Where Does Work Fit in Our Lives? Are Work, and the Money and Possessions Connected With

1 Where does work fit in our lives? Are work, and the money and possessions connected with our work a good part of God’s plan for us and this world, or are they a kind of necessary evil? When we envision the garden of Eden or heaven, do we envision only ease and leisure?

How is my identity tied to my work? Is what I do, who I am? Is the success of my work, my job, connected to my success and fulfillment as a person? Should we focus on our own strengths and interests and talents and capacities in order to find the career that we will be most passionate about and most fulfilled in doing? Is my work a way to pay the bills that I see as having nothing to do with the real me?

Is the bull’s eye for me the money and the house and the car and the stuff, and work is the way to get them? Is work my necessity to stay ahead of the credit card debt that is chasing me? Do I even want to stop and think about what the Bible says about selling your possessions to provide for the poor… and the love of money being the root of all evil?

How do I connect God with my work? Is the connection that I do my work morally and pray for my co-workers? Is it that I need to share the Gospel with everyone at work? Is it that I do my work as unto the LORD, and not just for men? Does kingdom work, or the work of the church happen at church, or can it happen at work?

2 Do I work at home? … at church? If I am a student, is that my work? If I don’t get paid for my part in the home, or church, or school, could these things be my work? What would happen if I saw home and church and school as a place to work, rather than the place of work? These are the questions that God stirs up in His Word, and provides us clear perspective for, in Jesus. July 3, 2016 Could the work that a believer does, in the work place and community and home, be the most important ministry of the church?

Read Matthew 21:33-46

How do verses 33-34 recall for us God’s Role as Creator and our work as Stewards of all that is His?

How do verses 35—36 recall for us the story of our fall, and the problem with our work in this world?

How do verses 37-39 recall for us the gracious agenda of the Son of God, for our work?

How do verses 40-44 make plain for us the consequences of silencing our Maker, taking what is rightfully His, rejecting His Son, and working for ourselves?

3 Colossians 1 tells us the same Gospel story and agenda, of the Son, to restore all things, including our work, to the Father, in a letter and a poem, instead of a parable. Paul writes, in Colossians 1:12… 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And then, he breaks into a poem or hymn of the Son coming to restore…

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church;

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

4 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. He concludes, inviting us to have our perspective and work restored to God, as we continue to trust the agenda of the Son.

21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind and evil work,22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Could the work that a believer does, in the work place and community and home, be the most important ministry of the church?

Friends: God has invaded this vineyard, this world, to take it all back. What a stunning plan, to allow His Beloved Son to be silenced and murdered on a cross… that the very act that mankind committed to silence and defeat God, the owner of the vineyard, should be the very act of grace by which God offers mercy in the blood of Jesus, and restores all who will trust the Son, now Risen… to their restored place working for Him.

According to Matthew 21, and Colossians 1, how does God’s invasion continue in our work? 5 Could the work that a believer does, in the work place and community, and home, be the most important ministry of the church? I could not say it is the most important ministry of the church… but… I could say that it is the half of ministry that the church is not delivering. What do I mean? When we gather together to God, through Jesus, in worship and Sunday schools and small groups and committee meetings, our ministry is about being restored by the Spirit, through the Word and the Body of believers, so that every facet of our lives, is being restored to God, in Jesus. We gather to be restored and prepared to be sent out for the restoration of others.

Unfortunately, when we do not see our work as the delivery of the second half of ministry, we are like an amazon.com warehouse, or a grain elevator that just keeps piling on the boxes or piling on the corn, but never delivers it anywhere… which any farmer… or any company like Amazon would correct ASAP. But, when the church continues to define ministry as the stuff that happens at church, the boxes and corn just keep piling up and getting in the way and starting to stink.

The work that a believer does, in the work place and community, and home, is the second half, the delivery, of the ministry of the church?

Friends, Church, deliver the ministry of the Gospel! Go to work, go to school, go to your homes and community and show them and tell them what it is to work in God’s vineyard, for God, because of the grace of Jesus.

Prayerfully consider each of these invitations. Talk and pray about them with your spouse, or friends, or co-workers. 6 Something to chew on…

Here are the lyrics of a new song we will be singing as we gather in worship, as we work God’s perspective of Work into the Work of our lives.

When our feet hit the floor, Grab a cup, brush your teeth, get out the door We won’t settle for the daily grind, Because this day, belongs to Christ

Hit the books, hit the streets, get the laundry done Let the work that we do see His Kingdom come We won’t settle for the daily grind, Because all things, belong to Christ So while it’s day, We’re gonna work with all His might

You are LORD, LORD of all! We put our backs into the work we do There is no job too small for The LORD, LORD of all! With our heart and soul and mind and strength We’ll love you in it all, You are LORD, Lord of All.

Work is more than a job to pay the bills,

7 Cause our work is the place You work Your will We won’t settle for the daily grind, Because this day, belongs to Christ

Make a call, make a sale, make somebodies day, Making sure, in our work, that Jesus reigns! We won’t settle for the daily grind, Because all things, belong to Christ So while it’s day, We’re gonna work with all His might!

You are LORD, LORD of all! We put our backs into the work we do There is no job too small for The LORD, LORD of all! With our heart and soul and mind and strength We’ll love you in it all, You are LORD, Lord of All.

In you and I He is undoing all that’s broken from the fall In you and I, at home and work, He will restore it all

The Evangelical Free Church of Redwood Falls seeks to be restored, and lovingly help others be restored, from the brokenness of sin in our lives, to the life God has for us, trusting the Gospel of Jesus.