Christian Worldview (part 1)

Dear God, our heavenly father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you brought us here this morning. As we open up your word, we pray that you would instruct us and you would change us by the washing of your word.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. Today's Sunday school is, as you see in your handout, it's called Biblical Service. And I couldn't make up my mind, or Biblical Industry or Biblical Work. I think work is the term that I'm gonna use throughout, but in the back of your mind, you wanna be thinking of a service.

How does a Christian serve? And you also wanna think of industry. What does it mean to be active and involved in the things that God has placed us? So the opposite of what I'm gonna be talking about is idleness or laziness.

So if that happens to be an area that you are kind of struggling with, today hopefully we will see some scripture that'll strengthen your understanding of what God says about biblical service. So once again, those of you who came, if you don't have a handout, there are some by the front door, you can pick them up.

The reason I have the handouts is you do not need to take down the scripture references. Everything is written out. The layout is there. I just want you to focus on listening. Let's say that you won the lottery.

Somebody gave you a ticket and that ticket happened to get the money and you now have a million, $100 million, or someone left you an inheritance that is just plenty of money. Or let's say you are in a certain state where you're positioned where your state says, every month you are gonna be getting this amount of money for the rest of your life.

Or maybe it's because of disability. You are able to collect some money every week, every month. Maybe you are old, you've retired and your retirement has started to kick in. Or maybe you're like some of us here, unemployed or the type of work that you need to do, you're gonna get persecuted.

So in all of these different circumstances, the common thing is you have enough so you don't really need to work to earn the money or your work may be dangerous and you may lose your life. What should the Christian be thinking of in these circumstances?

Is it right to just kick back and say, I'm all set or God's kind of closed all doors so I'm just gonna wait for him to open. What is the biblical view of work? What does God tell us about work? So in your handouts, I have two sections.

The first one is about God himself. As we study things about our own sanctification, our own calling, we always wanna remind ourselves who this God is that we worship, what is it that he does and then what is it that he calls us to?

So let's look at a few things about our God. Does our God work? I shouldn't have given you the handout right now but what are some of the ways in which God works? Steven? Yeah, so there is a distinction and the first six days the creation was what we call ex nihilo.

It was out of nothing God created. The kind of creative power that God exhibited in his work on those first six days is something we just look back and then wonder. That was a unique kind of creation that we see, a unique kind of work in creation that we see in the first six days and then the Bible says God rested on the seventh.

What are some of the other kinds of work? Frank? Excellent, because God is still actively working in the redemption of every single soul that gets saved today. That's why we say every salvation is a miracle because God just intervenes.

He could just let us all go down our own ways but he comes in and he changes the heart. He gives a new heart. He works in that person a miracle. Excellent, so that's another way of God's work? Excellent, so in one sense when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he is sitting at the right hand of the father because on the cross, what did he say?

It is finished. His work of salvation was accomplished and yet as the son of God in the right hand of the father, he is still working as our advocate. He intercedes for us. So Christ is still working.

Yes, Bruce? Psalm 2, we know that God is active in the course of history, not just the past in the Bible times but also today all the nations. He is actively governing. He is ruling the world according to his decree.

Yes, excellent.

The words I have for that is the second one, preservation, Colossians 1, 16 and 17. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together. If Christ does not uphold the world, we will just collapse, implode.

We will not have existence because our life is a contingent life. It is because God gives us and upholds us that the universe itself has its moment-by-moment existence. Excellent point. All right, I have a few more.

The next one is that God is actively working. It kind of covers broadly John 5, 17. Jesus said, when they questioned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus said, my father is working until now and I am working.

It is a continuous activity of God. God works. Back to what Bruce said, power of God. The passage I have is from Exodus 14, 13. I'll read that. Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.

He's talking about the Hebrews being redeemed out of Israel when the last of the plague comes in and Egypt is decimated and God takes them out. And he says, the Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see again.

And for us, that moment of redemption from Egypt is one of the landmark events of God's work of salvation and the power of God in that salvation. And for us today in individual lives, we all recollect the power that has happened in our lives and the lives of those whom we see getting converted.

And then the last thing I want to note on God's work is the nature of God's work. The verse I have there is Deuteronomy 32, 4. Moses here is calling God the rock. And he says, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

So we've seen a few elements of God's working. And this, his working is in perfection and power. And it is who God is. God is a God who works. Now, when we think of our God as our father, as our creator, and then on that basis, we want to now look and see what is it that we are called to do.

