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Your Ordinary Work is Sacred - The Doctrine of Vocation · Sacred Men

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What's up, men? Welcome back to the Sacred Men
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YouTube channel. This is your host, Pastor Justin
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Dean, and I want to ask you a question.
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When was the last time someone told you that what you do from
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Monday to Saturday, the grinding, the deadlines, the
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meetings, the bills, the chores, the playing with the kids,
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actually matters to God now? Not in some vague God is
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watching kind of way. I mean, the work itself, what
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you're actually doing matters to God.
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It matters eternally. It matters specifically as an
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act of worship to your king. Well, if you've never heard that
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or if you've heard it, but it felt more like one of those
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cheesy motivational posters that you see on the office wall
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rather than actual theology, well, this episode is for you.
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Today we're talking about the doctrine of vocation, and I want
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to make the case that it might be the most practically
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transformative doctrine in the entire Bible and Reformed
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tradition, and almost no one talks about it.
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All right, well, let's get into it.
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But first, we have a little bit of a problem.
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This is something that I've noticed in my years of pastoral
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ministry. Most Christian men walk through
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the week with a kind of low grade spiritual guilt or
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spiritual amnesia, right? They think Sunday is spiritual,
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Sunday is God's, Sunday is where all the sacred stuff happens.
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You know, maybe in my Bible time through the week, something
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sacred maybe happens there. But then, you know, Monday comes
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and I leave the house and we clock in.
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And then there's this unspoken sense that we've left God's
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Kingdom, we've left God's territory, and we've entered
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into this, you know, roped off secular world.
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Now we know we're supposed to be good men when we go out into the
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world, right? We, we try not to lie or cheat
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or lose our temper, But deep down many of us feel like our
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work is just the thing we do so that we can afford to do the
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things that actually matter, right?
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That our work is just the thing we do so that we can afford to
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do the things that actually matter.
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Well, unfortunately, most of the time the church doesn't help
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much here. We tend to celebrate two kinds
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of calling missionaries and pastors into the ministry.
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Everyone else is kind of seen like they're on JV, right?
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Or they're basically support staff that everybody else out
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there, you just give money to the church so the real workers
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can do God's work. Well, that is not the theology
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of the Bible and that is not the theology of the Reformation.
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The Reformers recovered something that the medieval
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church had buried, a rich, robust, world transforming
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doctrine of work. They called it vocation.
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Now that word vocation, I know when we hear the word vocation,
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we just immediately think about our jobs and it our jobs are
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included in that. But the word vocation comes from
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the Latin word vocair, which means simply to call, right?
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So vocation, when we're talking about vocations, we're talking
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about callings. And the reformers great insight
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was this. God calls men not just into
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ministry. He calls men into every
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honorable vocation. He calls men into carpentry,
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into medicine, into farming, into law, into fatherhood, into
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every legitimate corner of human life.
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Now, I say legitimate because God does not call you into
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pornography. God does not call you to be, you
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know, in a gang or in, you know, the mafia or any illegitimate
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enterprise. God is not calling you into
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that, but he is calling you into every legitimate enterprise
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known to man. And when God calls you into
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those things, he promises to meet you there in them.
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So he's called you to be a Carpenter.
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He's he, he's, he's saying I will meet you on the job site.
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He's called you to be in the productive production plant at
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John Deere. I will meet you on the plant
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floor. That's what he's that's what
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he's doing right now. To understand why this was such
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a big deal for the Reformers, we need a quick, quick history
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lesson here. See, this is the kind of church
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history that will actually change how you feel when your
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alarm goes off on Monday morning.
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In the medieval Roman Catholic Church, there was kind of an
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assumed hierarchy of spiritual worth.
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At the top, of course, were the monks, the nuns, the priests,
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the bishops, etcetera, etcetera. These people had renounced the
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world and devoted themselves entirely to sacred activities,
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prayer, fasting, contemplation. They had a religious vocation,
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religious calling. Now below them was everyone
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else, farmers, merchants, blacksmiths, fathers, mothers.
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These people were stuck in the secular world.
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Their work, of course, was tolerated.
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It was seen as necessary, even. But it wasn't sacred.
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It wasn't specifically devoted to God and done with God.
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If you really wanted to honor God with your life, you left the
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world behind. Now, this is not just the
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theology of the medieval Catholics.
