Heaven At Work: Creating Heaven On Earth
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Heaven at Work
Creating Heaven at Work
Genesis 1:1—2:3
INTRODUCTION
Of the following people, whose work is the most significant? Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug? Who’s least significant? For most people, it’s an easy question. Mother Teresa, famous for ministering to the poor in Calcutta—made a saint by the Vatican, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Gates, infamous for giving us the Microsoft dancing paper clip and the blue screen of death. As for Norman Borlaug . . . who the heck is Norman Borlaug?
But let’s look at their work. Bill Gates employed 100,000’s, his technology has brought greater technology and improvements in society. Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution” that used agricultural science to reduce world hunger, has been credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone else in history. Now whose work is most significant?
The Virtue of Prosperity, D’nesh D’Sousa, p124:
In an heated interview with TJ Rodgers, the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor on the morality of work, he said, “I keep hearing feed the poor, clothe the hungry, give shelter to those who don’t have it. The bozos that say this don’t recognize that our work and technology have done more to feed and clothe and shelter and heal people than all the charity and church programs in history. So they preach about it, but we’re the ones doing it.”
These illustrations show that there is a huge gap between our faith and our work.
At the outset of this series, we described 5 levels of integrating faith and work. Level 1 is PROVIDER: Work provides for our needs. Level 2 is EXCELLENCE: We do our work with excellence because it is a reflection on God. Level 3, that Bill preached on last week is RELATIONSHIPS: Work is a chance to love and serve and share with others.
The problem with first 3 levels is that they do nothing to help us understand what work is, why we have to work, how we’re supposed to think about work.
For the next three weeks, we’re going to be looking at the Fourth Level of Faith and Work: This is the level where you see that your work makes you an Image of God. I want to promote all of you! Your work images God’s work as creator, maintainer, or restorer. These next three weeks—I want each of you to see that work is godly and god-like.
This week we’re going to see how work images God as creator. We’ll see this in three points:
I. Our Work Can Image God as Creator II. Creation Can Transform Our Work III. Jesus’ Victory Creates Heaven on Earth
- Our Work Can Image God as Creator
I’ve got a list of 23 characteristics from Genesis describing God’s work of creation. We can’t review all of these, so let me point out a few.
But before we look at that, I want to say: If you’re unemployed, or retired, or an unpaid volunteer, if you work in an office or a site or at home, please realize that work is any effort to shape and influence the world around us, including other people. Don’t tune out, the work you do also can image God.
God’s Work Creates Order from Chaos (v2)
Formless and void to ordered and beautiful. Inventions, artists, new ideas follow this pattern. They are taking existing materials or ideas and bring out something new from the chaos.
The US Patent office has recorded well over 7 million patents—each of which is an example of someone imitating God’s creative work.
We have a huge box of legos at home, and there are times when we dump them all out over the rug in our living room. It completely covers an 8x10 foot rug. It is formless and void, and the kids and I hover over the surface, and from that mass of confusion, we make some pretty amazing things.
Jewelers, research and development, design engineers, manufacturing. Artists. Microsoft, Qualcomm—all reflect this creator image of God.
At Sea World, they have a mantra that helps them think about their work. “One day, one chance.” Most of the guests who are there will only be at Sea World for one day. So the employees have one chance to make their guests’ experience something special. This helps the when they deal with problem guests who are demanding and frustrating. They are creating an experiences for people. When you create this sense of welcome for anyone at work, you are imaging God.
God provides training and education in creation (v26-28)
He doesn’t just give us authority, he tells us how to use it. He calls us and enables us to rule and reign over creation.
He trains us, delegates authority to us. Human beings are the image and likeness of God. Both in terms of who they are and in terms of what they do. God gives us dignity, honor, authority, responsibility, personality. The work that we do ought to treat others in this way. When we treat people with this kind of respect and honor, we also find that we are imitating God.
Education images God. Teachers and schools, corporate trainers, reflect God’s creative image.
God’s Work Includes his Evaluation (v4, 10, 31)
God evaluates his work. He judges it. It’s good. Performance reviews at work, year-end evaluations, peer reviews—even compensation is an evaluation and judgment. If you do any of this, you are reflecting the creative work of God, who judges what he creates.
