“Work From God’s Perspective”
Luke 5:1-11
Several years ago a newspaper article told about a Truck driver Larry Walters, 33, who had a lifelong dream to fly. He tried to join the Air Force but because of poor eyesight was turned down. One day he was sitting in a lawn chair in his backyard and had an idea. He purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. He attached the balloons to his lawn chair, anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep, and inflated the balloons with helium. He packed some sandwiches, drinks, and loaded BB gun, sat in the lawn chair and cut the anchor cord. His plan was to float slowly up a few feet and then gently return by popping a few balloons. But when he cut the anchor cord he shot up quickly and leveled off at 11,000 feet. At that height he couldn’t risk deflating any balloons for fear of unbalancing his load. He really experienced flying, floating around for 14 hours. The problem was he had no idea on how to get down. Eventually he drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport. A Pam Am Pilot radioed the tower and said, “I just passed a guy in a lawn chair at 11,000 feet with a gun in his lap.”
As dusk fell the wind shifted and Larry began to drift out to sea. The Navy dispatched a helicopter, dropped a rescue line, and hauled him to safety. When Larry got back on the ground he was arrested. A reported asked, “Sir, why did you do that?” Larry response was, “Well, you just can’t sit there.”
None of us want to just sit around in a lawn chair, doing nothing. We all want our lives to count for something.
Everyone wants to find meaningful work. Work they enjoy and work that is productive.
The fisherman in Luke 5:1-11 (Message) experienced a day of nonproductive work. They had fished all night and caught nothing.
There are many people who see their job as a dead end street. Many commuters begrudge the 83,000 hours their jobs take from their lives. Surveys of the Americans work force reveal the way many see their work:
• One third of Americans say they hate their job.
• Two – thirds believe they are working in the wrong career.
• Others find employment success, but not satisfying.
• Most suicides occur on Sunday nights
• Most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings. (Dan Miller, 48 Hours to the Work Your Love p. 48
Before you change your job first change your attitude toward your work. Maybe you need to see your work from God’s perspective.
I. Work from Man’s perspective
Work from man’s perspective often seems like a dead-end street. Simon Peter told Jesus that they had fished all night and caught nothing. They had nothing to show after working all night. (Luke 5:5) The writer of Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 expresses the futility that many find in their work: “Then I looked on all the work that my hand had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and groping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.”
From man’s perspective the ultimate purpose of work is self fulfillment. You are the master of your fate, your destiny lies within you. If you fail it’s nobody’s fault but your own. If you’re having problems in your work just go listen to a motivational speaker and find the formula to help you get what you want.
Success in life to our secular society means success in work. A man might be an alcoholic, married to his third wife, his kids are on drugs, his coworkers can’t stand him, but he is regarded as a successful businessman. People clamor for his endorsement, his money, his name and his friendship. According to modern thought you can tell how successful a person is by how much material wealth they have and their professional status.
The problem with material wealth is that the more you have the more you want. The way of self-indulgence is the way to a life of meaninglessness. It’s like drinking salt water; the more you drink, the thirstier you get. If you keep drinking salt water it can lead to death.
The theme of this world is that if you can’t buy happiness, then buy pleasure.
For many men and women their job is all that matters and if they are not careful they allow their job to become their idol.
# At the end of my fifth year of pastoral ministry I was asked by the Southern Michigan Conference to give leadership in planting a church in Taylor, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
We had just built a new church and parsonage in Kansas City, Kansas but when I saw the five acres property and old farmhouse I could envision a new church building and a thriving congregation. I got caught up in the venture and during my first two years I worked as if there were no tomorrow. With three small children at home, the fourth was born later. I wasn’t wise in making ministry a priority over my family.
Carollyn reminded me of my neglect of our family and I repented and together we made positive changes. Regardless of your job it is possible to leave God out. Work from man’s perspective leaves God out.
When God is left out of our lives and our work the result is hopelessness and stagnation.
II. Work that is blessed of the Lord
We might ask the question, “Is all work blessed of God?” The answer is “yes” and “no.”
There are some who may interpret Luke 5:1-11 to say that God’s blessing is primarily on full Christian workers. Jesus called the fisherman to a higher calling, to no longer fish for fish, but now to fish for men and women.
God’s blessing is on all work that does not violate his commandments and teachings. By His very nature God cannot bless questionable jobs like Drug Dealers, Pimps, prostitutes, Liquor store owners, Casino owners or other jobs that do not have integrity and honor the Lord.
In the Scriptures God greatest servants and leaders had secular employment.
Daniel was a statesman. Joseph was an administrator. Moses and David tended sheep. Gideon was a military leader. Peter was a fisherman. Lydia was a garment maker. Paul was a tent maker. Jesus was a carpenter.
Jesus chose His disciples from the market place and not the religious leader of his day.
When Jesus called fisherman to become his disciples he did not condemn the fishing trade. In fact Jesus went fishing. On one occasion he prepared a fish breakfast for his disciples.
Jesus used Simon Peter’s boat as a platform for preaching. When Jesus finished teaching he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” (Luke 5:5 Message)
Jesus put his blessing on the fishing vocation. Jesus may have been a carpenter, but he knew where to catch fish. Simon reluctantly rowed with his team to deeper water and cast their nets over and immediately their nets filled up with fish with such a load of fish that their nets were nearly breaking. Simon called for the other boat to come and help. They filled both boats to capacity.
