Work in the service of God

How do you view your job? A necessary evil? A means of simply putting bread on the table? Something that gives me value and worth? Something I enjoy?

We are encouraged today to live for the weekend, or if you are a teacher for those blissful 13 weeks of the year, when we stop our work and do what we actually want to do.

But the Bible has a lot to say about work and no where more so than in the book of Daniel. The big emphasis on Daniel is on the Sovereignty of God, its why 6:26-7 provide a neat summary of ch1-6 and a bridge into ch7-12. God is sovereign and one of the direct consequences of God's sovereignty is that Daniel and his friends are able to live as they do. They are exemplary in their service of the King (whichever king that may be), they excel, they stand hand and shoulders above everyone else in terms of knowledge, wisdom and understanding but also in terms of character. They serve the Sovereign God as they excel in serving the king.

So often we live for the holidays, or in church circles see church work as being the ultimate work in service of God. Such attitudes are rubbish. God uses Daniel and his friends excellent service to speak to kings! The work place is the front line in the battle between the temporary kingdom of the world and the eternal, indestructible kingdom of God. We are to excel in serving God as we excel in our workplace.

Authentic Living (Part 2)

What does it look like to delight the Lord? As you reach the New Testament we see as God takes on flesh and becomes man in Jesus.

Here is Jesus being baptised in the Jordan, a strange event in itself as John recognises. So why is he baptised? Because “it is proper to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” says Jesus. And as Jesus comes up out of the water God speaks from heaven and declares “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Or I am delighted.

In Matthew 12:17-21 Jesus is again spoken of as the one in whom God delights as Jesus fulfils messianic prophecy.

“This was spoken to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my spirit on him,
And he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
No-one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.”


At the transfiguration Jesus is again identified by God as the one he loves, in whom he takes delight, yet soon after the shock of the gospels is that you get to the cross and you see the one in whom God delights cut off, dying under God’s curse, and you ask yourself why?

Because he is making a new covenant in which our wickedness has been paid for and we are credited with his righteousness, because there is no other way for us to righteous. Those who by faith believe in him are called to know God and to live lives to delight God, to make his character visible by our just and honest dealings with those around us, called to show that God has promised to meet all my needs and therefore I do not need to scheme to meet them myself. Called to live lives dominated by our awareness of Jesus, the one in whom delights, dying in our place so that God can delight in us as we are given his righteousness.

That awareness is to prompt, to provoke us to authentic living.

Authentic living

“The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.” Proverbs 11:1.

That was the passage I was preaching on last night. It is passage that instructs the Lord's covenant people to live in the light of that grace bought relationship. It is a call for God's people to mirror the character of the God who has redeemed them and to live to delight God.

God loves honesty, integrity and justice, he despise deceit, dishonesty and injustice. God's people if they are living authentically will live in such a way that it delights God and displays his love, mercy and justice to the world through their actions.

It is to affect my selling - I am to be open, and honest. I am to delight God in my description of what I sell and in my conduct whilst selling. Be it a house with noisy neighbours, an article on eBay, or a product or service at work.

It is to affect my buying - I am not to exploit others in order to get a bargain. It must affect my shopping in the supermarket, the clothes I buy. I am to delight God in my buying not delight my bank manager.

It is to affect my actions with what I buy -be it software, Cd's, DVDs, whatever. I am to delight God in my use of such things, not to seek to deceive the seller.

To live authentically as one of God's covenant community is to live to delight God.