WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:09.000 Good morning. Okay, not bad. Not bad. Good. Good. It's a beautiful day. If you don't know 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.620 me, my name is Chris. I work on the pastoral staff here at Watermark, and it's just exciting 00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:22.080 to see what God is taking us through and leading us through as a church. And we're kind of 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:27.219 moving. We've been looking at Titus over the last few weeks, and we're moving into looking 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:34.979 at a series on faith and work, how our faith affects our work. And I don't know if you 00:00:34.979 --> 00:00:39.359 know the story. There's this story that goes something like this. There's a man who's walking 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:46.019 along, and he comes across a guy building a brick wall. And he says to the kind of brick 00:00:46.019 --> 00:00:53.759 layer, what are you doing? And the guy says to him, I'm laying bricks. Moves a bit further 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:57.739 along, and he sees another guy who's building a wall there, and he asks the second brick 00:00:57.739 --> 00:01:03.820 layer. He says to him, what are you doing? The guy says to him, I'm building a church building. 00:01:04.939 --> 00:01:08.879 He thinks, okay, fine. Walks along a little bit further, sees another guy there doing the 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:15.599 same thing, laying bricks, making a wall. And he says to him, what are you doing? And the 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:23.539 guy says, I'm building the house of God to the glory of God. Three people doing exactly 00:01:23.539 --> 00:01:33.719 the same thing. The first sees his work as a job. The second sees his work as a career, 00:01:33.899 --> 00:01:40.579 a stepping stone, maybe to get on, to achieve something, to get somewhere. The third sees his 00:01:40.579 --> 00:01:49.259 work as a calling with a higher, bigger purpose than himself. I wonder as you think about your 00:01:49.259 --> 00:01:54.319 work and whatever's been going on in your work, the frustrations, the goodness, the things 00:01:54.319 --> 00:02:00.620 you enjoy, the things you hate, I wonder which of those brick layers you are like. Are you 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:07.219 like number one? It's just a job. Number two, it's his career. It's a stepping stone. Or number 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:16.699 three, it's a calling to something bigger and greater. Because we're talking about work. 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:22.960 And I'm going to define work as anything you do which isn't leisure. So that means if you 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:28.060 are changing nappies, that's work, okay? If you're a student and studying, that's also 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:35.879 work, okay? Anything we do which is not leisure is work. And think about it. The majority of 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:41.079 our lives are spent working, right? Majority of our lives are spent working. In Hong Kong, 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:46.500 it's like 95% of our life. In France, it's about 65% of your life. But it's still the same. 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:52.019 We spend most of our life working. But I wonder when you're doing the Excel spreadsheets, when 00:02:52.019 --> 00:02:57.819 you have demanding clients, when you have changing of nappies, when you're revising for exams, I wonder, 00:02:57.819 --> 00:03:06.180 does God have anything to do with that in your life? Where does God come in in those things? Because 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:11.019 what we tend to do in our lives is we divide work into meaningful and non-meaningful work. 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:16.479 When I, some people ask me, what do you do, Chris? And I say, I work in the church. And I get two 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:21.900 reactions. One is like, they look as if I'm an axe murderer and kind of go off and talk to somebody else. 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:29.439 The other response I get is people say, how meaningful. That's very meaningful. 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:36.340 But the interesting thing is I have never heard anybody when asked the same question and they 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:43.860 reply, I'm a lawyer. I'm a banker. I work in IT. Someone say, that's so meaningful. 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:52.620 Because why? Because what we do, we separate out in our lives meaningful work from non-meaningful work. 00:03:53.160 --> 00:03:57.780 And you know, the meaningful work is kind of helping people. It's nurses, it's doctors, it's social workers, 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:03.600 it's pastors. The non-meaningful work is the stuff where you actually earn money and you get status and 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:13.840 things, but it's not meaningful. Why do we think like that? Because I was talking to a guy, 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:18.879 a guy from a large charity in Hong Kong, and he said there was a lot of top, high earning, 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:24.660 high status CEOs from some of the biggest companies go to this charity to volunteer. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:29.660 And I asked him, like, why do they go? And he said, well, you see, most of these guys for the 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:36.560 first 10, 20 years of their career, they are just, they're just working to reach these top positions. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:43.899 Okay? But when they get there, they realize there's nothing there. It's empty. You see, 00:04:43.939 --> 00:04:47.160 they've got all the money they want, they've got all the status they want, they've got the power that 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:52.139 they want, but there's no sense of meaning or purpose in their lives. And he said to me, 00:04:52.379 --> 00:04:56.899 he said, the reason they come to do charity work is to find some meaning and purpose. 