Northside Church - Sydney
To Do: New Perspectives on Work
We're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. We are continuing a series called to do, finding the meaning behind your work and here's why we've been looking at the biblical perspective of work and that is that you will spend anywhere between 90 to 100,000 hours at work during your lifetime. What we've been uncovering is that could it be that as a result of us spending so much time in work, could it be that we could be rediscovering God's mission for His church, but most importantly God's mission for your life, not so much through big mission trips overseas, although they're vitally important, but could we be discovering that your mission in the world, not just through the church, but through your work? So what we've seen so far is just to bring you up to speed, I think I always need one of these video clips that's previously on the West Wing. What we've learned so far is that work is a good thing. Work is a God thing. Work was designed by God. You were designed for work. The great startling truth we learned was that there was work in the Garden of Eden, that there was work in paradise, that you were designed for work, that work was a good thing, that was week one and yet week two we find that that's hardly our experience right, that our experience of work is one of frustration and pain and the Bible's answer on that is that's because sin has entered the world, that we live in a fallen world, that's what we learned last week, that we take work, a good thing, we make it an ultimate thing. That's what idolatry is, to take a good thing, make it an ultimate thing. Work now becomes an idol, a created thing worshiped in the place of God and so work now instead of God now becomes the basis for our meaning and our purpose and our identity. So that's where we're up to at this stage and the question is well where do we go from here? What do we do from that point, if we left the story there, what hope is there, if we left it there and realistically none, if we left it there, there is no hope if we left it there, unless you have a new gospel perspective of work, unless there is no, unless you understand the story of the gospel, there's no hope unless you understand the gospel story, you're thinking story, come on, that's a bit year three-ish, but story is incredibly important to how we see the world and we see our lives as humans, philosopher Alistair McIntyre gives a classic illustration to highlight the significance of story on our perspective and that's what we're looking at tonight, new perspectives on work. He says he imagined that you were at a bus stop and someone comes up to you, comes up and grabs you and says histrionicus, histrionicus, what the heck does he mean? How could you explain that? And McIntyre says, look, in one way, one explanation could be, maybe the guy is mentally ill and he's just yelling at you, maybe the guy has met someone with your age and your gender and your height and your hair in the library the day before and you are asking him what the Latin word for wild duck was and he found you and he just remembered what that was, or maybe, maybe he's a foreign spy and histrionicus is the code word for you to hand over the launch codes or be killed, here's the point. The first story, it's sad, the second story, it's funny and the last story is certainly dramatic with the foreign spy but McIntyre says without a handle on the right story, there's no way A to know the meaning of what this thing meant but more importantly without the right story, you don't know how to respond. And so if you get the story wrong, you'll get your response wrong, if you call the police on this guy, if it's one story it could be embarrassing, if you call the police on this guy or you try to mess with a foreign assassin spy, it could be devastating to you. And so what McIntyre says, if you get the story of the world wrong, if you think that the story of the world is about self actualizing your life and that it's all about you, rather than to love God and to love other people, then you'll get your life responses wrong, particularly when it comes to your work and so the question for all of us tonight is, if there is no meaning without understanding the right story behind what we experience in life, are you understanding the right story in life? Have you got the right story in life? Let's have a look at our Bible reading tonight. It comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31, it says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God," that's it, that's a Bible reading tonight. I was speaking to Michael Thomas, our worship pastor, he's trying to play in the service, he says, "Are you serious? You've got one verse tonight?" I said, "Yes, maybe I'll get into the mode, we'll pick apart every word, so tonight we start with the word so." Oh, that's deep, don't you love it when I get deep, when I preach? No, look, when I learn specifically from this verse tonight, what we are going to learn from is what this verse does. See, this verse changes your perspective, I mean, look, what if you went and talk, took this verse to your boss or your co-worker or a teammate, and you said, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God, how would they respond?" Now, some of them might think that this is ridiculous, others might think it's a wonderful thing for you to say, depending on who you're talking to, but remember, without the right story, you won't know how to respond, in fact, your response is a function of the story behind this verse. And so as a result, that one verse for some people is titled another gibberish, means nothing to them for others, it's a nuclear fuel rod for joy and for purpose and for meaning and for perseverance in your work. People last a lifetime off that one verse. How? First question is, you've got to ask, well, what is the gospel story? You see, most people, most people think of the Bible as a whole set of different teachings with some stories thrown in to illustrate it. What they don't understand is that the