Jesus wants to be in partnership with you in your work. Jesus says:
You teach for me. Your drive my truck. You work on my building. You serve my hospital wing.
In effect Jesus is saying, “Your work is my work. Invite me to work with you in your job.”
God blessing is on people who work with integrity. A couple years ago Mable Jones told a story about a painter.
# There was a Scottish tradesman, a painter named Jack, who was very interested in making a pound where he could. So he often would thin down his paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with this for some time.
Eventually the Presbyterian Church decided to do a big restoration job on one of their biggest churches. Jack put in a painting bid and because his price was so competitive, he got the job. And so he set up scaffolding and planks and purchased paint. Before painting he thinned down the paint with paint thinner.
Jack was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly done, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder. The sky opened and the rain poured down, washing the thin paint from all over the church building and knocking Jack off the scaffold to land on the lawn.
Jack was no fool so he knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he fell on his knees and cried, “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?” And from a mighty voice spoke, “Repaint you thinner, and go and thin no more!”
A manufacture executive said “I don’t usually hire people who tell me they’re Christians. I don’t advertise that I’m a Christian and I try to run this company the way I think God wants it run.
He was asked why he didn’t hire Christians. He said, “I’ve hired people just because they said they were Christians and they turned out to be some of the worst employees I ever had.
“One guy was always standing around preaching to the other guys instead of getting his work done. I couldn’t afford him! Another guy kept coming in late, day after day. His supervisor fired him and he came to me to try to get hid job back. When I told him the supervisor made the right decision he said, “I thought you were a Christian. Image that he thought he could take advantage of me just because he knew I was a Christian.” After that I decided: no more Christians!”
Ephesians 6:7 - “Work with enthusiasm, as thought you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” Eugene Peterson interprets Romans 12:1 this way, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.”
III. God’s blessing is on your work.
Or to put it another way, is God blessing on your work?
Luke 5:8-11 Simon Peter saw first hand that God’s blessing on his fishing business made a vast difference than his own skills of fishing. Peter may have thought, ” I want Jesus to be my fishing partner for the rest of my life. Business will boom with Jesus by my side telling me where to fish. We’ll have a large corner on the fishing market.”
Peter recognized the supernatural blessing of Jesus and cried out to the Lord. Jesus told Peter to not be afraid, from now on Peter would give more time to reaching out in God’s love to people than he would to fishing.
God crated the first job when he planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had created.” Genesis 2:8 “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.”
God wants to bless your work whatever it might be – the work you do for pay, volunteer work, or seemingly insignificant work. Because you are important to God, your work is important to God.
If you work has lost its zing and vitality before you change professions, change your attitude toward your profession.
Three stonemasons were building a cathedral when a stranger wandered by. The first stonemason was carrying rocks to a pile near a wall. When asked what are you doing he replied, “Can’t you see that I’m carrying rocks?”
A second laborer was asked what he was doing, and he replied: “I’m building a wall.”
A third laborer was asked the same questions, “What are you dong?” He smiled and answered: “I’m building a cathedral to the glory of God!” Same job, different missions.
Two men were working in the country installing telephone lines. One said, “I’m putting up poles and lines to get paid.” The other man said, “I’m helping to connect the world with a communication system.” The second man saw a vital purpose to his work.
When asked about what you are doing at your work, what would you reply?
In the 1930’s Duke Ellington led the most sought-after band in the world. From New York to New Delhi, he played unparalleled jazz. In the Smithsonian, a piece of paper in the Duke’s handwriting says, “The greatest thing one man can do for another is to pray for him.” Duke has said to a friend, “My music is how I pray.”
We need to ask ourselves, “Are we willing to offer up what we do every day as a prayer to God?” Our daily work is a high calling.
One of my all time favorite movies is “Chariots of Fire.” Eric Little is an Olympic Runner from Scotland during the 1930’s. His parents were missionaries to China. When he decided to enter the Olympics his sister Jenny was disgusted with him for not going to the mission field. In a dramatic moment in the movie Eric says to his sister, “Jenny God made me for a purpose, for China. But he also made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure and it is not just for fun. When I win a bring honor to Him.”
God made each of us for a purpose. He wants us to partner with Him in accomplishing His will in the world. When you work and give your work the best that you can you should feel the blessing and pleasure of the Lord. (Colossians 3:23) “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men…for you serve the Lord Christ.”
Michael Card tells the story a Christian who spent 18 years in a Prison Camp. The Communist regime rewarded his faith in Christ with the sewage assignment. The camp kept its sewage waste in pools until it fermented into fertilizer. The pits seethed with stink and disease. Guards and prisons alike avoided the cesspools and all who worked there, including this committed Christian.
After he spent weeks in the pit, the stench pigmented his body. He couldn’t scrub it out. Far from home and family somehow this godly man found a garden in his prison. He testified, “I was thankful for being sent to the cesspool. This was the only place where I was not under severe surveillance. I could pray and sing openly to our Lord. When I was there, the cesspool became my private garden.” He then quoted the words to the old hymn:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice so clear whispers in my ear
The Son of God discloses
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
The man who labored 18 years in the Chinese prison camp caring for the sewage said he never knew the meaning of this hymn until he had been in the labor camp. He said, “God can make a garden out of the cesspools you call work, if you have him with you.”
When Peter gave Jesus his boat/vocation every thing changed. If you haven’t given Jesus your vocation, why not give it to him this morning.
Let’s pray.
