Unstuck: 90,000 Hours | Part 6

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

We've been in a series, we're actually concluding it today, called Unstuck.

We're asking this question.

Like, how do you get unstuck in some of the most significant areas in your life?

And today we're going to be talking about our work.

And to begin that conversation, I want to go back on something that we've said before in the past.

So if you've been around for a while, you've maybe heard me say this before, but it's been a while, but it's really true because we live in a, don't we just live in kind of like an interesting place to work?

There is just a energy, a frenetic activity and intensity when it comes to the Silicon Valley.

Call it maybe the Silicon Valley Hustle.

We'd had our small group last night.

We were talking about it, you know, doing the freed up app and everything.

And a friend of mine just called it, he's talking about his life and work right now.

It's like, it's a grind.

And that kind of just how it feels.

It's it's a grind.

There's something about the valley.

It can just grind you down.

And here's what I think, if we could talk about the Silicon Valley hustle, what it is, is first, you come to the valley, it's success at any cost.

And really, success is probably the god of the Silicon Valley to be successful, upwardly mobile, to be that startup that has that huge success.

And the problem then is it's success at the expense of significance, of purpose, and deep meaning.

You miss out on what matters most.

And then you have this um, well, this is true, busyness as a badge of honor, right?

Like, how you doing?

Busy, right?

What and and isn't it funny?

Like, if you're not busy, you feel guilty and you don't even want to share it with somebody?

Like, how you doing?

Rested?

Like, who says that?

Right?

Fantastic?

You know, like like we don't say that, like we wear busyness as this badge of honor, like somehow I've arrived, or I'm important to be busy.

And yeah, what happens is we're overworked yet underfulfilled, aren't we?

We just uh have this, like, oh, maybe just even a weariness that verges on perhaps even an emptiness.

And then the reason we do all this, the reason we pursue all this is financial freedom's the goal.

And that was what really week one of um Freed Up is we're just talking about financial freedom and what that means, and and how we can all you know, maybe even define that a little bit differently, but we're we're moving towards whatever that financial freedom goal is.

But the truth is, in the valley, for many of us, we have more money but less shalom.

Now, shalom is uh it's a really powerful word.

Often what we talk about it or when it's translated into English, it's peace.

But it's so much more than just peace.

Shalom is this idea of wholeness, completeness.

Peace has the connotation of a lack of strife, which that certainly has that, but it's so much more than that.

It's actually a sense of pervasive well-being.

Like that's what our hearts long for.

That's the state we ultimately desire, that relationally, vocationally, uh, all of our world, that there's a sense of complete wholeness and well-being.

And so often the activity of our lives pushes out peace or shalom.

Now, the sermon title today is called 90,000 hours.

Go ahead and say that to your neighbor.

90,000.

Uh it's been estimated that uh the average person will work 90,000 hours in their lifetime, which equates to just being about a third of your life.

A third of your life you and I will spend working.

And unfortunately, if we had to define the experience, it often would be accompanied by stress and anxiety and burnout.

So let's talk about those 90,000 hours.

Let's talk about what God has to say in his wisdom for how to make work.

You know, when we think about this, like when it comes to work, what does success really look like?

What is your definition of success?

Is it happiness?

Is it the American dream?

Is it uh to be important, to have enough to do whatever you want, that financial freedom?

How do you move from burnout to, you know, a healthy work-life balance?

You know, a Gallup poll uh and research recently said that um six out of ten people who are working are emotionally detached at work.

Forty-four percent uh noted and experienced lots of stress the previous day.

The stress level in America has uh on the second year in a row has reached a record high.

63% of all workers experience burnouts, and 40% believe it's an inevitable part of success.

How do you move from burnout to a healthy work-life balance?

Is there a way to infuse your work with meaning and purpose?

Or I'm not just going through the motions?

Uh there's this uh idea that's been floating around called quiet quitting.

It's what happens when someone psychologically disengages from work.

