Sermon Notes: Created to Work

Faith at Work: Created to Work (11.2.14)
by Pastor Jason Tarn

[Genesis 2:1-3, 15; 3:17-19]

Some people live to work. Their job is their life passion. Others work to live. For the weekend. To take part in other passions. To make disciples. To make money to give to the church. To spend time under its curse while we wait for Jesus to come again. However, not only is work not a god that we want to worship, but it is something good that we do to mirror our Creator and to use work as an act of worship for himself.

1. Work is good

• Work is part of God's created order, part of his plan
• Work is not a curse that enters only after the fall of mankind and when sin entered the Earth
• We often mistakenly believe that the garden of Eden is a place where humans do nothing except lounge around with constant relaxation and all the fruit and desires laid at our feet

*Note: Honestly, my mental image of the Garden of Eden was this exactly. That everything Adam and Eve ever wanted was instantly before them and they did not have to toil for anything. Which is silly, because 1) if I don't believe that heaven is just a place where you float around and do nothing except happily loafing, then why would God make that the primary focus of life on Earth initially? 2) New heaven and earth will be filled with creative work for us to do, why wouldn't the brand new Earth, which had so much to do in its inception?

God is first described as a worker

• Created all things by his mouth "God said....."
• Idea of work is not an afterthought, it was there from the beginning from when God created the heavens and the earth
• It is a joy for God to work, not a burden
• He can look at all He has created and "saw that it was good" [Genesis 1:18]

Human's role in God's work

• God finished His part of creating the garden, but the work wasn't finished. He still wanted for us to have a part in the framework He had set up
• We are called to maintain it, cultivate it, have dominion over it
• "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." [Genesis 1:28]
• "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it."   [Genesis 2:15]
• If Adam and Eve expected a good harvest from the good land given to them, they still had to work for it
• Adam and Eve were given the unique task of doing creative work
• Even beasts were tasked with being fruitful and multiplying
• "And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." [Genesis 1: 22]
• Only humans were given that additional responsibility, setting us apart from animals and plants
• Humans work, animals survive

**Note: This is so crazy, because I talked with someone about this literally this past cell group! About how if we were to pollute the whole Earth to the point of it being inhabitable, would God forgive us and save us from it? Yes, God would forgive us in the sense that nothing we can do can take away a child from their Father. If a child ruined a gorgeous mural that a father had painted and asked him to take care of by throwing black paint over it, the child still is loved by the Father and would still be His child, but would have failed in what they were tasked to do. This isn't a calling that is to be taken lightly. It is literally one of God's first commandments to mankind.

We were not created for mere leisure

• The American ideal tends to make the end goal to be without work, to retire and be without burden
• This is why unemployment is so disturbing to us, not just on a financial level, but a man/woman without a purpose without the chance to work denies our innate calling to work
• All work is pleasing to God, regardless of position in God's eyes. Both the CEO and tradesman are workers and both reflect his image by doing their work well
• Disclaimer: work that defies God's will in murder, defrauding others, defiling our bodies, etc. is not within this context, because obviously if it goes against Scripture, then it would be considered displeasing instead of pleasing to God regardless if the job is done well

How do I reflect the image of God in my work?

By appreciating the inherent beauty and dignity of each job, no matter what it is.

• Artists: show the inherent beauty in creation...like God
• Teachers: fashion the mind and talents, making order out of chaos...like God
• Engineers: make things run efficiently and designing systems and structures...like God
• Doctors: heal those whose bodies are decaying...like God
• Accountants: create opportunities for investments and uphold ethics...like God
• Lawyers: bring justice to defend against injustice...like God
• Technicians: fashion items out of raw materials...like God
• Homemakers: keep the family running well, loving them by fulfilling basic needs...like God
• STUDENTS: called to have knowledge of this world ....like God

2. Work is not God
Sometimes the work we're assigned to do can feel pointless, frustrating, and exhausting. Why does work feel like this sometimes when work is supposed to be good?

Work is not a curse, but it is cursed

• No work is untouched by the influences of sin

God himself has cursed work

• "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat 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"
  [Genesis 3: 17-19]
• This is why work can end up fruitless, painful, and exhausting. This frustration is a constant reminder that we are not to worship work

• No matter what you accomplish, there is always more, there is never an end to the work to be done, and if that is what your goal is, to be done, it will devour you

**Note: Oh how I feel this in my own work, not that work is cursed, but that there is never an end. Even if I end up as an Imagineer or top of the themed entertainment field, there is never an end. Any attraction I build will always just be replaced with another, or blown over by an earthquake or natural disaster so easily, like it's a pile of twigs. If my worth is in what human's believe success is, if my value lies in what I can produce, then oh how this body and mind will fail me.

How much have we assigned God-like expectations to work to provide for us meaning?

• Will leave us dissatisfied if we want for our job to define who we are
• There is only ONE God, that one reason to get up in the morning

He sent his Son to do the work that we failed to do

• Jesus took the curse of eternal damnation from us and we do not have our work cursed any longer
• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” [Galatians 3:13]
• Even if the curse is gone from Christ removing it, the effects are still there in the same way although we are saved by Christ covering our sins, we are still capable of sinning on earth

**Note: For myself, I see this appearing over and over and OVER again! How Jesus had compassion when we did not. How he even had PERFECT FAITH for us when we had imperfect faith, for something as fundamental as that for us and his disciples.

3. Work is worship

• Worship is all we do in faith for the glory of God
• don't devalue the term worship by limiting it to the praise songs we sing, it is only just a small part of a whole
• The more we grow in our relationship with God, it becomes more about who you work for rather than what you are doing.
• **Note: This even applies to companies. Would you offer up your work services to a company that goes against your moral beliefs, even if you loved the job description?
• What can I offer to God to worship him on a normal work day?