Bible is one giant story with some teachings thrown in to illustrate it. And when you see that the Bible is a single story with these teachings sprinkled through, when you see that, no longer is a Bible, I guess like a set of ethical bullet points on how you should live that you can reduce down to a folded bit of paper in your back pocket. Instead, the Bible is asking big, big questions about what human life in the world was meant to be like, what it should be like, where it went wrong and what can be done to make it right. You know, by the way, that is the basis of what every other major religion in the world is asking. Now, how is the world meant to be? How should it be? What's gone wrong? And how can we fix it? That's every other major religion in the world, whether it's Hinduism or Islam or Confucianism or Buddhism or Atheism for that matter. Even atheists are making statements about those deep questions in life. And so it's no longer a set of bullet points but answers to the deep, deep questions of your soul. And so when you come to see the Bible as this true, single, big story, an exciting story that God has a plan for you and God has a plan for your community and that God has a plan for your work, then it moves from gibberish to becoming a nuclear fuel rod for meaning and purpose and joy in your work. And so what's the gospel story? You know, people say, I call it the Willy Wonka approach, you know, isn't it just about believing in Jesus and getting to heaven when you die? You know, Jesus becomes the golden ticket in the chocolate wrapper, right? Isn't that what Christianity is all about? And but no, the gospel story is something so much deeper, so much better than that. It's creation, it's fall, it's redemption, it's restoration, it's four stages creation. In the beginning, God saw his work and it was good. You know, if you're a tech guru, it means God didn't do any beta testing. There was no draft release of his work. God knew what he wanted to create. He did create it. It was good. That's how the world was meant to be. That's what Christianity says. And so that's why work is a good thing. But then something happened. Something went wrong along the way, humanity's decision to live life our own way, to walk away from God meant that suddenly sin enters the world and this world now becomes darkened and painful and frustrating and the effects of sin at an individual level, a pride and a selfishness. And like we learned last week at a corporate level means that you will always have a vision for your work that is always far greater than what the context around you will allow you to achieve and even your own abilities will allow you to achieve because sins entered the world. Something went wrong, but fear not. Because that's not how it's to be forever in Jesus. God has entered the world as a man and he brings with him creative power. Water into wine, he heals a guy's ear that's chopped off. He's demonstrated that God still sees this world unlike the Greek perspective as something that's good, but also he not only comes with the creative power, he comes with great news that there's a rescue plan underway and most of all he comes with the promise of restoration, that the pain and the frustration and the tears and the injustice that riles you up with this world will be wiped away and that he's coming back to restore a new heavens and a new earth to make all things new. Come on, isn't that the story under every great story? Lord of the Rings, back to the future. All of these great stories say there was how things were meant to be and it's not that way but a rescue plan is underway and then it all is right in the end. And see, here's the thing. That story to be a part of that story is what it means to be a Christian, to enter into that story and it means if that's the case in every part of our lives need to be evaluated on the basis of that story. The story of a God who has come and is coming to make things right again and since the gospel is the means to that story moving forward in the world, then the gospel, the message of Jesus, what it represents should influence everything that we do, including your work. That's the gospel story. And so a big part of that is that this shifts our perspective in work, our work, and remember it's good to remember too, as I've been saying in this series, but I'm not just talking to professionals here, whether your work is at work or at home for a company or at home, whether it's paid, whether it's unpaid, whether you've chosen to do your work or your works assigned to you, whether you feel your works emotionally valuable or whether you feel your work is mind-numbing, what we're learning is that if work is good, all work is valuable to God and has dignity. And so that's the gospel story. That's the big picture of the gospel story. So the question is, in light of that, how do we bring that down into our work? How do we apply that tonight? Just two different perspectives that I need you to get. Let me use some business terminology, because I wasn't accounting once. First question that you've got to ask yourself is, what is my bottom line? Bottom line, that means the bottom line. When work's done in business, what's the bottom line? And I was talking to one of our guys in exchange two weeks back as we were exploring this in our connection group studies. And he was saying that when he goes to work, his name at work is Holy Boy, which was funny because he works for the federal police. And so I hoped it had to do with his Christianity and not that he'd been shot a few times. And anyway, he was describing that he was, thanks for getting the joke there, Jess, it's good. Let's throw him out. And whether it's three seconds, five seconds, you can laugh whenever you want. They call him Holy Boy, and that's because he's a Christian, he lives out of his faith in work. And so he got that reputation. And he wanted to go and pray with one of the guys at work, and he said, can I pray with you? And he was telling us how this person was terribly upset with him. And this person said, you should not