God’s Work is Well Paced (2:2)
God doesn’t do everything in one day. He works for 6 days, and he seems to take the evenings off. This doesn’t mean you can’t work the late shift, but God isn’t a workaholic. Combine this with the 7th day when God rested, and you have a pattern of work and rest that is daily and weekly. We also image God when we rest from our work. Work without rest does not image God.
God is amazingly repetitive!
Maybe God made all the flowers in one word. But maybe he made every single individual one. Maybe he delighted in every alteration, every different color, the number of leaves each would have, the different petal arrangements. Sometimes our creative work isn’t simply making new things, but it’s making a lot of the same things and appreciating them individually. God doesn’t seem to mind repetitious work. Assembly line. Manufacturing.
What does your company create? What does your job create?
I want you to come out of this knowing how to see some of your work and your company’s work as a reflection of God’s creative work.
Why? Because, point 2…
- Creation Can Transform Our Work
This makes work matter, since your work reflects God’s work. Your work matters to God, it connects you to something eternal, something greater. Our “mundane” work is now an expression of the eternal kingdom of God.
In a factory in El Cajon. Asked a group of people, ‘what are you doing?’
“I’m gluing wood together.”
“I’m attaching this strip of wood to increase the connecting surface area of this piece to that one.”
“I’m making a Taylor guitar. If I don’t attach this strip of wood around the insides of the body, then the glue won’t have enough surface area in contact with the back. The pressure from the guitar strings will cause the back of the body to pop off.”
It would have been great if there were a fourth person there who said—You know, God loves music, and I’m creating an instrument that will make God and people happy. God has designed the world so that if you wiggle the air in certain ways, it makes people happy.
Making these connections makes you a better employee—you become wiser about your job, when you understand the big picture, it enables you to make better decisions, decisions that benefit the company.
It helps you understand your boss’s job and your boss’s boss’s job. You become more effective when your job enables your boss to succeed. You are perceived as a more valuable team member, and you better understand your boss, and you have a better shot at getting promoted.
It may change how you view your company.
Your work actually teaches you about God. You can know him better, relate to him more personally because he does what you do. And he can relate to you better because he does what you do. You can go to him with your frustrations at the end of the day, and God says, “Yea, I know. I deal with it too!”
Your work reflects God’s intention for the city.
Humphrey Bogart, playing Linus Laraby (a business executive) in the movie “Sabrina,” said this to his brother regarding developing a new product line:
“A new product has been found, something of use to the world. So when new industry moves into an undeveloped area, factories go up, machines are brought in, a harbor is dug and you're in business. [Then sarcastically] It's purely coincidental of course that people who never saw a dime before suddenly have a dollar. And barefooted kids wear shoes and have their teeth fixed, and their faces washed. What's wrong with the kind of urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds, and movies on a Sat night?”
Qualcomm—helps people communicate. Education teaches people. Union Tribune distributes information. And all create jobs, provide for families.
The Good of Affluence, John Schneider, p181
Your work is COMMUNITY SERVICE: In terms of vocation, your primary focus will be on the people and various problems that arise in your line of work. Attorneys serve clients. Teacher serve their students and the learning process. Business executives serve their company, their employees, their share holders. All serve the community.
Your work also matters to others. I’ve found when I help people make these connections, they are blessed. Even non-Christians have been encouraged to think that their work is a reflection of the God I believe in.
Also, work points to the future world—heaven and earth will be one. This brings us to our third point:
- Jesus’ Victory Creates Heaven on Earth
The Problem: Who really works like this? Sounds way to idealistic. Why try? Too much opposition. It’s true this is difficult to put into practice. We can do it on our own.
We need help, and we get it from Jesus. The key to living in this reality is to realize the victory of Jesus in the resurrection.
If any of you saw the movie 300—it was the story of the battle of Thermopalye. Several hundred men of Sparta stood in a narrow mountain pass and held off over 2 million Persian warriors for 3 days, giving time and inspiration for the Greek armies to amass themselves to defeat the incredible Persian army.
What the movie doesn’t tell you is what happens in Greece as a result of this victory. Stephen Pressfield wrote about the aftermath of the war in Gates of Fire (380):
Stephen Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, p380
“The ruined city rose again. With astonishing speed the walls and port were rebuilt, the building of commerce, the courts, the houses and shops and markets and factories.
