Get to Work: Work that is Worth it

Mark 1:16-20

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him. 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him

Listening guide

 “Follow me and I will send you out to fish for people” (verse 17)

“in the most nobly constituted state ... the citizens must not live a mechanic or a mercantile life … nor must those who are to be citizens be tillers of the soil”. (Aristotle, Politics 1328b-1329a) 

 The call to _______________ is also a call to ______________________ the world.

“they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men”. (verse 20)

When you work with Jesus, then your work is worth it.  

Sermon

Something kind of strange has happened with two friends lately and it has made me have all kinds of questions about work.

I’ve got one friend, his name is Kevin. He is a very smart, business oriented, driven man. He has a great education. He has started at least two businesses. He has made and given away thousands of dollars.

At one point, he didn’t only think about doing church work, he was actually doing a lot of church work. He preached on an almost weekly basis. He set up adult education groups and classes for kids. He organized events. He taught the basics of the gospel to people. He baptized people.

Then he changed. He has basically stopped preaching. He left the church group and he didn’t start anything new. I think he reads his Bible with his wife and kids, that is about it.

Another friend, his name is Luke. He is nowhere near as smart. He isn’t as well educated. He has never started a business. He worked in a factory and eventually developed enough skills to manage.

He has recently agreed to serve in public ministry. He is going to organize classes, teach classes, and develop materials. He’ll work with children and adults. It’s so weird.

I’ve got one friend stepping back from public ministry. I’ve got another friend stepping forward.

Which one should I encourage? Who has done a good thing? Who has done a bad thing? Do neither matter to God? Are both worth it?

Adventure

All kinds of people are asking right now, is my work worth it?

Is service work valuable? Is managing valuable? Is starting, owning, and running a business valuable? Is church work valuable? And here is where it really gets hard.

Is church work more valuable than the service industry? Is managing more valuable than the service industry?

Let’s discover today work that is worth doing.

I can’t promise you that you will always feel like your work is worth doing. I can promise you that you’ll be a little more convinced that work is worth doing.

Development

[image of Jesus calling disciples] This event today follows immediately after Jesus is called to live as the Son of God in his baptism. The Father said, “you are my Son.” He heard that call from God. He was tempted. He passed that test. He began his public work.

Then he says, “Follow me”.

“Follow me” is an easy way to describe the Christian religion. You can say, “I believe Jesus is my Savior and Lord.” You can also say, “I follow Jesus.” He says more.

He also says, “Follow me and I will send you out to fish for people” [over slide]

I want us all to notice what he says, “fishers”. The disciples were literally fishermen. They weren’t students at the synagogue or rabbis in training. They weren’t learning to be religious lawyers. I know we hear this pretty often. Jesus had 12 disciples.

We know at least 7 were workers and probably all of them were. James and John were fisherman who employed other people. And Jesus called these hands on workers to believe in him and do his work. That’s not the way all the ancient world worked.

Take Greek society for example. Greek society said “that to be unemployed was good fortune, because it allowed a person to participate in the life of contemplation” (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work, pg 58). It said that “in the most nobly constituted state ... the citizens must not live a mechanic or a mercantile life … nor must those who are to be citizens be tillers of the soil”. (Aristotle, Politics 1328b-1329a) One historian summarizes the traditional worldview saying “work was considered a defect” (Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor, pg 141).

Wow! Can you believe that? I bet some of you would say, hey that sounds kind of great. I’d love to give up my job. I wouldn’t mind being done with work. But that’s the point. God never talks that way.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15) When God made the world, he asked people to cultivate it. Or this one.

“Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” (1 Corinthians 7:24) That’s the apostle Paul. Again, this is about work.

Or there is Jesus here. He says, “fishers of people”. He could have said students. He could have said, follow me and I'll give you the life of relaxation. But he says, look, you already are where you should be in life. Let’s get to work. Let me change you to work for God and the world.

The disciples got this. Jewish people cultivated the world. After Jesus rose from the dead, they went back to fishing. They were probably afraid a little, but they believed God could use fishermen.

This is our first point today. The call to follow is also a call to cultivate the world. God wants you to believe in him and he wants to work through you where you are.

I think this is pretty awesome. God wants us to work. Let me tell us this old story.

A retired friend became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall. Observing the activity regularly, he was especially impressed by the conscientious operator of a large piece of equipment. The day finally came when my friend had a chance to tell this man how much he'd enjoyed watching his scrupulous work. Looking astonished, the operator replied, "You're not the supervisor?" (Howard Stein, Reader’s Digest)

If God is asking us to work, isn’t that how we should think about our work? Isn’t that how we should feel about our work?

Yet we all end up saying, I feel like my work isn’t worth it. What is the point of all of this?

I don’t blame you. We’ve gotten rid of the one we work with so we end up having to make our work feel worth it. He didn’t say, “I’ll send you out to fish for people”. He said, “Come follow me and I will send you out”

I would put it this way, Work alone isn’t worth it.

We feel this. I tend to be a pretty hands off kind of boss. I’m the kind of guy who will sit down with my kids at the breakfast table and say, hey kids, we’ve got this and this and this to get done today. I hope you can get these things done.

My wife will kind of look at me and say, um are you crazy. You can’t just give them a list.

The thing is, we don’t realize, that’s all modern life is. We’re just giving people lists.

Immanuel Kant, a deeply religious man, who said there are facts – math and science – and there is spiritual stuff. It was religious teachers in the 1800s who said there is the sacred and the secular.

I was sitting in a meeting one time for a Christian school. We were reviewing the mission and the vision of the school. And the principal, a Christian man, said, “We teach all secular subjects in light of God’s Word.” I spoke up and said, I don’t think we want to say that math or science is secular. I think we believe math came from God. I think there are things like the fine tuning of the universe which shows the work of God so clearly.

This is all work alone. And work alone isn’t worth it.

One of the things that I’m amazed by in this lesson is this. Jesus goes to these men and he says, “Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” They don’t argue. They leave their livelihood and business and go.

Who knows, maybe behind the scenes, they had a conversation.

You have to realize that in a traditional society, you didn’t do this. This didn’t happen. Sons did not abandon their fathers to the work.

Jesus wants to say, not only have I come to do my Father’s work. And not only am I amazingly good at it. I will be abandoned by my Father so that your work can be worth it.

He says, I know that as long as you have to work for families, for yourself, and for your neighbors, your work will never be good and perfect. He says, let me take care of that work.

He will be abandoned by his Father, so that at moment, he can do the good work we’re supposed to do.

When we stop working for our friends, our families, and ourselves, then we can claim his work. I’m not saying we shouldn’t serve them. I’m saying, when we give up all these things as idols, then we can take his work.

When you work with Jesus, then your work is worth it.

Action

Do work that develops the world. Some work isn’t good - Jesus didn’t let Matthew and Judas stay as thieves. Most work is acceptable. That doesn’t mean we think it cultivates the worth.

Do work that satisfies you. There are two easiest mistakes to make about work satisfaction. The one is to say that I work only for more personal fulfillment. The other is to only work for my family, friends, or the

“24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.

Do work everywhere. We don’t just work for 40 or 60 hours per week for our boss. Work in our neighborhoods, our families,

Martin Luther said something kind of funny. “God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is. He who engages in the lowliness of his work performs God’s work, be he lad or king.

Friends, your work is worth it.