They may be physically present or logged on, but they don't know what to do or why it even matters.

Are we just simply destined to eke out our days?

Or is there a better way to work?

You know, um scripture actually speaks a lot about our work.

In Proverbs, in particular, there's an incredible amount to talk about those 90,000 hours.

Uh we want to sit in one particular proverb today.

It's Proverbs 29, 18.

It says, where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom and instruction.

That's our memory verse for this week.

And you have a three by five card.

We've been doing it every week.

Go ahead and take that three by five card and write it down.

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom and instruction.

Where there is no revelation, or maybe some of your translations say vision.

Uh one translation says, where there is no redemptive revelation of God, where there is no vision, where there's no like God-given vision, people what?

Cast off restraint.

That word restraint, we we understand it, uh, but it is a measure or a condition that keeps someone or something under control or within limits.

And so often the way we think about restraint is like, don't restrain me, I want to be free.

But often it's the restraints that protect us, doesn't it?

Because the minute you got into the car and you drove here, what did you put on?

Yeah, a restraint.

You put on a seatbelt.

It restrains you to protect you from what?

If you got, God forbid, got an accident going through the windshield.

We're very grateful for that restraint.

And I don't think anybody on a windy mountainous road goes, those guardrails are dumb.

Like, what are they doing?

They're trying to keep me from fun, right?

Now, here's the thing is when we don't have a God-given vision for our work, we cast off the restraints, the boundaries that are actually defined for our good to keep us in a healthy, whole place, to experience shalom in our everyday life.

Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint.

But blessed or happy is the one.

Flourishing, maybe even another word, is the one who heeds wisdom and instruction.

God's vision for work.

And so, what we want to do with our time is I want to give you a theology of work, just a brief overview and a theology of work of God's vision for our work and how to make work work, at least according to God.

The first uh thing I want you to note when it comes to a theology of work is that God works and he created us to be co-workers with him.

That God actually works.

Genesis 1:1 says, in the beginning, God, does anybody know the next line?

Genesis 1:1

Created.

Two of you, thank you.

Um, God created, like he worked and he created.

And then he also invites us into that work.

Genesis 2, he says we are to be co-laborers, co-workers with him, to subdue and rule and have dominion and to bring order, just then the same way that we have a creative working God.

Part of your imago day, your design is that you are to be a creative and bring order to chaos.

And so, work, by the way, work, work was in paradise and work was in the garden, meaningful work, and meaningful work will also be in heaven.

You will have meaningful work to give your hands and your minds to to create and to produce.

And so this confronts some of the myths that we have about work, doesn't it?

First, I think the thing that we often think about work is that work is this necessary evil.

Like it's something to just get through and get by.

Uh, we work, you know, to live.

You're maybe a weekend warrior, and it's just like is I I can't wait to retire, to be done with all this.

But then there's the flip side of this, and this is part of, I think, uh, one of the challenges is then we can then view work on the other side is that work is everything, right?

You don't work to live, you live to work.

You spend the weekends working, and the aim and the goal is how can I be successful and upwardly mobile and and seek to, you know, dominate my specific field or industry.

And then what subtly creeps into all of us, honestly, is that our work um, you know, begins to define our worth.

And that's part of the challenge because back in the garden, and we it's part of our design of Imago Day, but then it also is never intended to be all or who we are, but we can begin to find our identity in our work and that I am what I do, and it's such a challenge, isn't it, when you go through a job transition or maybe you have a bad um you know performance review, and all of a sudden you realize that your worth got hit.

And you feel like, am I even valuable anymore?

And finally, another myth about work is work is only what you're paid for.

And we we know that's not true, but it just seems to be something in the water where you know work is really a production of value with whatever you think or do.

And whether you're working at home and helping create a home with family, or you're working in the workplace, or all of the above, like like it is incredibly valuable, and it's not just what you're paid for.

And so here's the first theology of work: God works and he created us to be co-workers with him.