00:04:58.340 --> 00:05:01.600 Fascinating. It's what Madonna said. She said, she said, when I got to the top, 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:13.879 I realized there was nothing there. And the question is, society tells us that work is a 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:20.040 means to an end. Okay? What I mean by that is, you work to get something out of your work. Maybe 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:24.000 it's to get fulfillment. Maybe if you're in business or finance, it's for the bottom line, 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:29.420 right? Maximizing shareholders' profits. If it's, you're working for your bonus, you're working for 00:05:29.420 --> 00:05:33.180 your CV. You're working to provide for your family. You're working, maybe you hate your work, 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:37.540 but you're just enduring it to get through the weekend to pay for your holidays. We're using work 00:05:37.540 --> 00:05:45.860 to get something. It's a means to an end. I ask, I speak to so many guys who say to me, once I retire, 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:53.819 then I'll do something meaningful with my life. Just think about that. That means most of your life 00:05:53.819 --> 00:06:02.060 is wasted in meaninglessness, if you think like that. And the Bible has got to say something 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:09.439 different to us. And there's another thing which I noticed is also, Christians, like, 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:14.879 does it make any difference for Christians how we view our work? There's a guy called Jeff Van 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:22.500 Duza. He heads up a business school. And he asked some Christian business leaders, okay, 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:27.199 how does your Christian faith actually affect the way that you work? And do you know what they 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:32.680 replied? They said, well, Jeff, business is business, but I try to be honest and kind. 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:38.439 In other words, we all do business the same way, but we just try and be a little bit nicer. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:46.339 And Jeff says, he calls this Enron with a smile, because really, is that all that Christianity has 00:06:46.339 --> 00:06:51.279 to say to us? You know, other people say that work is just about sharing the gospel. You know, 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:56.000 you're there just to share the gospel, or to get some money so you can bless the church. And those 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.899 are good, great, God-honoring things. But the difficulty is this. Are we not just simply still 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:12.139 using work to get something out of it, rather than seeing that if Jesus Christ is truly Lord of every 00:07:12.139 --> 00:07:17.919 area of our lives, isn't he not just, he's Lord not just of the results of the work, 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:24.439 however good those are. He's also Lord of the work in and of itself. 00:07:25.980 --> 00:07:32.740 The gospel has got to say something to us. There's a writer called Dorothy Sayers. She says this, 00:07:32.740 --> 00:07:40.319 In nothing has the church so lost her hold on reality as her failure to understand and respect 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:45.879 the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments. 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:52.600 And it's astonished to find that as a result, the secular world of work is turned to purely selfish 00:07:52.600 --> 00:07:58.600 and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world's intelligent workers have become 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:06.520 irreligious or at least uninterested in religion. She goes on, But is it astonishing? How can anyone 00:08:06.520 --> 00:08:11.920 remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life? 00:08:13.400 --> 00:08:19.900 How can anyone be concerned about a religion which seems to have nothing to say about nine-tenths 00:08:19.900 --> 00:08:25.640 of our life? And as a church at Watermark, we want to talk about those nine-tenths of our life. 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:33.519 Because if the gospel does not significantly shape the way you view your work and the way that you 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:40.439 work, then basically God is shut out from most of your life, right? So that's what we're going to 00:08:40.439 --> 00:08:45.319 look at. We're going to look at over the next few weeks, what does the Bible really have to say about 00:08:45.319 --> 00:08:53.220 the way we view and treat our work? And we're going to look really, and today I'm just going to kind of 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:59.960 set some of the scene that the Bible kind of talks in a, and no matter how mundane you feel your work 00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:06.980 is or meaningless, the Bible sets up this four-act play of creation for redemption and restoration, 00:09:07.180 --> 00:09:13.040 new creation. And this is what we're going to just kind of, I'm going to introduce today. And my hope is 00:09:13.040 --> 00:09:17.440 in community groups, we're going to have some forum where you're going to be able to discuss some of 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:21.160 the things, because I'm sure this will raise many questions. I won't be able to answer all of them, 00:09:21.159 --> 00:09:26.860 but I want this to be a discussion, because we want God to be involved in every area of our lives. 00:09:29.740 --> 00:09:35.139 So let's start off looking at creation, okay? So if you've got your bulletin, we'll kind of, 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:40.179 we'll skim through some of the passages and just pull out some themes. And here's a couple of themes 00:09:40.179 --> 00:09:47.059 I want to pull out from the creation part. All work is a reflection of God's work. That will be the 00:09:47.059 --> 00:09:53.019 first thing, and all work is worship, okay? So in creation, all work is a reflection of God's work. 00:09:53.019 --> 00:10:01.779 All work is worship, okay? So passage, Genesis 1, very familiar to many of us, okay? What we often 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:08.419 forget is Genesis 1 and 2 are written in a culture which is surrounded by a lot of competing ideas 00:10:08.419 --> 00:10:15.299 things about who we are and why we work. And most of, and pretty much all the other ideas around said, 00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:22.479 work is bad, okay? There's a story called the Enuma Elish. It was actually, it came to Hong Kong two 00:10:22.479 --> 00:10:28.039 years. It's kept in the British Museum. They brought it over to Hong Kong two years ago. It's this Babylonian 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:35.860 creation myth, which is fascinating. Basically, it says, gods kind of made humans as slaves so they didn't have 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:42.139 to do any work. So they could kind of sit and drink tequila or whatever God drinks. So the work was 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:48.940 basically, gods didn't do work. That's for slaves. That's for low-class people. That's what everybody 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:54.740 thought in the ancient world. Genesis 1 and 2 come in and say something completely different. 