Tim Keller - Why Work Matters

the topic is why work matters and I've often thought that the the Christian understanding of work and vocation can fairly well be grasped under two headings that have to do with that I'd like to tell you why your work matters to God and why God matters to your work if you understand both of those I think you have a pretty good picture what the Bible says about work that work matters to God and that God matters to work let's get going from this recently I've done some more study on Martin Luther and his views of work and during the time of the Reformation of course it was a time of great upheaval and there was really a Christianity in many bad and good ways divided in ways that are we still with us the medieval church was a church that dominated society it just dominated it it created as it were Christian society another form of the wrath a Reformation was called a radical work Reformation the Anabaptist by the way not to be mistaken necessarily with Baptists but it was a it was a wing of the Protestant Reformation that said it was the opposite of the medieval approach which is to say that we should have nothing to do with trying to engage society many other people the radical Reformation said that you shouldn't vote that you certainly shouldn't serve in the military that wasn't our job that the world was actually a sort of Satan's world and it's only inside the Christian community that you you can do God's work and so on the one hand you had the the triumph allistic approach that talked about Christianity dominating society and then you had the withdrawal approach that we have nothing to do with it interestingly both the medieval church and the radical Reformation both had a tendency to say that work out there in the world isn't really God's work what's really God's work is work inside the church now along comes Martin Luther and actually wasn't the only one in both the Lutheran and Reformed churches were good at this they they came up with a middle way recently I've been doing some reading there that that shows a wonderful approach to and a very biblical approach to work especially Luther came up with first of all Luther in his famous address to the to the Christian nobility of the German nation talks about how wrong it is to think of dividing Christianity Christian work into spiritual work and secular worldly work and in that place he talks about the priesthood of all believers he says this he says there has been a fiction by which bishops priests and monks are called the spiritual estate quote unquote well while princes Lords and artisans and peasants are considered the temporal estate this is an artful lie and a hypocritical invention never minced words but let no one be made afraid of it and that for this reason that all Christians are truly the spiritual state and there is no difference among them thus we are all consecrated as priests by baptism as st. Peter says you are a royal priesthood a holy nation and the book of Revelation says and thou hast made us unto our God by thy blood kings and priests so first of all he says hey it's not a spirit you don't do not say well only the people inside the church are doing God's work oh no we're all priests every Christian therefore we're all doing God's work or what does that mean all right in his expositions of some of the Psalms especially Psalm 145 147 if you read those Psalms they're wonderful Psalms in which it talks about how God feeds every living thing God gives food to every living thing he feeds the and he loves everything that he is made and it also says it's just it's you know when you read it you don't think of the implications the way I got like Martin Luther did it says for example in first in Psalm 147 verse 13 God strengthens the bars of your gates he gives your cities security he gives you food to eat and you sit there and say yes yes but Martin Luther then thought this out and he said some interesting things actually some amazing things here's one of the things he says he says God could easily have given you grain and fruit without plowing and planting but he does not want to do so then he gives an illustration he says when christmas is coming you know you're gonna give your kids gifts anyway but what you tell them is st. Nicholas will not give you gifts unless you're very good and you work very hard and so you get your kids to be really good and really hard even though you're gonna give them gifts anywhere I can think of a slightly better illustration actually though I get the point let's just say you go to a cabin with your son which I used to do very cold taking them out when they're little and camping and then use it's very very cold you say you know what we're gonna freeze to death unless we keep a fire going in the stove or the whole weekend and it says I want you you have to cut the wood I'm going to show you how to chop the wood it's up to you to keep it chopped it's up to you to keep the fire stoked and why do you say that to a 9 year old boy you know you're not gonna let him freeze you know if he doesn't do the work you're gonna you're gonna keep him with warm anyway what are you doing you want to involve him you know it's it's a you want to you want to train him you want him to be part of the family you want to be part of doing the work that we do now that's that's Luther's idea then listen to this he says what else then is all of our work to God whether in the fields in the garden in the city in the house in war or in government but such child's performance by which he wants to give us his gifts therefore our work these are the masks of God behind which he wants to remain concealed and do all things did he get that he goes on to say when the farm girl milks the cow to give you milk that's God milking the cats with God's Way of giving you milk he didn't have to use her but he does when the farmer grows it when the Baker bakes it when the transport transports it when the grocer sells it what is that God doesn't have to do it that way but he is and what he's actually doing he's loving you through the other people's work in which case he actually goes so far as to say the baker the farmer in work it's God in disguise these are the masks of God God is loving you and distributing his gifts through work therefore you really in the place of God he actually goes on a little further he actually says for example he says you know what he goes this is Luther going on saying when it says God strengthens the bars of your gates and Luther goes a little further and says well now bars means the gates but he says what makes a city secure is not just bar it's not just gates or hiring bars he said what makes what makes a city secure and this is his list he says wherever there's protection and security it's not by it's a gift of God why it says whenever there what you missing it yes he says good whenever there's good order faithful and wise rulers good government good city ordinances good city planning he also says God could bring babies up out of the dust after all I did it in the beginning but instead he his fathers and mothers and childbearing and so here's his conclusion he says when you marry and bear children that's a calling of God this is God's Way of bringing life into the world you are God in disguise when you work when you bake when you dig a ditch when you