Northside Church - Sydney
To Do: Power for Your Work
We're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. We finish our six-week series entitled "To Do," finally in the meeting behind your work tonight. It's been a great six weeks looking through at the biblical view of work and here's why, because the studies show that you will spend anywhere from 90 to 100,000 hours at work in your lifetime. And so what we've been asking is that could the way to find joy and meaning and purpose and significant significance in your work, could the way we do that is actually by rediscovering that it may be God's means to his mission in the world but also in your life, that in order to do mission, it's not just about feeding the kids in Madagascar or serving our local community although that is vital and it's an essential part of doing church but in what ways could work have been the way that you carry out God's mission in the world. And so we had that reason for it. We also had a powerful reason for why we did this series and it was evidenced in the past six weeks and I've sat down with people in the past six weeks who have had to fly home only to find out that they've been made redundant. I'm talking young adults here, people that have struggled with trying to find temp roles, trying to find work themselves, but people dealing with horrible bosses, people needing prayer from friends and connect groups, they couldn't have been a more appropriate series I think at this stage in the year to go through then the topic of work. And so the aim of this series has been really to build a framework around this, to build a framework not for us to say well the ways that you engage your co-workers at work is by getting up on a soapbox and doing this and doing that or saying that you must do this or work is all about social justice or work is all about becoming rich so you can give money back to the kingdom. It wasn't prescriptive like that. We looked at God's plan for work, that the work's a good thing and it's a wonderful thing and he's created you for it. We saw the problems with work, that we idolise work, that a good thing becomes an ultimate thing in work and then we also see that it falls under the curse of sin and becomes tough and toil for us and then we saw that that can be reversed by a new perspective on work when we apply the gospel to our work and then that gives us a new story underneath every other story, a new bottom line by which we operate and that means we enter the world differently, we engage the world differently and then stemming from that is we actually have different principles, we're guided by different principles and a different story in the workplace and that we should be different and so tonight it's a little different because tonight we look at the power for your work. That is, it's a bit like a nuclear submarine, I love nuke submarines, they're so much better than the normal submarines and that is because a normal submarine could only last like three days underwater before they have to come up again and refuel which is pretty dumb if you're all the way out in the Atlantic, I guess you've got to have a ship floating above the water to refuel you, it's stupid. Nuclear submarines technically don't have to resurface for the entire 25 years in their lifetime, I know many of you are shocked, surprised and fulfilled at that fun fact that you can take and attribute this, but the reason is they have a power, they literally have a nuclear power station inside them which means that their range, their range how far they can travel is limitless, it's infinite, aside from having to swap the crew over because they've gone from age 25 to 55 and they just need to get out and retire, nuke submarines can travel all around the world, but here's the question now, we've talked all about this work, do you have a power source like that in your life, when we wrap this series up now, it's not going to be the only problem you're going to have in work, it's not the only challenge you're going to have in work, have you got a power source at the very heart of it, what is that power source, we're going to have a look tonight, let's open up to Hebrews chapter 4, we've got a bit of mishmash of verses, so follow along on the screens with me here, it says, "A Sabbath rest for the people of God, therefore since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it, for we have also had the gospel preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard did not combine it with faith." And it goes on, "And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world, for somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words, and on the seventh day God rested from all his work." Then verse 9, "There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their own work just as God did from his." Let me cut straight to the chase here, the power of a biblical view of work, a biblical view of work is the nuclear power station in your life for your work. It's a power station that's almost like two different AA batteries or nuclear fuel rods stuck down in them, two different rods we're going to look at tonight. The first one that we see, the first nuclear fuel rod for the power of your work comes in this, it is a freedom in your work. A biblical view of work gives you a freedom in your work. Two people come to a factory in the middle of nowhere, someone says to them, "Look, you're going to make widgets for the next ten years. You're going to make widgets, whatever a widget is." It's just a generic example. You're going to make widgets, you're going to put bits and pieces of boxes together for the next ten years, and you're going to do it in a room that's going to have a minimal amount of light and there's going to be cracks on the walls, will feed you three basic meals a day consisting of sales and Vegemite. You're going to work away at this, and that's what it is. And yet to one person, they're told at the