Transcription
Hey, so a couple of weeks ago I did a video on the self-help lie that's deceiving Christians. And in that video, I touched on the fact that the lie is that you belong to yourself. This is what secular self-help and personal productivity all assume. It's my life. And so if I want to be productive, sure, I can. And the whole point of that is to make me happy. It's all about me. And I said in that video that the antidote, the truth is that no, you belong to God.
But what I didn't tell you is that's just part of a more thorough biblical philosophy of personal productivity. And in this video, I wanted to share with you these five foundational truths that help us to understand personal productivity from a biblical foundation. If you can grasp these five pillars, then you can build on top of it the strategies, the tactics, the actual practices for setting and reaching goals, developing habits, and all of those types of things. But you've got to have the scriptural foundation first. So, let's look at each of these pillars one by one.
The first pillar of Christian productivity is that you belong to God. And we can look at each of these. They actually show up in John chapter 15, Jesus passage where he says, "I'm the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit." Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you abide in me. And there's this concept present already there that we are to abide in Christ. And we'll come back to this more in a moment, but Paul summarizes this elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 6 when he says, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price." And the whole point here is what I said in that previous video that you don't belong to yourself.
I talk about all of these in my book uh redeeming productivity. There's a chapter on each of these, but just briefly, one of the things that you pick up on in secular productivity is that notion of, hey, it's all about me. And if you hold to that notion, one thing that happens is that productivity becomes optional. And so there's I sometimes hear this from believers. They'll say, "Oh, that's cool. You're into that, you know, growth and productivity stuff and improving yourself. That's really neat for you. That's just not my thing." And and I get it. You know, it is sort of a niche thing to be into even as an individual. But I do believe that if we take seriously the fact that we were bought with the precious blood of Christ, then we start to understand that growth is not optional. There isn't a category for a Christian who is now a servant of Jesus Christ who just says, "Yeah, not really my thing to get better at serving the Lord. not really my thing to try to improve on the stewardship the Lord has given me with this life or with these talents or with these opportunities. I'm more of just a chill Christian. I just lay back. I just do my own thing. I just don't see that as being an option. If we belong to God and our life's not our own, then it means I need to serve God. So I think one of the the conclusions we can draw about this idea that we belong to God is that if I'm his then I need to actually try to seek to serve him well. I need to be productive. It's not an option for me.
I like to call this the origin of our productivity. This pillar that you belong to God is the foundation place of everything. It it's the the cornerstone in some ways. Not to say that Jesus isn't the cornerstone, but as we're talking about this building this this building of personal productivity and these five pillars of the foundation, this one comes first. You have to understand that the only reason I should want to be productive is because I am trying to make the most of this life for the God whom I love and to whom I belong. And so just to summarize this, the world says you belong to yourself, but the Bible says your life is a stewardship. In other words, Christian productivity asks not how do I make a good return for myself but how do I make a good return for Christ who is my master.
Now in the second pillar we say that you are empowered by God. This also we see in John 15 and Jesus goes on to say abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the true vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus is saying this idea of union with Christ that I have been joined to Christ by faith. Uh this is the basis of my justification uh in Christ Jesus right as the scriptures repeatedly talk about especially the apostle Paul this idea of being in Christ. This is this idea that I'm I'm in Christ. So when the father looks on me, he sees Christ and therefore Christ's good works and his uh atoning death are credited to my account. But also in the same sense, I am not just in Christ, but Christ is in me. And this specifically by virtue of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. And so what does all this have to do with personal productivity? Well, the idea here in John 15, it's all about bearing fruit. How do I bear much fruit? A and this comes back to the entire way we conceive of personal productivity. So a lot of times when we talk about productivity, we think about it as being productive like a factory. But really biblical productivity conceives of it as being productive like a fruit tree. The the produce, right? Remember when I go to the grocery store, where do I find the vegetables and the fruits? I find them in the produce section. So to be productive, to bear much fruit is that I want to as Jesus says here, I want to bear much fruit. And how do I do that? By virtue of my connection to Jesus Christ. And so another place we see this is the apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Now I call this the source of our productivity. The idea is where does the power come from? If you look to secular resources on personal productivity, they're going to say, "Yeah, it comes from within. You got to awaken the giant within or you know, you you muster up the self-discipline or all of these different things." But at the end of the day, it relies on you or it relies on some external motivator to help you get up and do the things that need to be done. Christian productivity is fundamentally different because our power source is God himself. He is working to change us from the inside out. And this has several consequences. One, as I kind of mentioned uh in a previous video, you can't take the credit when you change. When you produce fruit that pleases God, whether that's in your church or in your family or in your work, you're doing stuff that pleases God. You're being productive in his power. Guess who gets the glory? Not you. It's him. And so, [clears throat] we have to recognize Christ working through us. That's what we want. We want to be plugged into that power source, not motivated by other things. And so this contrasts with the way the world talks about productivity because the world says be productive in your own power, but the Bible says no, be productive in God's power.
