Tim Keller (15:59)

God has worked through Tim Keller's teaching to help countless people discover Christ's redemptive love and grow in their faith as they learn how the Gospel is the key to every aspect of life. This month we're featuring a brand new book by author Matt Smethurst titled Tim Keller on the Christian Life. In it, he distills biblical insights from Tim Keller's nearly 50 years of sermons, books and conference messages, including each of the sermons we've highlighted on the podcast this month. The book explores foundational theological themes from Tim Keller's work like grace, idolatry, justice, prayer, suffering, and more. It's a resource that we hope will help you apply the Gospel more richly to your everyday life. We'll send you a copy as our thanks for your gift. To help gospel and life share the good news of Christ's love with people all over the world, just visit gospelandlife.com give to request your copy. That's gospelandlife.com give now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Matt Smethurst (17:02)

One of my, one of my better friends I recently visited with. He is a supervisor of trucks. He works in a trucking firm and he supervises trucks. And you might say, ah, how creative is that? Ten years ago we went over this very material. We talked about this very thing. We talked about what is the biblical view of work. And he was never the same. Just a few months ago he said, I have never been the same. I really enjoy my work because I see how it fits in. I see what its purpose is. And he realizes what he's doing. He realizes, he realizes all kinds of things that people couldn't do unless he was doing his job, you see. And as a result of that, he says, I'm useful. I'm bringing word out of chaos. I'm making the, you know, I'm bringing out the potential. And that was important for him, even though he's a supervisor of trucks. Just making sure this truck gets there and that truck gets there. And that's the reason Martin Luther could say that the humblest serving maid sweeping out for the glory of God is just as honoring to God. Her job is just as infused with dignity as the greatest preacher in the world. And that is the Protestant view. It's not the Roman Catholic view, but it's the Protestant view. It is. Now you've got to get that view. But then There's a second problem. I said the one wrong approach was to see work as a curse. And if you see work as a curse, just something to be endured, you're going to be choked with it. There's another approach that's more dangerous to people, probably in New York, more dangerous. I remember when I was in Hopewell, that other church that I kept inviting you to. Today, when I was in a blue collar town, that first view of work was the one that strangled people. They said, I don't need to understand my job. I don't need to see it as a useful thing, I don't need to enjoy it, I don't need to, to look at it in any. It's just a paycheck, you know, I hate my job, but that's all right. Everybody else I know hates my job too, hates their jobs too. And that particular view of work choked them. I don't know that that's as much a problem for you as the second one. The second view of work says, ah, ah, I'm going to find myself in my achievements. You know, Rocky Balboa, you know it, Rocky, he gave the careerist, the person that says, I am going to find myself, I am going to know that I count because I'm going to achieve in my job. I'm going to get my identity for my job. He gave, he gave us a great movie for all of you. You should all see it all the time because that's in many of our cases, that's the way in which we live. He gave us the slogan, go for it. You know, he doesn't say go for it. He said, go for it. And what is it? What is it? I was wondering about that. I used to think, well, go for it means the championship. But he didn't need the championship, Remember, he says, I just want a last 15 rounds. Maybe he wanted the prize money, but no, he didn't want the prize money. Maybe he wanted just to just. He was in pursuit of boxing skill. That's it. Just to know that he could go 15 rounds. But it was, wasn't that he said, remember, if I can just go the distance, I'll know I'm not a bum. And I suggest to you that many, many, many, many people in this room, many people in this city, many people in this culture are working under that for that same thing. That's the it you're going for. The it you're going for is I'm going to work, I'm going to achieve, so I know I exist, so I know I'm a self, so I know I'm a real person, so I know I'm not a bum. And there's only a small problem with that. And that is your identity. Your sanity is as fragile as your career. It's as fragile as your success. And that's pretty fragile. I read not too long ago that in 1969, there was some student at the University of California at Berkeley who started running through the library amok. This is 1969. He started running through the library saying, you're getting ahead of me. You're getting ahead of me. And they locked him up and they took him away. And you know what was wrong with him? Do you want to know what was wrong? What was wrong with him was he was in the wrong decade. Because in the 60s, you know, that was weird. But this is the 80s, and in the 80s, that's how you feel. Everybody's getting ahead of you. Yes. You see, while you're in the gym, they're up there getting more sales. You see, they're