Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 1-3

 

! Introduction

            The average person who works at a job will be at the job for more than 80,000 hours in a lifetime.

If you have a forty hour work week, two weeks of vacation a year and work for 40 years that adds up to 80,000 hours.

That is a lot of time!

How do you spend those hours?

How do you view your work?

Does being a Christian have anything to do with these hours?

Most of us will spend more time with co-workers than with spouse or children.

We want a godly marriage and we are deeply concerned to raise our children for Christ, but do we give equal thought to how our faith is exercised at work? Work is so significant in our life that we are often defined by our work.

Who of us has not asked, or been asked, “What do you do?” What relationship is there between what we do and who we are?

Although 80,000 hours is a large chunk of time, it is not all of our time.

How do you occupy the rest of your time?

What place does rest have in the use of time?

Many people feel guilty about resting.

Is that guilt well placed?

As we are studying Genesis, one of the things that comes out right at the beginning of creation is the matter of work and rest.

Let us then see what these early passages have to teach us about these things which are so central to our lives.

!

I. Work

            Have you ever thought that work is a curse?

Is work a necessary evil which we must do until we can retire and enjoy life?

Genesis introduces us to the truth that God has created us to work.

!! A. God Worked

            The first indication that work is a blessing and not a curse is the truth, found in Genesis 1, that God worked.

“Does God work?” Willie asks his father in George MacDonald’s children’s book, /The Genius of Willie MacMichael/.

“Yes, Willie, it seems that God works more than anybody—for he works all night and all day and, if I remember rightly, Jesus tells us somewhere that he works all Sunday too.

If he were to stop working, everything would stop being.

The sun would stop shining, and the moon and stars; the corn would stop growing; there would be no apples and gooseberries; your eyes would stop seeing; your ears would stop hearing; your fingers couldn’t move an inch; and worst of all, your little heart would stop loving.”

Genesis 1 shows us God at work in creation.

In 1:31-2:3, we read about “all that God had made.”

In 2:2, we read that God…finished the work he had been doing.”

The Hebrew word for work, which appears three times in verses 2,3, is the ordinary word used to describe human work.

God worked when he created all things.

Last Sunday, we looked at the contrast between the pagan worldview and that presented in Genesis.

We see another significant difference between the two worldviews in the fact that God worked.

The worldview of the Mesopotamian people was such that they viewed their gods as not working.

They believed that work was beneath the dignity of the gods.

But God is not like that.

God describes himself as one who works.

When Jesus was on earth, he also spoke of his Father working.

In John 5:17 he says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

Not only did God work when he created the world, he continues to work as the sustainer of the world.

In response to his father’s words in the story by McDonald, which I mentioned a bit ago, Willie said, “Then if God works like that all day long, it must be a fine thing to work.”

Genesis 1:26,27 says that we have been created in the image of God.

If we are in the image of God and if God works, then it follows that work is natural to us, it is what we have been created for.

Elton Trueblood says, “It is by toil that men can prove themselves creatures made in God’s image.”

Dorothy Sayers wrote, “Work is the natural exercise and function of man—the creature who is made in the image of his Creator.”

!! B. Work Is God Ordained

But work is blessed not only because God works, but also because He has ordained us to work.

The first indication of work is found in the task given at creation that we are to rule over the created world.

Genesis 1:28 says, in part, “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

A part of that ruling work is seen in one of the first specific jobs that Adam was given to do.

In Genesis 2:19, we read that Adam named all the animals.

In other words, God gave Adam work to do.

Even before Adam named the animals, however, we read about another job that he was given.

In Genesis 2:15, we read about how God gave Adam the garden of Eden to live in and he was put in that garden “to work it and take care of it.”

The first jobs given to people were the jobs of agriculture and of science.

God provided the raw materials and gave us the job of working with him in the creation that he had made.

These early indications coming to us, as they do, from the beginning of creation tell us that work is a blessing of God, that God has made us for work and placed us in this world to work.

One writer says, “even before the fall man was expected to work; paradise was not a life of leisured unemployment.”

If work is a blessing and we have been created to work, then how should we look at work?

First of all, we should work - whether that is a job that supplies our needs, work at home or volunteer work.

Not working is not God’s will.

Laziness and constant leisure are not what God has in mind.

The Bible reinforces this kind of thinking in II Thessalonians 3:10 where it says, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

Furthermore, we should be thankful for the work we can do.

We should be thankful because work allows us to provide for our livelihood.

It feels good to be able to put food on the table and realize that our hands have contributed to it.

But work is so much more than that.

Work lends so much meaning to life, it allows us to use our minds and our hands in ways that are interesting.

As creator, God was able to use His imagination to make all the different things in the world.

When we work, we also are involved in such creative work.

What if you would somehow receive a sum of money large enough so that you would not have to work any more.

I have listened to the aspirations of lottery winners.

Some vow to continue as they have, but others aspire to a life of leisure.

I always feel sorry for those who aspire to a life of leisure.

I believe that in such a life, purpose would soon be lost.

The reason is that from the beginning of creation, God has created us to find meaning in life through our work.

Furthermore, work contributes to the world.

I have known more than one farmer who looks at his role not as a way of making lots of money - yah right - but as a way of feeding the world.

Every job contributes something significant to the world in which we live.

Rather than complain about our jobs, let us be glad that we can work.

Another aspect of working is the way in which we work.

The Bible says in I Corinthians 10:31, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Tom Erickson who was the pastor of my mom’s church in Arizona wrote in a sermon, “every worthy vocation bears a direct likeness to the creative work of God.

God’s special purpose … is that we will bless the world through our work.”

If our work is difficult or repetitive or boring that is not easy.

How can we do this kind of work to the glory of God? Erickson suggests, we can do it by being creative even in a mundane job.

We can do it by caring for those we work with.

We can treat it as the most important task in the world, knowing that even though it isn’t very interesting, it is necessary for someone to do it.

As John R. W. Stott says, “God has so ordered life on earth as to depend on us.

So whatever our work, we need to see it as being in cooperation with God.” Another writer says, “By seeing our work in the light of God’s work, we can see God’s hand in our everyday tasks.

Unless we do so, we will underestimate the importance of God’s work and either worship our work or think it worthless.”

All of this means that everyone who does legitimate work should be able to say, “My work is God’s work.”

For example, the work of a teacher could be said to reflect something of God’s desire to reveal truth to people.

The work of a doctor reflects something of God’s healing power and gift.

The work of a musician reflects something of God’s creative ability.

The work of a secretary involved in scheduling appointments reflects something of God’s own love of order.

In other words, we should all be able to say, “My work is God’s work.”

!! C. Work And The Fall

But work is not always easy.