And this actually leads us very naturally into the third pillar of Christian productivity, which is that you exist to glorify God. Right? This is the purpose of our personal productivity. As we talked about in previous videos, the whole reason you're here, what are why do we care about being productive? Right? This this goes back to that thing I said at the beginning of of many believers will say, "Yeah, this just isn't something I care about." If it's all about you, then it makes sense that that it would be optional. Makes sense that you would say, "Yeah, I kind of just I'm saved and I'm just kind of doing the bare minimum. I'm just getting by and that's like good enough for me." It's like, no, no, no, no. You're still thinking in terms of this is all about me. You have to think about your purpose. Your purpose isn't just to to try to satisfy yourself. It's to glorify God. And through that, you actually, ironically, amazingly, are find your most fulfillment.
So, you exist to glorify God. And he talks about this in John 15. He says, "By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." He's saying by bearing fruit through virtue of our connection to Christ in an understanding that we belong to Christ, we glorify God. Isn't that amazing? I saw some comments in my previous video. They said, "Well, you didn't define what it means to glorify God." And it is a tough thing to define, but here's maybe a simple definition for you. God is objectively glorious, right? He has glory. What does that mean? It uh as scripture talks about it. uh God's glory seems to be the manifestation of who he is. It's often associated with words for light or uh visibility. It talks about his glory shining and uh even as reference to his name and who he is. And so I think the simplest definition of God's glory is the the shining forth of his attributes, who he is, his greatness as God. Right? When Moses uh says, "Show me your glory." And God passes before him and announces his name. He says, "The Lord, the Lord, gracious and merciful." Right? He tells him who he is. Um, one way Thomas Watson, the Puritan pastor, summarized it was, "Glory is the sparkling of divinity." It's God showing us who he really is. And so, as we think of glory, we often thinks in terms of light. So, what does it mean to glorify God? Then, can we add more glory to God? No. You can't improve upon perfection, can you? But you can do what the theologians call give him ascribed glory. We do this through worship. When we praise him for who he is and what he's done, we are magnifying in the sense that we are we are making big to the senses what God really is like. And we also do this through our attitudes. We glorify God when we think his thoughts after him. When we love his law, when we show him the affection that he deserves. And we do this also through our actions. When I am productive and I'm a good steward of what has God has given me and I'm doing it in his power and I'm doing it because of uh my my love for him and I'm doing it in an attitude and actions that magnify what God is like as his image bearer, then I glorify him. Right? And so I think it's John Piper says glorifying God means to make much of him. And so it's any way in life that we make much of God. And my thesis or my argument I guess is that Christians can glorify God through their productivity when we do our work. Whether that's in a job, in the home, in volunteer capacity, whatever that is. We do those things out of a desire to glorify God. We are being productive in the sense that matters most. We're actually fulfilling our purpose, which is to glorify God in our lives. That's a lot. Hopefully, you stuck around through my long definition, but hopefully that's clarifying for some of you. Now, Paul talks about this elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 10:31. He says, "So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." Everything you do should be done for the glory of God. It's that simple. So, no matter what it is, no matter how small, we're seeking to glorify God in that. And so, as we redeem our productivity, we're trying to do that for the sake of fulfilling this purpose. So yes, this is the purpose of our productivity. It's why we've been put on this earth. It's why I care about getting stuff done. So to contrast that with the world, the world's going to say be productive so you can be successful or so you can be happy or so you can be comfortable. Whatever it is, that selffocus, but the Bible says the glorify God in all that you do. That's the purpose of even my productivity is that I might more glorify God through imaging him correctly in the way that I work and the attitudes I bring to it.
