Finding Worth In Your Work Series

Finding Worth in Your Work

Three boys were bragging about who had the best dad. The first boy said, “My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a poem, and they give him $100.” The second boy jumps in and says, “That’s nothing. My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a song, and they give him $1,000.” The third boy grins and says, “Oh, yeah? My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon, and it takes six men just to collect all the money!”

As we kick off a new series today called, Building For The Future, I’m mindful of the fact that there is some risk in talking about giving from the pulpit. I recognize that you’ve placed some trust in me as your pastor. My responsibility is to preach the full counsel of God, and when some things I say step on your toes or make you uncomfortable, I hope you know that my intention is not to hurt, but to help.

I’m putting that trust at risk because many of you feel threatened by the topic of money. Some of you have been in churches where you felt cajoled out of your cash. Some of you have felt pressured to give to a building campaign. Others of you have been turned off by televangelists who badger viewers to give until it hurts. I also understand that some of you are here for the first time today. And right about now you’re looking for the exits. I’m risking that you’ll walk out of here and never come back.

Let me come clean with you about my motivation for preaching this series.

1. The Bible has more to say about money than almost any other subject. For instance, there are more verses about money than about Heaven and Hell combined. Of the 38 parables Jesus told, 16 of them are about money. The Bible has fewer than 300 verses on prayer, less than 500 on faith and over 2,000 verses that deal with wealth and possessions! The inescapable conclusion is that how we handle money in general, and what we give in particular, is a big deal to God. And so we need to talk about it, no matter how uncomfortable we may feel about it.

2. Giving will help us get where we’re going as a church. Through the regular and sacrificial giving of many of you, PBC is able to fulfill our IMPACT marching orders in this community, this county, our country, and on the continents. And now, we have the opportunity to impact even more lives through the construction of the Family Life Center. If you’re on our mailing list, you should be receiving a visit within the next week that will give you some exciting information about our Building for the Future campaign. If you’d like a copy of the letter that was mailed out two weeks ago, please pick one up in the hallway.

3. There are incredible benefits to giving. Whenever we do things God’s way, we will experience His blessing. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

Now, having given you my motivating factors for this series let me reiterate what I stated in my recent letter: “I promise that you will not receive any pressure to give during this campaign. Since God loves a cheerful giver we will not use any underhanded or emotional appeals just to get your money. You have my word on that.”

Your Job Matters

On this Labor Day weekend, we give national tribute to the contributions that laborers have made to our country’s strength and vitality. As we focus on Finding Worth in our Work, I came across some excuses you can use if your boss catches you asleep at your desk…

They told me at the blood bank that this might happen.

Whew! I must have left the top off the whiteout.

This is in exchange for the six hours last night when I dreamt about work!

Amen!

While you may get tired at your job, or even be tired of your job, the Bible teaches that work has intrinsic value for at least two reasons:

1. God is a worker. Most of us don’t view God this way but that’s how He first reveals Himself in Scripture. Genesis 1:1 states that God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 2:2 calls this activity “work”: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all his work.” And He didn’t stop working after creation. No wonder Psalm 111:2 declares: “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”