be bringing your faith to work. And yet, what's funny, that's probably true for most of the world around us, right? Faith is something, this is how the world thinks, right? Faith is something that can be separate for your work. You're not allowed to bring your faith into your work, or you're not allowed to bring your faith into your school, or you're not allowed to bring your faith into your family life if you're a Christian and then on Christian. Right? That's how the world thinks, right? And yet here's the funny thing, all of us, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, all of us are bringing faith into your life, particularly all of us are bringing faith into our workplaces. I'll give you an example, or not of your workplaces, but here's a question, why aren't any of you standing up tonight? Why aren't any of you standing up as we're in this auditorium tonight? It's because you have a lot of faith in the chair that you're sitting on. How many of you thought, when you sat down tonight, got underneath, looked at the four screws, it looks pretty sound, it looks pretty good, tested it out just a little bit. There's been a faith in your chair, whether it's been conscious, or for most of us, unconscious. Now, I'll tell Tilly, but the principle remains true for the bigger things, we're all making faith assumptions about the way that we're living our life. Every body has faith in someone or something. It's not about a lack of faith, nor is it about determining where you're going to live out your faith. You're going to live it out anyway. But the question is, what is that faith in? You see, one of the great theologians of the 21st century, Paul Tilick, he defines faith as this. He defines faith as, "Faith is your ultimate concern." He used to always say that every human being bases his or her life on one or more ultimate concerns, that's the way he put it, the ultimate concern, that everyone has some things in their life that they base their life on. It's questions like, "What are you living for? What are the things that really make you tick? What are they?" He always used to say that the ultimate concerns will always your priorities which lead to your ethics, and how you decide to spend your time, how to decide what you're really living for will determine how you decide what is right and wrong. So in a sense, that's a worldview, that's a perspective. Everyone has a worldview based around your ultimate concern. That is what is really your God, that is what you really worship. You see what he's saying in other words, everyone has a bottom line. Everyone's got a bottom line. What's your bottom line? What's your bottom line? And now why is that significant? Because McIntyre who gives us the histrionicus illustration in the introduction, he said that all of human life is enacted narrative. That is we live out consciously or unconsciously, our faith in an underlying story, and I guess a story beneath the story if you would, that describes how the world's meant to be and why the world is the way it is and how it can fix it. All of us, all of us have a story underneath that we're living our lives on, all of life is enacted narrative on the basis of that story, and let's get practical here. I know for a fact some of you come from places where, for example, your gay co-worker is pushing for marriage equality as the basis for their sense of value and meaning in the world, for their marriage equality is their ultimate concern. For some of you, I know you come from schools where your atheist friend looks at the world with an increasing sense of hopelessness, and as a result they're spiraling into a deeper and deeper cynicism of the world around them. I know some of you for a fact come from offices where unhindered sexual encounters outside the context of marriage is not just done, it's apported. And there's something wrong with you because you're not engaging in it. And I know for a fact that some of you are sitting in exit interviews where your bosses have bullied you out of the workplace, and the thing that hurts the most is you knew that they're a Christian. What's going on here? That's enacted narrative, all of these actions are a reflection of the plotlines of our soul. There is a story underneath all of our stories in this place tonight. And you're beginning to see, now the question you need to ask about the bottom line is what is the story beneath the story of your life and of other people's lives. You can't separate faith and work because everyone's bringing their faith into the workplace because humans are born with the bottom line. And so there is someone or something that will be your God, there is a story beneath the story. And so if all of human actions are as MacIntyre says enacted narrative, then you need to ask what is the story beneath my story tonight? You also need to say what is the story beneath that other person's story that's making them act that way. And so this is why it becomes really practical, can't you see now? But if all of life is enacted narrative, then of course the workplace becomes the capital theatre by which all of these plotlines are acted out on a daily basis, right? You've got to deal with it every single day. For us as Christians are dealing with all of these conflicting and different plotlines pushing against us. And then now the question then is, if I know what my bottom line is, where do I go with that? And so the next question that you have to ask yourself, if the first question is, what is my bottom line? What is the bottom line of these individual actions? The other big question you've got to ask is, what is my industry's bottom line? What is the big picture? Now the big picture, have you guys ever seen those magic eye puzzles back in the 90s? Did you ever see them? They were craze on coffee tables right throughout the world. Basically these magic eye puzzles were these funny little patterns that if you stared at them long enough or somehow went cross-eyed hard enough, it would create this 3D image of the pattern that you were looking at. It was the most remarkable