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This was kind of the theology that I was raised in here in the
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Quad Cities, right? God only calls people into the
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ministry. He doesn't call people into
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other aspects of life. Well, that's not true.
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And Martin Luther was a young man who was planning to be a a
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lawyer. It's what his father wanted for
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him. And that was the vocation that
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he was going to pursue. But one night, he got caught in
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a violent thunderstorm on July 2nd, 15-O5, near Stoderheim,
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while traveling back to his law school in Erfurt.
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And he got freaked out. Lightning storm, everything.
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He was terrified of dying. And he cries out for God or
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cries out to God for help. And he says, God, if you save me
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from this, I promise I will be a monk.
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Quite the promise he made there. Well, God, you know, kept him,
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kept him safe. He survived, and then he kept
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his vow and he dropped out of law school, and he entered the
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Augustinian monastery in Erfurt shortly after.
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But after being a monk for quite a while and studying Scripture,
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Luther said, you know what? This concept of secular, secular
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vocation and sacred vocation is actually wrong.
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It's not only wrong, it's contrary to Scripture.
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He, he started to see this all the way back in Genesis, in
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Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, where it says the Lord God took
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the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and
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keep it. Notice this is before the fall.
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This is before sin enters the world.
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God gives Adam a job and it's a, it's a sacred job.
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It's done in the presence of God.
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It's it's done in fellowship with God.
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It's done for the good of the world, right?
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Work is not a punishment. Work is not a concession.
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Work is what God created men to do in a good world.
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So Luther begins to build on this and he developed what
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became one of the most powerful ideas of the Reformation.
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The the concept, and this is this is fascinating to me, the
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concept of vocation as a mask of God.
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His phrase was larvae DI or day E, larvae day E.
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And then here's what it is the masks.
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It means masks of God. He says this when a man goes out
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to work, God is putting a basically that man is God with a
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mask on. So God is in that man working,
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but he's working with a mask on. So your neighbor sees you
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working and he sees you working, but it's actually God working
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through you, that God is hiding himself while acting in the
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world. Now what does that mean
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practically? It means that when a farmer
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grows wheat, God is feeding his neighbor through the farmer's
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hands. See the the the farmer who's
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growing is the mask that God's wearing to provide for the needs
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of his neighbors, his community, etcetera.
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When a doctor heals a patient, God is bringing healing through
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the doctor's skill. That doctor is the mask God is
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wearing. Now, can God miraculously heal?
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Yes, we say that. But the normal way for God to
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heal is through the work of a doctor.
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That's still God doing good work in the world, but he's doing it
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through doctors. When a father disciplines his
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son, God is forming that child's character through the father's
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authority. So that father is supposed to be
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the mask that God is wearing to discipline his son, to raise him
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up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
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So what this teaches us is that God did not just, you know, work
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for six days, rest, and then keep on resting.
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God continues to work in the world and his primary
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instruments are the ordinary vocations of ordinary men and
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women. All of that is meant to be
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devoted to God. All of that is meant to be done
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in the presence of God. All of that is sacred work.
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So that means you are and I, I want you to feel the weight of
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this. You are a Co laborer with God in
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the ongoing care of the world. If you do your work rightly with
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the mind of Christ and the heart of God, you are a mask that God
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is wearing out in the world to do good in the world.
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Now John Calvin continued to build upon this doctrine.
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In his Institutes. Calvin argues that every
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legitimate human occupation finds its origin in God's common
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grace towards the fallen world. The Puritans later developed it
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further. Men like William Perkins, who
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wrote an entire treaty called a Treaty on the Vocations or
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Callings of Men, arguing that no calling is too lowly to be done
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for God's glory. So it doesn't matter if you're
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digging latrines in the military, right?
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It doesn't matter what you're doing.
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Martin Luther actually once said, and this is a paraphrase,
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a parent changing a child's diaper is doing work that is
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just as holy as the work of all the monks in the world.
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Think about that when you're changing your child's diaper,
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right? We don't think like this very
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often. You're not just doing menial
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work, meaningless work. No, that's God through you
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cleaning up your child, right? Loving your child, taking care
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of your child, providing for your child.
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That's God doing that through. You.
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See, brothers, this is our Reformed heritage.
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This is what our tradition teaches.
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The question is whether we are living in light of it.