reading books. They're getting ahead of you. They're books that you should be reading. Seminars are going to. You should be going to those seminars. People are always getting ahead of you. And instead of being choked on the boredom of your job, you're being tied up in a knot because you're trying to define yourself through your work. Now, what does that lead to? It can lead either to. It leads. First of all, it leads if you're successful. And which would be the worst thing God could possibly do to you. But sometimes he does. It is. It just. It chokes you with your own pride. Here's a great quote from Bonfire, the Vanities. You remember Sherman McCoy. Here's a great quote. The Masters of the Universe were a set of lurid, rapacious plastic dolls that his otherwise perfect daughter liked to play with. They look like Norse gods who lifted weights. With names like Drakon, Ahor, Mangle Red and blueturry, they were unusually vulgar, even for plastic toys. Yet one fine day after he had picked up the telephone and taken an order for zero coupon bonds that had just brought him $50,000 commission, just like that, this very phrase bubbled up in his brain. Yes, he and just a few others had become precisely that. Masters of the Universe. There was no limit whatsoever. And you know, that novel goes on to show that that man had become full of pride, of course. But he really was a shell of what he used to be. Because he had defined himself on the basis of his work. What happened eventually Was he became an image conscious, self conscious person who had no integrity anymore. When he was having an affair with his wife, he couldn't tell her the truth even after she found out about it. You see? And here's the reason why. And this is this verse, this passage we're looking at has a secret to it. Do not. It says, work as unto eye service. Now, it's not saying don't do a good job. It says, work with all your might. Go after excellence, of course, but be careful who you're working for. Sherman McCoy had gotten to the place where he was working for others. As much as he wanted to say, I'm a master of the universe, he was completely enslaved. What people thought. Og Mandino, who's written all these books on go for it and success. He says, let me define success. Success is getting other people to believe you're successful. And that is what happens to you. You become a slave to what other people think. And when you become a slave to what other people think, you're tied up in knots and you lose yourself instead of finding yourself. If you try to find yourself through work, you will lose yourself. And that's what it says. Now, what's the antidote? What's the Christian antidote? It's fairly simple. This is the part I'm afraid is going to insult your intelligence. Will you listen? And I'm going to be as open as I possibly can about what I have to do about this. It says here, look at God in the eye when you're working. Say, lord, I'm going to do a good job because you're watching me. I don't care what everybody else thinks. I'm going to do excellence. I don't know whether it'll get me the promotion. I don't know whether it'll get me past the exam. I don't know what will happen. But I do know this. If I do it for you, and I know you're pleased and I feel your pleasure, that's the only thing I really want. Let the chips fall where they may. I'm free of what everybody else says, you know. Don't you see how in so many different situations, this would be freedom? Paul's talking to slaves. Paul doesn't think slavery is a good thing. He tells Philemon to let go of onesimus. He tells slaves, if you can get free, get free. He doesn't like the institution of slavery. But what he's saying here, he says, slaves, when you get up tomorrow, look right past your master and in your heart. Say, I'm not working for you. You don't own me. But I'm going to do a good job. I'm going to do a good job for the one who really I belong to. John White, who is a psychiatrist, tells in one of his books that one day he had spent so many years just being driven by the need for good grades. One day, as he was studying physiology in med school, he suddenly got an idea. What if I read this book for Jesus instead of for the teacher, instead of for the exam, instead of for my standards? What if I just read it for Jesus? What if I studied this book for Jesus? And he suddenly realized it would have changed everything. First of all, he said when he began to do that, he was more consistent in his reading because he wasn't studying it for the teacher. If you're studying it for the teacher, you know you only have two exams, so you cram at the end before the test. But if you're studying it for Jesus and you want to know it well, just to be a good steward of your mind, just to begin to know things for his sake, then he said, I got more methodical. He said I got more disciplined. I also had the chance to be curious, and I didn't worry about whether or not I knew it well enough for the test. And he says, my grades got better. In some cases, they got worse. In some cases, I went through med school because that was his. That was his job to do that. It was his job to work that out. And he says, I finally knew joy. And look when I get up, see, today I work. You're not working. I'm working. And I got the same problem you do. You think it's a different thing than what you're facing? Nah. Because, you see, I