build a bridge when you write a play this is God distributing his gifts God giving people what they need to flourish through the work of other people when you simply are a good neighbor the way he just says you know what makes cities secure what makes it how does God keep the bars of the city how does how does God make cities secure this Luther says he says there it says when you're a good neighbor when you vote when you knock on doors to see if the older people are okay he goes on and says by being a good neighbor you are giving God's gift of security to your city he says among the Jews there is a curse may God give you a bad neighbor he says the peace God gives is a gift of His grace but comes through ordinary Civic Duty's being a good neighbor living in the community being involved voting involved in public institutions so on so over and over he says does your work matter to God absolutely there is no work that's menial Jesus came not as a philosopher not as a general he came as a carpenter and therefore by this this understanding that God is distributing his gifts through our work the Bible says all work matters all work is dignity all work not just work that pays a lot in our economy all work so that's why our work matters to God now the second thing and this isn't enough on the other hand you have to understand that God matters to our work and what that means is belief in God belief in the scriptures belief in the gospel affects how you do your work let me strike a couple balances here because this is actually the balance we've been trying to strike at Redeemer and center for faith and work and it's not an easy balance actually to strike I'll tell you why in a second there's triumphalism and there's withdrawal remember we said that that was the thing that Luther and Calvin and the river you know the Magisterial reformers were trying to avoid there's the triumphalism it says we're it's a very negative view of the world a very negative view of society we're gonna take over it's a terrible place we're gonna we're going to take it back you know the medieval view dominate the other approach is that the world is just sort of that's a worldly thing and here is the Christian Church and is where we do God's work and you're schizophrenic you don't really think that your faith has anything to do with how you do your work you just do your work because you have to because you got to make a living it's a very very it's also a very negative approach we the point is according to the Bible when Jesus Christ came he brought the kingdom the kingdom is a healing power of God in the way in the world but when Jesus Christ came the first time he didn't bring the kingdom fully sometimes around Redeemer we say if you would understand the biblical understanding of the kingdom and the kingdom of God is already but not yet it's already here partly but it's not yet here fully and what that means is the power that's in within us as Christians if you're priests a royal priesthood which means you're out there representing the values of the king you go out into the world to say how does Christianity affect how does Jesus values affect the way in which I work if I do that I'm gonna make a better society but not a perfect society it's things are gonna get better because the kingdoms partly here but it's not gonna be perfect you're not gonna take over you're not gonna give a Christian society because God Jesus isn't fully here that balance avoiding triumphalism or on the other hand the pessimistic withdrawal is what we try to strike however and I know here's another part of the balance not every field is the same when it comes to thinking out how God matters to your work I mean how does my Christianity affect the way which I work think for a minute even just of art here's instrumental musicians are you artist yes you are and here's a playwright you're right plays are you an artist yes you are on the one hand is there a Christian way to perform that violin concerto no there's probably just a good way or a bad way right now you could say whoever composed the violin concerto we can talk about the fact that different cultures Christianity Buddhism Hinduism do create different kinds of music and there's an interesting question there but in general if you're a Christian instrumentalist you're not sitting around saying what is the Christian way to perform this concerto no you're not on the you certainly ought to be Christian in your motivation you're certainly gonna hear Christianity is going to affect why you do what you do and how you treat your relative success or failure and and how you treat the people around you it's gonna affect the way in which you do your work but in some ways it's not gonna actually shape what you do on the other hand if you're a playwright you're all about values and right and wrong and truth and the human nature and what's the meaning of life and you know your Christianity profoundly affects everything you do it's just exactly what you're doing you see the complexity of this I'm trying to avoid the triumphalism that says we dominate the society with our work or the withdrawal it says you know there's nothing you can do it's a wicked place out there I'm trying to avoid the simplicity of saying that there is a Christian way to do everything I'm sorry there's probably not a Christian way to bake bread if you are a baker you're probably going to treat your employees differently and maybe the maybe your price points will be a little different and maybe how you treat your customers but basically they've got to make the break that you're gonna bake bread pretty much the way an atheist is on the other hand well I hope on the other hand you're not going to right place like an atheist will and therefore you have to get rid of the simplicity we have to get rid of triumphalism we have to get rid of the that with with the the negativism and pessimism and say however nevertheless to be a Christian is to always say how does God matter to my work if you're in the business world you know profit is an idol which means profit is an ultimate and profit is more important than a whole lot of other things that are good and therefore there's a distortion in the business world if in the art world self-expression is an ultimate it's an idol what really matters is that I'm true to myself and I'm expressing myself and of course that creates distortions if you're a Christian in any field you ask yourself how does God matter to my work and it will matter but the way in which we work those things out often say this is when it comes to evangelism if you want to learn how to evangelize people come to me I got the answers in a way you know I got the illogical training I've been doing this for years you know and you can come you're the student and I'm the expert and I can tell you when it comes to thinking out what does it mean to be a Christian hedge fund manager what does it mean to be a Christian visual artist what does it mean to be a Christian journalist what does it mean to be Christian we're equal I've got some knowledge you've got some knowledge I got the Bible there's certain things that bear on it you've got the questions and we need to come together and as a community accumulate wisdom as we think and as we talk and as we pray and as we work it out avoiding falling off the cliffs over