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Now let me take you through a few passages that kind of
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reframe this whole conversation. First, we have Colossians 323.
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It's kind of the anchor verse for this episode.
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It says this, whatever you do, work heartily.
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Whatever you do, work heartily, work with a full heart As for
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the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you
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will receive the inheritance as your reward.
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You are serving the Lord Christ. Notice Paul doesn't say whatever
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ministry you do, he says whatever you do.
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And the context here is striking.
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Paul in this context is literally addressing servants
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and slaves, men at the bottom of the social hierarchy doing work
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that no one considered honorable or sacred.
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You're talking, you know, they could be planting gardens, they
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could be hauling rocks, right? They're doing work that nobody
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else wants to do. And Paul says do that work
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heartily and work as you are serving the Lord Christ.
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He's saying you are the mask that God is wearing to meet the
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needs of your neighbors and obeying your boss in in the same
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way, right? Like you can do this from the
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bottom and you can do this from the top.
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If a slave in a Roman household is serving Christ through his
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daily labor, what does that say about you in your vocation, in
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your office, in your truck, on your job site?
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Second scripture is Ephesians 6 verses 5 through 8.
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Bondservants again speaking to servants and slaves.
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Obey your earthly masters, obey your bosses with fear and
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trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the
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way of eye service. So not just doing it to look
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good as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing
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the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a
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goodwill as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever
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good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord,
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whether he's a bondservant or is free.
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Now I want you to see this, how we work matters, Paul says
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there, knowing that whatever good anyone does this, he will
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receive back from the Lord. This means first, God not only
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evaluates how we worship on Sunday mornings, he also
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evaluates how we worship at work.
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And what I mean by that, I don't mean by turning worship music on
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while we work, I mean how we work, whether we work with
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integrity, excellence, diligence, and love as unto him.
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So we see our work as God's way of doing good work through US,
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no matter what it is we do, as long as it's, it's an honorable
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profession, right? And he promises to reward those
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who do their work in a way that is acceptable to Christ.
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I think he's talking about their first rewarding in this life,
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right? You do your work well, it's
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probably going to go well for you.
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But he's also talking about rewarding in the next life,
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right? How well did we work?
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How well did we do our vocation? Third verse I'm going to look
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at, and this one's often overlooked, It's Proverbs 2229.
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He says this. Do you see a man skillful in his
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work? He will stand before kings.
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He will not stand before obscure men.
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The pursuit of excellence in your craft is a biblical virtue.
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It is a biblical calling. You are called to be great at
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whatever you do. You're you're called to do your
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best at whatever it is that you do.
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This tells us God cares about quality.
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He cares about the Craftsman who masters his trade.
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To be a Craftsman and to be great at what you do is not
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pride. It's being faithful to the gifts
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that God gave you. He says if you become skillful
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in your work, you will stand before kings.
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That means you're going to get a hearing.
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You know, if you're a phenomenal cabinet maker.
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Well, when this home builder over here hears about your
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cabinets and sees your cabinets, he's probably going to want to
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hire you, right? We home builders want the best,
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the best, the most, the highest quality stuff in their houses,
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right? And people are going to
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appreciate that. So he's just saying you become
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great. You're going to get more
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opportunities. And then the last verse here,
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Revelation 21. And this is, of course, you
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know, at the end of the Bible, and it's talking about the new
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creation, what Jesus is going to do when he returns.
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And when God makes all things new through Christ, he makes a
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new city, right? And what does this city look
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like? Well, it's full of the works of
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human culture. You've got gates and you've got
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walls and you've got streets. You've got glory and honor of
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the nation's flowing into it. What does this tell us?
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The redeemed work of humanity enters the new creation, and I
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guarantee you it's not going to be shabby work, right?
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It's going to be godly, great men building great things.
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That's what's going to get brought into the Kingdom of God.
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So your faithfulness in your calling has got an
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eschatological dimension to it and end times dimension to it as
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well. It matters forever.
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So what I want to do now, that's kind of the theology, a little
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bit of church history. But what I want to do now is I
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want to, I want to show you three ways that the doctrine of
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vocation changes your Monday. OK, let's get to it right where
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you live. Here are three ways the doctrine
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of vocation should concretely change how you approach your
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work. Number one, this doctrine kills
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that sacred secular divide that we are tempted to live with, and
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it kills it permanently. You no longer clock out of God's
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presence when you leave Sunday worship.