Now that changes our vision because much of our vision about work, uh, I think is honestly, it's more about a vacation.

Like I work for a vacation, I work for retirement.

Uh the reason in the Silicon Valley is how can I make a lot of money, move out of here because it's too expensive to live, and retire somewhere and maybe sit on a beach and drink whatever your favorite drink is, right?

And you're just like, I can't wait to retire.

Did you know retirement is a fairly new concept?

It's only about 130, maybe 150 years uh old.

People never retired until more of the modern day and age.

And where God's vision is to shift, and there's nothing wrong with vacations, by the way, they're wonderful and good.

But instead of working for a vacation, it's his invitation is work from a vocation.

We don't use the word vocation very often anymore.

Uh, vocation comes uh from the Latin vicari, it literally means to call, like to be called.

Uh Timothy Keller in his book, Every Good Endeavor, writes this about vocation.

He says, a job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to it and you do it for them rather than for yourself.

And so our work can be a calling only if it's, notice, reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interest.

We work to provide, we work to have a future, we work to give our kids a better future, we work to just, you know, make it.

I get it.

Those are all those are all good things.

But I want you to notice what the apostle Paul said in Colossians 3.23 about shifting how we work.

He says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.

As working for the Lord, not for men.

Since you know that you'll receive an inheritance from the Lord, and as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving.

I want you to just go ahead and say those first three words with me.

Whatever you do.

Remember, where there is no revelation, a vision, people cast off strength.

Restraint.

A vision.

Well, you have a vision for your life.

I have a vision for my life, you have a vision for your job and your future, and then God comes in and says, you know, whatever you do.

What do you mean, whatever I do?

Well, doesn't it matter what I do?

Yeah, I think it's important, but what what are you doing right now?

Well, it's not I'm not in the job that I really want.

I'm not in the place where I'm I'm trying to get this degree so I can move up.

Well, that's wonderful, but but what are you doing right now?

Oh, I'm a student.

Okay.

Oh, that's fantastic.

And I and I'm I right now I'm on pause, I'm in holding because I'm a student and I'm waiting to somehow get down here to be X, Y, and Z.

Or, or you know what?

I'm I'm just I'm just at the bottom of this industry.

I'm at the bottom of this company, but I'm really gonna work.

He said, Wonderful, and and there's nothing wrong about that over there, but but what are you doing right here?

And wherever you're placed, he says, do it with all your heart.

Are you a student?

Are you working a job you don't really like?

Do you have a boss that, gosh, man, they're just rough or coworkers that are a challenge?

A professor that's you know, just giving you grief.

He says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as for working for who?

The Lord.

This is a new way to work, this is a new vision because I'm not working for you, I'm not even working for my family, I'm not even working for myself.

I am working as unto Jesus, and so all that I do, I'm gonna go, Jesus, would you be honored by what I do?

I'm gonna do this project, and it's not for you know, my direct report, it's not for my boss, it's for you, Jesus.

I'm gonna produce this product, and you know what?

It's not even for the customer.

I'm doing it for you.

The service, Jesus, would you be honored in all that I say and do?

Whatever I do, I'm gonna act as if I'm presenting it for you.

You know, there's this old parable, um, and you probably have heard of it.

It's about three bricklayers.

Uh, and um a guy goes up to the bricklayer and says, the first one and says, Hey, what are you doing?

And he looks at him and he says, I'm laying bricks, of course.

And he goes, Okay, thank you very much.

He goes to the second bricklayer and says, What are you doing?

He's like, I'm uh I'm building a wall.

Like, oh, okay.

And then he goes to the third bricklayer and he asks, What are you doing?

He says, I'm building a cathedral.

It was said that the first had a job, the second had a career, the third had a calling, they had a vocation, they had vision beyond just the details of what they're doing.

They recognize how that one part played into the grander scheme of things.

And when you begin to understand that God has chosen you, God has placed you, He has set you right where you're at.

