1 Peter 2:4-10 · Ephesians 6:5-8
The Sacred and the Secular
Everything matters to God. This sermon challenges the false division between sacred and secular activities, showing how daily work and ordinary life become spiritual when done with Christ at the center and for God's glory.
Introduction
I will never forget the first time I saw a teacher outside of the classroom. I was with my mother at the grocery store and when we turned the corner there was Mrs. Heinz. I was shocked. I was dismayed. What was she doing in the grocery store? She was a teacher. I knew that teachers ate. I knew that someone had to go to the grocery store to buy groceries, but surely not Mrs. Heinz. She was my teacher. Teachers do teacher things. They aren’t like the rest of us. They are special, elite, above others, private, and different. I don’t know if you have ever felt that way about a teacher or an employer. We see such thinking in the sports and entertainment field in which fans will hold an athlete or performer in high esteem. There is a belief that these gifted individuals are not like the rest of us.
We elevate that which we believe is above us. Athletes, entertainers, political figures, teachers, even religious leaders. But what does God say about such things? There is an appreciation for one’s abilities or positions. There is a respect. But then there are times in which admiration goes past appreciation and respect to awe and a heightened sense of difference. Tonight we are going to look at the difference between the secular and the sacred and rediscover that there is a spiritual dimension to life which exists for us all and not only for a select few.
Sacred and the Secular
Which is more important—reading your Bible and praying or eating? Attending an assembly or working? Someone would say that these are equal things, that it is like comparing apples to oranges. Maybe so, but then do not each item have some measure of importance? Don’t we need times for Bible reading as well as eating? Isn’t there a time to work and a time to attend an assembly? There may be times that working and the assembly times get blurred, but both are important. The point is that we think in terms of spiritual events and secular events. We believe that certain activities because they are associated with “church” are spiritual while other activities are not as spiritual.
Which is more important—attending a Bible study or taking a hot meal to your shut-in neighbor? Why do we see the Bible study as a spiritual event and the hot meal as a secular act? Let’s try one more. Which is more important—my job or yours? This is difficult for me, but I am trying to make a point. We believe that ministers are spiritual people with a spiritual outlook, and we should be. But is it not possible to be a spiritual person with a spiritual outlook while twisting wrenches in a repair shop, or adding numbers in an accounting column, or selling a product to a potential customer? Is it not possible that both the work of the minister and your work are equally spiritual?
Sometimes we think that full-time ministry work is more important. I am not denigrating the work of the minister, but I am trying to elevate your view of your own work. You work with people I will never work with. You have the possibility of spiritually influencing the folks you deal with day in and day out in ways that I never could. That makes your contact and your influence spiritual. You are a spiritual person with a spiritual outlook; therefore, whatever you do is done to honor God. Peter says in our text that we are a chosen people who belong to God so that we may declare God’s praises. That’s what you do in your jobs, your homes, your relationships. Wherever the heart and mind of Christ exists, wherever you exist with a spiritual outlook means that spiritual things are taking place.
When we became a Christian, we continued to be human, but our humanity was given a new meaning and purpose. We became holy. We became set apart for God. Our humanity became more godly. Every word we speak—not just the ones spoken in prayer or with a religious tone to it, but every word we speak—belongs to God. Whatever we do, even if it’s as common a thing as eating or drinking, we do for the glory of God. Everything matters to God. Let me illustrate in a very earthly way. When is a parent not interested in what is going on in a child’s life? We pray that our children will walk with God. We pray that Jesus will be Lord of their lives. We pray that they will honor God with their conduct and words. But I am interested in their ball games, their music lessons, their friendships, their diets, their sleep deprivation—and on and on it goes. I am so interested in them that I ask a lot of questions and drive them crazy. But no part of their life is trivial to me. I am imperfect and sometimes forget things or act uninterested, but a perfect father doesn’t forget and is always interested in every part of his child’s life.
Real Spirituality
Somehow we have to alter our thinking to coincide with God’s view. If God created life and the physical world, then the physical world must be important to him. If the physical world is important to him, then how we live in this physical world must be important to him as well. Real spirituality is not the pious attitude or doing only spiritual things. Real spirituality is bringing Jesus into every activity, from the assembly to family vacations and asking Jesus to bless that activity by joining you.
This new view includes our work. Work is God’s gift to us. Before sin entered the world there was work. Adam was given a job to do before there was sin. But after sin, work became harder for us. But work was still God’s plan. God made work for our benefit. If you are a Christian you do not have a secular job. Your job is your ministry. Work is good and godly because it comes from God. Adam’s gardening was not “spiritual” but it was sacred because it was work from God and Adam did it for God. Sin led to work being cursed. Cursed work becomes painful. Sin also skewed our view of work. Work then became a way to evaluate our self-worth.
Work has become the way we measure ourselves and the way we grade everyone else. Work without God means that work becomes your idol. You sacrifice to it in order to become successful. And the more you sacrifice to it the more your work will define you and control you. If we place our work in the realm of the secular then that means our work is without God. Instead we need to see our work as sacred. Paul said in Ephesians 6:5-8 that the work of a slave for his master was the same thing as working for God. That makes work holy and sacred. That means what you do matters. Real spirituality is found in honoring God with your efforts even as you serve your employer. If you influence your co-workers for God; if you speak a good word for Jesus; if you work as if you are working for the Lord, then your work is spiritual. It is just as “spiritual” as any minister’s work. For God called us all to be his holy people in the world.
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