00:10:55.460 --> 00:11:03.840 They say, God is a working God. God is a working God. In verse 1 of chapter 1, 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:10.899 he creates the heavens and the earth out of nothing. Like this artist with a blank canvas, 00:11:11.040 --> 00:11:17.740 he begins to paint the first strokes of life. But this first kind of draft of creation is formless. 00:11:18.300 --> 00:11:25.220 It's chaotic. So what does God do? Like a kind of a manual laborer or like an architect, 00:11:25.620 --> 00:11:31.680 he begins to take the chaos and he begins to bring order and beauty and life out of it. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:38.259 You see, he starts sculpting the world. He says, let there be light. And there's light. Day and night. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:47.599 Sun, moon and stars. Land, plants, animals. And after every brush stroke, he says, that's good. 00:11:48.539 --> 00:11:55.099 Zebra, that's good. Lantau Island, that's good. Brussels sprouts, that's good. 00:11:55.100 --> 00:12:04.659 And then he, you see, God is delighting in his work. And he looks at his canvas and says, 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:12.980 now I've saved the best till last. And he makes, in verse 26, he makes human beings in his image. 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:19.279 And he doesn't wear gloves to do it. So his fingerprints are all over human beings. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:28.339 They are stamped, not with made in Hong Kong, but made in God's image. Every single one of us here, 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:37.079 stamped with his fingerprints, made in his image. And there's lots of debate about what this word 00:12:37.079 --> 00:12:43.679 actually means, made in God's image. But there's a couple of things that it definitely means here 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:49.199 that's clear. There's nothing else that is created in God's image, in the whole of creation. 00:12:49.899 --> 00:12:58.099 That means every single one of us has unique value and identity before we do anything. 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:06.379 Before you lift a finger of work, there's no kind of organizational chart of like worth of performance, 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:12.219 you know, that God kind of sets up. No, he says, before you do anything, before they start even their 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:19.519 leaf-sewing business, they have value and identity in relationship with God. So whether you are a CEO 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:25.100 or whether you're a toilet cleaner, you have the same dignity and value in God's eyes. 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:32.100 That's the first thing. But it also means this. Being an image bearer also means this. 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:39.519 We get to reflect what God does. You know, God has just done the most amazing gardening, okay? 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:45.179 He's taken what was empty. He's filled it. He's made it abundant. It's perfect, but it's not complete. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:46.579 Verse 26, he says, 00:13:47.699 --> 00:13:53.539 Be fruitful and multiply. This is what we've got to do. Fill the earth, just like God filled the earth. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:58.539 Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over all the created things. 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:02.179 So what's God doing? He's saying, just as I worked, 00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:07.319 I'm now inviting you to partner with me in the work, okay? 00:14:07.839 --> 00:14:11.239 And I want you to make something beautiful. I'm laying out the resources for you. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:13.199 I want you to make something beautiful out of this. 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:16.919 This is what's sometimes called the cultural mandate. 00:14:18.179 --> 00:14:20.679 Filling the earth means developing culture. 00:14:21.339 --> 00:14:25.759 You know, you multiply as a family, and to have families, you then develop into towns and into cities. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.740 And then you need infrastructure and IT systems, and you need trading and food transportation. 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:32.720 And this is how you fill. 00:14:34.059 --> 00:14:39.819 And the word subduing, it doesn't mean exploitation, because this is before the fall. 00:14:41.139 --> 00:14:43.460 It means you need to put in effort. 00:14:44.319 --> 00:14:49.120 Work is required to bring forth the full potential of what I've put here. 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:54.379 You know, before the fall, get this, because I think we often don't get this. 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:58.879 Before the fall, you know, Adam and Eve aren't sitting on a beach on the Maldives, 00:14:59.340 --> 00:15:01.080 like kind of just drinking coconut juice. 00:15:02.259 --> 00:15:05.879 They are called to work, and it's good. 00:15:06.659 --> 00:15:07.360 It's good. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:09.220 You may be thinking, yeah, right. 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:11.220 But that's what the design is. 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:17.759 We, in our work, are reflecting the work that God has already done. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.519 I think of it a bit like, have you seen MasterChef? 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:21.759 Has anyone seen MasterChef? 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:25.679 If you know, it's one of those cooking, it's like the X factor of cooking, okay? 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:27.639 It's kind of competition. 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:32.799 And, you know, there's a couple of top chefs. 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:34.879 There are Gordon Ramsay and a couple of other chefs. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:40.519 What they do, they provide a whole load of ingredients for these contestants to come out. 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:46.879 And he lays out the ingredients, and he says, you've got an hour and a half to create something amazing out of this. 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:52.699 And these kind of budding chefs who are competing, they're not there saying, oh, man, do I have to do this? 00:15:53.340 --> 00:15:56.600 They're not there thinking, oh, I'd much rather watch TV. 00:15:57.100 --> 00:16:00.019 They're like, come on, let me at it. 