end of it all, however, at the end of the ten years, you're going to receive $10 million for your work. The question is, who whistles while they work? Who's joyful, who's bouncing off the small walls of this room? You see, one is working for something bigger and beyond their circumstances. And that's exactly what the biblical perspective of work does to you. That's what we've been about for the past five weeks. It was there could it be possible that you no longer see work as just a means to provision in your life, but as a calling, and as we've looked deeper, as we've asked, look, if God has got a plan for work, and if God is putting you into that plan to tend the creation around you and to flourish the world around you, and if he's giving you a new perspective, and if he's changed in the way that you act in the workplace, in the way that you see your workplace, then maybe just maybe you will find a freedom in your work. That is whether you're a student, whether you're a uni student, whether you're a mother, whether you're in between jobs, whether you're a lawyer, whether heaven forbid you're an accountant. A biblical view of work guys allows you to work for something bigger, something greater than yourself. We've got a bigger picture now at the end of this six weeks, right? And it helps you whistle. It helps you whistle like this young adult who messaged me this week. I'm not going to embarrass them too much. I will remain gender neutral, and they will remain anonymous, they said. Hey, Sam, I just thought I'd let you know your sermon series on work is really good and helpful. I've been listening to week one and two so far on the train because I've missed it. I was really, really struggling with the idea of going to a new job this week and felt ridiculously anxious about it, even wanting to quit before I started. My attitude and outlook was very, very different on Monday to Friday now, and I can fully see how idolized work in my time. Making God the center of my life means that any of the outward things are circumstances. In my life, the turn upside down won't make me feel as though I am nothing. My identity has to be in Christ. Amen. I felt I just needed to share. How cool is that, eh? See what they're got? They just got a freedom in their work. That person who's sitting here tonight, they're whistling for the first time. Can you see what the framework's been about, guys? The first fuel rod for you to take this into your workplace. I'm a minister. I'm not working out there in the world. I'm just creating the framework, but it's what you need, a freedom in your work. Now, there's not only that, but there's a deeper freedom that you need from deeper issues, issues that are deeper than just your role description, or your boss, or your crazy workmates. There's an even deeper freedom that you need freedom from. And it's this, you need a freedom from your work. Verse 3 and 5 here say, "And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day, and in these words, and on the seventh day, God rested from all his work." What is that? In simple terms, that's God resting. That's God resting. Why should that be startling for us? It should be startling for us because we can't. I don't know about you, but we can't rest. That's why we're different from God. Let me ask you, are you one of those people that you go away to an exotic destination, like Hamilton Island, and you pack an iPhone, and an iPad, and what do you call it? Mikey, a VPN, Virtual Private Network or something? Okay. Yeah. Well, I don't know. You use it. Okay. You don't pack your Virtual Private Network. Sorry to order IT, you geeks like Mikey out there today. You get on to your Virtual Private Network. Are you one of those? You get the point that I'm trying to make, you're a geek. You're obsessed with your word. If you can't do that, if you've got a partner or a spouse who says you're not taking away this time, you're the sort of person that when they're off, sun baking, you've got their hat over their eyes, you secretly go searching for an internet cafe. Why? It's because we can't rest. You know, there's a newspaper article in the Herald 29th of December in 2010. It outlined how unions New South Wales, they're calling on companies to introduce rules requiring staff to ignore emails and leave their work phones and computers in the office when they go on leave to stop the invasion of work into a holiday time. Now, my question is why have they got to legislate here? And would that even be effective? Because the real question we've got to ask ourselves is why can we just not say no to our work? Why is it so difficult to tear ourselves away from our devices or our VPNs? It's because our society is characterized guys by a deep restlessness, a deep restlessness. We can't put the stuff down and effectively wear slaves. And here's why, because the real problem is not just your work. Your real problem is your work behind the work. And as Tim Keller calls it, the inner mermaid of inadequacy, the inner mermaid of inadequacy, that I'm not acceptable to my boss, that I'm not acceptable to my workmates, that I'm not acceptable to others, that if you're religious, that I'm not acceptable to God. And most significantly, that murmur that says I'm not acceptable to myself, the inner murmur of restlessness. And frankly, frankly, I blame Luna Park in Australia's Wonderland. I do. The reason is I'm short, okay? And I say that for all those that will be listening on the podcast, they can't get the visuals, but I'm comfortable in saying that. We're all family here. I'm short. And I was constantly gripped by these nightmarish signs as a kid when I went to Australia's Wonderland, or Luna Park, these crazy signs that they make them in the shape of cartoon characters. So as a kid, you don't cry at them, that they're friendly or so. But they're not friendly for shorties like me, because there's a little cartoon sign of a character there that says, "You