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Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Work As Vocation: The Effects of Sin on Work
What if your job could be more than just a paycheck? Join us as we explore how work can become a profound vocation, seamlessly interwoven with your faith and purpose. We start by reflecting on the creation mandate and how sin has transformed work from a divine calling into a daily grind. Drawing from Genesis 3:17 and the insights of theological scholars, we uncover the eternal struggle between living for ourselves and embracing a life of purpose through Jesus.
Ever felt like your efforts at work are frustratingly futile? We delve into how sin not only complicates our work but also strains our relationships and tempts us to idolize our jobs. With wisdom from NT Wright and Tim Keller, we discuss how this idolatry can enslave us, contrasting it with the freedom found in true worship of God. Discover how finding your identity in Jesus, as explained in Romans 8:16-17, can transform your work and relationships, guiding you towards kingdom values over societal expectations.
Finally, we tackle the practical steps to combat workplace temptation through the power of confession and forgiveness. Hear personal anecdotes and transformative stories, like that of Chuck Colson, who found freedom and purpose even in prison. We emphasize the importance of community, honesty, and the courage to admit our struggles, ending with a heartfelt prayer for strength and actionable change. Tune in and be inspired to view your work as an act of worship and a reflection of your devotion to God.
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Work as vocation is really the message we're trying to get across here. Work is not simply a job that we do, but God has called us to a life of contribution and making a difference in the world through vocation. Meaning it's bigger than just a job that we do nine to five, but it's our whole of life, what we bring to the world. Okay, and seeing our work as part of what we contribute to the world and seeing our work as part of what we contribute to the world through our lives it's a much bigger vision of work than simply picking up a paycheck. Last week, we talked about the creation mandate, meaning God sent us out into the world to go make a difference, and you can see that message online. Today. I want to talk about how sin, the introduction of sin, actually made work much more difficult than God first intended. Now, when you hear the word sin, what do you think of? I think of like, maybe, a murderer, something really bad. Okay, sin simply means so. If you can think about it like this not just simply the bad things we do, but think about sin in terms of trying to replace God. It's trying to put something in the place of God. That's what we call idolatry, maybe in theological terms, but it's basically when I try to replace God with anything else. That is sin, and sometimes, most of the time, that is really us. I try to replace God with me. Right, I want to be God, I want to be the decision maker, the driver, the person who's in the driving seat of my life is me. That is sin, and sin's effects or sin's results is, the Bible says, leads towards death, both metaphorically leading towards death, but also physically leading towards death. Jesus said I have come to give you life and life to the full. The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life and life to the full. The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life. So all through the scriptures there's this pathway kind of analogy One of them leads towards death and one of them leads towards life. The path of sin, which is me becoming God, leads towards death, and the path of not a way of doing things just, but Jesus as a person following Jesus, leads towards life, and life to the full. The quality of the life is so full that it actually starts overflowing from my life into the people around me and actually starts making a difference in the world. This is actually an amazing picture of how you could see your life. Sin come to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus come to give you life. Okay. So Genesis 3, verse 17.
Speaker 1:Here's the introduction of sin to work. Okay, are we ready for this? It says To Adam. He said because you listen to your wife which is generally a good thing, but in this case and ate fruit from the tree which I commanded you you must not eat from meaning this is God's tree. Don't try to replace God with yourself. Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil, you will eat fruit from it all the days of your life, meaning it's going to get harder. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you return to the ground. Food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken and from dust you are and dust you will return. You've heard of this saying from dust to dust, ashes to ashes to dust. This is where the saying comes from.
Speaker 1:So what he's saying is there was a dramatic shift because of sin actually affected the way that we would work. That work was going to become significantly harder. It was going to become more futile. There was a lot of sweat involved.
Speaker 1:When God first introduced work, it was a visionary thing. It was Adam going. I want you to go and name all of the animals. I want you to go and take care of the garden and I want you to go and name all of the animals. I want you to go and take care of the garden and I want you to take this garden and expand it to the whole world. It was so visionary, it was so caring, it was incredible the map that God placed in front of Adam for work.
Speaker 1:But what sin did was turned it into something that was very difficult, very hard and seemed very meaningless. And I think, if we're honest today, some of us feel like that in our work today. It's meaningless. I don't even know why I'm even doing this job. I feel like I'm working so hard but getting not very far with it. The introduction of toil and frustration this is one of the big ones. It's frustration and futility now were part of our work. Being exhausted with work you know it's good to work hard and be like happy, tired, right, meaning I've done something, I've contributed and now I need to rest. That's a good feeling. But so many of us feel a different feeling and that is total exhaustion from work. That seems futile. This is not God's plan. This is the introduction of sin into work.