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:07.240 Okay, like, I watched one the other day, and they said, like I said, this is the moment I was made for. 00:16:09.419 --> 00:16:12.419 Now, when you go to work on Monday morning, I don't know if you think like that. 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:16.519 Because there's something, there's a little gap there. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:17.960 But that's what God says. 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:19.480 That's what work was made for. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.600 When you work, you're meant to have this sense of purpose. 00:16:23.060 --> 00:16:27.539 You're meant to have this sense of, you know, you want to show the judges what an amazing creation you can make. 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:30.860 And that's what God's saying. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.360 That's what I want your work to be like. 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:45.700 Now, if you think about how you develop culture, the most basic thing in culture, to develop anything, you need to have food, right? 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:48.759 You can't do much work without food. 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:52.920 And, you know, hunter-gatherers don't develop lots of cultural products. 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:55.580 Farming is what you need to bring stability. 00:16:56.300 --> 00:16:57.039 It's fascinating. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:58.120 Genesis 2. 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.700 The passage gives a really interesting reason. 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:06.640 It says, there are no plants, no bushes of the field, no plants of the field. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:07.960 That means crops. 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:08.980 Okay? 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:10.839 There's a couple of reasons. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:15.380 One, there are no plants, there's no crops, because God hasn't set up the water cycle yet. 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:16.799 So he fixes that one. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:21.819 The second thing he does, he says, there's no man to work the ground. 00:17:22.460 --> 00:17:29.359 The reason the crops aren't growing, the reason culture can't happen, food isn't being produced because there aren't humans to grow it. 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:35.940 So he makes humans to do the thing, to create what he's called him to create. 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:37.900 Now just think about that for a minute. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:40.019 Psalm 145. 00:17:40.120 --> 00:17:41.100 It's a fascinating chapter. 00:17:41.259 --> 00:17:48.000 It says this, the eyes of all look to God, and he gives them their food in due season. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:55.539 How does God provide food for us in loving and caring for us? 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.599 You know, God could have created these kind of little flaky wafers, which kind of drop down from heaven, and then we just kind of pick them up and ate them. 00:18:03.180 --> 00:18:03.819 He could have done that. 00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:05.420 He does that at one stage in life. 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:06.200 It's called manna. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.259 He does that in the wilderness. 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:10.079 But that's not the design. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:16.339 He provides seeds, and then we pull them together. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:17.699 That's capital. 00:18:18.220 --> 00:18:19.299 And then we grow wheat. 00:18:19.419 --> 00:18:20.220 That's agriculture. 00:18:20.659 --> 00:18:22.480 Then someone invents an oven to bake it. 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:23.299 That's technology. 00:18:23.679 --> 00:18:25.059 And someone bakes the bread. 00:18:25.159 --> 00:18:25.980 That's skilled labor. 00:18:26.259 --> 00:18:28.139 And then the bread is transported to the store. 00:18:28.199 --> 00:18:28.980 That's logistics. 00:18:29.399 --> 00:18:31.059 And then it's sold to a hungry world. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:31.759 That's sales. 00:18:32.419 --> 00:18:39.500 So the way that God provides for communities is through work. 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:46.419 That's how we experience some of God's loving provision for us. 00:18:48.579 --> 00:18:58.119 So God is like this gardener who has sown the resources, sown the seeds, the ingredients, and he asks us to be gardeners of his creation. 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:01.240 To work the garden and to keep it. 00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:02.659 That's verse 15. 00:19:04.159 --> 00:19:06.460 So I don't know what your job is. 00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:10.860 I don't know what the seeds, the ingredients that God has given you to play with. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.960 You know, if you're an accountant, you know, your seeds are maybe figures. 00:19:15.620 --> 00:19:19.620 So out of all the chaos of those figures, he wants you to bring order into a balance sheet. 00:19:19.619 --> 00:19:22.500 I don't know if you're an investment banking. 00:19:22.719 --> 00:19:24.319 You take the seed of capital. 00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:31.399 And then you sow it into other industries to grow and develop even more capital so that can develop on. 00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:33.479 Studying, you take the seed of information. 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:38.740 And then you bring it together to make essays or projects or designs. 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:44.720 Every work in some way images what God was doing in the garden. 00:19:46.380 --> 00:19:48.640 You know, and it's every one of us. 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:56.960 You know, like Martin Luther said, basically, even the milkmaid is the fingers of God. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:05.240 The fingers of God bringing to us what he wants us to help flourish things. 00:20:05.560 --> 00:20:08.440 When I was in France, even the most mundane job can do this. 00:20:08.520 --> 00:20:09.280 I was in France. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:11.100 You know, I lived in France for a year. 00:20:12.100 --> 00:20:15.259 In France, the national sport is going on strike. 