Human life comes with a built-in purpose to live fully before God in every area of your life - including work.

1. In The Beginning,
There Was Work.
[ Genesis 1:1-2:3 ]

2. the office

3. ?why work

4. 40 hours
The average adult will work
2000 hours
94,000 hours
per week
per year
over the course of life

5. ?
Does my work
have any real
purpose

6. Work Matters
How the Gospel Connects
Faith & Work
Summer Series at New City Church

7. In The Beginning
There Was Work
[ Genesis 1:1-2:3 ]

8. 1
How the text describes God as
a worker
2
Be on the lookout for...
How the text describes human
beings as workers
3
How the text connects God’s
work & humanity’s work

9. 1 In the beginning, God created the
Genesis 1:1-2:3
heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was
formless and void, and darkness was
over the face of the earth.

10. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in
Genesis 1:1-2:3
our image, after our likeness. And let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.”

11. 27 So God created man in his own image,
Genesis 1:1-2:3
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

12. 28 And God blessed them. And God said
Genesis 1:1-2:3
to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill
the earth and subdue it and have domin-
ion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over every living
living thing that moves on the earth.” 29
And God said, “Behold, I have given you

13. …every plant yielding seed that is on the
Genesis 1:1-2:3
face of the earth, and every tree with seed
in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth and
every bird of the heavens and to every-
thing that creeps on the earth, everything
that has the breath of life, I have given

14. …every green plant for food.” And it was
Genesis 1:1-2:3
so. 31 And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was
morning, the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the
heavens and the earth were finished, and
all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh

15. …day God finished his work that he
Genesis 1:1-2:3
had done, and he rested on the seventh
day from all his work that he had done.
3 So God blessed the seventh day and
made it holy, because on it God rested
from all his work that he had done in
creation.

16. 1 God matters.

17. How much of
your life do
you live as if
God matters
?

18. You have made us
for yourself, and
our hearts are
restless until they
find rest in you.
~ Augustine (354-430)
Confessions

19. 1 God matters.
2 You matter.

20. “When I look at your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars which
you have set in place, what is man that
you are mindful of him, and the son of man
that you care for him? You have set him a
little lower than [the heavenly beings*] and
crowned him with glory and honour.”
~ Psalm 8

21. Knowledge
of God
Knowledge
of Self

22. “You have forgotten who you are
and so have forgotten me….
You are more than you have become….
Remember who you are.
You are my son.”

23. Let every man think himself
an act of God.
~ Phillip James Bailey
Festus (1839)
“

24. 1 God matters.
2 You matter.
3 Your work matters.

25. “Made in God’s image,
man has the unique
responsibility to ‘subdue’
the earth and rule over
every living creature. This
subduing involves the
bringing out of all the
potential within the
creation which might offer
glory to the Creator.”

26. Work was meant to be
a good thing.
It was also meant to be
a God-centred thing.

27. ‘Justification by faith alone’ is surely the
most important contribution of the
Reformation. The second most important,
arguably, is the ‘doctrine of vocation.’
~ Gene Edward Veith
“Our Calling & God’s Glory”
“

28. Vocation = Calling
(Latin: vocare)

29. Vocation = Calling
(Latin: vocare)
1
We have a calling from God to know
God.

30. Vocation = Calling
(Latin: vocare)
1
We have a calling from God to know
God
2
We have a calling from God to know
ourselves.

31. Vocation = Calling
(Latin: vocare)
1
2
3
We have a calling from God to
engage our work in his presence.
We have a calling from God to know
God
We have a calling from God to know
ourselves.

32. Human life comes with a built-in
purpose to live fully before God in
every area of life—including work.

33. “The Four-Chapter Gospel”
Creation The Fall Redemption Restoration
1 2 3 4

34. “The Four-Chapter Gospel”
Creation The Fall Redemption Restoration
1 2 3 4
Our calling to work was built-in
from the beginning—before the Fall.

37. “...before sin entered
the world...it was
necessary for people to
occupy themselves with
some work. Why?
Because it was against
our nature to be useless
blocks of wood.”
~ John Calvin, 1509-1564

38. ~ The Apostle Paul in
1 Corinthians 10:31
“So, whether you eat
or drink, or whatever
you do, do it all to the
glory of God.”

39. NCC, may you be a
people whose lifework is
done for the glory of
your Creator God.