This brings us to the fourth pillar which is that you were saved to work for God. And so Jesus talks about this in John also when he says you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. You say well what is this all about? Jesus is talking about that he chose his disciples and he's given them this purpose this work to do to bear much fruit. And this is true for any believer throughout any age. We are called to glorify God and we're given specifics of how to do that. This is the work you've been given. Uh another way to put this would come from Titus 2:14 where the apostle says, "Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." This is speaking about Jesus. So what did he do? Well, he he gave himself for us for what purpose? To redeem us to to buy us back uh from all lawlessness. And why else did he come? Did he come just to save us? Yes, he came to save us from our sins, but also to purify for himself a people for his own possession. There it is. You belong to God again. Who are what? Zealous for good works. very often in Christian circles um we can uh forget about the whole good works thing because you know as good Protestants we we try to remember oh yeah works don't contribute to my salvation that's true but they are a necessary consequence of your salvation right Ephesians 2:10 follows Ephesians 8:9 so yes you're saved by grace through faith but in verse 10 he says you're saved unto what those good works which Christ has prepared in advance that you should walk in them. So, you're saved to a purpose. The necessary consequence of being transformed, of being saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is completely free, not based on our own works at all, is that we will become new creations in Christ Jesus who perform good works. Why? To add to our salvation? No. There's no supplementation necessary. It's all complete in Christ. But this is our role as redeemed creatures. We are restored to a relationship with God and we were able to how we've never done before as slaves of sin. We're able to now serve him and glorify him as we were meant to as his imagebearers. That's so cool. And so it's I think um when this became clear to me in in my Christian life, it really imbued me with so much more specificity to my purpose in this life that I'm not just trying to, you know, I I get saved and I'm just sort of waiting around for heaven and trying to avoid the big sins. Now I've got work to do. And you know that that shouldn't discourage you. That should encourage you. It gives you this mission mindset of how do I bear more good fruit for God? How do I be productive for his glory? And and it's so cool. He's given me work to do. I love that. I love that.
And so what is this? This is what I would call the content of our productivity, right? Like the Ford Motor Company back in the day under Henry Ford. What would be the content of that facto's productivity? Be turn out as many Model T's as possible. Well, the content of our productivity is good works or fruit. And in context, back in John 15, the the fruit he's talking about bearing is very clearly good works. And so, I want to be really fruitful, which means I need to walk really closely with Christ. So, he empowers me to do it. And then I also need to choose day by day to pursue being fruitful in that I need to be productive. I need to be productive because it's not my life. And so, so fundamentally, how does this come out in day-to-day? Well, it means that I get up when I say I'm going to get up. I get in the word when I say I'm going to get in the word. I spend time in prayer when I say I'm going to spend time in prayer. I take care of my body. I I discipline myself in his power to be a person of their word who fulfills the responsibilities in a timely manner with an attitude that glorifies God. It it just brings a focus and a discipline to the way you live when you actually reckon this to be true that oh yeah, I've got work to do and I got to do it for my master. And so to contrast this with how the world talks about it, the world would say be productive in following your dreams or getting what you want out of this life, something like that. The Bible would say be productive in following Christ, in bearing good fruit, in good works. That's what you want to be productive in.
