Mike Sadler • The Problem of Work • March 9, 2025

God created a job-description…

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” (Gen. 2:15-17)

“The Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them…” (Gen. 2:19)

Man came up with a better idea…

“‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Gen. 3:4-6)

God flipped the Script…Work became labor…

“‘Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ To the woman He said, ‘ I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ To Adam He said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree…Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life…By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground…’” (Gen. 3:11b, 16, 17-19)

What changed?

• Work became

– “It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” (Gen. 3:18)

• Work became

– “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecc. 2:17)

“What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” (Ecc. 1:3)

• Work became

Reveal Answer

– “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…” (Gen. 11:4a)

• Work revealed our

– “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…” (Ex. 20:3-5a)

God redeemed our work…

• He

the story – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

• He gave us a

and

Reveal Answer

– “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view… If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:16-17)

“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit…” (Romans 7:6)

You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (works) and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:13, 14, 16)