and magical thing. And I hated it because my sisters would get it all the time and I'd be sitting there and I'd be going cross-eyed and I'd begin to feel nauseous from looking at this for so long, and then I got it. My eyes lifted above all the details of these patterns and I'm like, "Oh wow, it's a sailboat!" The apostle Paul did that once. Yeah, he really did, in Athens, in chapter 17 of Acts we hear that he had a magic eye experience, verse 16, it says here, "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols." You know what Paul's doing? He went into the city of Athens and he looked around and he looked at the normal patterns of life and there's a person, there's their dorm work, there's a marketplace, and he stared at it long enough until suddenly it became 3D for him and he realized that all of human life was enacted narrative. In other words, there was ultimate concerns all around him that had nothing to do with the one true God, right? We know the story in Acts 17, he says, "People of Athens, I see very religious people and I see this shrine to an unknown God. Let me make that unknown God known to you." And so here's how it applies to our work today in the 21st century, you see, we've looked last week at idolatry individually in the workplace, but now we have to see how it works corporately the story beneath the story. That is, you need to recognize in light of last week that idols exist not just at the individual level, but at the industry level. The idols exist in business, that idols exist in medicine, that idols exist in law, that idols exist in journalism and you think, "Come on mate, you're getting a bit outdated, pushing it too far." No, they don't. Yes, they do. I remember chatting to one of our girls who since I headed up to Queensland, she was in the recruitment business. She got in trouble. She got in trouble because she went back and she started calculating what her buildings were going to be for the various business that she'd bought in. And someone ran up to her and hit the calculator, literally off a desk and I said, "Don't do that. You'll upset the recruitment gods." You'll upset the recruitment gods, "Well, now, it can seem funny. But it's more than just people writing on calculators. It's far deeper than people hitting calculators and little superstitious stuff around the workplace. Like Paul, you've got to see the God amongst the gods. How might we ask, "What is the bottom line of my industry?" That's what I want you to be thinking out. Quick application exercise for us all here. If you're in the business world, for example, what do you think the bottom line of the business world is? Profit, it could be profit. That's why when I was an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and fresh faced with my little accounting bag and my calculator, which you were allowed to have because we worshiped the accounting god and he blessed calculators. In the business world, that's why back then when I was studying at university, we had this funny thing came in called triple bottom line reporting. And that was going to solve all the challenges of this bottom line of the business world because now we're going to have triple bottom line reporting. So in other words, on the financial statements as an accountant, I was to report not just on profit but how the company rated in terms of how it treated people and how it treated the planet. Now let's work the gospel framework down into this. Let's go the other way. If there is no god and if we take a Greek view of the world that the world's bad and the flesh is bad and the spirit's good and we've got to get out of this, then the question is who gives a rip about the planet? If there is no god who gives a rip about people? If there's no god who cares about the planet who cares about people, just deliver the profit line. But if we take remember the gospel story that there is a god and he's good and he's creative and he's put you in the world to flourish the world around you and work as a good thing and he's coming back to restore that and we feel to all of that down through the business well then of course triple bottom line reporting has a place and in fact it's a reflection of the creator. Are you with me? Let's case study number one. The other one is let's take a look at medicine for example. What's the bottom line in medicine? My best friend is a non-Christian guy. He's a surgeon. He's just been admitted into the college of surgeons. We were talking through this through after we came back from a game of rugby one Saturday night and I asked him, I said why do you care about the patience that you treat? Because again if we filter down the gospel to all of this, if there is no god, if we are all just a bunch of random atoms that have come together and bouncing together and there is no inherent value in the human life and if we're not made in the image of God, then why, why should all patients be treated the same, why should all patients be given equal treatment, why should you even bother about the other person and for him I guess he's asked at the moment if you're a med student you would know for well or if you're a doctor for then the defining bottom line of medicine is the Hippocratic Oath, a document created 500 BC by the Greeks but you see outside a perspective of the gospel might I suggest that the bottom line of medicine is not that different from ministry and it's this, the bottom line of medicine is caring for people and that's very challenging, it's very difficult for ministers, for doctors because here's what happens, I care for people, my job's important not like that riffraff in finance and accounting, you know, I'm in a noble profession and as a result you get attached to your work, you get burnt out, if there is no god, you get frustrated at the case after case after case of people coming in and not being healed and dying and the results of a fallen world and then another quick one, just so we can keep balanced in all this, what's the bottom line for journalism, is it reporting the facts? Come on, look at the political