And so that then brings us to the fifth and the final pillar which is you will stand before God. So in recounting the words of Jesus, John says at the end of verse 16 uh that you'd go and bear much fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give to you. And so th this one um if you can kind of see what he's alluding to there, he's saying your fruit itself would abide that it would last. And I think what he means there is that the good works we do in this life in Christ's power are the thing that is preserved into eternity. You get this also in is it um 1 [clears throat] Corinthians when it talks about uh our good works. It talks about the foundation being Christ and whoever builds on that foundation with wood, hay or stubble or gold, jewels or precious things, those will be tested by fire. And he's saying at the end of that, he's saying, "Hey, it's not that your good works are going to contribute to your salvation." Because he says, "Even those who built on that foundation of Christ with wood, hay, and stubble. Those get burnt up in the fire, which he's speaking about judgment, not hell, but judgment as um fire used as a metaphor for judgment. The encouragement there Paul is making is that you should build on that foundation of Christ with good works, precious jewels, um gold, these things that will last through the judgment." And so, he's just making an analogy there. He's saying the good works that you build on in Christ power on that foundation of Christ, those last into eternity. And so if if you are a long-term thinker, you should be considering not how do I get the most out of this life because that's what the world says, right? That's what worldly productivity says. Make as much money as you can so you can have as many great experiences as you can and because you're going to die and that's it. We don't believe that. We believe this world's not our home. We believe my home's in heaven. And so I want to make the most of the next life. I want to make sure that the stuff I do here in this life actually matters on the eternal timeline. And one thing that helps us recognize this is that I'm going to stand before God. That's why this is the fifth pillar. I'm going to stand before God. Uh Paul says in Romans 14:12, "So then each of us will give an account of himself to God." And here he's speaking about the fact that you are uh even Christians will stand before God. There there's these two judgments there. There's the separation of the goats and the sheep. The goats being the unbelievers and the sheep being believers. But there's also a judgment of believers. And this is unto reward. And so when the scriptures allude to this fact that hey, you're going to stand before God even as a Christian that that's the point they're they're making isn't that this is whether or not you're going to get into heaven. No, that's already settled. That was settled 2,000 years ago on the cross. But the issue here is a judgment unto reward. Um Jesus talks about this very clearly in Matthew 6 19 and 20 when he says do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. What is he saying? Don't be productive in this life. Don't spend all of your time trying to acquire a bunch of money or trying to um make the most of the experiences or whatever that stuff is the worldly productivity tells you is the the marrow of life. No, you're missing it. He says, "Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. That's what lasts. Moth and rust and thieves, those can't touch that." And so as we seek to be productive as Christians, this idea of you will stand before God is not provided as like a a fear thing of, oh, I don't want, you know, you I'll get into heaven and God's going to slap my wrist and say, you weren't productive enough. No, the idea is it's a motivation for us positively. It's this idea that eternal reward is laid up for those who produce in the spirit's power for God's glory. And this is what you're supposed to be doing in this life. You need to be productive in his power. And and this is not this shouldn't be a burden to you. This shouldn't be something you're like, "Oh man, I wish it wasn't so." This should be inspiring. At least that's what I take away from it is I'm like, "Yeah, I got work to do. I know why I'm here. I I have crystal clear purpose." And so it gives me the fire to get out of bed in the morning and get into the word and get into prayer and to and to exercise to take care of this body he's given me and to eat right and and and to pursue the goals that he's given me with just a a clearsighted focus. This is what I come back to is it's not just about this life, it's about the next life. And so there's a motivation. And so here's the contrast. The world's going to say, "Hey, be productive so you can get more of this life." But the Bible says be productive so you can gain more of the next life.
So that is it. That's the five pillars of Christian productivity. You belong to God. You were empowered by God. You exist to glorify God. You were saved to work for God. And you will stand before God. It is on this foundation that then we build in the tactical stuff. Now, how do I set a goal in a way that I can actually reach it? How do I change my habits strategically in a way that's that's recognizing it's God's power working in me and it's for this ultimate purpose, right? All of the little stuff, even how do I manage tasks? How do I make sure I don't forget commitments and do a to-do list the right way? All of that must be built on this firm foundation. Otherwise, it's going to end up being self-focused.
So, I wanted to lay this down here in a video uh as clear as I could. Uh this material comes from our um course way points to well done. That's part of our membership redeeming productivity academy. So if it's familiar to you and you you're in the academy, that's why. But uh this is the foundation and I wanted to put it out there for anyone who might be blessed by it. Well, I pray that's helpful to you. Let me know in the comments if there's anything that you'd like more clarification on or if there are future video ideas you'd like to see me develop more either on the theological side or on the practical side of productivity. I'm seeking to serve you guys through this channel. So, if you like this content, do me a favor and like the video and do yourself a favor and subscribe to the channel for more content on productivity from a Christian worldview. Thanks. I'll see you next time.