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:18.960 And they're the world champions at it, I can tell you. 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:21.359 And I was there in the summer. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:23.420 And do you know who decided to go on strike? 00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:25.579 It was the rubbish collectors. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:35.359 Do you know, I have never realized how significant rubbish collectors are until you do without them. 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:40.539 The most mundane, menial job you tried doing without it, the smell was horrific. 00:20:40.879 --> 00:20:42.000 The rats were everywhere. 00:20:42.299 --> 00:20:43.640 Society doesn't flourish. 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:51.620 Every job is part of God wanting to flourish a community reflecting him. 00:20:54.780 --> 00:20:56.200 So that's the first thing. 00:20:56.300 --> 00:20:59.920 And I was spending longer on this because I want you to kind of get the big picture. 00:21:00.420 --> 00:21:00.600 Okay? 00:21:00.620 --> 00:21:03.640 We're going to move on to talk about other stuff and the frustrations later. 00:21:04.820 --> 00:21:05.700 But get that. 00:21:06.620 --> 00:21:08.880 All work in some way reflects God's work. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:12.460 But in that creation part, all work is also worship. 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:21.860 In verse 15, the word work, it says, work, he put us there, he put us in the garden to work and keep it. 00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:24.900 Now that word work is a fascinating word. 00:21:25.340 --> 00:21:29.780 It's the word in Hebrew, avodah, not avatar, avodah. 00:21:29.779 --> 00:21:30.220 Okay? 00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:30.899 Okay? 00:21:31.139 --> 00:21:33.339 And that's translated in three ways throughout the Bible. 00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:37.299 It's translated as work, to work, to serve, or to worship. 00:21:38.660 --> 00:21:44.920 And in Exodus, God says, let my people go so they may avodah me. 00:21:45.059 --> 00:21:46.519 That means worship me. 00:21:46.879 --> 00:21:53.559 In the Ten Commandments, he says, six days you shall avodah, work, and then you shall rest. 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:59.480 Joshua says, but as for me and my house, we will avodah, we will serve the Lord. 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:05.519 You see, what the Bible is trying to tell us is, your work is always worship. 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:10.539 It's always lived to serve somebody or something. 00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:15.799 And the question about our work is, who are you worshipping with your work? 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:17.359 Because it always is worship. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:19.960 Who are you working for? 00:22:20.619 --> 00:22:21.700 That's the question. 00:22:22.099 --> 00:22:23.019 How do you know? 00:22:23.819 --> 00:22:27.500 Well, you see, in the garden, all the work was meant to be done in God's presence. 00:22:29.220 --> 00:22:33.099 It was meant to be done for an audience of one. 00:22:35.419 --> 00:22:45.480 You know, as in the MasterChef kitchen, we were meant to proudly present what we've done to God's eyes only. 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:51.179 You see, there's a theater company that went around New York a couple of years ago. 00:22:51.180 --> 00:22:56.840 And they went around with this kind of box, which was about three meters out on the street. 00:22:56.900 --> 00:22:59.060 Three meters by three meters out on the streets. 00:22:59.420 --> 00:23:02.720 And they performed their plays inside this black box. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:09.400 But, you know, they only allowed one person to come in and see the play at a time. 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:15.980 It was a personalized performance every time before this one audience member. 00:23:17.540 --> 00:23:22.519 The Bible is telling us, Colossians 3 tells us, it says, 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:34.440 whatever you do, whatever you do, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men. 00:23:35.220 --> 00:23:41.180 There's an audience of one that you are working for, and that is God. 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:48.840 You see, when you're writing emails, when you're drafting documents, when you're preparing lessons, when you're cooking food, 00:23:49.180 --> 00:23:54.880 are you doing it saying, God, I want this to honor you, to glorify you? 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:59.480 Now, that doesn't mean like every minute of the day you're kind of singing worship songs, you know, you're in a meeting. 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:00.860 It doesn't mean that. 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:05.680 What it means is that in the big picture, you're offering your day to God. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:09.640 God, you're bringing him into the work and saying, God, I want this to be for you. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:11.660 I want this to be for you. 00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:15.279 If you see on your seats or in the bulletin, you see there's a card here. 00:24:17.299 --> 00:24:18.600 On the back is a prayer. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:21.820 I would encourage you to use this. 00:24:21.940 --> 00:24:22.880 Take this to your work. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:28.900 Use this as just a reminder to pray, God, I want you to be the one that I'm worshiping with my work. 00:24:29.600 --> 00:24:32.340 I want you to be the one I'm worshiping with my work. 00:24:32.339 --> 00:24:36.539 Because in the busyness, if you're like me, I just forget. 00:24:37.679 --> 00:24:38.439 I just forget. 00:24:39.819 --> 00:24:44.839 And every work, every work that you do is worship. 00:24:46.619 --> 00:24:48.339 So what does that mean in practice? 00:24:49.159 --> 00:24:50.699 In practice, that means a couple of things. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:59.720 One is when you go to work, we work and do our work to the best of our ability. 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:01.899 We do it as well as we can. 00:25:02.339 --> 00:25:02.619 Okay? 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:05.959 It doesn't matter how mundane the task is. 00:25:06.099 --> 00:25:09.559 I want to work well, excellently. 00:25:09.639 --> 00:25:10.519 You know, there's this story. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:13.299 There's some prisoners in a concentration camp. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:17.619 And they were forced to build a wall just to keep them busy. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:19.539 It was meaningless. 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:21.359 Meaningless work. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:26.359 At the end of the day, a bell rang by the guards calling them all to come back in. 00:25:26.579 --> 00:25:28.719 If they came in late, you know, they were on pain of death. 00:25:29.159 --> 00:25:34.719 But as the bell rang once, one man didn't come back straight away. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:40.059 Everyone looked around and they saw this man who'd been building the wall. 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.400 And he was just going around the wall just checking that it was all in alignment. 00:25:44.779 --> 00:25:46.460 That it was all correctly done. 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:50.700 And then like two minutes later, he kind of snuck in back. 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:52.579 You see, that's a man. 00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:55.000 He wanted to do his work well. 00:25:55.799 --> 00:25:57.019 No matter how mundane. 00:25:57.180 --> 00:26:02.240 Because he knew that that work, you know, God doesn't do sloppy work. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:03.079 Right? 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:10.379 He was doing that work because I'm going to honor you, God, with the way that I do my work. 00:26:10.639 --> 00:26:13.319 No matter whether it seems meaningless or not. 00:26:15.259 --> 00:26:16.779 It's not perfectionism. 00:26:18.539 --> 00:26:20.199 But we do it to the best of our ability. 00:26:20.379 --> 00:26:21.740 Secondly, it also means this. 00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:29.579 There is no kind of divide between sacred jobs, kind of holy jobs, like spiritual jobs, like working in a church. 00:26:29.579 --> 00:26:34.679 And secular jobs, like banking or IT or whatever you do. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:35.980 There is no division. 00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:43.460 You know, some Christians that I meet, and this is so common, think that somehow the most godly jobs are if you work in a church. 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:45.279 Or if you do something Christian. 00:26:45.379 --> 00:26:49.720 You know, I even saw an advert for a Christian media company which said, 00:26:50.419 --> 00:26:51.519 Join our staff. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:55.159 Now you no longer need to separate your work and your faith. 00:26:55.160 --> 00:27:00.019 And I thought, that's nonsense. 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:04.360 That is complete unbiblical nonsense. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:13.480 Every one of us, if you are a Christian, you are ordained, anointed by God to go out into whatever workplace he has brought you in. 00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:16.019 Unless you're robbing banks or like pole dancing. 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:18.180 Okay, you need to, we need to talk about that. 00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:20.100 But I assume you're not. 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:20.779 Okay? 00:27:20.779 --> 00:27:20.859 Okay? 00:27:21.579 --> 00:27:29.359 So, every one of us, listen, we are all called to go out as part of this garden into the role that God has given us in society. 00:27:30.339 --> 00:27:36.980 So, who in this room is in the best position to be able to reach out to guys in business? 00:27:38.859 --> 00:27:40.000 Those of you who are in business. 00:27:40.599 --> 00:27:43.720 Who of you are the best people to be able to reach out to other homemakers? 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:46.139 Other homemakers. 00:27:46.140 --> 00:27:51.320 Who are the best people to reach out to the students or the bankers or the artists or the IT guys? 00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:53.180 Those of you who are in those professions. 00:27:53.600 --> 00:27:56.340 I can't do that so easily working in a church. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:01.840 Don't you see, every one of us has a valuable part to play in God's big design. 00:28:01.940 --> 00:28:07.120 And if we start doing this sacred, secular thing, we've missed the whole vision for work. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:15.719 But I think most of you probably realize that, actually. 00:28:18.139 --> 00:28:21.739 Work, even though that Genesis account is just a beautiful picture. 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:26.759 We know there's something that's kind of, when you go to work on a Monday morning, there's something missing. 00:28:27.979 --> 00:28:29.759 There's something different. 00:28:30.099 --> 00:28:32.399 Because it's sometimes frustrating, painful. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:33.519 People are annoying. 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:34.539 It's stressful. 00:28:35.139 --> 00:28:36.039 Orders get canceled. 00:28:36.039 --> 00:28:37.740 People don't pay on time. 00:28:39.159 --> 00:28:39.720 Deadlines. 00:28:42.359 --> 00:28:44.619 The Bible story continues with fall. 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:56.519 And the fall says that Adam and Eve in the garden, they didn't live for that audience of one. 00:28:57.039 --> 00:28:59.740 They chose to change the person they were working for. 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:02.519 They started working for themselves. 00:29:02.519 --> 00:29:08.859 Do you know, what's the first thing that Adam and Eve do after they sin and eat the fruit? 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:10.539 Do you know what the first thing is they do? 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:12.460 They work. 00:29:13.259 --> 00:29:15.440 They sew fig leaves together. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:16.799 They do their sewing business. 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:19.059 That's the first thing they do. 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:21.240 But work has now become about themselves. 00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:26.420 You see, they're covering up their own inadequacies, trying to give themselves dignity. 00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:27.059 They're naked. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:27.940 They're ashamed. 00:29:28.059 --> 00:29:31.500 And so they're working to cover themselves. 00:29:32.339 --> 00:29:34.259 Go to that MasterChef kitchen again. 00:29:35.079 --> 00:29:36.839 You see, it's really, really fascinating. 00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:38.939 Here's what some of the contestants often say. 00:29:39.259 --> 00:29:39.980 They say this. 