You're listening to Mountain View Church Audio, Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse UConn. Here's this week's message. Nine times out of ten, when I ask someone how they're doing, I get the same word back. Busy. I'm just busy. Now, sometimes there's a tone of exhaustion in the reply, but other times there's a hint of pride almost. For some, it's a burden. For others, it's a badge of honor. But either way, it's become the most common way to describe our lives in Western society. And that's not good. Work and busyness have become a status measurement of our lives.
How much we've accomplished, how needed we are, whether we're able to keep up or hit goals and objectives, all of it. And we might call it drive or responsibility, which are good things on the surface. Don't get me wrong. God has designed us for work and it's good to work. But for too many of us, we've become obsessed with working so much, too much. And we're obsessed with staying busy for way too long.
My name is Jeremy, and I'm the lead pastor of Mountain View Church. We're in week three of our series, Uncovering Modern Idols and the Ways We've Misplaced Our Worship. Each week, we've been naming one more thing that quietly competes with God for the center of our lives. Now, for some, work has turned into the point of worship. It's consuming all devotion, attention, and affection. It has become a way to prove that we matter, maybe to provide safety, some tangibles for things that provide meaning, or maybe what we're running from, or maybe to feel needed or to feel wanted even. It's messy.
The fixation on work separates us from God, the one who has blessed us with the gift of work to begin with. So today, we're calling out the work idol, and we're running back to God with the rest, for the rest that we all need. Hello, my name is Sarah. Our scripture reading today is from Psalm 127, verses 1 and 2. You're welcome to follow along with the physical Bible. Search the table of contents to locate the corresponding page number for Psalms. Alternatively, you can download the Bible app or visit bible.com. A song of a sense of Solomon.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. In the first two verses of Psalm 127, King Solomon uses the word vain three times. On the surface, we can easily see the context is about work, but more specifically, it's about the foundation of our work. We read, What are you building and developing right now? It will only stand if God is the one building it with you. Next, we read, What are you guarding and protecting right now? It will only stay safe if God is the one watching over it, with you.
He doesn't need you, but he wants to do it with you. He wants to be a part of it with you. Next we read, it is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. You can put every waking hour into your work to the point where you're utterly exhausted, but it'll never be over and you'll never find rest unless all of your work is placed in God's hands, trusting him with results each and every day. Now summed up.
Our work is vanity unless God is the builder. Our work is vanity unless God is the builder. Whatever career, trade, or business that you're currently building, either God is the one holding it up or you are laboring in vain, no matter how many hours you throw into it. The temptation now is to keep giving more and more and more and more, and you're working harder and harder and harder and harder until your entire life revolves around your work, your career, your trade, and you are convinced or you're convincing yourself that you'll reach some sort of end, that eventually it'll end. And you might even tell yourself that a breakthrough is coming just around the corner. Then at that moment, you'll finally get the rest you'll need and you'll be able to refocus on God and all the other things, the good things he's given you. But I'm telling you, the evidence is clear for many years now that it never ends. You can work yourself to death. And that work can become such a devotion, such a fixation that everything, everything in your life is overtaken by work. And this is what Solomon calls vanity.
Now, maybe you're wondering, what does vanity have to do with worship and idols? You know, have we gotten off track here? Well, it actually comes down to the Hebrew understanding of that word, vain. For the Hebrew reader, vanity is emptiness, futility, deception, and worthlessness, all wrapped into that word. And so figuratively, it's the outcome of idolatry, where you're pouring worship and devotion into something, the idol, whatever that idol may be, that is unable to provide, and that has deceived someone, or deceived you, deceived me, depending on the circumstance, into a useless and destructive pursuit or path. That's the Hebrew understanding.
And so from that, we see that there's a constant, empty, worthless labor in the vain work of working, working, working, and it's a form of idolatry. Even in our modern Western context, we get caught in this trap, building our life on something that will never be enough and will never fulfill us. Physically and mentally, we're wasting our life, but spiritually, that's worse. We're worshiping the work. Pastor and theologian Tim Keller spent years studying how work becomes a hiding place for our hearts, highlighting that personal idols profoundly drive and shape our behavior, including our work.
Keller is highlighting that the job itself isn't the problem. It's deeper than that, centered on what we expect our work to give us or how we expect our work should fulfill us. Christian philosophy professor Dallas Willard saw the same pattern, but from a different angle. When his friend John Ortberg, worn out from pastoring a fast-growing church, called him for advice, Dallas gave him one line, you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Ortberg later said that hurry had become the great enemy of spiritual life in our day, and that one sentence from Dallas Willard never left him.