God could have made us as little tiny puppets, just kept that and then moved us whenever he wanted to. And we didn't have any role to play. We would just move along the way we are, but God made us in a unique way.

So with that, we're going to get into our responsibility to work. And we'll begin with God's image. This is one of the truths that I think is extremely crucial, whether for believer or for unbeliever.

Let me just read that. And then we will talk about it a few minutes and we'll move on. In Genesis 1, 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

And then he says, God blessed them. And he said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

In that little command, those two verses, you have pretty much the entire mandate humanity is to have on the universe. Unlike the naturalist, we are not just some stuff that just crawled out of something else.

God made us in his image. We are image bearers. We are God's reflection. If you think of image in that sense, God has placed certain things in us and then he has given us a command to work in these different ways.

And work is one of the different dimensions, but that passage, if you just sit down, you can just see how rich is the call and the responsibility that God has placed upon man. So the very first thing we want to think of is God works.

He made us in his image and there is an element of work that just comes with who we are. So when we think of ourselves as Christians, we can know this consciously. Even unbelievers, even if they don't know it, they're just made that way.

They need to work. All of us need to work in order to fulfill that image, that call that God has placed upon us. Now, if it was just some abstract, these things that just naturally flow, then we just kind of let the nature take its own course.

But it was not just the image, but also a command. In the second point we have there, Genesis 2 .15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it. Many a time we just think he just went around gathering fruits and sleeping around in the shade, but to work it and to keep it, there was a responsibility and a call that was directly given to Adam in the garden.

So, and we will see later how this expands to all of us. But in Adam, the nature that we have, I'm not talking about the sin nature, but the image of God that is in us needs to be worked out. Now, if Adam hadn't sinned, none of us will be talking about these things because God commands us, we have a sinless nature and we just continue doing what God had told us to do and we'd still be in a state of not struggle with sin, which we'll see in a minute.

But as you know, Adam sinned and there was a consequence. And the consequence was what? What happened to Adam or to humanity as a result of the fall? Separation from God, yes. And I heard something else.

Work is a curse. Yes, instead of having this direct communion with God, where you see God and you do what God has called you to do, you now have, you are separated. But God who commanded man to work also, or blessed him in that command, now also cursed man for his sin.

In Genesis 3, 17, or 18, we read, thorns and thistles that shall bring forth to you and you shall eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

And then in verse 23, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken, except the ground now was not going to cooperate with him. And when you have Adam, now he has a mandate now in this kind of state that the world is in today in a state of sin.

And then you have the separation of Adam and his son Cain in Genesis 4, 12. Cain gets the curse. Do you remember what Cain did? He killed his brother. When his brother died, what did the ground do? Because he spilt his brother's blood and the ground ate it up.

And then God curses Cain. And he says, when you work the ground, it's not an option, you have to, but when you work it, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. Because Abel's blood was crying out to God from the ground and you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.

And that we see in that sense, some of the struggle that the world has, the world is not just separated from God. It doesn't have a relationship with God, doesn't have a communion with God. It is also in a state of direct curse in the way in which its work will be blessed or cursed.

Now, what are some of the ways in which you think fallen humanity, let's say, you know, when Adam was first made, he knew exactly what to do, work the ground and eat of it. What do you think the line of Cain struggled with?

What are some of the internal struggles with work you think that his children have or all of us today in the world have? Actually, I like that. I didn't think about that. So, let's just said, you know, if the ground doesn't yield, then you need to find ways to get water, irrigate.

And what aspect of the image of God does that show when man comes up with ways of solving? Creativity, yes. God created and he has commanded. The broad mandate in Genesis 1 was, you know, have dominion and rule over all of these.

And in God's image, we have that ability to think. We are not just like an animal or some robot. We can actually find solutions that, because we have God's image. Excellent. Let's come back to this aspect of just the work, you know, and the sin and the struggle.

What are some of the struggles that man has because he is now separated from God? Laziness, yes. That's right, because work is hard. So, one option is to fix it, which I think is the biblical way to handle this curse that is given.

Not that, oh, God has cursed, so therefore I need to sit back, but it is to do what God has commanded you to do and work with it. Instead, you can go to this end and say, too hard, I've got my lottery money.

Let me just sit back. Excellent. So, an unbeliever can still be working, but when you're working for yourself, that does not please God. And that's a sin as well. If laziness is on this side, yes. In general, that is true, because all of us are in the state of sin and we all cannot overcome sin except by the power of God.

