From the daily grind to unethical demands, Christians struggle to honor God at work. How do we find our identity amidst the challenges of vocational excellence, ethics, evangelism, and essence? If we emphasize one of these aspects to the neglect of the other, our motivation for work is easily distorted and our results can dishonor God. However, if we approach our work with these four aspects of work in proper focus, work can become worship! We can work in the workplace and not be "of it."

Ethical Work
The way we carry out our work can honor or dishonor God. If we fudge on the books, arrive late to work, or lie about our progress, we deny God honor in the realm of creation and culture. Even if our ethical compromise produces a superior product, we cheat the Creator of his glory by denying his moral nature and biblical commands. The end does not justify the means. Christian work cannot be excellent and unethical. How we work reflects who we are.

Excellent Work
On the other hand, we can work ethically without producing excellence. You may be punctual and honest while turning out inferior reports and products. If we are to do our work in an excellent way, we must not only strive to honor the moral nature of God but also the essential nature of God, his manifold excellence and comprehensive glory.

Evangelistic Work
Too many people use their workplace as a platform for evangelism. The film The Big Kahuna comes to mind, in which Bob makes work an excuse for evangelism. As a result, he blows the business deal. Christian work does not compromise excellence for the sake of evangelism.

To be sure, the workplace is a place of people, eternal beings with eternal destinies, people with real struggles and issues that only the gospel can solve. But if we do our work without redemptive concern for others, we reduce the purpose of our vocation to self-concern and self-promotion. Thus, it is important that we work with a broader view of the gospel, as a message that affects all of life, from people to culture.

Theological Work
Work as reflection on vocational essence is simply working with the nature and character of God in view. The attributes of God are reflected in the essence of our work. Artistic work reflects God’s life-giving creativity. Computer based work relies upon binary code, a sequence of ones and zeroes that enables our computers to function. In essence, computer work reflects order, order that reflects the orderly nature of God. Orderly computers can be used to crank out pornography, or they can be used to help care for hospital patients. But the essence of what computers do in our work reflects the orderly character of God.

Identity and Work
How do we find our identity in God instead of in work that is ethical, excellent, evangelistic, and theologically reflective? In order to avoid the pitfalls of these approaches to work, we must work from our acceptance in Christ, not for our acceptance. We should not seek the acceptance and applause of our coworkers or competition through unethical or less than excellent work. Instead, we can rest in God' acceptance and approval, working excellently to honor him (Col 3:22; 1 Cor. 15:50-58). No matter how tight our work ethic, we will inevitably fail. Instead of taking comfort in our superior work ethic, Christ calls us to rest in his finished work on our behalf (Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 9:23-28).

Instead of approaching work with a narrow view of the gospel, we can take the whole gospel into the whole workplace, contributing to the whole of society and ministering to people’s individual needs. As a result, we do excellent, ethical, and evangelistic work, not to earn God’s favor or to impress others, but as a faith effort, as an act of worship. As you work, rest in his acceptance and work for his honor.

Most good books have a preface or introduction of one sort or another. The first book of the Lord of the Rings begins with a chapter entitled, “Concerning Hobbits”. Star Wars always begins with, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” Without them we would not know that hobbits are small agrarian creatures with hairy feet, we might think Luke Skywalker is from Iowa rather than Tatooine. Psalm 1 serves this same purpose as the preface to the book of Psalms building a foundation on which the rest of the book comes to rest.

Delight or Destruction? Your choice

The psalm begins with a challenge: do not take the counsel of the wicked, be counted with sinners or join in with those who scoff (v1). Rather, delight yourself in God’s law, the whole of scripture in our case, and meditate on it day and night (v2). This is a challenge to a very high standard and is the qualification for the blessing that follows. If, and only if, the word of God becomes our delight, we will be blessed. We will be like a fruitful tree, well watered and nourished, we will not wither and all we do will prosper (v3).

However, if we we fail to delight in the scripture the opposite will be true. We will wither and die and the wind will blow us away (v4). God knows our hearts. We will not stand as righteous in the judgment and all our ways will perish (v5-6).

Your Best Life Now? Not necessarily...

I find that there is still a strong desire in my heart to adopt the “bible promise book” mentality I spoke of in my introduction to this series. I want to hold onto the promise that “all that I do will prosper” above all the rest of the prohibitions and cautions, but the psalmist will not let me. I have access to that blessing only to the extent that I delight in God’s word and keep it close in meditation. The great english preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon says it well:

“How few among us can lay claim to the benediction (blessing) of the text! Perhaps some of you can claim a sort of negative purity, because you do not walk in the way of the ungodly; but let me ask you - Is your delight in the law of God? Do you study God's Word? Do you make it the man of your right hand - your best companion and hourly guide? If not, this blessing does not belong to you."

from the “Treasury of David - Psalm 1”

Martin Luther also drives this home:
"...one does not meditate on the law of the Lord unless his delight was first fixed in it. For what we want and love, on that we reflect inwardly and diligently... Therefore let delight be first sent into the heart as the root, and then meditation will come o fits own accord."

from “Luther’s Works - Vol. 10 - Lectures on the Psalms”

Delight is much more than duty

I would take Luther’s comments a small step further to say that unless we delight first and foremost in Jesus we will not delight in his word. The scripture reveals the glory of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ through the illumination of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18-4:6). Jesus is the only man who has ever, or will ever, fulfill the righteous requirements of Psalm 1. He has never walked in the counsel of the wicked, stood with sinners or sat with scoffers. He delights in the law as the one who inspired it (Jn 1:1). As such, he experiences the fullest blessing possible as an eternally fruitful, everlasting tree of truth and righteousness. To be in the truth of the word is to be in Christ. Apart from him there is no truth at all.