He was talking about a slippery slope of work and busyness. Hurry can be like a signpost that we've started down that all-consuming, busy, work, hurry life that will consume our soul. So it's important to note that the idol of work rarely looks like sin, at least not in the beginning. You see, in our culture, it hides behind diligence, responsibility, great things. Even in Christian circles, we see this. I mean, it's doubtful that anybody would ever announce that they're worshiping their job. And yet, like almost every single form of misplaced worship that leads to idolatry, it shows up in one of three areas in our lives. Our identity, our security, and our belonging. Within work, here's a few examples. First, look at work-centered identity. It shows up in feeling empty the moment you're not being productive.
needing a win at work to feel value or worth, seeing a bad performance as a character flaw instead of an area to improve. These markers reveal an internal problem of worth, but God has already given us all the value we could ever need, and we could never work for it or to get more of it or to earn it somehow. It doesn't work like that. Moving on to work-centered security, which shows up in refusing to take a day off because stopping feels too risky, or maybe working through sickness instead of trusting other team members, or maybe measuring the future by your performance instead of God's provision. These markers reveal a deeper issue of faith and trust, whether or not we believe God cares for us and whether or not he's in control of our future. Lastly, look at work-centered belonging. These markers show up in feeling closer to your co-workers than to your own family. Maybe staying late because you feel more valued at work than you do at home. Maybe you're internally confusing the need of your team with being loved by your team members. You see, we were created by God in his image. He loves us and wants a relationship with us.
Our primary source of belonging should be found in him. We need to chase that down, really, but we need to give ourselves enough of a break from that work to do it. Give ourselves a break, rest, stop, pause, which brings us to the topic of Sabbath, taking a day of intentional rest every week. As a reminder, the concept of Sabbath was created by God in the beginning, demonstrated by him when he rested after six days of creation. Then later in the Torah, he outlined the rules for Sabbath for his people. In Exodus 20, we read, six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work.
Now, fast forward to the Gospels. After God sent his son, Jesus, to the world, we see some religious leaders that had corrupted God's good law of Sabbath. They twisted it into an opportunity to control God's people. One day, while Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field on the Sabbath, the disciples started picking some grain and eating it. They were snacking. The religious leaders verbally attacked Jesus because his disciples were breaking the law of Sabbath, because they were picking grain, which they saw as harvesting. That's not really it, is it? These leaders had twisted God's law.
and turned it into an idol of sorts. So Jesus rebuked them and said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the son of man, speaking about himself, is Lord even of the Sabbath. As Jesus would say in another text, he didn't come to abolish God's law, but to fulfill it. In the context of Sabbath, he reframes it as a gift of human flourishing, not as a rule that we need to follow. Okay, now let's fast forward even further. After Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, and the day of Sabbath, it shifted.
Although the original Jewish Sabbath was on Saturday, Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, conquering sin and death. The empty tomb of Jesus became a symbol of the work being finished, the salvation, redemption, and forgiveness complete, that all human beings could be restored into right relationship with God. And so this is why for 2,000 years now, all churches, they meet on Sundays for worship. Sunday is our day of rest now, not as a law, but as a response to the empty tomb. And although I doubt I have any evidence on this, for some reason, Sundays become a really great day to nap, don't they?
Now, that being said, we need to be careful that we don't fall into the same trap as the religious leaders. And some churches have a problem with this. They force Sabbath on a Sunday. They force people not to work. But in our world right now, that's not always easy. Some people work on weekends, and some people work long shifts, like seven days on and then seven days off, or some mix of that. So it's not always going to work out in our day and age. And yet, Scripture and human flourishing provide clear evidence that we're built for a day of rest, preferably once each week.
The physical and spiritual practice of Sabbath rest is one of the greatest defenses against the idol of work. And if you're prone to see work as your greatest love and devotion, I'm telling you, forcing a day of rest, closing a laptop, putting away the tools, and turning off the notifications will remind your heart it'll be good for your soul week after week that the world keeps turning, even without you. Sabbath rest is a weekly rehearsal of trust, reminding yourself that God was holding everything together before you ever got involved, and he'll be doing it long after. It's a repeated act of worship. When we choose to Sabbath, we let go of whatever we're toiling with, handing it back to God to oversee and to control it until there's a time for us to pick it back up again. In his book, The Rest of God, pastor and author Mark Buchanan unpacks the deeper benefits of practicing Sabbath. He writes, Sabbath imparts the rest of God, actual, physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God. The rest of God, he means the things of God's nature and presence that we miss in our busyness.
I hope you can see how Buchanan sums up our pursuit of identity, security, and belonging in that one sentence. By stopping and resting, we finally have room for God, for the rest of God. In his presence, our identity, our security, and our belonging are all found. And a weekly Sabbath renews that. So we're ready for work the next day or when God gives us opportunity. You see, God's given us everything we need and he's caring for everything we have. So why not give him a day? Why not give yourself a day?
Now, I realize that for some of you, even the idea of a full day of rest, depending on your situation, it feels terrifying. You're worried that if you stop, everything will fall apart. And you're convinced that your team or your clients will realize they don't need you maybe as much as you think. There's a fear in that. It's insecure, but it's reality. Or maybe that that full day of stillness will expose how much of you is wrapped up in work and in your job. Maybe you're just afraid to stop and be alone.