And specifically in the area of work, an unregenerate human just continues to do that. And unless God regenerates us, we can not give glory to God in our work in that area of sin. Yes, miss. Yeah. Excellent.

So, when God is no longer the object of our work, when we ourselves and our self and wellbeing in our own self-conceived ways are the goal of work, then what happens is you just are looking to acquire and unrestrained that goes off into overproduction.

All I can do is just work, work, work, work, work, and not realize that work is part of a life that God has given us. It has its place, but it isn't everything. So today, especially we have, because of materialism through greed, people have kind of gone too much on this side and we need to, and that is the other extreme.

Any other thoughts on the struggle that the world has with work before we move? Yes, Dave. Can you maybe elaborate that a little? Especially in the moral sense, understanding the purpose that God has built into man, what is right and wrong, and how far is too far and how little is too little.

All those things are just, there is no God to tell this man in his mind. The fool has said there is no God, and therefore he just does whatever pleases him. Janet, did you want to say something else? Right, so even an unbeliever who stays in the middle path, knows the right balance between work and family and everything else, in the end of the day accomplishes nothing because it just all goes back to himself.

Let me just take one more and we'll move on. Pat, did you hear that?

Because, and that is the complexity of sin. And for the unbeliever, I was talking to one of you earlier this week, when the unbeliever tries to block that, let's say he says, oh, greed is bad, and then let's try to stop that.

It'll find another way in which to overwhelm you because that's the nature of the fallen man, and there is really no escaping it outside of the power of God. So let's move on to Christians. So Christians, did we somehow just get a transplant from the garden, skipping Adam, and then all of a sudden, it's just fresh start, all new, let's start to work, God is, if only, no, obviously not.

We all were in Adam, and then in the second Adam, in Christ, we were regenerated. And what that means is, depending on how long you've been in the world as a person, you are trained in the things of the world.

So you think like either this way or that way, or your flesh has got its own propensities to its struggles or even to itself. You can still be not giving glory and honor to God in the midst of work when you're not thinking right, and you don't honor God as you should.

But there is a, like Brother Dave was saying, now there is a path. The word of God lays that before us. So you know what role work has, and you know what is the calling that we have. And the primary end of work, as with everything else in man, is worship.

So when we work, we ought to be worshiping God and say, God, this is what you've called me to do in this area of my life, and in this area of my life, receive my worship as I work. And as we'll see later, unto the Lord, and not just unto men, wherever we work.

So let me now ask you a question, and then we'll get into the text. Is there something called sacred work and something called secular work? Is there some difference between sacred and secular? Okay, I'll wait to give your answer loud.

Yes, Pastor Dave?

Yes, we will miss Pastor Dave.

There is, I mean, that concisely covers everything about work. We said work is worship. It doesn't matter what work we do, as long as you're not robbing a bank or something. Any work that you do is for, sorry that I took away some of your options, but every single work we do is worship.

And therefore, what does sacred mean? It is holy. It is set apart unto the Lord. Everything we do is to the glory of God. So with that said, I'm now gonna talk about these two aspects, because I think in our mind, maybe when we were unbelievers, or maybe even when I got saved, I was in a certain kind of church, which kind of tried to distinguish the clergy-laity distinction to the point where it just seemed like that's more holy.

And let's look at these two aspects. What I'm gonna say is, let me just clarify what I'm gonna say. First of all, everything is sacred. There is no secular work, some work that is somehow apart from God.

This is our own little independent, where God doesn't have any control. God has control over everything. Therefore, there's nothing secular. But I'm gonna use those terms just because I think that's the way we are trained to think, but I want you to look at it a little differently.

When I think, say, sacred, the alternate term in your handouts, I think it should be there, what I'm gonna call is gospel-centered ministry. So if you are in full-time ministry, preaching, missions, and that's the means of your support, normally people think of that as somehow sacred, but that's not the sense in which we wanna talk.

We're just talking about gospel-centered, direct ministry. And then we're gonna be talking about not indirect gospel ministry. So you're at work coding, you're at Home Depot cashiering, you are digging a ditch.

Whatever it is that God has called you, you are working there and that's the means of support for you. And why do I call this indirect gospel ministry? Should this be indirect gospel ministry?

Yes? Okay, yeah, how? Yes, excellent.

So if I get paid to do typing for an hour and I say, well, the gospel is more important and I'm gonna get paid for typing, but I'm gonna be working at evangelism, that would be called cheating because we're not doing what we committed ourselves to do.

And the best way we honor God is by doing what we are called to do with excellence. And that in one sense is a testimony itself because the world should look at our integrity and the way in which we demonstrate the life of Christ and say, this guy is different.