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Now you're being sent out by God and you're clocking in to a
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different theater of His service.
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The question isn't how do I bring God into my work or my
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workplace as if God were absent until you shut up with your
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Bible. The question is, how do I serve
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God and neighbor through the work He's already placed me in?
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This reframes everything. That difficult colleague isn't
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just a problem to manage. They're your neighbor placed in
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your life by God's Providence, and you have an opportunity to
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love and disciple them and serve them in some way.
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That project that feels meaningless becomes meaningful
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because you're doing it as unto the Lord.
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You're serving not just your boss, but you're serving the
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Lord and you're trying to serve your clients and and your
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whoever it is, whoever it is that this project is targeted
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to, the quality you put into that work that maybe goes
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unnoticed by your boss. Well, guess what?
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God sees it. God notices it, and He promises
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he will repay. Secondly, understanding the
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doctrine of vocation gives you a theology of excellence without
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idolatry. Here's the tension a lot of men
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feel. They want to work hard and be
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excellent at what they do. But they've also seen the idol
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of career consume men, right? Marriage is destroyed, children
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neglected, souls shriveled for the sake of success, right?
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Too busy to ever go to church, all these different types of
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things. Well, the doctrine of vocation
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actually resolves this. Work matters, so we pursue
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excellence. But your work is a calling from
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God. Not your sole identity.
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You are a child of God who works, not a worker who happens
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to follow God. The idol of career says your
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work is who you are. This is how you define yourself
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by what you do well. The doctrine of vocation says
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your work is what you do in service to someone greater than
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yourself. Jesus.
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That's the line between faithfulness and idolatry. 3rd,
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the doctrine of vocation will actually make you a better
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husband, father, and churchmen. Here's something that's kind of
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counterintuitive. Men who understand vocation
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often become more present at home, not less, because they
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understand that fatherhood is also a vocation.
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Fatherhood is also a calling. It's not just a role that they
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fall into, but a specific Commission from God.
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So the doctor of vocation doesn't put your career on, you
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know, on, on a pedestal and it becomes your idol because we
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have more than one vocation. We're called to be Christians.
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We're called to be worshippers of God.
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We're called to be workmen. We're called to be husbands.
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We're called to be fathers. We're called to be disciples.
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What does that mean for us? That means when I go home, my
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children are not an interruption to my real life, right?
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They are my real life. They are the most important
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work. Your wife is not competing with
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your career for your attention. She's the primary neighbor that
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God has placed in your vocation as husband.
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She's your number one neighbor, your wife.
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And so you were to love her like you love yourself.
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That's part of the vocation of being a husband.
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When you begin to see it that way, the phone goes down
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differently. You know, I know when I'm
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sitting at home and I get home from a long day to work and I go
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and I check with my kids, I check with my wife.
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But then I want to sit down. I want to sit down for a little
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bit. Often times I pull that phone
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out. I want to see what my friends
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are saying on text messages, what they're saying on my chats,
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what maybe I want to check for social media.
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And when my kids starts asking for my attention, I go, right,
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and kind of have this bad. It's like they're distracting
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me. I just wanted a moment.
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Well, no. When you see that being a father
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and being a husband is a part of my vocation, that phone goes
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down differently, right? I'm not being interrupted here.
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The late nights at the office get evaluated differently.
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You start asking, am I being faithful to all of my callings,
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not just the one that pays right, not just my vocation of
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work? Listen, I I want to be honest
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with you here. I'm a pastor.
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My calling is kind of obvious. When I preach, it is easy for me
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to feel like I'm doing sacred work.
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When I counsel someone in pain or in loss, it's easy to see
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God's hand in it. But before I was a pastor, I was
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a Carpenter and I was a home builder.
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And that is sacred work as well. Whether you're building a new
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home or you're remodeling an old one, you are building a space
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for souls to dwell in. And that can be a nice space or
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that can be a crappy space, right?
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When you're building a new home, you're taking an empty lot and
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you're turning it into a house for people who are made in the
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image of God to build a home that that's a work of love,
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that's Kingdom work. When you remodel, you are taking
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something that no longer works. It's rundown and cramped and
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shabby, and you're making it new again.