Speaker 1:It also came at broken relationships. Sin in work really put a strain on relationships. Obviously between Adam and Eve they played this really terrible blame game, right Adam blaming his wife, eve blaming the snake, and the snake didn't have a leg to stand on. That's an old preacher joke. Sorry, forgive me, but you can imagine, as they're leaving the garden, the kind of conversations that he's having with his wife. This is your fault, eve, and her saying to him well, I thought that you were meant to be like a leader around here as well. Why didn't you speak up? Why didn't you say something? You have a mouth as well. You can imagine the bickering and the fighting and the introduction of sin and the strain on relationship. This flowed on to their sons, who we see the first murder that is recorded in history with their sons. It was a really powerful breakdown of relationships. And then we get into these existential consequences. Please just stick with me because it's going to get better. Okay, we're going down the spiral and then it's going to come up. All right, just wanted to let you know.
Speaker 1:There's a sense of futility to work Because of sin. It can feel absolutely meaningless, like there's no real way forward, there's no end goal. We see this as well with the decay of morality, the thing that seems like a standard, like something that we would esteem, but it's just meaningless, like dust returning to dust. What is the point of me even trying? Have you ever been in a job where it's like it doesn't matter? If I try, the boss says the same thing. If I don't try, the boss says the same thing. What is the point in even trying? For the Christian, the thought is that we are actually working for God, not for people. That is the motivation for trying. But there's a great sense in without that. That. Why even bother? But here's the big one that I wanted to get to bother. But here's the big one that I wanted to get to Seeing work as an idol, work becoming our idol, even work becoming trying to replace God.
Speaker 1:Work becomes an idol when we actually derive our identity from work. Have you ever been in a place like this, where you're actually getting successful, You're actually having some wins, and then work starts becoming your identity. Or I'm a hi. My name is Luke, I'm a pastor. A lot of pastors in my experience have their identity in their work. That is not a great thing, because life changes. I mean there's ups and downs, people's disapproval. There's so many challenges going through life. If your value is in what you do, you're in trouble. Our value is not in what we do. Our value is in who God has made us to be.
Speaker 1:As a human being and like other gods, we become like the God that we worship. If work is the God that we worship, meaning I have all of my affection and my attention and my adoration is for my career. It's so in the bullseye of my life. I start to become like the God that I worship. And work is not a good God. It is a harsh taskmaster. It is a slave driver. It is not a gracious God to be serving.
Speaker 1:Nt Wright, in Surprised by Hope, talks about idolatry like this. When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God, how we were created to be, one of the primary laws of human life is that we become like what you worship. What's more, you reflect what you worship not only to the object itself, not only back to that thing, but also outwards, to the world around you. The result is that the world, our social and cultural world, becomes increasingly a place of conflict, pain and injustice. Idols demand sacrifices. They promise security and happiness, but they deliver enslavement and fear. When you worship God, you become more free on the inside, more full of life. When you worship idols, you become more full of fear and enslaved. This is the truth. This is what Jesus said. This thief has come to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come to give you life. If you follow Jesus, you will follow him into more life.
Speaker 1:Tim Keller puts it like this in his book Every Good Endeavor, work, is a good thing, but when it becomes the ultimate thing, it becomes a bad thing. And you can say that work is an incredible thing, but if it becomes God, it is a terrible slave master for us. So let me talk about some redemption here. We've talked about some of the challenges of sin. Let me talk about overcoming, because thank God that that's not the end of the story. Let's talk about redemption and overcoming sin.
Speaker 1:Much of our culture today is trying to redefine identity. Much of our politics is about identity, and much of our world is trying to give you an identity based on their worldview. Here's for the Christian, though Our identity comes from Jesus. Our identity comes from him. Our identity comes from him. Our true identity and worth comes from being a child of God, Not our work, not the culture around us, not even the desires within us, all of which can so easily be corrupted by sin.
Speaker 1:Romans 8, verse 16. Romans 8 is my favorite chapter in the Bible, by the way. It's about how to live a new life with God. It's so amazing. I encourage you to read it. It says the Spirit himself testifies. So God's Spirit testifies, or tells our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are his children, then we are his heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we also might share in his glory. So my identity is now being part of the family of God. That is my foundational identity.