bias, look at the arguments over the ABC and its privatization, look at the worldview biases of the reporting, we only have to see the way our brothers and sisters at Hillsong get slammed in the media, if there ever was a literal story beneath the story, that's a profession where it exists, there's always stories beneath those stories and so I might have put it to you, the bottom line of journalism is a salable story, that which will sell, dramatize it, just fudge it a little bit, what's the bottom line of the arts, go one of two ways, if you're a sellout in the arts then the bottom line's profit, you're doing it for money, but if you are a true artist, okay then it's originality, it's artistic integrity, right, it's not about the world, it's about the art, you know what I'm saying, bottom line art can be the profit or it can be the art itself, can't it? Last one, what about law, what's the bottom line of law, is it justice, is it justice, is it really justice or is it ensuring that you win your client's wishes, see what I'm doing here, see what we're doing, see what we've just done, we've magic-eyed four or five different industries of which many of you work in, we've stepped back and hopefully prayerfully by the power of the Holy Spirit tonight, you know, as we're hearing this, you can't, it's a sailboat, in other words you're seeing your industry for the first time, for what it really is, you're seeing the story beneath the story, and so look, if these idols, if these narratives, if these industry specific stories exist and also are being played out in the workplace, could it be possible that as a Christian, that tonight you are more shaped by the bottom lines of your workplace and your field of work than you are than the bottom line of the gospel story, because I don't want to come across as a cynic, you know, am I saying that the bottom line of all business is profit, no, am I saying that the bottom line of all doctors is getting caught up in caring for patients in their identity as a doctor in a superior profession, no, am I saying that the bottom line of all journalists is that they just want to twist the facts to make a salable story, no, am I saying that the bottom line of all lawyers is just looking after their client wishes, but no, does that mean, also am I saying that Christians should only work in Christian environments, no, here's the thing that we're getting in the big picture this year is that God's aim is that he places you in the world to flourish the creation around you and through your work, he wants to flourish the creation around you through your work by helping you recognize the stories under people's lives, why the boss is so selfish, why that person is acting that way, why you're acting that way, but most importantly by helping you recognize the stories underneath your industry, for example, you know, in advertising you could be asking if you're in advertising tonight, in what ways does my advertising company actively propagate the idols of beauty and sex in our society, and to the level under that, how influential in that industry am I role, if you're in the public service and I don't want to be stereotypical here, but in what ways might my industry or workplace promote under work, that is that they don't get the verse tonight, that all work you do would all for God and therefore we shouldn't be lazy in what we do and we shouldn't be slacking off, if all work we do for God it should cure the under work, or if you're in finance and law tonight maybe you're asking in what ways is my industry or workplace promoting over work, that if you get the gospel your acceptance before God and men in Jesus Christ is not your billable hours, and that can cure your over work, you know, if you're in school tonight, in what ways might my industry, in your school is an industry, promote the ATAR, which I had to look up on Wikipedia because it used to be UAI in my day, right, but appreciate the effort guys, in what ways might my industry be promoting my ATAR as the basis for my meaning and significance in life, see how we just filter the gospel down through and apply it, that's what I'm trying to get us to do tonight, to begin to take the gospel and apply it into your workplace, to recognise it, look solving these challenges is not easy and it's not an overnight solution, in fact it may be drastic, it may be as drastic in the long run as you changing your role at work, it may be as drastic as you changing your entire industry, but here's the thing, all Christians work in cultures and environments where the story beneath the story often is sharply different from the gospel, and if according to McIntyre there's no way to respond properly without first understanding the right story, histrionicus, then you need to work out which story is influencing your workplace and the industry that you work in, in other words, are you viewing the world with Christian 3D glasses, I say this every time, you can go to a 3D movie, you can go to the event cinema's super max theatre, you can watch the 3D movie without the glasses, and it's fine, you'll understand the story, you'll see the characters, but at the end of it you're going to have one hell of a headache, that screen's blurry man, but when you put the glasses on, man it's clear, I see it, I get it now, it sticks out to me, here's the thing, could it be that you've got a headache in your work because you've been viewing life, the movie of life without the proper gospel 3D glasses on, are you asking the right questions about the context around you, context questions like what's the culture of where I work and live, what are the idols, what are the hopes, what are the dreams of the industry I work in, are you asking questions like how does my particular profession retell the story underneath the story and what role does my job play in that, which part of my work's worldview is aligned to the things of the gospel and so I can agree with, but which part of my work's worldview is in opposition to the gospel and therefore I should be distinct from that part of my