Labor Day 2019 - Love One Another

Labor Day 2019

Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …

John 14:23-24

“Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.

“He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.”

And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …

Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Please open your Bibles to 1 John 4:7-21

According to the US Department of Labor:

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

A couple of interesting factoids about Labor Day:

1) President Grover Cleveland helped make Labor Day a national holiday

2) You are not supposed to wear white after Labor Day because “white indicated you were still in vacation mode at your summer cottage.” (We ALL have summer cottages, right???

3) Labor Day is the unofficial end of Hot Dog season. (I have never gotten a license to hunt hotdogs because I did not know there was a season!)

Anyway, in spite of that foolishness let’s prepare our hearts to look into God’s Holy Word on this Sunday before Labor Day.

Read: 1 John 4:7-21

(Prayer for help …)

Labor Day is one of my least favorite holidays for two reasons:

- 1) it signals the unofficial end of summer

- 2) the only reason the holiday exists is because people did NOT obey the Scriptures we just read in 1 John 4!

From ancient history we see trade and merchant unions in existence but at that time they were more often referred to as guilds.

But that is not why we have the holiday called Labor Day in America.

When the industrial revolution came from Europe to America in the early 1800’s the population began to shift from a farming economy to an industrial economy. People moved from the country to the city to work in the mills and factories and there were very few protections for the workers.

There was absolutely NO minimum wage

There was no limit on hours that could be worked

There were no child labor laws

There were no workplace safety regulations

There were no fire safety regulations

Workers could be forced to stay at the company through debt bondage

The companies were only looking out for their own profit and not for the workers …

OK. Let’s step back a bit.

1 John 4:7-8

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

It seems obvious to us that the owners of these factories and the company officers who enforced these conditions were not acting out of this kind of love, or, any real kind of love at all!

Is it possible that all of the company owners and their enforcers were non-believers?

Is it possible that none of them knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior?

Is it possible that many of them were pillars in their churches; making grand donations, sitting on the elder boards and praying lengthy public prayers?

And is it possible that all the time they were doing those things they were wringing every bit of life out of their employees that they could?

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Eventually the tide turned and the labor unions became strong, constantly demanding more and more from the companies wherever they were able to organize.

Then what happened when they became too strong for a company?

They made bigger and bigger demands; never satisfied

They would go on strikes when demands weren’t met hoping to choke the company into submission

Sometimes they would go so far as to force the very business that employed them to close or go bankrupt

OK. Let’s step back again …

1 John 4:7-8

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”