And then when you have your tea break and you're talking about what makes you different, you don't keep your mouth shut because that's where you're able to explain the God whom you serve. And if you lose your job for that, that is fine.

But if you lose your job for speaking when you shouldn't be, then that brings a shame and a dark mark on God's image. So anyway, those are the two things. And when I'm talking about gospel-centered ministry, I'm not just talking about the full-time ministry.

I want you also to be thinking of what you do in church, service to one another, maybe you are gonna be volunteering to a missions trip and go out somewhere, witnessing to your neighbor. All of these are part of things that you need to actually, I'm gonna push that envelope, intentionally be about.

It is not just some of the things that just happen. Oh, I just went to work today and therefore I worked. I just happened to meet my neighbor and therefore I spoke to them over the gospel. We are here for a reason and we have an intentional ministry whether we are full-time and paid or that's what we do with the rest of our lives.

But anyway, keep those two things in mind and we'll bring them together. In point number seven, I say both sacred and secular translation, direct gospel and indirect gospel ministries are necessary to begin with and they both can be supported.

Sometimes people think because I get money here in my work in the world, then that's the kind of work that qualifies as work. And here, because maybe I cannot get paid or I will not earn as much, maybe I should work here and then just do this stuff on the side or because I'm not getting paid, I just somehow treat this as labor.

If you look at the New Testament, Christian ministry is constantly about labor and it's not just talking about the pastors. It's talking about us, every single one of us in terms of how we work and strive in the Lord, in the church and in the world.

For necessary, we already saw in Genesis 3 .23, God had put a mandate on Adam to work of the ground and then eat of it. It wasn't just keep eating and then work when you want. He had a job to do and then he would be fed by it.

He would be supported by the labor that he did. And in 2 Thessalonians 3 .12, Paul talks to those who are idle and he says to them, we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and earn their own living, which means by their work, they support themselves.

And when it comes to ministry or you're familiar with 1 Timothy 5 .17 and 18, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor or work in preaching and teaching.

And in verse 18, Paul quotes the Old Testament. The scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. How much if an animal that labors deserves its food at the end of its day or its food and its time of need or the laborer deserve his pay at the end of the hard workday.

So also those who labor in ministry are provided for God by the people of God for their labor. So work is necessary and it is also supported. And then this is something I really found fascinating. In Romans 15 .17, Paul talks about the satisfaction of ministry, he says, in Christ Jesus then, I have reason to be proud of my work for the Lord.

You know, we are afraid of pride a lot and we rightfully so because the human self likes to be proud of itself. But here, Paul is proud of the ministry that God had given him and blessed him. And in some other translations, we'll talk about the boasting that Paul has.

And I think that word we are a little more used to because we boast of the excellencies of Christ. We are not boasting of ourselves, but of the God who has blessed us and the God who has given increase.

In this particular passage in Romans 15, I'll just say this. He's talking about the ministry to the Gentiles that God had done through him. And this is just phenomenal how God had used this. And well, who was Paul before he got saved?

Murderer, I think that concisely puts it. He was a Jewish person who hated the Christians for everything that they were doing. And a strong Jew, and this man now goes out and gives the gospel under God's calling to the entire world.

And the world is turned upside down as we read in the Bible because of this man's ministry. And do you think Paul just felt, oh, well, job done, Romans 15, end of the book? No, I mean, there was great satisfaction in the work that Paul had in his ministry.

And in every single ministry work that we're doing, whether full-time or behind the scenes, we can take satisfaction in what God has given us. Why? Because it is God who enables us to do this. Paul knows fully well.

He keeps saying in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, over and over and over again. He knows it's God who has enabled him to do this. And it is just beautiful to see everything that he's accomplished through him.

And the call to work in man comes out to fruition in this particular area for Paul. Now, I have something called talents, and this is, again, and that is the same for secular work as well, secular translation, indirect gospel.

I have a reference later from Proverbs where it talks about how the fruit of your labor is good. It is good to just take joy in the fruit of all your labors, and that's a blessing from the Lord. Now, talents.

I'm just gonna read a few verses and we'll move on. 1 Corinthians 12, 29. Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers? Do all work miracles? The answer is no. God has unique calling to every single one of us in the ministry.

All of us have a specific gift of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit knows what you need and he gives them to you for you to do the ministry in the church. And according to the gift or the ability that is given to us, we minister.