must be this tall to ride this ride." Have you ever seen it? And I was forever trying to be on tippy toes, and it would jump a little bit, and it just escaped me even as I grew up. There always seemed to be some other ride where I was just never tall enough to reach, and it's affected me ever since. You know, those crazy signs, they still float around. We say to ourselves, you must have this education to ride this ride. You must have this level of beauty to ride this ride. You must have this level of success to ride this ride. You must have a boyfriend or girlfriend to ride this ride, that you must have this level of prowess and importance and influence to ride this ride. Do you get what I'm saying? You know what that is? It's the inner murmur of inadequacy. These internal benchmarks that we place on ourselves, right, that say, "We're just not good enough." And so can you see why the problem is just deeper than your work context? It's deeper because you're going to carry that thing to whatever workplace you go to, to whatever workplace you go to. They could be the best workplace in the world, and it's still there, and it still haunts you. So where do we go from here? Come back again to that obscure verse in verse 3 to 5. Where was it in here? And it says, "And again, this passage, they shall never enter my residence in here, and yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words, and on the seventh day, God rested from all of his work." You know, the writer here is quoting Genesis chapter 2. It was the chapter that we had in the very beginning of this series in which God created the world in seven days. We did it in six, and he spent one whole day resting. And when you look at it, you first realize that God doesn't get tired like us. And God's God's like a nuclear submarine. He can keep going around the world time and time and time again. There's power within him. He's not like us. God doesn't need rest, nor does he have the inner murmur. God is always tall enough to ride the rides at Lunar Park or Australia's Wonderland. So what does it mean that God rested? It means he was satisfied with what he did. It means that it says he looked at it. He saw it, and it was good. That's not arrogance. That's satisfaction. He looked at it, and he saw his work, and he went, "That was good." And here's what I love about it. Here's what hit me with this. When I read that passage and I got it in the context of all of this, God rested not because he had to, but because he could. And that's why it's so different from where we come from. Because God, unlike many in the world, was able to stop his work, and he was pleased at it, and he was satisfied at it, and he was able to stop. Now, knowing the inclinations of the human heart, God actually has to mandate rest into our life. It actually has to command it. It's a commandment. It's an order. Like, for example, Exodus 20 verse 8 says, "Remember the Sabbath day, keeping it holy, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work." Then in Deuteronomy 5 verse 15, he says, "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord your God bought you out of there with the mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and therefore the Lord your God has commanded you, commanded you to observe a Sabbath day." Now, what's that saying here? What it's saying is that Sabbath is actually a declaration of freedom. It's actually a declaration of freedom. Anyone who is able to rest and put their work down, it's saying, "I'm not a slave. I'm not a slave to technological systems like VPNs or whatever they are. I'm not a slave to the rise of consumerism. I'm not a slave to sourcing my identity and my work. I'm not a slave to the restlessness of our culture." So Sabbath is actually rescue from slavery. It's a freedom from slavery. In other words, you're saying, "I'm resting because I have to, but because I can." But there's even a deeper level of Sabbath underneath that different type of rest, a deeper freedom under all of that. It's like the different types of sleep. You know when you have the light sleep, and then you have the freaky sleep? What's the freaky sleep called, ah, starts with R-rem? R-rem. VPNs, rem. You were just one big acronym tonight, mate. He's such a geek. I love it when he talks geek. It's rem sleep. You know where your eyes flicker and go all crazy. There's light sleep and there's deep sleep. And there's light Sabbath and there's deep Sabbath. You see, Sabbath is not just a freedom from the slavery of the work around you and your workplace, but it's actually a deeper freedom from yourself. And see, most people think that in order to stop working, all you've got to do is stop doing physical work. But look at the people at Hamilton Island on their VPNs and devices. We know that that doesn't work. Why? Because of the inner murmur. It's always driving them. It's always pushing you on them. I mean, have you ever been there? You know, you're on the beach. You put the towel out. You lie back. The sun's so bright that you have to put something else over the top of your head. It's too much in your eyes. And it's just starting to relax and to drift off the sleep and then it hits you. And you say, you think, did I say that? Did I father report? Are they after my job? Am I going to get the promotion? Was the exam good enough? Maybe you haven't been there. Maybe it's just me. But you see what I'm saying? We need a deeper rest. We need a deeper freedom. Not just from our physical work. We need it from ourselves. We need it from ourselves. Sabbath rest is a declaration of freedom from our work and from ourselves. And for that reason, the best way I think of Sabbath is Sabbath is not a day off. It's not a day off work. It's a day four. I mean, Jesus said, didn't he, in Matthew 6, 33, that the best day off or the best day for is to go look at the birds and sniff a bit of grass. And look at the birds of the field, sick first, the kingdom