And I don't want to say that doesn't mean you can't get a new job or have a desire to be in a new position.

That's certainly good.

But right when you're here, you go, whatever I do, it's yours.

Wherever I am, whatever you have, I'm gonna give it all that I have.

Why?

Because I'm working for you, Jesus, and you have called me and you've placed me here to have impact and influence.

And it's not just a job.

You've called me.

And we'll circle back to that idea as we close out the sermon in just a second.

First, theology of work.

God works and created us to be co-workers with Him.

Secondly, God set boundaries to our work for good.

Restraints, guardrails.

God modeled this for us in the Genesis account.

Six days he worked, and then one day he rested.

And even in the Genesis account, and this is very interesting, you'll notice that in the in the Jewish understanding of a day, it begins actually at sundown, not sunrise.

Uh, and in the uh creation account it says there was evening and there's day.

There's evening and then there's daylight.

It's just like it begins here in the original tent was we are to work from rest, a place of rest, where often what we do is our day begins at sunrise, and so we work for rest.

See, God set boundaries to work.

You are a finite being with limited capacity that requires daily renewal and a weekly Sabbath rest.

You are a you're not a robot.

You can't just keep going.

This incessant, constantly always having to achieve, always having to go, it does not cooperate with your design.

You're finite, you have limited capacity.

And I know some of that's uh sometimes hard for us to hear.

You need daily, daily, daily rest.

The research today just on sleep alone is staggering and what it does for us.

And weekly, weekly Sabbath rest, daily renewal, weekly Sabbath rest.

In fact, last year in Trisopter gave a whole sermon just on Sabbath.

Pete Schizero uh writes this about Sabbath.

He says, Sabbath is a 24-hour block of time in which we stop at work, enjoy rest, practice delight, and contemplate God.

Doesn't that sound wonderful?

And doesn't that sound impossible?

Because I know some of you are just going like, yeah, that's one that's awesome, Ryan.

You only work one day a week, Sundays, you know.

You're like, what do you even do the rest of the week?

The rest of us have real jobs.

Like, whatever.

Um that's impossible! Like, Ryan, prayer is your job.

Sabbath?

That sounds so spiritual.

I can't do that.

The truth is, you actually can't afford not to do that.

Uh the studies uh Stanford just came out uh a few years ago with this research.

Uh, but did you know productivity per hour declines sharply when a person works more than 50 hours?

After 55 hours, productivity drops so much, putting in more work would be pointless.

Those working 70 hours per week are only getting the same amount of work done as those who put in 55 hours.

Stanford researcher scholar Alex Su Jun Kimpang wrote this in his book, Rest: why you get more done when you work less.

Busyness is not a means to accomplishment, but an obstacle to it.

The way we're working is not working.

And I get it, we have so much pressure and demand and deadlines, but the truth is, this kind of like I work 60 hours a week, and it's a kind of that badge of honor, right?

Look at me, look at how much it's pointless, it's not helping you, it's actually hurting you.

God set boundaries to work for our good.

And then number three, after the fall, work became difficult.

Genesis 3.17 says, Cursed is the ground because of you.

Through painful toil, you'll eat from it and all eat from it all the days of your life.

Sin and brokenness stepped in and corrupted God's good creation, broke relationships, and now as a result, work is difficult.

I mean, just just think about it.

Working with people is difficult.

We're sinful, we're prideful, there's, you know, selfishness and lying.

I remember uh Jenny said something like this after our first year of full-time ministry.

She said, you know, if it weren't for the people, ministry would be easy.

If it wasn't for your coworker or your boss or so-and-so, wouldn't your work?

You're like, that would be so easy.

But we live in a broken, fallen world, and tragically, so some of us think like, if I just, you know, was able to like follow Jesus right, then everything would work out right.

We kind of buy into this prosperity gospel.

Jesus said, in this life you'll have trouble, but take card of overcome the world.

It's not the lack of trouble, it's the presence of Jesus that makes all the difference.

After the fall, work became difficult.

