Get to Work: Power for Work

Mark 1:35-45

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

40 A man with leprosy[a] came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

41 Jesus was indignant.[b] He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Listening guide

We need _______________ to do good work.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” 

Run Hard Rest Well “group norm is overload and exhaustion”.

Powerful work comes in part from ____________, ______________________, and _________________.

Nick Vujicic

God turns our _________________________ into power to work. 

Discussion questions

Sermon

I remember a phase when I went overboard tracking tasks. I had something like 700 tasks in this task manager. I felt pretty exhausted and powerless. There was no way I could get that all done.

I’m not the only one.

After finishing her psychiatry residency, a young doctor was working at a New York City hospital. She was friends with a doctor who was a few years ahead of her and who was pregnant with her second child. “Do you know what I love most about being pregnant?” the older doctor said to her friend one day. “I love being pregnant because it’s the only time where I feel productive all the time. Even when I’m sleeping, I’m doing something!” It struck the young M.D. that her friend based her self-regard so completely on productivity that she seemed relieved to finally find a task she could do incessantly . She reflected, “For many of us, being productive and doing becomes . . . an attempt at redemption. That is, through our work, we try to build our worth, security, and meaning.” (Keller, Timothy. Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work (p. 226). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)

That sounds a little ridiculous, but I know it’s true.

Talk to plenty of you. We feel drained. We feel empty. We feel powerless because we are looking to constantly work.

This is common. (We are often robbed of the power to do good work.) We need power to do good work.

Maybe like that doctor we get glimpses now and then to have the power to do all the work in our lives. I’ve felt that way lately. I think some of it has been coming off vacation. I look down at my to do list. Almost everything is done. That’s a great feeling.

That’s the promise today. To have this power all the time.

Adventure

Over the last few weeks, we’ve taken a look at the work we do.

First, we changed the story of our work. We heard the call of God. That is what moves us to work. 

Second, we found a partner for our work. Our work is meaningful and valuable with Jesus.

Third, we considered the people of our work. We work for ourselves, for family and friends, and for society at large.

The last thing we’re going to do, today, is the power for our work. I think in many ways, if you’ve got a better story for your work, a partner for your work, you know who you are working for, that is going to give you a lot of power. But let’s take a look just at the power for our work.

Let’s get the power for our work. Both the physical power and the spiritual power – power in our spirits.

Development

Jesus doesn’t provide any particularly stunning insights when it comes to a good way to gain the physical power to do our work. For example, no specific workout routine. No special diet. No special vitamins or health practices. Not that any of that stuff is unbibilical.

Here is one example of this. In the Bible, there was a man named Daniel. He was chosen to be part of the king’s court. He was specifically chosen because he ate a good diet and he was in good shape. Jesus recommends something even more basic.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

He “got up”, which means he had been asleep. He prayed. He rested. Three basic things: sleep, pray, and rest. And I don’t think it is a stretch to say, you need these three things for the power to do your work.

I know there is this sentiment out there, and maybe there is some anecdotal evidence of it, that young people are lazy. Who knows, maybe you think I’m lazy. I appreciate those of you who say, pastor, I’m not always sure what is going on, but you, work hard.

I want us as Christians to lead with this conviction. What is that conviction?

The group norm in America is overload and exhaustion. Brenda Jank from Run Hard Rest Well says that. “group norm is overload and exhaustion”. Ministry Impact • Run Hard. Rest Well.

So sleep, prayer, and rest are going to seem counter-cultural. If you are a person who rests well, it’s going to look radical. It’s going to look crazy. But that is the key to make you more effective. I’m fairly convinced that if you do them well, you’ll actually work well.

Some of you are probably saying, pastor, that doesn’t sound very spiritual. This is spiritual. This is biblical. Both science and the bible tell us sleep prayer rest.

For example, I’ve been reading Greg McKoewn’s Essentialism. He helps people focus on the things that are essential to their life. He spends this entire chapter on sleep He says that there is so much data that demonstrates the vast majority of us need about 8 hours of sleep.