Speaker 1:Before I'm Australian, I'm part of the family of God. Before I'm Irish. That's my family background. I'm part of the family of God. Before I'm a man. I'm part of the family of God. I'm a human made in the image of God. That is my primary identity. That's why, when I can look at beautiful things about Australian culture and I can take those things. But when Australian culture says things that go against kingdom values, I'm going to choose kingdom values Because my foundational identity is with Jesus. So when my Australian culture says, if someone's succeeding, cut them down at the legs my tall poppy syndrome, right. When that happens instead of that, I'm going to actually say no, those values are not above my kingdom values. My kingdom value says I'm going to celebrate my brother and sister when they do well. Does it make sense? So I'm going to choose to do that, even though it's against Australian values or against Australian norms. I'm going to choose to do that. So my identity as a son or a daughter of God is the foundation of how I build a vocation, not one out of striving to prove myself. I already know who I am.
Speaker 1:If you ask my children what does it mean to be a Kennedy? They might give you a few random answers. All right, he goes in the front row. I won't put him on the spot. We have a deal now about giving him money. Every time I talk about him in church Paying him off. They got smart. Hey, they used to love it. Now they want money, starting his vocation early. They'll give you some interesting answers.
Speaker 1:I think that they would say things like Kennedys are very friendly. We often talk about that. Kennedys are friendly, we often talk about. Kennedys are very friendly we often talk about that Kennedys are friendly, we often talk about. Kennedys are leaders, we don't just follow the crowd. It could be a little bit of a rebellion. And they would also say Kennedys are good forgivers. That's been a bit of a mantra since we were real for many, many years in our family. Kennedys are good forgivers, we forgive people.
Speaker 1:This is such a poor example, though, when you set that alongside what it means to be in the family of God, what it means to be part of the family of God. It means you're forgiven. It means you are blessed by God. It means that you are loved, so loved more than you could ever imagine. It means that you are called by God, empowered by God, chosen by God, that you are righteous with God because of his great grace.
Speaker 1:I could go on and on and on about who you are now because of Jesus. All of this is my new identity. No matter what family I come from, no matter what my background is or who said what about me, I know that I am loved by God and that is the foundation of my identity. Do you know who you are today? Because this is really important. Because when someone comes along and offers you money or success in your workplace to compromise your values, you will say hang on a second, I don't need that because foundationally, I know who I am and I know that God will look after me and I know that God will provide a way forwards for me. This is what Jesus said. He said I am about my Father's business. So what's my response to knowing who I am in God? My only response Romans 12, verse 1, is this.
Speaker 1:Therefore, I urge you, you brothers and sisters here at Future Church this morning, in view of God's great mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. So our bodies become the vehicle for a living worship to God. Everything that I touch and design and paint and build and care for is an act of my body reflecting back to God. Worship to him for who he is. Every time I work, I'm worshipping God when I bring faith to it. How could I see my job as meaningless when God sees it as so important? When God sees it as worship to him, why would I ever see my job as meaningless? It's not. So let me just get very practical now. Some practical steps in overcoming sin. You know the best way to overcome sin is to be close to Jesus. That's the best way. And to cultivate this I have had a very simple practice in my life.
Speaker 1:I became a Christian when I was 14, right out of a wild family, had never read the Bible. I'd never really read anything. To be honest, I was not really a reader. You know in school when you read the first chapter, the middle chapter and the last chapter and then you do the assignment. Have you ever done that before? Oh, very judgy, no one's done it. Okay, fair enough, don't do that boys in the front row. That's not good. Actually, my son's an incredible reader. He'll read all day long. But I started reading the Bible.
Speaker 1:My youth leader taught me how to read a little bit of the Bible, pray about it and then write down whatever I thought God was saying to me. He said even if it's wrong, it's okay because God loves your faith and over time you will learn how to hear the voice of God. Okay, so just read a little bit, write something down and pray about it. Even as five minutes, it's not about the, it's not about the amount of time, it's about the frequency. And he said if you miss a day, just forget about it. Don't even feel guilty at all, just forget about it and then just go again the next day. And it's not about days you miss. It's about building a lifestyle of sitting with Jesus and hearing his voice. I did that since I was 14. Like most days, I did it until now. That's like about 15 years. That's really great. No, it's more than that. That is many, many years of sitting with Jesus, allowing him to speak into my life. That's a powerful way to overcome sin, guys. If you are sitting with Jesus every day, you will feel empowered to speak into my life. That's a powerful way to overcome sin, guys. If you are sitting with Jesus every day, you will feel empowered to overcome sin.