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That's what God is going to do with the whole creation.
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This is sacred work when we do it in faith and we do it for
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Christ and we do it well. Now we don't have to hang
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crosses on the wall or something.
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We just need to do honest good work to the glory of God.
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Martin Luther talked about this and he says for a Christian to
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do good work, if he's a cobbler, that means a guy who makes
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shoes, He doesn't need to put little crosses on on the shoes.
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No, just be a good cobbler, do a do a good job.
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Now, I know that some of you are in jobs that you don't love,
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right? Maybe jobs you hate.
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Some of you feel stuck, some of you're doing work that you never
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planned to do, and the idea that it is a calling from God sounds
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like a cruel joke, right? I hear you, and I don't want to
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kind of try to sprinkle some theological dust on this and
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pretend that all of your dissatisfaction is somehow
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sinful ingratitude. There are definitely seasons
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where God calls us to seek different vocations, seek
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different work. There's wisdom in pursuing
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callings that use your gifts more fully.
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Sometimes God calls you something only to prepare you
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for the next thing. He needed to develop you into a
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certain type of man that could do the next thing.
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But here's what I want you to hear.
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Wherever you are right now, today, God is present.
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God is with you. The doctrine of vocation doesn't
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mean your current job is your final calling.
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It means that right now, in this job, with these people, in this
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season, you can serve Jesus Christ.
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That service will not be wasted. He promises it's never going to
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be wasted. Your faithfulness in your
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current role is not invisible. God sees, and God has sent you
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there for a very specific reason.
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And sometimes, often actually, God uses the Crucible of
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difficult, unremarkable, unglamorous work to form the
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kind of man who can be trusted with more.
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I am kind of surprised because the reputation of most pastors
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is that they don't work hard. They wanted a job that was white
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collar. They didn't have to lift heavy
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things, they didn't have to be outside in the elements and do
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hard work and dig ditches and all the stuff.
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So they, they, they try to find a decent paying easy job and
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that's how they work in their profession.
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Well, I was raised, you know, as a blue collar guy.
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I was raised to if, if I don't get to work, that house doesn't
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get built, that remodeling job doesn't get done and I don't get
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paid. So I have to get myself up out
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of bed. I have to get out of here on
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time. I got to remember my
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responsibilities. I got to do a good job.
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I got to meet the needs of the client in a timely way.
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And then I got to do it again day after day after day.
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And that what I learned in construction has followed me
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into the ministry. I work like that day in and day
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out, week in and week out, right?
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I have a schedule that I follow. I get in here.
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I don't just go hang out at coffee shops and just waste
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time. I, I, God formed me in those
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earlier careers. I was called to it for a time
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and then he called me something else.
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But I needed to learn those lessons in the that blue collar
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job before I stepped into to this job that God's given me
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today. So here's my challenge for you
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this week. Before you start work tomorrow,
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before the 1st e-mail, before the commute, before the first
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meeting, I want you to take two minutes.
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Ask God to show you one specific person in your workplace that
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you can serve this week as an act of worship.
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OK, it could be your boss, it could be a client, it could be a
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Co worker and I'm not talking it doesn't have to be evangelism
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necessarily, though it may come just service.
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You are like God is there with you.
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God is sending you into that meeting.
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God is sending you into your workplace and your face is the
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mask he's wearing. Go and love your neighbor.
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That neighbor in front of you through excellent, through
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honest and diligent work, how can you serve that person this
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week, right? I want you to think about that
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because that is what the doctrine of vocation looks like
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on the ground. It's not a theology degree.
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It's not a sermon. It's just a man going to work
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knowing that his labor is not in vain in the Lord.
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First Corinthians 1558 says this.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always
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abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
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your labor is not in vain. First Corinthians 1558 listen.
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If this episode was helpful, share it with a man in your
29:39
church who needs to hear it. Leave a review or on Spotify or
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leave a comment on YouTube or like us on YouTube.
29:46
It really genuinely helps other men find this content.
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And if you want to go deeper, I would recommend two books.
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Gene Weitz, God at Work is the most accessible modern treatment
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of this doctrine. And for the more adventurous,
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William Perkins Original Treaty is available free online.
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And it will wreck you in the best possible way.
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I will see you next week gentlemen.
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Until then, go act like men, go to work and work as unto the
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Lord. God bless guys.