Heartily And Orderly

Heartily and Orderly

Grady (Doc) Henley

4 Jan. 2002

INTRODUCTION:

Prov. 10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. Have you ever worked with or attempted to work an employee that was a sluggard by nature? Such a soul will indeed set your teeth on edge and cause your eyes to water. The sluggard sees nothing wrong with the way they carry out their tasks. It is first nature for the sluggard:

1. To be late for work,

2. Do less than poorly at any task,

3. Laughs at others for doing a good job,

4. Leaves early while the remainder of the work force labors unceasingly,

5. Seeks to pull the remainder of the work force down to their level.

6. Indifferent as to whether or not the assigned task is completed.

Such is the mindset of the sluggard. You can probably name more attributes that you have observed from the sluggards in your world.

Each of us that labor for the Lord must be careful so that we do not become indifferent or as the sluggard is in our service. Why is this a concern? Because it is easy to say:

"See, Lord, I tried.”

“Well, that is good enough. Ain’t nobody gonna be at church anyway.”

“I can not teach. Furthermore, I refuse to try.”

Have you heard those remarks at church? From your lips?

What we must ask and consider is how much effort have I placed in serving the Lord? Am I only going through the motions? Am I faithful to do my best? God is faithful. Are we, Heb 10:23?

Too many times the average church member thinks one must be called into the pastorate to be a minister. Such is not true. Whether we choose to admit it or not, each born again child of God is a minister. We are either good ministers or we are bad. Let us look at some of the aspects of our ministry and as we do, each of us must grade self, for according to the word of God, He is grading us.

I. WHY IS YOUR MINISTRY IMPORTANT?

This may come as a shock to you, but your ministries in the fields of the Lord are important. What you need to do is determine why and upon making such determination, you need to commence laboring more abundantly. Do you actually think God thought so much of you that He saved you so you could occupy a church pew while others labored feverishly?

Sad it is but the world sometime grasps this idea of doing a better job with each completed task with more zeal than children of God. For example movie stars and entertainers know the importance of each project being greater than their last. Each of their endeavors is designed to bring them top billing! Top billing means more money. Too many times, the saints of God are satisfied with second billing and even less.

It is OK to play the supporting role. What is not OK is to do a sloppy job at it. It is time for saints to stop giving secondary and lame excuses for their labors. The nation of Israel had that attitude. Malachi addressed it very well when he penned: Mal 1:7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 1:8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

Simply stated Malachi said if the governor of the state was in town, would you set before him the lame, the crippled, and sick at a banquet in his honor? If not, then why did they offer the King of Creation the vile and detestable things? Have you considered your service unto the Lord? Is it sickly? Lame? Just getting by?

Children of God should tap into the that same concept of doing a great job, not for earthly rewards and fame, but for the simple fact that we ought to take pride in what we do for the Lord. Heartily is how the bible describes our attitude. Heartily mean sincere or cordial, earnest, enthusiastically, abundantly and thoroughly. Orderly means there is a sense of order to our labor. The church has a plan for growth, visitation, Sunday school, etc, and the pastor ensures the plan is adhered to as much as possible. There is room for deviation but the long term plan is orderly.

A. You were saved so that you could minister!