And our identity gets mixed up in it into it.

We begin to work hours and hours and hours in toil.

You know, I was just having uh a conversation with a friend.

He's in his early 30s, he has small kids, he's working a full-time job, he's going back to school, getting his masters.

I mean, just think he serves at awakening, you know.

I mean, just his life, and he came to me uh and he's we're talking, and he's like, I'm just so stressed out.

I feel like I'm on the verge of burnout.

I'm like, no kidding.

But then here's what was interesting is um the the answer often for us is we look at all the things that we're not doing that we should be doing.

And he had a list of like, well, you know what, I've not been eating healthy, I've not been working out, I need to do, need to do, need to do, need to do, need to do.

And then he was just heaping just like all this shame on himself.

My gosh, honestly, I don't think you need to do more, you need to do less and just take a nap.

Some of the most spiritual things that you can do is actually just take a nap.

You're like, I really, I really need to sleep.

Need to sleep.

And just recently, as we're talking through work, because I think sometimes, yeah, after the fall, work is difficult, but there's things that we do in our fallen nature that we just make it more difficult.

And I've drawn this uh little diagram, it's uh out of Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly effective people.

But it was fascinating is I've drawn this little diagram so many times, but most people that I talk to anymore don't they don't know it.

So I thought maybe I'd just share it with you.

It might be helpful for you.

Uh and he said kind of identify what quadrant you're in.

The first quadrant is urgent and important.

Quadrant one is urgent and important, it's crisis, it's pressing problems, it's deadline-driven projects.

You know, I have a deadline-driven project.

Every Sunday I have to present, I get to, sorry, I get to present a sermon.

It's urgent, it's important.

I can't, you know, go like, oh well, I'm not gonna do it.

But when you live in quadrant one, the result is stress, burnout, crisis management, and always putting out fires.

And that's where I think many of us probably feel.

Quadrant two is not urgent, but important.

Not urgent but important.

So often, quadrant one pushes out quadrant two uh activities, relationship building, finding new opportunities, long-term planning, prevention activities, just taking care of your health, personal growth, recreation, the resolves vision and balance and discipline, like refreshing.

And so often, uh Ghost said it this way things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

And we get caught up, don't I?

I'm sorry, I feel like I'm preaching at you.

I'm preaching to myself right now, okay?

We get, I get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent, the pressing demands and pressure and acting and the urgent.

And quadrant three, it's not important, but it's urgent.

These are interruptions, some emails, some calls, some meetings, popular activities, proximate, pressing matters.

And isn't it challenging sometimes to determine?

Uh, like, is it quadrant one or quadrant three?

Because urgent things feel urgent.

And other people's urgencies that they place upon you.

Well, I have to respond.

The result, short-term focused.

You feel out of control.

You maybe have some shallow, broken relationships, feel maybe victimized.

Your reputation is maybe of a chameleon.

You just kind of are a different person in every environment.

And then there's quadrant four.

That's not urgent, not important.

Trivia, busy work, time wasters, some calls, some emails, pleasant activities.

Actually, what are some time wasters that we get into?

Help me out.

Come on, shout them out.

Scrolling, social media.

Yeah, what else?

Games, yeah, gamers.

Uh, what else?

I just got a whole bunch of people mad at me on that one.

Huh?

Netflix?

Actually, there's Netflix in both services.

That seems to be a theme.

Quadrant four people, if we live, that means if we live, we that's the way we do a life that's totally irresponsible, become dependent on others, and often fired from jobs.

Now, here's what's interesting.

When we don't prioritize quadrant two, that's that boundaries part we were just talking about, we visit quadrant four.

We visit that to numb out.

Are the rhythms of your life numbing or nourishing?

And we visit quadrant four and we scroll, we watch, we eat just to get by to the next day because we're actually living in that burnout side, aren't we?

And we're on replete.

And that's not God's design for you or me.

Theology of work.