Similarly, prayer. James says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” If you want things to happen in life, pray. I can’t tell you how many of my problems are solved simply because of prayer. Let me address this last one. Rest.

I don’t know how you pray well if you don’t rest well. When God created the world, he rested on the 7th day. God worked, then he rested. That’s the rhythm of creation. We’ve got to follow it. When we refuse to, we violate creation.

We bring chaos and disorder into our lives.

Point: Powerful work comes in part from sleep, prayer, and rest. If Jesus rested and prayed, certainly you will need to.

I think we have to ask ourselves then, if this is true, why don’t we pray, rest, and sleep? Why do we keep trying to work? Again, I know some will say there is all kinds of laziness and sleep going on, but that’s not the norm. Why do we keep working? I think Jesus gives us some of the answer.

After rest, Jesus went back to work. He first came to someone with a skin disease. The infected person said, “if you’re willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus had a gut, visceral reaction. He cleaned him. Let’s dig into this for a second.

What we see on the surface here is that this man experienced something that was gut wrenching. He had a skin disease. It may have been something like our modern leprosy. Maybe much worse. What we don’t see, is that leprosy meant exclusion. (“Those whom the priest regards as having “leprosy” must announce their condition and remain outside the community (Lev 13:45–46). It is also true that in the time of Jesus leproi were forced to live outside of cities and were prohibited from having contact with others (see Josephus, J.W. 5.227; Ag. Ap. 1.281–282; 11Q19 XLVIII, 14–17)”

Remember, the ancient world was an incredibly collective society. I hope you can imagine what this meant. Without society, he couldn’t have a sense of identity. He couldn’t know who he was in the world. Without friends and family, he couldn’t have a sense of belonging. He couldn’t know where he fit in, where he belonged. Without work, he couldn’t have a sense of purpose in the world. He didn’t know what he was trying to do.

He experienced significant physical and emotional pain. That robbed him of the power to work and even to live. (Pain robs us of the power to work.)

He makes me think of a man named Nick Vujicic, an Australian man. He is about 30 now. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, which is a fancy way to say he has no arms or legs.

When he was 10, he was became depressed. He was bullied. He couldn’t do anything. He was excluded. He said he was so alone, he wanted to commit suicide. He wanted to see someone like him.

About 5 years ago, he met a baby named Daniel. Daniel was born just like he was, without any arms or legs. Nick said, “Not getting a miracle, I can be a miracle to Daniel ... an older brother of Daniel his whole life ... encourage him”. (Nick Vujicic NIck Vujicic - man without limbs shares the Bible verse that gave him purpose | ChristianToday Australia, accessed 02/05/2021)

Nick shows us something. Did you see how in verse 41 it says, “Jesus was indignant” or “Filled with compassion”.

He didn’t feel disgust. He didn’t feel shame. His guts churned. (Wade Johnston, A Path Strewn with Sinners, 13). He was this man’s miracle.

He was the only one who saw this situation for what it really is. He was the only who saw the pain for what it really was. He was the only who saw all the pain this man felt without identity, belonging, and purpose, and he felt it himself.

Nick can be Daniel’s brother but he can never take Daniel’s pain. Jesus cam be the brother who can take the pain himself. He took the pain and gave the man work, gave him life.   

I asked us, if powerful work comes from sleep, prayer, and rest, why do we keep working so hard? Just look at this! You say, if Jesus has taken away my pain, how can I not work?

If I have gone all the sudden from a man who has no place to belong to a person who has a place to belong. If I have gone from a man with no sense of identity to a man with a sense of identity. If I have gone from a man with no purpose to a man with purpose, how can I not work?

If you claim Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you have to say, he has taken away my pain. I can see it all over his face. I can see it on his face on the cross. I can see it on the face of a man who had done nothing wrong and yet he experienced the incredible anguish of sin.

He was denied his miracle on the cross so that I could receive a miracle! He has made my pain power to work. God turns our pain into power to work.