Speaker 1:We've also got to set boundaries boundaries between work and personal life and prevent burnout and different other things. We've got to set boundaries Boundaries is part of growing up. To say boundaries, boundaries is part of growing up. I think a serious example is when we become close to people in our workplace. Let me talk about this because I think this is important.
Speaker 1:It's so easy in a workplace to be tempted to sin, especially when it comes to relationships. It happens all the time and I think that's something that we need to help each other in church to talk about. It's actually something every single person will experience is having temptation with people around you in your workplace. It's going to happen. If you think it's not going to happen, then you need to wakey-wakey because you may be suckered into derailing your life if you don't. The best time to make a plan for how to deal with sin in your workplace, especially when it comes to temptation and relationships at your workplace, is make a plan now. The best time is now. Don't get into the moment and then decide oh, I'm not sure what I'll do when I'm tempted to sleep around in my workplace or I'm tempted to cross lines that I know are wrong in my workplace. I've got to make a decision today about what I will do when those moments come, and they will come. It's got really quiet in here now.
Speaker 1:The Bible says that sin is crouching at the door, waiting for you to open a little bit so that it would jump on you. That's the picture that the Bible describes sin as. How do you stop that from happening? You don't open the door. Keep the door closed. Don't open the door. I just want to see how it feels, just a little bit. I just want to have a little experience of you. Know, keep that door closed, and the Holy Spirit is so gentle and so wonderful.
Speaker 1:In these moments. God will speak to you. God is that little voice inside of you saying back away, don't go there, don't touch that thing, don't enter into that gossip circle, don't give that glance, don't invite that relationship. Be careful. That's the voice of God, and the more that you listen to the voice of God, the louder it gets. The more that you push that voice down, you'll stop hearing it. I want to encourage you don't push down the voice of God. If God is speaking to you, saying back away from that thing, listen to that voice. God is trying to save your life. He's trying to save your marriage. He's trying to save your future. Listen to God, obey God. He is your marriage. He's trying to save your future. Listen to God, obey God. He is for you. He has so much good for you. Listen to him. Now let me talk about this last scripture, and I've got two stories I'm going to finish.
Speaker 1:Confession Confession is something that we don't talk about enough in church. Confession and forgiveness go together Powerful concepts in the Bible. Confession is an incredible thing. 1 John 1, chapter 7. Let me read you this verse Don't tune out right now, because this could be a lifesaver for some of us. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, and we have fellowship with one another, the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we're deceiving ourselves, man, and the truth is not. You're not telling the truth. If you say you're not struggling with sin, you are not telling the truth. Welcome to the human experience. If we confess our sins, though, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and he will purify us from all unrighteousness. Confession is part of the Christian life.
Speaker 1:Confession simply means saying the same thing as the truth. Saying the same thing as the truth. Saying the same thing as the truth, meaning stop lying to yourself, stop minimizing and just say the truth. And the truth is yes, I'm struggling with sin. Yes, this thing is happening in my life right now, and God will honor that.
Speaker 1:As soon as you confess, there's something powerful happens. It's like when you blow air in a balloon and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Confession is like popping the balloon. Suddenly, all the air is gone. Suddenly the power of that secret is gone and the light shines on it and it's like God's power is there to change. It's so powerful. Confession.
Speaker 1:Now, who should you confess to? Obviously, we should confess to God and we should confess to each other, maybe not to everyone at once, but you've got to find someone who you can be honest with about the struggles of your sin. And here's what the devil will tell you if they knew that you were struggling with that, they'd reject you. They wouldn't. Oh, they'd be, they would be. I thought you were a better Christian than that. No, no, no. We need to get rid of all that. If you are struggling with something, talk about it with someone who's mature enough to handle that and actually move forwards in life. Don't get stuck in a moment. Don't get stuck in a secret sin or something that's going to pull you or destroy your life? Don't get stuck. In that there is hope for change. Augustine said these really powerful words, and I've got two stories. I'm going to finish.