Is that true only of the church? First of all, let's maybe finish this. What is one of the truths that we need to learn from this? The fact that we have certain gifts.

Bruce, be prepared.

You're here to serve with the gifts that God has given you and with your gifts. What God has given you, use them well, use them wisely. It's one thing to say, oh, look at this Paul. He is such an evangelist.

The evangelist in the New Testament is a little different. Maybe I'll pick something else. Here is this Piper who is such a preacher. Oh, that even rhymes. And that's what I wanna be doing. And though God has given me this ability to serve in a different way, if that's all I'm focusing on, I do not serve because I'm wrongly focused on the talents and the gift and the spiritual gift that God has given me.

How about in the work that you do in the world? Is it any different? Excellent, I like that. I didn't think that way, but Charlie just said God has decreed, right? And that God's sovereignty is he dispenses gifts and abilities according to his good pleasure.

And we work according to what God has given us. The reference I had here was from Exodus 35, 35. Obviously Moses here is talking about the tabernacle. And let me just read that. So Moses is saying of God, he has filled them, the people, with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or a designer or an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twisted linen, or by a weaver, by any sort of workmen and skilled designer.

And if you look at some of the people, God actually picks some people out and says, this guy needs to do this job because I have given him that ability to do it. And every single one of us, we want to use those talents that God has given us.

And then I think the last thing we will do here, oh, I don't think we may go too far today, is to glorify God in all our work. And we began with necessity of work. And sometimes it just becomes like, okay, I'm built to do this.

I'm given some gifts to do this and I just do it. But there is a certain passion to glorifying God in our work when we realize what the calling to work is in the life of a believer. And I think Jesus exemplifies this best in John 4, 34.

Jesus said there to his disciples, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, the work of God that was placed upon man. How many of you remember what the context is? What happened in John 4 when Jesus is telling this story?

What that means is, you know, here they were, and if you look at the beginning of John 4, they have had a long tiring journey from Judea to Samaria, middle of the noon heat day. And we read actually that Jesus is tired and exhausted, you know, time for food.

And his disciples go and get him food and come. But while Jesus should be, you know, under the shade and resting and taking care of his body, he is doing work. He is ministering, he's doing God's work to this woman who was in need of salvation.

And so when these people come back with food, which they know their master needs, I am satisfied. I am filled because I have done what God has asked me to do. And doing God's will, doing God's work is so satisfying.

It is as rich as eating food every day. And obviously here we are talking specifically the gospel ministry that Jesus was doing, and that ought to be the sense in which we live our life. I'm actually picking out work as just one element because we're gonna be looking at different scriptures, hopefully in the future, how that works itself out.

But in all of our life, specifically in work, when we see things the way God intended us to see, when we have this relationship with God, just to recap what we've done in the last 40 minutes, when we see God as God, as our creator, as our father, we see God as who he is in his attributes.

He's a working God. He is the one who never ceases from work. It is because of his work that we live and move and have a life. It is in that connection that we see all of our lives. We see ourselves. It is not about me just earning my money or using my talent.

I now see myself next in God's image. I am an image bearer. I'm not just some random product. I have the stamp of the almighty creator himself upon me. And he has called me. He has made me in such a way that I need to worship him in all these diverse aspects, specifically work as we are focusing on here.

And then when we think of work, we wanna remember there is going to be a temptation because we come from the world. We are either tempted to idleness or we are tempted to overwork at the exclusion of other biblical mandates that God has placed on us.

And as we read the word, we get more and more conformed as brother Dave said, to the high calling that God has placed upon us. And as we work it out, we'll see more how God enables us to do this. But specifically here, we saw how it is satisfying.

It is in accordance with what God has given us. And ultimately it should be the passion of our lives as we just say, God, I thank you for Monday. So when we wake up tomorrow, we should be saying, Lord, I'm so glad you put me at that exact place where I need to go.

And we wanna go and work those eight hours or 12 hours. Those of you who are doing longer shifts for the glory of God. Before we close, any questions? All right, let's pray. Dear God, our loving and gracious father, we thank you for the work that you have done in every single one of us here.

And Lord, we are indeed so grateful for that precious work that you began in us and which the word says that you will finish irrespective of our own states. Lord, we pray that you would not just have to drag us through our lives, but rather we would work according to the measure that you have filled us with, that we would excel day on today to glorify you in the world and to just take pleasure in you in all that we do.

We pray also father for the rest of the worship today. We pray that you would guard and superintend all that happens. We pray that you would receive the glory and honor and may you, oh Lord, be the focus of our worship today.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.