Let’s begin by asking you,
What did you do that you would consider important this week?
THE BIG DEAL! I’ll suggest that every culture owes it’s survival to 3 factors:
WE NEED WORK THAT GLORIFIES THE CREATOR
Check out the Text, Genesis 2:1-3.
God works. It’s part of who He is.
For too much of the churches history, we have failed to make the connection between the God we worship on Sunday and the God we worship in the workplace.
Too bad because God works! In a great book, Your work matters to God, Sherman writes,
What the researchers found most startling was that there was no significant difference between the churched and the unchurched in their ethics and values on the job. In other words, despite the fact that more and more people attend churches, churches seem to be having less and less of an impact on the moral fiber of their people, at least in the workplace. (Doug Sherman, Your work matters to God.)
And yet Adam given a design modeled by God himself.
- Col.1:16: For by Him, all things created
- Ps.104:10-30: You make springs gush forth…You cause the grass to grow…He made the moon to mark the seasons
- Deut.11:1-7: after reminding the Israelites all the things that he has done for them guaranteeing their safety, God says, For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lird that He did.
- Ps. 111: Great are the works of the Lord
- John 4:34: Jesus: my food is to do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work
Genesis 2: 5,15
Adam is to act as a co-regent for the work of advancing the culture.
What happens when we work?
- We serve people
- Meet our own needs
- Provide for our families
- Become benevolent
- Ultimately we demonstrate that we live God.
WE NEED REST THAT RECONNECTS US WITH THE CREATOR
A rest that draws us closer to the purpose statement of our lives- a soul rest that takes us from a life of restlessness and chaos and brings us into soul rest with God’s family
Hebrews 3-4
Disobedience denies us the real rest God intended us to have and to enjoy.
Augustine was right…
Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until we find rest in thee
WE NEED WORSHIP THAT EXALTS THE CREATOR
The day that God set aside, as rest becomes ground zero for worship.
God blessed and sanctified a day where the soul rest we enjoy becomes basis for the worship we offer. We’re Led from the plains of work and travail into the foothills of intentional worship. (Camelback mountain… Up from tge city)
How does one worship, when he lacks the time, the energy, or the focus to cast his eyes upon the God whose focus whose work has set the creation in place just for man?
The rational work of creation requires a rational response from man. John Stott writes
We must therefore beware of all forms of emotional, aesthetic, or ecstatic worship in which the mind is not fully engaged, and especially of those which even claim that they are superior forms of worship. The only worship pleasing to God is heart worship, and heart worship is rational worship. It is the worship of a rational God who has made us rational beings and given us a rational revelation so that we may worship him rationally, even with all our minds.
Take-always-
- If our work is blessed by God, we must pursue it with vigor, consistency, and truthfulness.
- If our rest is more than just leisure, it will press us closer to the person of Christ
- If our worship is worthy of God, it will celebrate the perfections of his plan for us.
Close, so what have you done, that important to your world?
A culture needs work, rest, and biblical worship if it is to thrive, even survive!
MJC
Sermon reflective 