“Trade boomed. The treasure and commerce of the world flooded into Athens. Yet as massive as this economic growth was, it paled in comparison to the effects of victory upon individuals. Optimism and enterprise fired each man. Commoners thrust themselves forward with vigor and confidence. The hand of heaven, it seemed, had set itself in benediction upon each man's shoulder, banishing all timidity and hesitation. Overnight the Greeks had seized the stage of destiny. They had defeated the mightiest army and navy in history. What lesser undertaking could now stop them? What enterprise could they not accomplish?
“In the flush of triumph the arts exploded. Theater and the chorus flourished, the Greeks were sure this would endure forever.”
This is an amazing picture of how this greatest victory sparks new life, new hope, and produces a new world.
This is exactly what Jesus has done in his resurrection. At work, there are formidable forces warring against God’s plan for work. It feels like there are armies of 2 million plus that are against us in the workplace.
Jesus has defeated them all in his death and resurrection. In his resurrection, Jesus has launched God’s project of new creation.
There is such an amazing adrenaline rush when going into battle, there is adrenaline driven by fear and the knowledge that life and death are on the line. This affects even civilians during times of war. The adrenaline courses through your veins, enabling you to fight more formidably than you’d be able to otherwise.
Then, when the war is over, that adrenaline high begins to fade, but the energy level is still very high. This adrenaline pushes itself out in terms of bursts of creativity and a resurgence of new life.
The same thing is true for us. When we experience the victory of Jesus over sin and death in the workplace, we are filled too—not with adrenaline, but with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This victory affects all of us who believe. Jesus’ resurrection is the ceremonial ground breaking of the New Heavens and Earth.
And this affects us. 2Cor 5:17. We become “new creation.”
If you’re struggling because work isn’t creating heaven on earth, then trust in Jesus. Whether it’s for the first time or the fortieth time, believe in him. Jesus transforms you. He makes you now what you will be in the new heavens and earth. That’s what gives you the power to create heaven on earth at your work. He creates heaven in you, now you create it at work.
And we need help from each other. You can’t do this on your own. You need the support and help from others. Talk about how to put this into practice in your community groups. Join the upcoming Faith and Work group: Your Work Matters to God. The entire Faith and Work ministry is designed by Michelle Corbett and Denise Yohn to help you with this integration. These are resources that can help you know exactly how to begin implementing these truths.
When you grasp this victory, and begin to experience it, this is what transforms the city, individuals in the city, the arts, the workplace. It creates heaven at work.
V1—God created the heavens and the earth.
V2—the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the deep.
V3—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
V4—God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
V10—God saw that it was good.
V11—God creates plants and fruit trees that reproduce according to their kinds.
V16—God made the two great lights—the sun and the moon, and the stars. The sun governed the day, the moon to govern the night.
V22—When God made the birds and sea creatures he told them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
V26-28—God made man in his image and likeness, and he let them rule over creation and the other creatures.
V29—I give you all plants and fruit trees to eat. They’ll be yours for food.
V31—God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
2:2—The seventh day God rested from all his work.
- Already/Not Yet, Now & more to come, Our lives, especially at work, are like a movie trailer of heaven, like licking the spoon with the cheesecake batter (foretaste)—not brownie or cookie dough because they are better raw, like Tarzan, a downpayment, a guarantee
- Work is a way to image God—citizenship (Ph 3:20)—you bring the culture of heaven to work
- It affirms the goodness of the world we live in (we’re not just here to evangelize people)
- It causes us to think through turning whatever work we have into a calling (or at least a vocation)
- More than just who you are, more than just relationships in the workplace, THE WORK YOU DO IMAGES GOD, SERVES YOUR COMMUNITY, LOVES YOUR NEIGHBOR, MAKES THE WORLD TODAY THE WAY IT’LL BE IN THE NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH
- This approach to work illuminates the purpose of work. It gives your work lasting significance. In fact, this turns all work into an invitation. As we work, God is showing us what he does in the world every day, what he is concerned about every day, and he invites us to work alongside him and to know him through the work that we do.
Importance of categorizing my job:
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- Makes your job honorable, since it imitates/images something God is doing in the world. If it’s not too mundane for God, then it isn’t too mundane for you.
- Gives you a reason to be excellent in your work. If it reflects God, then your work is a reflection on God. If he is doing this, then it can and should be done well.
The Faith and Work ministry has designed a small group class to better help you understand how to make these connections and how these connections will help you with honoring and imaging God in your work.
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