I want you to notice something. The man in this story says, “if you are willing”. Sounds to me like it hurts. And yet Mark says that Jesus was the one who felt pain. Jesus was the one had that churning in his gut. God is the only one who takes seriously the amount of pain in this world.

I don’t know exactly how much you’re hurting. I don’t know how much physical pain you have. I don’t know who has offended you. I don’t know how lonely you feel. What has made you feel inadequate.

God won’t always take away that pain. But he takes away what our pain signifies. He takes away the death. He takes away the exclusion. He takes away the idea that we are defective, something less than normal.

That’s power to work.

Get to Work: For the Lord

Mark 1:21-34

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Jesus Heals Many

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Listening guide

Mark 1:21-34 = Jesus works 

• for (to benefit) _________________________

• for (to benefit) ________________________

• for (to benefit) _________________________

Good work is work done well for three groups of people: ______________, ________________________ close to me, and ______________________________. 

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:22-24)  

We’re only going to work well for ourselves, family, and society if we’re _________________________________________. 

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58

Work for the Lord and you will work well for yourself, your family, and the world  

Discussion questions

Sermon

Do you recognize this?  

Even if you aren’t into the stock market, I would guess most of us have a sense of what it is. Now that I’ve said stock market, do you know what it is?  

It’s the stock chart, it’s the price chart if you will of a very significant stock of the week. That being, yes, GameStop.  

Despite the politics, the pandemic,  

People on Reddit and elsewhere got together and made the stock jump in value by 400% or 500% in one week.  

Biggest point the people are saying to the Wall Street elites, who are you working for?  

I’ve had a bunch of those wake up calls at times. People who have said to me, what about us? Are you actually serving us, these real people? And I know other people who are asking the same question.   

One man in particular (JS)  

Who am I working for? Not so much which employer, but in terms of working for myself, having a sense of satisfaction and pride in my work vs working for the people around me vs working for the benefit of society in general, he says, what am I really doing this for?  

Adventure 

We’ve watched Jesus get to work and we’ve asked ourselves the question, how are we supposed to work.  

• First week we said, “hear God’s call and get to work”. The most important thing to do good work in all of life is that we hear God’s call. We trust him and we follow him with our lives. Hugh Welchel said, “how do integrate our work and our faith in a way that is pleasing to God? First, we must rediscover that our primary vocation is the call to follow Jesus.”  

• Second week we said, “when we work with Jesus, then our work is worth it.” The path to valuable work in the world is not our own effort or success. The path to meaningful and valuable work is our partnership with God.  

This week we want to ask a very simple question. For whom do we work? Because whether it’s this GameStop fiasco, just losing focus on our job, or a redirect after 30 years of work, if we aren’t working for the right people, we aren’t going to do good work.  

Promise when you work for the right people you will do good work.  

Development 

One of the things I think that helps us understand the teaching today, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, is to remember this: the paragraph breaks and the headings in your Bible are not inspired. Sometimes they are helpful, sometimes they aren’t.  

If you look at verse 20 in Mark 1 and then verse 21, you realize Jesus called those 4 disciples we heard about 2 weeks ago, then went straight to work in Capernaum. There is basically no delay. What we are seeing then in the rest of Mark 1, the first work he does as a public teacher. It’s not like he called these disciples to follow him then took them away to school for 5 years to teach them. He called them and got right to work.  

This is the first work he does.  

There are three events all on the same day. Again, paragraph breaks and headings aren’t inspired. In verses 21-28, Jesus is in the synagogue. He drives a demon out of a man. Verse 29 says as soon as they left the synagogue. The same day. Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. Remember, Simon was the name of Peter before Jesus renamed him. Then in verse 32, that very evening, whole crowds of sick people come and he healed them. This all happened on one day.  

You think, I feel busy sometimes. Talk about a lot to do.  

