MONDAY AGAIN? MONDAY AGAIN!
A Biblical View of Work
Labor Day Sunday
September 2, 2007
Pastor Brian Matherlee
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The woman below replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault."
Each day across the USA 50,000 people quit their jobs. In a recent survey of workers across the USA, nearly 85% said that they could work harder at their job. More than half claimed they could double their effectiveness "if (they) wanted to." Managing the Equity Factor, R Huseman, J Hatfield, 1989
U.S. Workers feel rushed on the job, but are getting less accomplished due to technology intended to make work quicker and easier. “Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it’s slowed everything down, paradoxically,” says John Challenger (of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Consultants). “We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you’re on to the next thing.” Workers are bombarded with e-mail, cell phone calls, and voice mails. The average time spent on a computer was almost 16 hours a week last year vs. 9.5 hours a decade ago. 46 e-mails a day is now typical. In ‘94, 82% of workers accomplished at least half their daily planned work; now only 50% do so. Then 40% of workers called themselves successful vs. just 28% today. (Reuters 2/22/06)
Work today isn’t what it used to be.
Most people go to work and tolerate it. Many go to work and hate it! Wouldn’t you like to go to work and love it?
What does the Bible say about work? Ecclesiastes 1:3
1. It is good!
a. Genesis 1:1-2:3
i. Earth, plants, animals, etc. were “good”
ii. Everything together and God saw it was “very good”
b. The trouble came when Adam and Eve sinned (3:17-19)
i. Toil was there but their actions brought “painful toil”
ii. Thorns & sweat are introduced into the mix.
c. The God intended focus of work was three–fold:
i. Joy
ii. Creativity
iii. Provision
2. We’re to take a break from it
a. Genesis 2:2-3
b. The seventh day is set apart from the first six because God "sanctified" it. On this day God does not "speak," nor does he "work" as he had on the previous days. On this day he "blessed" (GK H3385) and "sanctified" (NIV, "made it holy"; GK H7727), but he did not "work." The reader is left with a somber and repetitive reminder of only one fact: God did not work on the seventh day. While little else is recounted, it is repeated three times, emphasizing God’s "rest." If the purpose of pointing to the "likeness" between humans and their Creator was to call on the reader to be more like God (e.g., Lev 11:45), then the seventh day stresses the very thing that they elsewhere are called on to do: "rest" on the seventh day (cf. Ex 20:8-11) (Source: Pradis, Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary)
c. God didn’t take a break because He couldn’t go on anymore. God took a break because He was establishing a beneficial pattern for His people.
d. Taking a break from work does several things:
i. Refreshes the body
ii. Refocuses the mind
1. thinking harder doesn’t always make ideas come
iii. Reconnects our relationships
1. Primarily with God
2. Secondarily with Family
iv. Testifies to a busy world
3. When you’re on the job—work!
a. Jesus tells the story in Matthew 25:14-30 of a man who gave instructions to 3 servants….
i. Hard work brings favor, advancement, increased opportunity & responsibility.
ii. The Christian can see that their hard work has a greater purpose.
iii. Think of what Joseph accomplished because he viewed his work from a Godly point of view.
b. Colossians 3:23, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
c. The lazy servant demonstrates all that is wrong in a work force.
d. Someone has written that there are four kinds of bones in the world.
The WISH BONES who spend their time wishing someone else would do the work;
The JAW BONES who do all the talking, but very little else;
The KNUCKLE BONES who knock everything that anyone else is trying to do;
The BACK BONES who shoulder the load and do the work
4. Do what you can & trust God with the rest
a. Our provision comes first and foremost from God…not our own strength, ability, toil or cunning. If we begin with trusting God to provide for the necessities of life it will free us from striving after so much.
i. Matthew 6:25-34
b. But we must do what we can to provide for ourselves and our families.
c. Many people look down at the poor and with the overwhelming bombardment from many high profile preachers you would think that God shuns the poor and that all sanctified believers prosper as the world measures it. But this is not true.
d. Pastor Melvin Newland points out from the Bible and experience that people are poor for different reasons:
1. Some are poor because of calamity. Maybe they have been victims of a flood or tornado, or their home has been destroyed & they have lost all their possessions. Maybe they are handicapped physically or mentally & can’t provide for themselves. Jesus had compassion for the blind & the lame & the paralyzed & those stricken with leprosy. And here Christians need to be of service, too.
2. Others are poor because of oppression, man’s inhumanity to man, cruelty & abuse. Here, too, there is need for Christian ministry. We must reach out & in the name of Jesus help to alleviate the suffering.
3. Some people are poor because of their service to God. Missionaries & ministers & doctors & nurses have gone to the uttermost parts of the world. They have left behind family & material possessions. They have said, "I’ll go wherever God wants me to go, & I’ll do whatever God wants me to do." They have an amazing faith that we admire.
That is a part of the ministry of the church, to reach out to people like that, to support them & enable them to carry on their labor for God.
4. But there is poverty caused by sloth, by an unwillingness to work. The Book of Proverbs is full of proverbs that deal with lazy people. And the advice that is given to people who won’t work is that they should learn from the activities of the ant.
Oftentimes people come begging, asking for handouts, but when work is mentioned, you quickly discover that they have no desire to work.
Jesus called the servant who took the one talent & buried it a "wicked & slothful" or lazy servant. Paul takes one look at his world, & in 2 Thessalonians 3 says, "If you don’t work, you don’t eat."
As Christians we have a ministry to those who are poor because of calamity or oppression or their service for God. But we must not give hand outs to people who are not willing to work.” (sermoncentral.com)
Conclusion
What can we take away today?
• We were created to work.
• Our work should be a service to God and people.
• God will honor our faithfulness to His design for work and rest.
