:34:49.719 --> 00:35:01.399 of hard work but also of tranquility, idleness is never anything other than condemned scripturally, 00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:08.759 all warns against idleness is setting Thessalonians 3 and he showed his own alternative by being one 00:35:08.759 --> 00:35:16.119 who worked and labored night and day toiling for the gospel, this gospel god perspective, 00:35:16.119 --> 00:35:23.960 take that into the workplace, it's never that we close our spiritual hearts and minds on a Sunday 00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:30.440 night and live the rest of our week for ourselves, so have a god perspective and have a prayerful 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:38.039 dependence on god regarding your work, pray about your job, pray about your attitude on a 00:35:38.039 --> 00:35:42.920 monday morning, pray about the battle and struggle it might be when things are very difficult, 00:35:42.920 --> 00:35:49.639 pray for your colleagues, maybe no one else has ever prayed for them or ever will pray for them 00:35:50.440 --> 00:35:56.519 and see the significance that you have of being salt and light, it might not be directly 00:35:56.519 --> 00:36:07.079 evangelistic necessarily but your presence, your attitudes, your walk in and of itself 00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:14.119 is salt and light and that's a very significant thing to consider, so few thoughts there on 00:36:14.119 --> 00:36:19.639 clentlessness and frustration that sin has brought in and the balance and the struggles 00:36:19.639 --> 00:36:26.199 and the challenges that that brings to us in the workplace, the balance have not been idealistic, 00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:31.880 not been fatalistic but seeking wisdom and all these things where maybe there's not black and 00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:37.880 white answers, seeking the wisdom and grace of god and soaking our minds in the character of god 00:36:37.880 --> 00:37:03.880 so that we know the decisions to make.