If that's where you're at, there's no judgment or shame. That's not what I'm doing here. I'm just saying that you should listen to that worry and maybe lean into it. Before you implement rest in your schedule, you need to find rest for your soul. God gave us his son, Jesus, to give us that soul level rest. Jesus said, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Clinging to Jesus is the first step of letting go of any idol.
If you keep chasing identity, security, and belonging through your work or anything else, you're going to remain trapped. And for you, if it's work, you're going to be trapped in the bondage of deadlines. Your family will always just get the leftovers of your time and energy. And your body, it'll eventually crash. Your body, your mind, it will force you to slow down or worse, in terrible situations, it'll force you to stop entirely. You'll have a massive health episode and you won't be able to go back to work. But today's the day. You can stop that cycle. You can accept that work has become far too important in your life and you need to surrender it to Jesus.
Ask for his forgiveness and then receive his rest. Once you trade your devotion to work for a devotion to Jesus, you will experience a transformation, not just in your heart and mind, but in your job and in your career. I promise you. Remember that God created us to work. It's a good thing. Work is an essential and rewarding part of human experience. Unfortunately, like so many good things, Satan twisted it and distorted work into an addictive idol.
And so once you put work back in its rightful place the way God wanted, and making Jesus Lord and King over the work that you do, you will discover a brand new joy and peace in all your plans and projects of your career or trade. You'll find moments of worship and closeness to God throughout your workday. Doesn't that sound way better than what's happening now? Work can be worship when God is the builder. Let me say that again. Work can be worship if you make God the builder. Take a moment right now.
Think about the work you do and why you do it. How might you be seeking identity, security, and belonging from your trade or career? Visualize it, name it, maybe pause this video and write it down, reflect on it. After you've kind of isolated that, then take some time right now and pray this prayer with me. Dear God, I'm bringing you my work, all the deadlines, the pressure, and the busyness that I've been clinging to. Forgive me for building my value and worth on something that was meant to be a gift from you. Thank you for sending Jesus to finish the work of salvation on the cross.
Thank you for the resurrection, the empty tomb, and the reminder to rest in you. Help me learn to Sabbath well, not because I have to, but because I get to. Help me trust you for the outcomes of my work from this day forward. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you for joining us and taking the time to reflect on your work life. If you're fairly new to our content, we would love to get to know you more.
Simply take a moment right now and visit mountainview.church slash connect or send us a DM through social at mountainviewwhitehorse. If you're a parent, please consider checking out our video content for kids, including downloadable lessons and activities. You can find it all at mountainview.church slash children. Now, here's this week's ministry updates. Hey everyone, my name is Colby, and this is my wife Amelia, and we are this year's junior youth leaders. Some of you may not recognize us, as we moved up to Whitehorse this past spring, and we were back home in Red Deer, Alberta getting married in July. Back home in Red Deer, we attended Crossroads Church, and I worked with the junior youth age group there for several years. We are so happy to have found such a great community in Mountain View Church, and have joined the ministry mentorship program to further our own personal relationship with Jesus, as well as our skills in ministry. If you see us around, please don't hesitate to come and say hi. We look forward to continuing to get to know all of you.
For those who attend our physical gatherings, we've relaunched our 8 a.m. gathering this month to alleviate the high attendance we've been experiencing at 930, specifically within our children's space. That being said, the early risers have been few and far between. So we'll continue hosting the 8 a.m. gathering through September, but if it doesn't pick up, we're going to remove it starting in October. Please don't hear this as guilt or obligation in any way. We're simply trying to solve the great problem we have right now of a growing church and a growing children's ministry.
Now, speaking of October, we'll be hosting baptisms on Sunday, October 4th at all of our physical gatherings. If you've given your life to Jesus, but never publicly declared it through baptism, this is your opportunity. To sign up or find out more, you can go to mountainview.church slash baptism. Now it's time for our weekly discussion and prayer focus. For those of you who are watching with friends or family, ask each other this question. If you're watching online, drop a comment in the feed and we'd love to hear from you. The discussion question for today, for this week is, what are you building right now that God needs to be building with you or for you? What are you building right now in your work?
that God needs to be building, either with you or for you. After you hash that out a bit, after you discuss a bit, then spend some time in prayer together. Ask God for rest in Sabbath through a consistent day off and in your soul through Jesus. Ask God for rest in Sabbath through a consistent day off and in your soul through Jesus. And lastly, come back next week as we're looking at the idol of platform.
We're going to unpack our obsession with reputation and influence, becoming fixated with how many people are watching us. That might not be a problem for you, or maybe it is. So we'll be uncovering the misplaced worship of status and performance instead of living for an audience of the only one who really matters. So whether it's you or someone you know, come back next Sunday. We're going to unpack it. See you then.
If you prayed to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church. Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City of Whitehorse UConn.