Speaker 1:I flung myself down beneath a fig tree and gave way to tears which now stream down my eyes. In my misery I kept crying. How long should I go on saying tomorrow, tomorrow? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sin in this moment? All at once I heard a sing song from a child in a nearby house. Whether it was a voice of a baby or a girl, I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain take it and read it, take it and read it.
Speaker 1:I hurried back to the place where Alipius was sitting and there I put down a book of the Apostle. I seized it, I opened it and in silence, I read the first passage, which fell on my eyes. The first thing you saw, he just read it. It said this Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourself with the Lord, jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. I had no wish to read any more. And I had no need to do so, for in an instant, as I came to the end of this sentence, it was as though the light of faith flooded into my heart and all of the darkness and doubt was dispelled. The moment that Augustine confessed his sin was the moment that everything changed in his life. He went from a debaucherous, foul young man to being one of the greatest Christian heroes in history. A moment of confession was his powerful change. Let me finish with this story.
Speaker 1:Chuck Colson was part of the administration in America that was part of the Watergate scandal and cover-up. He was deeply involved in the illegal activities and the cover-ups. Outwardly he was very successful, but inside he was full of shame. He knew what he was doing was wrong and he had this deep struggle with his own conscience and he knew that if he confessed he would go to prison. So he kept it a secret.
Speaker 1:In 1973, as the Watergate investigation intensified, cole faced increasingly pressure and fear of exposure. During that time he visited a friend named Tom Phillips. He had recently became a Christian and he shared his faith with him. He gave him a book it was CS Lewis' book Mere Christianity and Colson started reading the book. He was alone one night in his car, wrestling with the guilt and the weight of his secret sins, and, overwhelmed, he began to read the book Mere Christianity, and as he read it, he felt this deep conviction. He broke down in tears and prayed for God's forgiveness, confessing his sins and surrendering his life to Jesus. In his car, as he read the book, he had this quote I could not have made a more complete confession if I'd been in the confessional booth. I was overcome with a sense of relief and peace. I knew that God had heard me and that he had forgiven me. Later on, his private confession led to his public confession. He decided to come clean on the Watergate scandal and cooperate with the authorities. In 1974, he pled guilty to obstruction of justice and went to prison Tough story.
Speaker 1:While he was in prison, though, colson experienced this profound sense of freedom in prison and purpose. He began to study the Bible deeply and felt a call from God to become a minister to his fellow inmates, which he did. After he did that, he founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, a non-for-profit, and after getting out, he started a ministry to help other inmates find Jesus Today. Today, this is the largest prison ministry in the world, all over the world, with tens and tens of thousands of inmates. They have led to faith through this one man's ministry and the many people involved.
Speaker 1:It all started, guys, with confession, a confession of saying the truth. Sin has affected my life in a powerful way. That is the truth, Jesus. I need you to come and make it right. I need your forgiveness, I need your grace. Come in and change me, and that is the same invitation that we have here today. Confession is a powerful tool against sin in our lives. You need someone. I want to encourage you to think about this. Confess to God. Maybe you've been thinking about something even as I've been speaking. Confess to God Very powerful, but also, who's someone in your life who you can talk to? Do you have someone? If you don't, I really pray that you can find someone. Hopefully you know there's leaders in our church who are mature enough to hear your struggles okay and help you, but I hope that you can find a friend. I hope in the future, that's what our community groups will become a place where maybe not even with everyone, but there's someone that you can be honest with.
Speaker 1:I want to pray for us, jesus. We thank you today that you are so gracious and kind, so willing to forgive, so willing to shine the light, and you offer us life that is so powerful. So, god, I pray today as we become honest and confess, god, that we are struggling with stuff. We definitely do, and we confess that to you. We need your help. So, god, I pray by your Holy Spirit, come and fill us again with your strength, your courage.
Speaker 1:I pray there's changes that need to be made in our lives. God, you give us the courage to do that and I pray that you give us courage to be honest with somebody else in our lives, god, who can help us through that as well? I pray we wouldn't just leave it here in this moment, god, but I pray that you would move us towards action, to go and change something in our lives, to go and confess, to go and talk to someone, to go and get the help that we need, and we would find such incredible grace and power to change. In Jesus' name, thank you all for this beautiful community. I pray for people here that don't know you yet, god. I pray that they would open their hearts and, jesus, you would come into their lives and show them how much grace and how much life that you have for them and give them the courage to confess and say I need you. God, give them that strength right now. I pray in Jesus' name Amen.