of God. Go and spend some time actively in creation and look around. Why? Because it's healthy every now and then. But take a day off maybe once a week, ideally, to step back and realize that I don't actually make the world go round. And it's not all about me. I mean, when I put my car in for a service in the garage, I don't, I don't put it in there and just leave it in that the mechanics for 24 hours, he works on it. And so when you have Sabbath, you actively engage into the disciplines of God and the things of God and you work on yourself and through the work of your Irvie spirit, God gets you up on the hoist and he changes the oil and he inspects you for leaks and he carries out any necessary spiritual repairs. You get the point. Sabbath is not a day off. It's a day four. And so the deeper freedom you need is not just from the, from your work, but from yourself. And unless we get rid of that, you're going to be a slave. You're going to be slaved your systems of self achievement. You're going to be a slave to religion. If you're that way inclined, you're going to be a slave to others. You're going to be slave to other people's expectations. You're going to be a slave to your own expectations. We're slaves unless we have that rest. And so where do we, how do we break free from that? Was we finished tonight? And how do we, how do we really break free from that? How do we really insert those nuclear fuel rods into our life? How do we go traveling around the world for 25 years, never having to refuel? Where do we find that deep rest from those activities of approval, those decisions based on fear, those foundations of identity based on things other than God? Where do we find that? If you want deep rest, you got to go to the guy that says in Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. That was Jesus, by the way, because Jesus releases us from the burden of the need to prove ourselves to ourselves. And how, why, look at, look at verse two of the passage we had tonight for, we have also had the gospel preached to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest. We have believed enter that rest. Now what does believing do? Believing means you get rid of every reason for the internal murmur of inadequacy. And, and here's how it works. The gospel is not WWJD. Remember the gospel is what HJD, what gospel is not WWJD. The gospel is what not what would Jesus do. The gospel is what has Jesus done. And when we see that at the cross that he takes on all of our inadequacy and inadequacy and all our imperfections and all our shortcomings and all our reasons for that sense of inadequacy and he puts, and God puts them on Jesus when he does that. When he, when he does that, he, he, he looks down upon you and he, and he says, it's good. I'm satisfied. And, and, and as a, as a result, as a result, when you believe the only boss that you should have to prove yourself to this week says, I love you. When, when you do that in Jesus, you, let the cross you hear God. Look at you and say, it is good. And you hear, it is finished. I am satisfied. And so we find rest in Jesus, those that call ourselves Christians because the very definition of being a Christian means to rest not on my work after we've done six weeks in work, but in his work. And so that is the ultimate work to be done. If that is the ultimate work behind the work, that work behind the work, that reconciliation with God, if that has been done for us in Jesus Christ, then let me sum it up here. If, if that's the case, then, then Jesus is the only boss who will not work you into the ground. He says, come to you. My, my burden, my, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And he's the only audience who does not need the best performance from you tomorrow in order to be happy with you. Why? Because it's finished. The only one who could do, can do, has done the work underneath your work, the real thing that's causing the moment for you, the only one who can do it, has done it for you. And you know what, at the end of the day, in the big picture of it all guys, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian tonight, that's the only performance review that is ever going to count in your life. And when you come to realize, I don't know what your grading system is, if you're in HR, we've got a few people in HR, but if a five is a good rating for your performance, then you've all got straight fives and the, and the performance has already been written. So friends, that's, that's the fuel rod. And as a result, to believe into that freedom that Jesus Christ gives from having to prove yourself to yourself, what it means is you'll be, you'll be able to, you'll be able to accept success and great achievement in life with any sense of pride because you realize that God gave it to you in the first place. As a result, you'll be able to work with passion, but you'll also be able to rest. You'll have both the freedom in your work and from your work. And there'll be times of joy and satisfaction in what have you do regardless of what you're doing, because the real work's being done for you. I don't know where you're at tonight. I leave it with you. The, the framework is there, but what we find is that a biblical view of work, this whole series has been about the way that it can move you to a daily freedom, a daily freedom in your work, like that young adult, sitting on a train, started whistling for the first time. You can have a freedom in your work tonight. But most importantly, because of the work of Jesus Christ, you can have a freedom from your work. The only performance review that's ever going to count has been done and dusted on the cross. May you rest in that tonight. May you travel around the world, may you do all sorts of cool nuclear submarine things. I don't know what it means, but hopefully by the power of the Holy Spirit, they've been inserted into your life after six weeks on the topic of work. Let's pray.