Little longer section but it shows Jesus at work so well. One thing we could talk about here would be how Jesus work let people recognize who he is. People saw him as a divine figure. Another thing would be the kind of king he is. He uses his power to heal. He is a healing and restoring king. I want us to ask this, who does Jesus work for? Who does Jesus benefit or help? Does he go and find kings? Does he find the poor? Is it Jews? What categories or kinds of people?  

The first thing Jesus does is drive a demon out of a man. I think we are rightly wowed by that authority and power. The people are too. So much that the focus is not on the man. The focus is on Jesus displaying who he is.  

The demon says, you are the Holy One of God. And the people say he is a new teaching – with authority.  

Jesus reveals who he is. This fits exactly with our spirit of expressive individualism. Just show yourself to be who you are. This is one reason why we work. Why people in general work. To have a sense of fulfilment. To be themselves. I asked someone one time, why did you switch jobs. The answer was something like, I needed a chance to grow, to be me.  

The first person Jesus works for is kind of himself. He works to express who he is.  

The second thing Jesus does is heal Peter’s mother in law. This is a little more straightforward. Jesus also serves the people closest to him relationally. He serves family and friends.  

And the last thing he does, he heals “all the sick and the demon-possessed". So he serves society and the community at large.  

We've got these three groups: Jesus works for himself. I really don’t think that is a bad thing to say. He works to show who he is or to be who he is. He also works for the people relationally closest to him and to society at large.  

He does all three of these things. And it really is good work. JRR Tolkein has this great little line that “the hands of the king are the hands of the healer, and thus shall the rightful king be known.” Jesus really does good work for specific groups of people.  

This is our first point today: Good work is work done well for three groups of people: myself, people relationally close to me, and society at large.  

This is right where what God says runs right into our lives. Start with this. One of the most common things I hear from people why they work is that they work to pay the bills. 

Is that wrong?  

If a person mostly works to pay the bills, they are taking care of the people relationally close to them. Family and maybe friends. Good.  

In my experience, those people are usually not satisfied with their jobs. They aren’t working to use all their gifts and skills and abilities. They also aren’t working to benefit society at large. 

Or this one. In a poll some years ago, 97% of young people said they wanted a job that would impact the world. (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work,  

Good. That's fine. I’ve said that myself. Right up until the time where I realized my work broke almost as much as I fixed and I started to say, I don’t want to fix the world and rescue people, I just don’t want to break more stuff. I could be happy if I just don’t cause more problems. 

I’m not sure I’m going to have much success at changing the world.   

And there is always the example of the starving artist. I’m glad you get to do what you want. I’m glad you get to be who you want to be. What benefit are you providing for your friends and family? Or what about society at large?  

Who can do this?  

You might say to me, pastor, if I pick one of these things, isn’t that enough? If I can be myself, be who God made me to be, isn’t that good enough? Or if I can take care of my friends or family, isn’t that good enough? Or if I serve society, isn’t that good enough?  

One of the things that God makes clear is that we don’t just sin by doing things. A lot of sin is not doing what we should do. It’s a sin of omission, not just commission.  

Even people in the Bible failed to do what they should have done. One time David snuck into Saul’s camp. He took a spear and water jug from Saul (1 Samuel 26). He accused the soldiers of failing to do their job.  

One of the most shocking verses about work in the Bible comes from the apostle Paul. “22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:22-24)  

Realize what this is saying. Paul is telling slaves to work not just because their owner demands. That would be working for those people who are close to us. But he says, do it with all your heart – so do it for your own satisfaction – do it to be who God made you to be.  

You’ll never be right with your work if you say, I work for myself and that’s good enough. You can’t say, I’m working to pay the bills and that’s enough. Hear me clearly. I’m not saying, you shouldn’t work to pay the bills. You should work to pay the bills. But there will always be something missing if that is the only reason you are working.  

You've got to change your whole life. You’ve got to change all your work. You’ve got to work for yourself, for the people close to you, and for all of society. All of it.  

This is our second point for today. We’re only going to work well for ourselves, family, and society if we’re working for the Lord.  

So how do this? How do we work well for ourselves and family and society all at the same time because we work for the Lord?  