got two kinds of people that I've got to please. And I've got to come in and say, well, there's the people who sent me here and gave me the money to come here. I've got to make sure they think I'm successful. Or I can slip into saying, the people who are coming, I've got to make them think I'm successful. That's just like Og Mandino. You're successful if people think you're successful. And then I'm tied in a knot. No, what I've got to do is I got to look at you. I got to look at them, and I got to say, it's God that gave me this job. In fact, it's God that pays me. And you've got to do the same thing. It's God who gives you your promotions or not. It's God who helps your career. Go ahead. He's the only one to please. All of the good things that happen to you. All the good things that happen to you in your career are, frankly, just things that God gave you. You know, there's other people just as able as you who didn't have the same breaks. Or there's other people that you know who are just as good as you, who have done a lot better than you and they got better breaks. And you begin to realize God is the employer. God is the boss. God is the one you're working for. Relax. Look him in the eye as you work. It'll transform everything. You'll be better at what you do. You'll be better. You won't be tied up in knots, and you won't be choked by the dryness of it. So there we are. Let me conclude by saying this. If you're unhappy in your job. Actually, let me conclude two ways. Number one, if you're unhappy with your job, there's three things you've got to do. Number one, check out your motive. First of all, why are you working? Are you slipping into the same thing I've got to always deal with every single Sunday? Are you looking at God, or are you playing to the crowd? Are you playing to the boss? Are you playing to other people? You see, are you a slave to making somebody else think you're successful or just pleasing him? Check your motive out. That could be what's driving you. The second thing, if you've done that, then make sure you understand what you're doing as a calling. Try to look at it as what God meant work to be and seek to say, I'm doing this because I'm good at it, because God made me good at it. And it's a calling. And if you've done those two things, if you've checked your motive out and if you see your work as a calling and you're still unhappy, it could be that you're not in the right job. It could be that you can't say with Eric Little. God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. Because it could be that you're not cut out, that he hasn't really called you for this kind of work because your abilities and your capacities and your desires are really not in line with this job. But before you run out of a job because you're unhappy in it, first work on your motive. First work on your view and only then change your job. Now, the real conclusion. I want you to realize that what I've just told you is not possible for someone to do unless you are a growing walking with God believer. Do you hear? The context of chapter six is important to recognize. Earlier in Ephesians 5, it says, Be filled with the Spirit. And then it goes on and says, if you're filled with the spirit, your marriage will be like this, your family will be like this, your work will be like this. Don't you see that what Paul is telling you to do, this joy that Eric Little had in work can only be done if you've got such a personal relationship with God that you look at him eye to eye. We're not talking about a general belief in God. You cannot have joy in your work unless you see him face to face, unless you've got a personal relationship with Him. By personal I mean do you sit down and do you read the Word and you see him pointing things out to you? Do you pray and do you point things out to Him? Is there real personal dealing? Is there a real interchange? Is there a true friendship? Or is God just a. Rather, is God just something up there, a concept, something you just believe? Unless there's a personal relationship, you can't work like this. Do you hear that? And secondly, you Christians that you know, you know Christ personally, do you see that this passage teaches that if you're a Christian, it has to impact every part of your life? Christianity is not something you only do on the weekends and in the evenings. Christianity, a Christian, is a new creature. All things have become new. And you must begin to ask yourself, is my relationship to Jesus Christ really impacting the way I work? Do I work differently because of who I am in Christ or not? Have you gone into that lifelong adventure of exploration, of saying, how does Christianity and the Gospel and the Bible bear on how I do my job? Are you involved in that? Are you working on your motives? Is Jesus impacting your work or not? Look him in the eye and feel his pleasure as you work. Let's pray.

Tim Keller (32:29)

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the wisdom of God's word to your life. For more resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelinlife.com there. You can also subscribe to the Gospel in Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals and other helpful resources. Again, it's all at gospeland you can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Today's sermon was recorded in 1989. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.