workplace or my field of work, are you asking those questions, that's what the 3D glasses are, but all of life is enacted narrative, as I finish up tonight, that's the question, you need to ask yourself deep down, how do I know that I'm living by the right story, how do I know that I really am because our actions are always a function of our belief, what we really believe in, how do I know, how do you know, it's the never-ending story principle, I know it's been maybe three months since I last used it in a message, but we're almost at the point, I get Northside's text message in me on Saturday night by the way saying your favorite movies on go, quick, but never-ending story, it's a classic movie in the 80s and here's how it goes in about 30, 40 seconds, this, a Fantasia is disappearing quickly, it's being torn apart by a force called the Nothing, Fantasia was a beautiful and a wonderful place and yet something terrible has gone wrong, this mysterious force that has entered the world of Fantasia, I don't know what to do about it, but the only way that they can fix it says the Empress of Fantasia is if they find an Earthling child and he gives her a name, thinking how they were going to work through it, they enlist the help of a child warrior called Atreyu, he rides in on his white horse called Artex, and it's Atreyu's quest to go to the boundaries of Fantasia to find this Earthling child. What we don't realize in the movie is that all of this story is coming from a little boy called Bastion who would accidentally run into a bookstore to run away from some bullies, picks up this book and is reading about this great adventure in Fantasia, as it gets to the climax of the movie, as Fantasia is down to its last hope, all of its people have been scattered, they've been obliterated by the Nothing, only Atreyu and the childlike Empress remains, he's battered, he's bruised, he's desperate because he says I've been to all ends of Fantasia and I can't find him, where is this Earthling child, I've lost my horse, I got separated from my friends, I almost died, where is this Earthling child, why won't he do something? And the Empress says it's because he fails to recognize that he's part of the never-ending story. And young Bastion up in the attic of his school as he reads through this, she cries out to him, Bastion please and he says he, they can't be talking about me, they can't be talking about me. And then he realizes, he realizes that they were talking about him and that he was part of the never-ending story and as a result he jumps to his feet and he says what have I got to do, what have I got to do to say Fantasia? Now that's biblical by the way, that is biblical, it really is Acts chapter 2 verse 37, when Peter goes and he preaches to the crowd the same plot line of the never-ending story that there was a world called Fantasia, that the world was good and a powerful force called the nothing, or the Bible doesn't call it nothing, it calls it sin has entered the world. And yet a great warrior has entered the world on his white horse, his name's not Atreya, his name is Jesus and he's come in search of the Earthling child and he went through the lands and he was battered and he was beaten and he was broken and at that cross, at that cross in some ways he cries out to his father the emperor of all Fantasia and he says if he's so close, then where the heck is this Earthling child, why did I have to go through all of this? And the emperor says it's the only way, it's the only way that I could get in touch with an Earthling child. What I'm trying to say here guys is that Peter, Peter preached the gospel story to people that the world was good and something wrong happened and he sent Christ into the world so he could get in touch with you tonight. So that you may be like Bastion could come in and see this book we call the Bible and read it and say they can't be talking about me. And if you truly get it, if you truly get the story underneath the story, then your reaction is going to be exactly the same as Bastion's, you're going to leap to your feet and you're going to say what what have I got to do? What do I have to do? And look at this Acts chapter 2 verse 37, when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? They got the story underneath the story. The gospel is the story under every great story. Jesus was your betray you. He stood before the emperor beaten and broken because it was the only way to get in touch with you the Earthling child. And the gospel says the world was good and it's not how it's meant to be because sins entered the story and he didn't come just willing to risk his life, it cost him his life so you could be a part of this story. We take all of that friends, that's what it means to be a Christian, it's to have a Bastion moment to say what have I got to do? We take all of that story and we filter it into our work. The friend I don't know where you are tonight. I don't know if your friends invited you from work because I said you've got to hear this stuff, we're talking about work here. I don't know if maybe you've been away from the church for years and years and years and you've just you know you're experiencing the pains and the frustrations you work and there's got to be something better than this. What's the story underneath the story? Maybe you've been a Christian for years and you say I'm a Christian, I'm flogging it out my workplace but nothing ever seems to be going right and it's still painful. All of life is enacted narrative. What's the real story? What's your ultimate concern? Are you asking what do I have to do? Do you get that through your work you too are a part of God's never-ending story? The story under every great story. Human life is enacted narrative that is we live, we breathe, we act on the basis of the plot lines of the song, what you really believe. So the question is will you look at your work differently this week? Will you look with a gospel perspective? There can be no meaning, histrionica style. Unless you have the right story, the right perspective on life. Do you?