I think Jesus shows us when he heals so many people. I think Paul says it when he tells the slaves, “you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” One of the best passages about our work comes from Paul in another place.  

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul talks about our resurrection bodies. He says after the end of all things, we will be raised with a glorious body. And the last thing he says is, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) Paul says, “give yourselves full to the work of the Lord because your labor is not in vain”. Why did Paul says that?  

Because Jesus did not just die for our sins. He also rose for our life!  

He rose so that at least a little bit, some of the time, somewhat, you win in your work over sin, death, and the devil.  

He rose so that your work at least sometimes lasts.  

He rose so that at least some of the time, you would see a little bit get done. For yourself, for your friends and your family, and for society.  I think about it a little like this.  

Inside the cabinet at my house, my kids have a chore chart. There are 4 chores on that chart. You would think, 4 chores how hard can that be. But some days, it’s like pulling teeth. Admittedly, those 4 chores have to get done many times a day. They are things like, “empty the dishwasher”. In a family of 7 we empty the dishwasher at least 10 times a day.  

As my kids get older, they help with more and more stuff around the house. But they also realize just how little they do.  

They realize if it wasn’t for me and mom, and really lets be honest, if it wasn’t for mom, they would hardly do anything. They wouldn’t have anything. It’s mom’s work that does everything. And most importantly, our work lets them work for themselves, for their sisters and brothers, and ultimately, for all of us.  

Jesus rose from the dead and he gets to say, more than anything else, when you trust me, my work is your work. You can live in my success. You can live in my work.  

And he says, “I have not only conquered sin and death and the devil to stop their work. I have begun my work of restoring all creation. I am making it beautiful and wonderful and excellent all again.” 

And he says, “I invite you to do your work for me, for my goals, my ends, my way, for my benefit, and you will do good work for yourself, your friends and family, and society.”  

When you start to look less at your own satisfaction with your work and more at the satisfaction he had with his work, and when you look less at the bills you are paying for your family and more at the bill he paid for you and for the family of the world, and less at how much you are changing the world and more at how much he changed the world, you really are going to work well. 

I bet you know more than a few people who could be a good example of this. One person I thought of was a man named John Magee Jr. In 1940 he illegally entered Canada to enlist in the Canadian Air Force to fight against the Germans. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a Pilot Officer.  

Here was a guy, he plainly wanted to make a difference in the world. He felt called to serve society. And there was more to him.  

In 1941 he texted a new model of the Spitfire airplane. He wrote a poem about the experience. When you read that poem, you know right away that he absolutely flew for himself. He felt sheer joy and pleasure at his work. He wrote, “ 

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth  

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 

He saw the work he was doing was for himself.  

He also saw it was for his family. After the flight, he wrote his parents about the experience and sent the poem to him. You’ve got himself, his friends and family, and the world.  

And what drove it all? The last lines of his poem... 

“And while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod 

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, 

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.” (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work, pg 120-121)  

John did not first and foremost work for himself, friends and family, or even to change the world.  

Work for the Lord and you will work well for yourself, your family, and the world   

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.

Get to Work

Mark 1:4-15

Listening guide

What’s your least favorite job? ________________

What’s your most favorite job? _________________

Work is ___________________, challenging toil. 

Work is _____________________.

Work is ______________________.

Everyone __________________ even if work is ______________.

We fix work the _________  ____________.

Hear God’s __________ and get to __________!

God’s call gives you weight or substance or strength so that work doesn’t destroy you. 

God’s call gives you a sense of the dignity and the worth of even simple work without which you could be bored to death. 

God’s call gives you a moral or ethical compass without which work will corrupt you. 

God’s call will shape your work.

Sermon

Sad to not be physically with you today.  

Thankful to Tom Wright, Cindy, Kaitlyn, Charlie, and Hannah, and especially Tom for covering for me last week. Thank you 

Thank you to Hannah, Cindy, Kaitlyn and especially Josh and Ron for covering for me today. Thanks for your work guys. So good to work with you to bring you and the people you love the gospel of Jesus.  

