In the Bible, the very first chapter of the first book, Genesis, tells the story of God creating and uses a framework of six workdays to describe its development. Then in Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, we see work, work, work.
[2:1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
The story of creation from the Jewish scriptures, believed by Christians, is that creation was the product of
God gets right to work from the beginning of time. That’s unique. Many other creation stories in other cultures start with conflict between gods. They say we and our world are products of destruction. But the Christian story says we are products of construction.
When it’s all done, God is satisfied, and can rest. He’s said over and over as he created, it’s good. When he created humans he said it was very good. And then he rested, satisfied he’d done good work.
For the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking at work and rest, and how important they are for followers of Jesus.
And it starts here, with the simple fact that God works, and is still working to provide, care, heal and sustain life for us on earth.
God and Jesus work: in John 5:17 he responded to those who objected to him healing people on Saturday, what should have been a day of rest. He said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
God didn’t stop working forever, he is still at work, including in and through his son Jesus.
Later in John 5:36 it’s clear God the Father has given him work to do…like an assignment.
Finally, work is in paradise. If the Garden of Eden, in creation, we get a picture of heaven on earth, and we see work is meant to be there, not just added in after humans rebelled against god – it was there before the rebellion. The nature of work changed, but it was meant to be there already.
Today we’ve seen, work is meant to be a good thing…something God embraces. Not an evil virus infecting life.
Question: Why is the goodness of work not more apparent in human life? What makes this so hard to believe?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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This week, we're looking at foundatinos in life.
Jesus spoke to this in his conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount which we've been exploring. This is our second last week on this theme!
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)
Truth 1: We all build on something in life, and that makes all the difference.
Both guys in this story want the same thing – a house. And they build one.
What’s different is location, location, location.
Just for fun, I recently toured an open house that’s double the price of my own. The house has some premium finishes, sure, but not enough marble and granite to double the price. The price difference was because of the location…the land is what’s most valuable.
Are you happy with where you're building life? We build on all kinds of things: Career, Kids, Sexuality, Power, Control, etc.
We can build some beautiful homes on those foundations, but it's all for nothing if the foundation crumbles and all that beauty falls down.
The foundation in life is the number one decision, upon which all other decisions are dependent. If your foundation decision is about debt reduction, then you'll sacrifice other things to pay down a loan. If it's your kids, then you'll sacrifice travel and independence. These are just examples, of how the foundation impacts other areas of life.
Question: What do you think is the difference between a sand and rock foundation in life? Give some examples.
