WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:02.560 Our scripture reading this morning is in Genesis 2. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.759 It's not printed in your bulletin, so uh just listen as I read it. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:12.320 I'm gonna read uh Genesis two verses four through nine and then verse fifteen. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:38.799 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, and the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:46.560 Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:58.960 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he formed, and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:04.000 The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:05.120 Verse 15. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:11.200 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:12.879 The word of the Lord. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:20.079 So we're working our way through Genesis chapters one through three. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:27.840 And this morning we are going to be in chapter two, we're gonna be chapter two, probably the next few Sundays. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.200 And there's several different things to look at in chapter two, and one of them is work, career. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:36.239 And maybe you're here and you're going, like, don't want to hear about it. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:41.599 Like, I actually really look forward to the weekends and Sundays to not think about work and career. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:43.680 It's the last thing I want to think about it. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.519 So maybe you're here and you don't like your work. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:48.560 Maybe you're here you're working a job hoping for another job. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.120 Maybe you're here and you love your job. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:52.879 Maybe you're here you have no job. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.719 Maybe you're here, you're done working a job because you're retired, right? 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.159 But we all deal with this issue of work. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:03.680 And I want to begin by telling you about my friend named Joe. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:12.080 And so some of y'all met Joe, some of the men met Joe on the men's retreat uh last uh April, I think it was. 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:13.680 And Joe is an artist. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:15.520 Joe grew up as an artist. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.319 He's about 30, 35 years old now. 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:22.000 He wanted his art to be in museums and books. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:25.599 I mean, he wanted to do something that would last. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.960 Like he wanted legacy, is what he wanted with his life. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:39.439 And he wanted young artists to discover his art, you know, on the walls of museums or find a book of his with all of his paintings, and they would find this book and they would be inspired. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:41.360 They would become great artists. 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:42.800 And Joe is a talented artist. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:56.400 And in graduate school, as he was studying art, he became, he he became aware that the worst thing, the worst thing you can be as a contemporary artist is uninteresting. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:57.759 It's the worst thing. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.000 That's the worst possible thing. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:04.879 And then what's interesting is about that time he was becoming involved in the evangelical church. 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:11.120 At the same time, he found the same exact thought in the evangelical church. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:15.919 That the worst thing that you can be as a Christian is uninteresting. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:17.360 Is normal. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:17.919 Right? 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:19.520 You've probably heard it. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:23.199 God's given you these gifts and these talents, and he has. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:23.919 He has. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:25.199 He's given you. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.240 So you must change the world with them. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:31.599 I mean, it is up to you to change the world. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.319 You cannot be normal. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.080 You have to be exceptional in all ways. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:48.800 And to end up anything less than radically, exceptionally changing the world means you have failed. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:51.680 Well, that's what Joe was hearing. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:53.840 Maybe you've heard it, maybe you have it. 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:59.919 And what that is, is basically saying that faith and meaning can't be quiet. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:02.080 It has to be loud. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:12.080 So Joe's painting, he's spending 10 hours a day painting with a canvas, he's teaching art to make it all work, to pay bills, but nothing's coming of it. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:13.280 Nothing's coming of his art. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:14.400 Nobody's recognizing it. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:17.120 Nobody's, it's it's not making any progress. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:31.839 And slowly that pressure is building, more and more pressure is building to be interesting, to be exceptional, and to be known and all of this, to be the bringer of the kingdom is what he was taught he should be. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.120 And so, of course, he can't pull this off. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:40.560 Because he was figuring out and finding out, you know what, he's just like me and he's like you. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.000 He's just actually quite normal. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:49.040 But unfortunately, he was taught that normal or quiet is bad. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:56.399 And so he felt like a failure and he had a lot of shame because nobody knew his work, nobody knew his life. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:00.160 And so Joe finally began to ponder a career change. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:06.639 Now, this is this, he said, was almost like a sinful thought because he was a gifted artist. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:16.079 And so he was taught his whole entire life that you take the best thing that you have and you turn it into your career and you change the world for God with this. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:29.519 And so the idea that you would take the best thing you have and just treat it as a hobby or something you enjoy, but have a career shift to him, even this thought he didn't know what to do with it. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.240 And so he did what everybody does. 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:34.480 He called a meeting with his pastor. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:36.560 Help me work it out. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:37.759 That's what we do. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:38.720 Even I do it. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:39.519 I have a pastor. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:40.240 I call him. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:41.600 Please help me. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:42.720 I need help. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.879 And so he sits down with my friend Jonathan, who was his pastor. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:48.319 He lays it all out. 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:57.920 He says, here's what I've been thinking, here's what I've been taught, here's how I'm reacting to it, here's how I feel, here's what I'm thinking now. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:01.680 I'm thinking about a career change away from art. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:03.199 This feels like sin. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:08.959 This feels like I'm walking away from God's calling on my life, and yet I want to do that. 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:12.240 I feel like I want to just take a break. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:21.600 And he says, Jonathan, his pastor, told him the most relieving, loving, gospel-filled thing he had ever heard in his whole life. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:31.199 Jonathan just looked him in the face and said, Joe, if you never pick up a paintbrush again, God loves you. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:36.879 He said that thought had never really entered his heart. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:38.879 And Jonathan said, You know what? 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:40.639 You can change careers if you want to. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:43.519 Your work doesn't have to define you. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.199 You've already been defined by God and Jesus. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.120 And so this was revolutionary for Joe. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.720 He ended up taking a job renovating somebody's bathroom. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:00.480 Art on the walls of museums, renovating somebody's bathroom. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:01.920 And you know what's interesting about it? 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:02.639 He loved it. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.000 He really enjoyed it. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:08.240 So now he sells tubs and showers and installs them, and he likes it. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:10.560 He likes that it's not permanent. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.759 He likes that it just can be work, right? 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:18.079 Like it doesn't have to mean everything all the time. 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:24.000 But he likes the fact there's some artistry, there's some construction, you're helping people, you're doing something, there's progression to it. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:25.439 So he likes all of that. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:27.920 And here's my point to that whole story. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:33.279 Joe has learned that work has meaning in and of itself. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:34.800 Just the work. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.439 The work itself has meaning. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.600 Now, I realize that you could find that story appalling. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:43.920 It's not a glory story. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:46.399 The glory story is the opposite. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.279 The tub guy, right, becomes the artist. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:08:05.120 He suffers, he's installing tubs, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, he's painting on the side, he gets discovered, all of a sudden he's in New York, he's in LA, he's all over. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:08.160 You know, praise God, it's all because of Jesus, right? 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.720 I mean, that's the glory story. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:11.600 And you know what? 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:18.079 Those stories exist, those stories are good, those stories are filled with good sacrificial lessons and hard work. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:19.920 Those are good stories. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:21.199 And you know what? 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:26.800 Those stories are sometimes need to be our stories, even, working out our callings of what we want to do with our lives. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:34.720 But, but, but, but, it is possible, maybe you're a little bit like a lot of us. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:48.799 Filled with great gifts and talents and even callings that are working themselves out in a thousand ways in normal lives with normal jobs. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:58.480 And sometimes you work one job to get to another one, to get to a job perhaps that feels like this intersection of calling and work, and that's fantastic. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:08:59.919 And sometimes you know what? 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.360 And you know it, work just feels like work. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:10.799 And sometimes you're asking that question when you're doing that work, does this mean anything? 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:12.240 Like, what am I doing? 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.240 Why am I spending my days doing this? 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:15.919 Does this mean anything? 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:26.240 And so we go back to Genesis 2, and Adam's just, and verse 15, the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.000 He's just gardening. 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:30.960 This is about as simplistic as it gets. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:33.519 And work arrives before the fall. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.720 So the fall, this is when sin arrives into the world. 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:41.600 Adam has rebelled, Adam and you have rebelled from God in Genesis chapter 3. 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:48.799 And so all that self-centeredness, self-absorption, self-redemption, greed, pride, lust, apathy, impatience, all the stuff we know. 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.399 We personally know it, right? 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.559 That doesn't even exist yet. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:10:00.080 And so what we realize, this is point number one, a few points here, what we realize, work in its purest sense is good. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.159 Work is good. 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:06.799 There's just something about work that's good for us. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:16.159 Now, 2,000 years ago in a pre-Christian world, a little bit of a history lesson here, in a pre-Christian world, 2,000 years ago, there were two sharply contrasted views of work. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.000 The first view is the Greek view. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:23.120 And the Greek view said that manual work was considered a curse. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:26.159 Work was demeaning, something to avoid. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.000 There's nothing spiritual about it. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:34.960 Aristotle said to be unemployed was actually good fortune because you'd have more time to contemplate life. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:36.559 That was the Greek view. 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:38.399 And then you had this other view, the second view. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:39.759 This is the Jewish view. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:47.679 And the Jewish view, the biblical view, was had a high value on work, even manual labor, all work. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:53.600 The Jewish people saw work as part of God's purposes for people from the very beginning. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:56.559 It wasn't a result of sin and the world being messed up. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.360 No, Adam was there tending a garden. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:04.879 By the end of the third century, the church fathers had reverted back to this Greek view. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:16.159 And what happened over time is clergy became more powerful, this hierarchy of vocation begins, and the contemplative life became the higher order, and manual labor became a lesser job. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:18.720 Until the 1500s comes around. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.559 In the 1500s, this guy named Martin Luther starts to read his Bible. 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:30.000 He starts reading the Bible and he discovers oh my gosh, I can't believe what we're saying, what's going on here. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.240 Work is actually good. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:37.279 Luther says, we can serve God through all task and all work. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:40.720 Elevating contemplative life is false. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:56.480 And so Luther forms this idea of what he called the doctrine of vocation, which states this, and this is so good for us, which states that the call to love your neighbor, the call to love your neighbor is fulfilled by everyday work, which means to be spiritual. 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:59.360 If you want to be spiritual, you can just work. 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:01.600 That's to be spiritual. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:07.120 So point number two, responding to our call to love our neighbor is fulfilled by everyday work. 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:12.159 Now this week we gave away a couch at our house, a 16-year-old sofa bed. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:20.159 Actually turns out to be harder than you think to give away a 16-year-old sofa bed, but we put it up on the Let Go app. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:26.240 And then Tuesday evening, a guy named Justin shows up at my house to pick up the sofa bed. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:28.159 And I meet Justin in the driveway. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:33.120 I'm excited, somebody's going to take away a 16-year-old sofa bed out of my house. 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.720 No payment, don't need it, just take it, please. 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:38.000 And I meet Justin. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.200 Justin installs guardrails. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.120 That's what he does with his life. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:44.240 That's his work. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:48.639 And so I don't think much about it until the next day I'm driving down the highway. 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:51.200 And I start seeing guardrails everywhere. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:53.200 And I'm like, that's what Justin does. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:55.279 Justin installs guardrails. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.240 And I'm going, I'm kind of thankful for these guardrails. 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:01.039 I've never really thought a lot about guardrails, but I'm driving along. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.879 I'm going, there's a lot of guardrails out here, and there's a ditch over there, and there's stuff over here. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:06.080 I'm pretty thankful. 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:09.440 Now, two days later, after that, I'm driving with my family. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:17.919 We're driving along the expressway, huge traffic jam, and you know, immediately you're like, hey, check ways, check ways, you know, and so Christy pulls it up because there's an exit coming up. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.639 You're going, we need to get off, and she wants us to get off. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:22.720 So Wanda Ways, that's what we call her in our house. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:31.759 Wanda ways, she takes us off, we skip around some side roads, we get back on the expressway, still some traffic, but you can see the break, and we get up there where the accident's at. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:40.080 Two cars had kind of hit each other, gone to the grass median, and you know what stopped them from going to the other side of the expressway? 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:42.000 Guardrails. 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:43.759 Justin. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:47.360 Now, here's what I bet. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.399 I'm taking a taking a big guess here. 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:59.519 I'm guessing when Justin installs guardrails, he doesn't think a lot of times how loving of an act it is. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:13.840 I'm guessing like Debbie in accounting at the guardrail company doesn't work on Tuesday afternoon thinking this is such a loving act for the kingdom of God, for the people of this world. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.919 I'm guessing Doug in the warehouse with the metal. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.799 I'm guessing most days he doesn't think about that. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:24.240 Then there's the road we were on, if you want to think about the road. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:30.320 The aggregate materials for the road that get shipped to the road company that puts in the road. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:34.559 So all the companies that make all the different aggregate, those are all different people that work, right? 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:35.679 And they have all their jobs. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.879 And then the road company that installs the road, you have all those workers. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:40.639 They use tools like big machines. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:44.559 You've seen those machines, like gobbling up the old asphalt, putting down the new stuff. 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:46.399 People make those machines. 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:53.120 People make the parts for that go into those machines for the people on the road to build the road. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:15:04.879 And not only that, but then there's companies on the other side of those parts that like mine the materials for the parts, for the machines, for the company that installs the road. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.519 And all of these people are working jobs. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:13.840 And I'm guessing a lot of them don't think how loving an act it is for us just to drive around. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:16.000 We could do that with a million different things. 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:19.360 We could go around the room and pick your industry and we could figure out all the ways. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:22.080 All these jobs mean so much. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:29.840 And most of us just never stop to realize that just work a lot of times is extremely, extremely loving. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:38.720 Point number three work in its purest sense, oh, this is good, is not about us becoming more. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:40.559 Right? 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.120 Adam in the garden is before the fall. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:49.039 It's before he felt the pressure to have to be more on his own, right? 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:50.639 Work was just work. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.080 He didn't try to like redeem himself with his work. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.399 He didn't try to add value to himself with his work. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.519 He didn't try to absolve his guilt with his work. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:01.360 It was just work. 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:11.840 Can you imagine being free from using career and work and status related to all of that and productivity and creativity? 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:19.360 Can you imagine being free from all of those things being a reflection on you trying to be more in this world? 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.720 See, work in its purest sense is not about us becoming more. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:28.240 Now, listen to Paul here in 1 Thessalonians. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:29.039 There's this passage. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:32.559 Paul's writing a letter to a group of people who just didn't like the word. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:37.679 They had gotten quite idle, they didn't care to work very much, and he's writing them a letter about work. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.200 Here's what he says, 1 Thessalonians 4, 9 through 12. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:47.840 Now, about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:51.600 And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:54.960 Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:56.480 Now listen to this, verse 11. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:13.920 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:17.599 So to all the voices, right? 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:26.160 Because we hear them, we play them out in our mind, to all the voices we hear, that we have to be more and more and more, and we have to use our work for that. 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:30.160 Paul says, Hey, I got a goal for you. 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.400 Make it your goal to lead a quiet life. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:37.680 You don't have to be a big shot. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.079 You can have a quiet life. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:41.759 You can work hard. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:43.839 You can mind your own business. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:49.359 That would be a good show. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:00.559 Quiet. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:02.240 Quiet. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:03.920 Normal life. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:05.839 It can be exceptional. 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:10.240 Last point, point number four. 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:15.440 We work from a place of rest, not for a place of rest. 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:28.000 Tim Keller, pastor and author, he says, if you decide to work for either status and money, okay, so if you decide to work for either status and money, either, A, work will become too important. 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:32.079 And then you begin to neglect other things, other priorities. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:37.440 You lose sight of your family and your friendships, you become an unhealthy person, you're imbalanced, you burn out. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.400 Or B can happen if you work for status and money. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:45.920 Option B can occur and work's not important enough. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:50.400 And you become idle, you become bored, you can become depressed. 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:58.000 Now, what's interesting about this is both of these paths are a restlessness of the soul. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:02.799 The good news is that there is a work that rises out of rest. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.720 It rises out of knowing you are already loved. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:11.599 Do you remember when Jesus visits Mary and Martha at their house and Mary is at Jesus' feet? 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.000 Remember the story in Luke 10? 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:17.759 Mary is at Jesus' feet, resting, sitting. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:19.279 She's at peace. 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:27.039 Martha is busy, she's working, she's productive, she's using her work to impress Jesus, to impress God. 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:28.720 That's what the story is telling us. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.759 And then Martha gets upset about her sister, right? 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:32.720 Naturally. 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:39.920 And she says in Luke 10, 41 and 42, Martha and Martha, the Lord answered after Martha had said, Jesus, don't you care? 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:40.799 My sister isn't helping. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:46.640 And then Jesus says, Martha and Martha, the Lord answered, You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:51.039 Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:56.079 Now, Jesus is not condemning work or productivity or creativity or your career or any of that. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:58.319 Jesus is speaking to this busyness. 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:00.799 See, he knows what we need to know. 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:05.039 Only by coming to him can our hearts finally rest. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:09.680 Only by coming to him do we get on the other side of the fall. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.240 And we won't be perfect with this, right? 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:24.400 I mean, when it comes to career, we failed miserably, right, at using our career to try to justify our existence and ourselves, and then we get lazy with it or become overly focused with it, right? 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.279 We're failures before handling our career well. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:45.279 But when we come to peace with Jesus, with God's provision for us, that He loves us always and forever, and the sacrifice of Christ, when we come and we have rest there, it begins to move us on the other side of the fall where Adam just worked. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:47.599 That work can just be work. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:52.640 Author Shauna Nequist, she wrote this book called Present Over Perfect. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:21:09.359 And in an interview with Oprah, she was talking about her Christian life, her Christian work just starting to fall apart because she was just pressing so hard, harder and harder and harder and harder, just busier and busier and busier and busier, and she was just physically falling apart. 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:15.119 And so she changed stuff in her life to get a quieter life. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:18.079 And she says this, I'm playing the long game. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:21.599 I want to make a difference in the world through my whole life. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:24.799 What that means is an intact soul. 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:33.519 It's a long-term life-giving relationship with God, is a marriage that can be built over decades, a relationship with my kids that extends into adulthood. 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:41.359 So the work that I do matters to me, but it all has to extend out of the center thing first. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:49.359 And what she was talking about, that center thing, is being at rest in Jesus. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:56.880 See, we often run about busying ourselves to feel redeemed and valued from one job to the next, thinking the next thing's gonna do it, the next thing's gonna do it. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:02.559 And the gospel is that only Jesus can take on our insecurity and our shame and our guilt. 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:07.200 And this is what Christ, the Christ, was about from the very beginning. 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:08.319 This is what he was about. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:12.559 This is what he was about and doing with Mary and Martha. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:14.400 This is what the cross is about. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:19.839 It's Jesus saying, you must rest in order to truly work. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.839 Jesus saying, in me, all your meaning and redemption and peace is found in him. 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:29.039 You can let your work just be work. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.640 So, my brothers and sisters, may you find your quiet in him. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:40.319 And may your work be fulfilling, but may you already be fulfilled in Jesus' name. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:41.839 Let's pray together. 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:51.440 God, thank you for the grace you give us that we can come before you knowing we do not handle our work and our careers well. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:53.599 Often we're quite frustrated. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:02.720 We feel underemployed, we feel employed in the wrong areas, we feel like maybe our careers didn't matter, and we worry that our career won't matter. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:06.000 And then we let all this reflect back on us. 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:16.559 And all of this is us not trusting that you give us our existence and value and redemption and meaning. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:18.880 Forgive us for this lack of trust. 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:39.519 And at the same time, we are so grateful for your graciousness to us that it just reminds us over and over and over again that we find our rest in you, that we have the freedom to find our quiet in you and let you work out our callings in this world, in your timing and in your way, and that our work can just be work. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:47.519 So, God, we hold before you our productivity, our creativity, and our careers. 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:50.000 May you use them for your glory. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:58.640 But may we may we be found in your son and the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus for us. 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:00.319 In his name we pray. 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:01.200 Amen.