I wanted to be with you. Wanted to preach. I was telling my wife as I went to bed how weird it was, no matter how I was feeling I still want to be in church. Nothing like the physical gathering of God’s people to celebrate. I have that pleasure and delight, that passion for work.  

To get started today, what about you and your work?  

What has been your least favorite job or work? __________________ 

What has been your favorite job or work? _________________  

I thought about this last week. We were visiting my parents this last week. It snowed Tuesday into Wednesday. My son told his grandpa before bed, grandpa will you please wake me up at 4:30 tomorrow so that we can go shovel? I said things like Josiah that is too early. You need to sleep. Mom said the same.  

He got up the next morning about 5:30 and got right outside with grandpa to help shovel. Grandpa was saying later I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone so excited to shovel snow! Friday afternoon it snowed again. My son came to me and said, Grandpa said he would wake me up at 4:30 again tomorrow. I knew exactly what he meant. What excitement!  

Is that how you feel about your work?  

A couple of weeks ago I was at study with someone.  

One of my favorite examples of loving our work comes from Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell “when I run I feel God’s pleasure” 

 Adventure/Discover 

That’s what I want us to have today. I want us to have pleasure in work no matter what the work.  

That’s what I want us to get throughout this season of the year. Between Christmas and Easter, we see Jesus at work.  

That all starts today with this event we call the baptism of Jesus. The Bible is a little strange in telling us the story of Jesus. We hear his birth and then jump right ahead to his public work. This means so much to him. Why do I say that? After Jesus is baptized, he is driven at once by the Spirit to be tempted. What happens at his baptism because this catalyst to drive him forward into one of the worst experiences of anyone’s life.  

God says, you can have the same pleasure, the same passion for work – no matter what your work is.  

Development 

This is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It’s the beginning of his work. Immediately after this there will be a couple of events that confirm Jesus’ work.  

He will be tempted. We might imagine it something like getting tested on the job. Does he have the skills? Does he have the ability to do the job?  

He will call his first disciples. 4 guys, his first followers. They confirm, yes he really is a public teacher. So this is the beginning of his work.  

He does a different work than we do. He comes in a long line of Jewish religious teachers and priests. He follows after people like Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Now, I know that this kind of preaching, teaching, and training doesn’t seem much like work. But did you see, he experiences many of the same frustrations a farmer, a truck driver, or a mechanic experience.  

• Temptation - Work is frustrating, challenging toil.  - “through painful toil you will eat food” (Gen 3:17)  

• “it will produce thorns and thistles for you” (Gen 3:18) Work is fruitless. It produces what we don’t want instead of what is good, natural, and what we do want.  

• “you return to the ground” (Gen 3:19) Work can become pointless. 

These are the three main challenges to our work, and still, Jesus works. I want us all to notice this. Jesus works. Everyone thinks Jesus is great.  

That doesn’t mean he gets out of work. He works just like you and me.  

Jesus never worships work. That was the mistake of the Protestant work ethic in America. President Coolidge wrote, “The man who builds a factor builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.” Henry Ford said, “Work is the salvation of the human race.” (Os Guiness, The Call, 40)  

That’s how we mess up work. That’s not Jesus. But neither does Jesus avoid work. Jesus works because that is what people do. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen 2:15) Jesus worked because people work. As soon as God put people in this world he gave them work.  

No matter how bad it is. No matter how hard it is.  

Everyone works even if work is bad.  

So how do we fix work?  

I know work is hard. I feel it to. We get nothing done. We’re frustrated. We’re annoyed. We watch the rich get richer, we feel. We see nothing for years of labor.  

I hear you. And most of the time when people want to quit, we say something like, what do you want to be known for? What do you want to leave behind?  

That doesn’t help. We already feel like we aren’t doing anything. 

And when we’re really tired and frustrated, someone always seems to say. Push on. Just keep going. It’ll get better.  