I have a tendency to work from the outside in; to first ask, “what should I do?” before I ask, “who should I be?” But to “delight” in God’s word requires much more than a regular “quiet time” or daily devotional reading of the scripture. This could be a part of it but to delight requires a change in heart that is only possible through the the Holy Sprit. It means that we value, love, desire and take pleasure in the word. When this happens is becomes perfectly natural to meditate on scripture day and night. It also follows that what we do in that state would prosper as our hearts are unified with Jesus.

The Challenge

I would challenge you to ask the hard question, “where do I truly delight?” Ask the Spirit to search your heart for anything you delight in before Jesus and His word. Ask the Spirit to show you how to walk away from those idols and to place an insatiable desire for God’s word in their place. This is the heart of Psalm 1, Psalms 2-150 and the whole of Scripture.

Heavenly Father... Open the eyes of my heart that I might truly see your glory revealed in Jesus by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture. Reveal anything that opposes this and give me a deep delight in Your word. Grant that Jesus, as revealed in Your word, would be my deepest source of satisfaction, rest, comfort, pleasure and identity. Remind me that anything that prospers in my life ultimately comes from You. Amen.

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On September 17 and 18 Mars Hill Church hosted the Resurgence Fall Conference title: Continuous Worship. In this, the fourth of four main sessions, listen as Pastor Tim Smith walks us through how it looks to live lives of worship that focus on Jesus and seek to redeem the culture around us.

On September 17 and 18 Mars Hill Church hosted the Resurgence Fall Conference title: Continuous Worship. In this, the fourth of four main sessions, watch as Pastor Tim Smith walks us through how it looks to live lives of worship that focus on Jesus and seek to redeem the culture around us.

Fancy yourself the rightful king of a country, but now you're on the run because your own son has stirred up a rebellion again you. Your life is threatened. It's not that you are the rightful king of just any country, but you are king over God's own chosen covenant people; and God Himself has promised that "your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16). The well-being of God's people is tied to that promise and to your faithful perseverance in the Lord's love.

A year and a half ago, churches where I live began displaying banners that read: "Peace Is the Church's Business." Though hard to disagree with, the statement made me uneasy. That it was part of an interdenominational protest against the Iraqi war did not seem to have anything to do with it. That the banners appeared on churches that supported medical violence against the unborn and legislative violence against the institution of marriage was not it, either. I eventually realized my disagreement was more theological than political: I worried that the banners were a case of what C. S. Lewis called "Christianity And," a form of reductionism that takes one element of a complex whole--in this case the gospel work of peacemaking--and treats it as if it were the most important thing. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis describes how reductionism can undermine faith:

Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him . . . come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the state at which the religion becomes merely part of the "Cause," in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favor of [the Cause]. . . . Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.¹

"Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments"
Psalm 78:1-7

How many people do you know who have too much time on their hands? They are simply not busy enough and wish they could find more to do? How many families do you know that are burdened by too much free time?

THE WORSHIP WARS

One of the basic features of church life in the U.S. today is the proliferation of worship and music forms. This in turn has caused many severe conflicts both within individual congregations and whole denominations. Most books and articles about recent worship trends tend to fall into one of two broad categories.¹ "Contemporary Worship" (hereafter CW) advocates often make rather sweeping statements, such as "pipe organs and choirs will never reach people today." "Historic Worship" (hereafter HW) advocates often speak similarly about how incorrigibly corrupt popular music and culture is, and how they make contemporary worship completely unacceptable.²

The people of God have always been and will always be a people of song. If the enjoyment of song is gone, that is a symptom of far greater disease. A congregation's singing is not an absolute thermometer of their spiritual temperature, but it is one indicator. As Luther said way back in the Reformation days of the 16th century, "If any would not sing and talk of what Christ has wrought for us, he shows thereby that he does not really believe..." ¹

What is the role of singing in the life and worship of the church? According to most "church growth" experts a church's approach to music is a key factor in its potential for numerical growth. A large cement company in our area has its motto emblazoned on its trucks, "Find a need and fill it." If our motto was "Find the seeker's desire and fill it," then opinion polls on the role of music in the life and worship of the church would be crucial. But our motto must be, "Find the Seeker's desire and fulfill it" (Luke 19:10).

Only Americans could so deftly separate joy from solemnity. Perhaps it is our deep prohibitionist streak. We tend to think that joy has to be rather chaotic and unbounded, like a fraternity party, and that it loses its heart when structured in any way. In our opposition to solemn rituals, we are quite lonely in the history of the world and the church. Our Christian worship often follows in this American trench: some insist that it must be spontaneous and unbounded, and others insist on funereal solemnity.