God works, he created us to be co-workers, God set boundaries to our work.

After the fall, work became more difficult.

And finally, all work, all honest work is sacred work.

All honest work is sacred work.

Your work is sacred.

You don't have to change your job to be in your calling, but you do have to change who you're working for.

Whatever you do, whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord.

Like all work is sacred work.

And right now, I believe the great lie for many of us is to believe that there is sacred work and there's secular work, that somehow my work actually pushes out my spirituality.

And God's vision is what you're doing is sacred.

It matters, it's significant.

It doesn't matter whether you're uh working as a lawyer, as a barista, as an engineer, as a baker, as a student.

All honest work is sacred work.

It's not like, okay, I stop that, then I get to start over here.

Like God has called you and placed you.

Jesus would say it this way: you are the salt of what?

The earth.

And the light of what?

The world.

Notice that it's one present tense reality, this is what's already true of you.

Not you have to earn it, somehow figure it out, work your way to it.

You are presently the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and wherever you go, whatever you step into, and the work you're currently doing, you are salt and you are light.

Uh when Jenny and I were first married, we lived in Chicago.

I was finishing my schooling there, and uh she took on a job at Starbucks.

We needed um benefits, you know, we're just poor, broke, newly married, early 20s.

And she's working at Starbucks, her first day, downtown, right in the heart of the city.

You know, it's just this huge city, lots of activity, has that same sense, that hustle that Silicon Valley has.

And as they're as she's kind of working, this this person she's working with looked at her and says, You're a Christian, aren't you?

She's like, What?

I mean, she wasn't wearing any jewelry, there weren't any gold crosses.

She didn't say, Bless you, you know, there was no Christianese in what she was saying.

Her presence showing up in the midst of the hurry, the chaos, and the darkness was light and was noticeably different to the point that the girl looked at her and said, You must be one of those Christians, aren't you?

Because here's the truth the spirit of the living God lives and dwells inside of her.

She stepped into that moment as salt and light, and it affects the surrounding around her.

And the truth is for you as well.

Jesus, follower.

The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives and dwells inside of you.

You are a called out one.

Jesus has called you out, so don't you dare believe you don't have a vocation.

You are a called one.

He has called you out for his own purpose, his own desire, his own pleasure.

And he longs for you to be light and salt, and where you would look at your job, you would work look at your workplace, and you go, you know what, it may not even be my dream job, and I might be even looking for another job.

But while I'm here, whatever I'm doing, I'm gonna do it as unto the Lord because I want to honor him, and he's placed me here for this time, and I don't know how long that time is, but he's placed me here for this moment and this time, so that those people that I'm working around might see Jesus in me.

I mean, just imagine.

Imagine if if we as a church just began to get that vision and showed up to work and going, you know what?

Um I'm here to do this, I'm doing it for Jesus, I'm gonna do it with excellence and integrity in a way that honors you.

And Jesus, you want to use this, and I don't know how.

But I'm gonna be present and invite you in.

And you're with me.

I know that the work world's hard.

I know Silicon Valley, it's just so difficult to be a follower of Jesus.

He says, I'm with you.

I'm empowering you.

You've never walked alone a day in your life because I am with you.

So don't you ever believe you're walking into that workplace by yourself.

The presence of the living God is in you and with you, and Jesus is beside you.

Imagine if we just began to live like that.

That's by the way, how the world changes.

How Silicon Valley changes.

When instead of us just being so concerned with how do we kind of get people to church, but when we go and be the church, where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint.

But bless it, flourish is the one who heeds wisdom and instruction.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for my friends, thank you for your grace, thank you for your word.

And God, I just I I my heart just feels for my friends who are walked in weary, burned out, beaten down.

That has just been a season, and it's always a season.

It just feels like it's a nonstop season.

Holy Spirit, would you breathe life?

A refreshing breathe vision and hope.

You're strengthening.

That we might see what you see.

And then just start doing the things you would do.

With your spower your power working through us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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