We even might say something like, let’s get to the Lord’s work. We’ve got a lot of work to do here at church. Maybe you’re happy with the rest of life or not, let’s get to work over here.  

Dorothy Sayers “The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.” (Dorothy Sayers 

We fix work the wrong ways.  

What does Jesus hear then that changes his work?  

God won’t change all of the work in the world, but he will change right now who you are in the world. That’s exactly what he does with Jesus. He tells Jesus, “You are my Son”. “you are my Son, whom I love.” (verse 11)  

God places this call, this claim, this expectation, and this declaration on Jesus himself.  

These words, “You are my Son, whom I love.” God placed a claim on Jesus’ life. He affirmed who he was. He asked him to be someone in particular. 

We have to realize just how much this is not good advice or good information, but this is truly good news.  

If you’ve ever started a job before, what does both the interview and day 1 almost inevitably start with? The interview is mostly going to start with a job description and matching up your education, your experience to the job. Do you have the abilities, do you have the skills for the job? When you get to day 1 on the job, day 1 is almost inevitably going to run over all the expectations you have to fulfill to keep the job. Show up on time, report to this person, send in this many reports per week, complete these tasks,  and so on. None of that is bad. That’s all good information. That’s all good information you need to do your job.  

Without that information you would almost certainly fail at your job. Have you ever tried to do a job where you didn’t know the expectations of the boss? There is no more frustrating and failure filled experience. But all that information, as good as it is, isn’t good news.  

They are still demands you have to live up to.  

The other part that is always fun when you start a new job, one of the first few days on the job somebody will pull you aside and say, here are all the things  

That’s good advice.  

None of that is good news. None of that is what God said to Jesus. You are my Son. That claim, that affirmation is powerful good news.  

I think about this when I see kids with special toys. For me, it was my dut. I got this duck before I was one. I loved it so much, I wore it apart. Funny part was, when I was two I think, I got a new duck. That duck is pristine to this day.  

I said, “you are my dut”. I did not want any other duck. And no other duck could do the job of dut. Dut was the one and only. He was the only one who could be dut for me.  

You see, my claim, my affirmation on dut made him dut. I refused to ask any other duck to be my duck, so no one else could do the job. You know there was nothing wrong with the duck itself. It’s a perfectly fine duck. Instead, it was entirely my claim on that duck that made it my duck.  

We say, wait a second. Does this thing happen with God? Does God place a call or a claim or an expectation or a declaration, whatever you want to call it, on a person, that profoundly influences who they are? I say yes. 

I don’t know if you know the story of Aleksander Solzenitsyn. He was a famous writer who died about 10 years ago. He became one of the most famous critics of Communism through his writing.  

But he didn’t start out that way. He actually said that he “drifted in literature unthinkingly and hate to think what sort of writer I would have become.”  

But his time in the Gulag (the Soviet camps), a miraculous cure from cancer, his conversion to faith in Jesus, and a deepening burden to put the “dying wish of the millions” on record opened his eyes to an immense calling he had.  

At 55, still with 20 years of life and work left, he said, “The one worrying thing was that I might not be given time to carry out the whole scheme. I felt as though I was about to fill a space in the world that was meant for me.”  

Substitution = Jesus in my place  

Jesus took your place in his baptism. Jesus wants to take your place. Won’t you let him? Won’t you let him be that Son  

Alex hates baths. Every time I bathe him, I think, I would glad to take your place. 

Hear God’s call and get to work 

I want to wrap this up and quickly give you 4 ways that hearing God’s call will make a clear difference for work. These are really encouraging.  

1. God’s call gives you the weight or substance or the strength so that work doesn’t destroy you.  

1. God’s call gives you a sense of the dignity and the worth of even simple work without which work could bore you to death.  

1. God’s call gives you a moral or ethical compass without which work will corrupt you. 

1. God’s call will shape your work. 

Take these 4 ways God’s call matters for work and hear God’s call. Jesus went first to make the space for you. He is the Son you and I never are so that we can truly be sons and daughters of God.  

Hear God’s call and get to work.