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:45.500 I've got one and a half hours to prove myself to the judges. 00:29:46.399 --> 00:29:51.480 I'm going to prove that I belong in that kitchen and I deserve the title of MasterChef. 00:29:52.139 --> 00:29:52.899 That's what they say. 00:29:52.900 --> 00:29:58.780 And you see, as the clock is ticking around and the stress levels are rising and Gordon 00:29:58.780 --> 00:30:02.060 Ramsey, if you know him, he comes around, one of the judges, and he starts making nasty 00:30:02.060 --> 00:30:03.380 comments about their work. 00:30:04.519 --> 00:30:09.500 And something goes wrong and the panicking comes over and then they start getting defensive 00:30:09.500 --> 00:30:10.920 or they start feeling crushed. 00:30:11.040 --> 00:30:12.200 Oh, maybe it's so terrible. 00:30:14.019 --> 00:30:17.060 And then if they've done a good job in their time, do you know what happens? 00:30:17.059 --> 00:30:22.059 They start kind of thinking, yeah, I think I deserve this one. 00:30:22.339 --> 00:30:24.279 You know, I'm better than those guys down there. 00:30:24.659 --> 00:30:27.619 You know, I definitely deserve this one. 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:34.940 And the work has gone from being for the pleasure of the one, for the pleasure of the work, for 00:30:34.940 --> 00:30:36.619 doing it to create something beautiful. 00:30:36.740 --> 00:30:38.179 It's now become all about themselves. 00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:39.220 It's a competition. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.359 It's all about justifying yourself and your identity. 00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:45.919 And isn't that just so much of what our work is like? 00:30:47.059 --> 00:30:54.519 As work-based stress is all about that because it's not just about the work that's frustrating. 00:30:55.220 --> 00:31:01.099 We've made the work all about ourselves and all about trying to get our own way, to prove 00:31:01.099 --> 00:31:05.240 ourselves, to get our plans through, to get our way in the office politics. 00:31:06.399 --> 00:31:13.359 You know, if you're a workaholic, a workaholic is someone who's made work all about themselves 00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:21.139 because they've misplaced their worship and they're worshiping their work to prove themselves. 00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:21.719 How do you know? 00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:23.219 Because in the garden, what does God do? 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:26.019 God actually rests on the seventh day. 00:31:26.339 --> 00:31:28.559 Work isn't everything, right? 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:34.639 And if you can't rest, you're not working for God in that situation. 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:35.759 You're working for yourself. 00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:41.819 Just look at your work patterns and say, who am I really doing this for? 00:31:42.339 --> 00:31:44.000 Who am I doing this for? 00:31:44.539 --> 00:31:45.539 Is it for myself? 00:31:45.639 --> 00:31:47.639 And you know, there's multiple reasons why we do things. 00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:48.899 Multiple reasons. 00:31:48.900 --> 00:31:54.900 But if you go down a root level, can you say, I'm doing this for the glory of God? 00:31:55.700 --> 00:32:01.740 Because if you can't, you know, you're going to be so frustrated and annoyed and stressed 00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:02.519 in your life. 00:32:04.580 --> 00:32:09.220 Because the Bible says, when you work for anything other than God, you're always going to be enslaved 00:32:09.220 --> 00:32:10.160 to your judges. 00:32:11.780 --> 00:32:16.980 You know, your judges could be your boss, could be your shareholders, could be your clients, 00:32:16.980 --> 00:32:19.059 can even be yourself. 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:25.599 Because you've always, you're this slave who's always got to live up to the expectations. 00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:29.860 And either, if you do it, you think you're meeting them, it's going to go to your head 00:32:29.860 --> 00:32:32.620 and you become proud about yourself. 00:32:33.579 --> 00:32:38.319 Or it will go to your heart and you'll feel crushed and despairing. 00:32:41.279 --> 00:32:44.400 Because we weren't made to work for work to be about ourselves. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:47.160 We were made for the audience of one, which is God. 00:32:49.900 --> 00:32:52.140 Final two things. 00:32:53.320 --> 00:32:54.280 We've seen creation. 00:32:55.440 --> 00:32:57.800 We've looked at work was made to reflect God. 00:32:59.560 --> 00:33:00.220 God's work. 00:33:00.340 --> 00:33:01.120 Work is worship. 00:33:01.600 --> 00:33:04.259 We've seen the fall when we make work all about ourselves. 00:33:05.360 --> 00:33:06.420 The third thing is redemption. 00:33:06.420 --> 00:33:12.840 Because you see, the Bible story kind of continues and says, when you worship for an audience of one, 00:33:12.900 --> 00:33:17.060 you have a completely different judge from a Gordon Ramsay or somebody else like that. 00:33:18.620 --> 00:33:24.019 We've got one who's been in the kitchen, who's experienced the pain and frustration of work. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:28.480 In fact, his work was the most agonizing work of all. 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:39.480 You see, Jesus, when Jesus came, he worked not for himself, but for the glory of God. 00:33:40.700 --> 00:33:48.200 And in a dog-eat-dog world where everyone's working for themselves, you know, humans, we use the ingredients God had given us, 00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:55.500 metal and wood, to fashion a nail, nails and a cross, to hammer him onto it. 00:33:55.500 --> 00:34:00.299 That's how we used what God had given us. 00:34:01.539 --> 00:34:07.039 But unlike other judges, Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world. 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:11.280 You know, other judges, you look over your shoulder, criticizing your mistakes all the time. 00:34:11.539 --> 00:34:13.039 He says, I didn't come to judge you. 00:34:13.460 --> 00:34:14.639 I came to save you. 00:34:15.780 --> 00:34:18.619 The ultimate judge took the judgment. 00:34:18.619 --> 00:34:27.759 He worked so we can find rest in him from all the striving where we have to continually try and prove ourselves. 00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:32.119 Think of that MasterChef kitchen again. 00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:36.739 Just imagine if you really get hold of what the cross has done. 00:34:36.739 --> 00:34:40.479 What it means is this. 00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:47.979 Your judge, the one who's going to make the decisions, is already delights in you. 00:34:48.479 --> 00:34:49.699 He's on your side. 00:34:50.359 --> 00:34:52.179 Can you imagine how different that means? 