in these other directions avoiding falling off the cliff of triumphalism or pessimism you know or simplest you know simplistic ism made that up and that is there it is do you want to have a Christian understanding of work on the one hand that's why work matters to God because by it you're loving the human race and letting God's loving gifts come to them to the human race on the other hand you have to not only see that work matters to God but that God matters to you work in will shape and affect your motivation your way of dealing with other people your and very often the very way in which you do your work and we're as a church trying to on the one hand say your work matters that's why we have this the center for faith at work that's the reason why we preach about it that's reason why we do not ignore people's work lives how crazy it is since most of you spend 90 percent of your time in the work place for us to say that you know Christianity has nothing to do with that it has everything to do with that on the other hand we also are saying come together and only in the church can you really do this only within Christian community can you really do this to think out what it means to be a Christian in my work and do it when you're young if possible because as you going on and on and on older and older very often you get locked into your career gets very often locked in to certain values that you know and your head is a Christian I shouldn't be really doing it like that but I don't know what to do now because the way I make my money and it's very very important so I've already started to mention this but let me just say at Redeemer this view of work is a challenge if you come here from another Church or in other places in the country you usually will have either experience places where work is ignored by the church or work is seen in almost completely political ways saying we're going to take back the culture if you come from other places you might either have a more pietistic you might say approach to work which is all work is as a place to win other people to faith in Christ that's it you may have maybe come from a place where there was a little bit more of an intellectual istic approach to work which is to say you have to figure out what the how the what it means to be working in your areas of Christian worldview this Center faith in work and I know I I know I created the atmosphere for it so I'm very happy whenever they say oh thank you Tim but the center faith at work is really the the creation of a very talented group of leaders who took a lot of my basic ideas and just ran with them so that they're much more frankly cogent than and they're and they're being worked out practically and in all sorts of ways that I could never have envisioned and I appreciate it so so much I also would like to take a minute to read you something that a guy named Bobby might because they might be brighter or Brynner I don't know I've never known it's Bri NER wrote a book some years ago called roaring lambs a gentle plan to radically change your world and in it he said something that struck me years ago and always thought we should do this and actually Katherine and which Katherine told me let's do it at the end of your lecture here today I said it's a great this is what he says he's talking about the fact that whenever people go off in mission trips people get up and pray for them whenever somebody's going off to seminary you know to study for the ministry people will get you get up and charge them and pray for them and of course that's completely against Luther's idea that we're all priests and that all work matters to God and it's all ways in which God is actually loving the human race through your work and so a Bob Reiner says this quote there should be no less support or attention for an earnest Christian young person who has been accepted to the Juilliard School of Music than for one going off to a Theological Seminary the church needs writers performers artists speakers politicians businessmen and businesswomen and workers in every craft and trade in God's eyes there should be no hierarchy there certainly should not be in ours so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have Katherine come up here and she is going to have you stand by your profession I'm going to read you a couple of verses and charge you and pray for you the way you see people who are ministers being charged and prayed because we're going to do that for you too you know since we're going to be trying to live out what I just said Martin Luther says and the Bible says about work let me read you these two passages of Scripture Colossians 1:16 18 for by him all things were created things in heaven and earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body the church he is the beginning in the firstborn from the dead so that in everything he might have the preeminence in every area of life he might have preeminence and first Peter 2:9 but you are a Chosen People a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light did you hear that declare is a work of a prophet priesthood is a priest royal as king if you are that you live right now you're in a very big City New York it is an exhausting City it's a very hard place to work because of the pace of things it is a secular City it's very hard to bring your values to bear on the way in which you do your work and therefore because of the power the gospel I call you to think like a prophet serve like a priest and plan like a king it means getting together to think think how does he have preeminence in my my field it means to come together and serve each other and to serve the people around you in the city I mean the gospel gives you the humility to appreciate what's already happening in the city so you don't have to look down at it but at the same time it gives you the courage of a king it gives you the courage to get out and declare the the wonders of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light and show the world how God matters to your work let's pray our Father we do ask that you'd make us as wise as prophets as humble as priests and as bold as kings in our work we ask that you would help us to come together to nurture and support each other because it's a very hard place to work we ask that you would help us to come together to think out the implications of your word and the gospel on in our work because it's a very secular and difficult place to work in that sense but most of all Father we sometimes feel intimidated by this huge city and we pray that you would make us Kings a royal priesthood because we know who we are in Christ the strength of the gospel the humility of the gospel and the wisdom of the gospel we need so we might be prophets and priests and kings in this city we pray this in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Center for Faith & Work

Views: 127,534

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Keywords: Tim Keller Redeemer NYC, God, Faith and Work, Faith, Work, Gospel, Culture, NYC, Church, Tim Keller, Timothy Keller, Redeemer, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Redeemer NYC, Center for Faith & Work, CFW, Timothy J. Keller (Person), Gospel & Culture, Why Work Matters

Id: rTVIvdBIuLE

Length: 23min 22sec (1402 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2012