00:34:52.259 --> 00:34:58.139 When you go into your workplace, you've got absolutely nothing to lose, nothing to prove. 00:34:58.219 --> 00:35:01.019 You go into that kitchen, you're going to work hard. 00:35:01.259 --> 00:35:02.559 You're going to work to your best. 00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:09.940 But you have a judge who you know says, that's good to you. 00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:12.199 That's good to you. 00:35:13.860 --> 00:35:15.739 Do you see how much stress that takes off you? 00:35:16.900 --> 00:35:18.659 Because most of our work is not the work. 00:35:18.719 --> 00:35:19.739 Stress is not the work. 00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:21.519 It's the work under the work. 00:35:22.599 --> 00:35:24.539 That we've got to keep trying to prove ourselves. 00:35:25.539 --> 00:35:31.440 But if you get what Jesus has done, you get that he worked for you so you can rest. 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:33.360 From all that, trying to prove yourself. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:39.360 That means we're free to actually create something beautiful with our lives, with our work. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:44.460 Work doesn't have to crush us any longer in those things. 00:35:47.460 --> 00:35:48.099 Redemption. 00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:49.900 Final thing. 00:35:49.900 --> 00:35:55.300 The work is meant to be something good. 00:35:55.840 --> 00:35:58.340 It's twisted and it's frustrating. 00:35:59.059 --> 00:36:05.619 We have a God who begins to change and fix our brokenness so we can focus on him and find our identity in him. 00:36:05.980 --> 00:36:10.420 The final thing is that passage in Revelation 21 and 22. 00:36:11.559 --> 00:36:13.320 Just have a look in the bulletin for me. 00:36:13.320 --> 00:36:16.980 This is the new creation that he says. 00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:19.080 Do you notice? 00:36:19.860 --> 00:36:21.160 In Eden, where were we? 00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:23.780 Eden was a garden. 00:36:26.080 --> 00:36:28.820 Move forward to the end of the story. 00:36:29.740 --> 00:36:30.940 Look at where you are now. 00:36:32.820 --> 00:36:33.720 There's a garden. 00:36:34.059 --> 00:36:34.500 There's fruit. 00:36:34.660 --> 00:36:35.100 There's trees. 00:36:35.200 --> 00:36:35.620 There's a river. 00:36:36.180 --> 00:36:37.100 But it's a city. 00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:38.680 Did you notice that? 00:36:39.019 --> 00:36:40.300 It's a garden city. 00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:41.960 You see, there's been development. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.060 It's been developed and thriving into a new city. 00:36:45.580 --> 00:36:47.680 It's teeming with cultural products. 00:36:48.519 --> 00:36:51.460 It's filled with work, the glory and the honor of the nations. 00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:52.680 You know? 00:36:53.300 --> 00:36:54.620 The iPhone is there. 00:36:55.720 --> 00:36:57.160 Mozart's symphonies are there. 00:36:57.720 --> 00:36:59.480 All of One Direction's hits are there. 00:36:59.580 --> 00:36:59.760 No. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:00.580 No, they're not. 00:37:00.660 --> 00:37:01.060 They're in hell. 00:37:01.059 --> 00:37:08.599 But there's all this work comes through. 00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:14.739 And it says, we, verse 5, we will reign forever. 00:37:16.759 --> 00:37:18.619 Do you remember in the garden what we were meant to do? 00:37:18.980 --> 00:37:19.880 Have dominion? 00:37:21.460 --> 00:37:26.519 But we were meant to have dominion with Him as our center. 00:37:26.799 --> 00:37:29.360 You see, in the new creation, we'll be working. 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:33.240 Don't think you're going to be drinking tequila on the Maldives. 00:37:33.539 --> 00:37:35.860 You're going to be working, but it's going to be satisfying. 00:37:36.440 --> 00:37:38.059 It's going to be delightful. 00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:44.920 And the frustration that we experience now, the crushing nature of work, there's rest. 00:37:45.640 --> 00:37:47.800 There's rest in the work. 00:37:48.500 --> 00:37:49.220 What's different? 00:37:49.420 --> 00:37:51.260 Here's the final thing for us to take away. 00:37:51.700 --> 00:37:52.539 What's different? 00:37:53.059 --> 00:37:58.200 It says, the Lord God Almighty and its Lamb are its light. 00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:02.519 Jesus is right at the center of everything. 00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:05.019 And that's when work functions. 00:38:05.839 --> 00:38:13.519 In your life, if you put Christ at the center of everything, He begins to rewire the way you view work. 00:38:15.439 --> 00:38:21.179 MIT has put in huge amounts of money into research, into work. 00:38:21.179 --> 00:38:25.779 Do you know, here's what they came up with for what makes work meaningful. 00:38:26.199 --> 00:38:27.179 Here's the final thing. 00:38:28.199 --> 00:38:39.940 They said, work, meaningful work is when an individual perceives an authentic connection between work and a broader transcendent life purpose beyond the self. 00:38:39.940 --> 00:38:44.599 They could have saved a lot of money by reading the Bible. 00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:56.239 Because if MIT is saying what the Bible has always said, if you want to have meaningful work, realize that you're going to do it for an audience of one. 00:38:56.480 --> 00:39:01.059 One who has died and has taken the work under the work for you. 00:39:01.059 --> 00:39:05.960 So fill your day with bringing Him into your work. 00:39:06.779 --> 00:39:10.480 Because that's going to be the secret of meaningful work. 00:39:11.259 --> 00:39:12.039 Let's pray. 00:39:12.039 --> 00:39:28.079 Father, I just thank you that the way that you've set up work is so that we do it for your glory. 00:39:29.279 --> 00:39:34.679 And that even the work itself is something we can use to love and bless other people. 00:39:34.900 --> 00:39:36.500 I know many of us struggle with that. 00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.119 We struggle to see where the connections are. 00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:48.420 Help us to see first of all today that our work, we can offer our work for your glory, for your eyes alone. 00:39:49.420 --> 00:39:54.259 And that is where our value, that is where our worth, that is where the center of everything comes. 00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:01.639 Please would we go out this week to love you and to know you and to worship you in our work. 00:40:02.299 --> 00:40:02.639 Amen.