Recharge Your Work
Nehemiah 3: 1-4,6-8, 31-32
At first glance, Nehemiah chapter 3 looks a bit dry. One commentator refers to it as a "colorless memorandum of assignments." It’s a list of people and their assignments in re-building the wall of Jerusalem. It reads much like the book of 1 Chronicles with its long lists of names that are difficult to pronounce, information that seems redundant, and a chronology that seems meaningless. At first look, it may be tempting to skip this Chapter, but it contains some great insights and principles that have direct application to our lives today. There were 44 separate groups of people working for the overwhelming task of rebuilding the walls. Without them working together they culd not have rebuilt the walls reminding us that we can accomplish more together than if just one person tried to do all the work. Twenty eight times the expressions "next to him," "next to them," "after him," and "after them." are recorded in this chapter teaching us that every person is to be involved in ministry because everyone has a job to do. The next three week’s messages are about who God uses to rebuild the walls. Now there are several things we learn about our work from today’s reading.
First, we must put God first. Take a look at verse 1: "Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place…" It’s no accident that the list begins with the Sheep Gate. Starting on the Sheep Gate was another way of saying, "Put God first." Close to the wall’s northeast corner, this gate provided easy access to the Temple, and was given this name because of all the sheep that entered through it to be sacrificed. By beginning here, Nehemiah is establishing that their worship and relationship with God was central to their life. Wherever we are or whatever we are doing, start first with God. We must make sure we are dedicated to God before we begin working for Him. Don’t make the mistake of focusing so much on the work or the task that you forget God Himself. God is not impressed with your labor. He wants your heart. That’s why worship must always precede work. It’s been said that this was a soft option for the priests but in reality this is the most vulnerable part of the city. On all other sides, the city was surrounded by steep valleys, except on the north. And so it was incumbent on Eliashib to fortify this location. So the place that they were most vulnerable is also the place which centered their worship. And the times when we are most vulnerable are those when we are not centered on our worship before we begin our work.
Second, God uses all kinds of people. Take a look at verse 8: "Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section; and Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs next to that…" The Lord didn’t need a 1000 masons and carpenters to rebuild the wall he needed ordinary people who were willing to work. People from a wide variety of different backgrounds, trades, and localities gathered to work on the wall. The rulers and priests worked together with regular people. Those who lived near the walls worked with those who lived 10-15 miles away. There was a place for everyone, and a job for everyone to do. One of the key words in this chapter is the word "section." It’s used 13 times. The wall was divided and people were assigned a certain section to work on. Likewise, just as no one person could construct the whole wall by himself, so too, you and I are called to work in a certain part of the kingdom. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
God has called each of us to be involved in a lifestyle of servanthood. As we use our gifts, fruit will be produced, we will be fulfilled, and the church will be fortified. But we also learn that we are not always called to serve, work and minister in our area of giftedness alone. For God called perfume makers, goldsmiths and merchants to build the wall, just as he did the masons and craftsmen. There are times we are called to get out of our comfort zone, our knowledge of expertise and giftedness and trust God to provide the necessary resources and guidance to accomplish the task. Romans 12:6 says, "We have different gifts according to the grace given us…" Are you serving God right now? If not, it’s time to grab a brick, a trowel and some mortar and jump in. Are you willing to stand alongside your brother and sister in Christ and serve with them to rebuild this city and enable this church to have a kingdom impact on the WestBank and beyond?
Third, God can use you right where you are. In other words, you don’t have to quit your day job to do God’s work in the world. God can use your day job to build the wall of God’s kingdom. Not only do we read about goldsmiths, perfume makers, priests and merchants but also masons and craftsmen who also worked on the wall. So what we also see here is God using people in their vocations to move His purpose forward in the world. I think that brings the question: is your work an occupation or vocation? There is a passage in the book of Exodus that Moses wrote that gives us an insight into what work is all about. "The Lord has given them special skills as jewelers, designers, weavers and embroiderers. They excel in all the crafts needed for the work." Exodus 35:35 When I look around this room, I wonder how many different vocations are represented and where do the skills and wisdom come from to do those occupations. "So Bezalel, Oholiab and the other craftsman whom the Lord has gifted with wisdom, skill and intelligence will construct and furnish the tabernacle just as the Lord has commended." Wisdom, skill and intelligence you can’t take credit for. That comes from God. But what we learn is this: God can use every person and their vocation, their skills and gift mix that he’s given them to further his purpose in the world. He’s given you vocational skills to build his city and his kingdom here on earth. Your job or vocation, has, or is meant to have, eternal consequence in the world - whatever it is you do. So you see, your life work is not just your job. Your life work is your worship of God. For Paul wrote, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Everybody lived this way until the Middle Ages. People understood everything belonged to God and came from God and everything they did was for God. But this began to fall apart when the philosophers Renee Descartes and Francis Bacon began to argue that all of life fell into one of two categories. There was sacred life, which were the things concerning God and there was secular life which was ordinary day-to-day life, the things that belong to human beings. This dichotomy even entered the life of the church, as it created a sharp division between two classes of people: the clergy and the laity. Yet laity really means the people of God. The result of all this is that we’re all acting like schizophrenic people, compartmentalizing our life in these neat little boxes of the sacred and the secular. We have these little boxes for my day job, and then over here is my family and the work with my family, and then over here we have this third box, we call it community service, sometimes we call that church work. But, no! All of your work, all of your life’s calling, is God’s. So your day job is God’s work, your family is God’s work and your community service belongs to God. For the Psalmist says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” Psalm 24:1 This is how Nehemiah enlists the Israelites to begin rebuilding the wall in the midst of their busy lives. He points them to the purpose of their work. They weren’t just working on walls, they were worshipping their God by doing His will and rebuilding His holy city.
And that leads us to our fourth point, The purpose of all work, and really of life itself is the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 puts it succinctly: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." The meaning of work is more than money. Work is an expression of our worship and worship is about glorifying God. Your day job, is meant to be an expression of your love for God in how you’re serving others and you’re caring for the city. When you begin to look at your work from that perspective, it completely changes what your work really is and how you approach it.
How is what I’m doing an expression of my love for God? We have all different types of people sitting here, representing all kinds of occupations. Work, when you come down to it, is about people. If you’re in management, it’s about the people you oversee. If you’re in sales, it’s about the customer. If what you do is more task-oriented, like a pipe fitter or computer data entry then it’s about the people with whom you work. So the question becomes, “How are you really serving the needs of those around you? How are you looking out for the best interests of your customer, employees or co-workers?” But if your work is self-serving, you’re not looking out for other’s needs. You’re looking at how you can make more money. Life is more than hard labor and toil. It is your worship of God. So we devalue work and limit the potential redeeming value of our lives when we only work for money. When we do that, we forget we’re serving God’s purpose through our work, our entire life. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, "One doesn’t live by bread alone." You can never measure the value of a job by it’s financial worth.
Fifth, the value of work is not how much we make; the value is how we contribute to the welfare of God’s city. When you answer this question why you work, we begin to recharge and re-imagine our work, and if you can’t do that with what you’re currently doing, then it’s time to find a new job. There are some people who are not doing what they were created for but they continue to do it out of fear of losing the money they make. God didn’t put a passion in your heart for you to be enslaved to fear. When I know why I am working, it becomes an expression of my worship and a demonstration of my love for God by serving people. When I work in the spirit of Christ, and I will demonstrate two things: competence and character. First is competence. Competence is how well you do your work. Does that mean you quit at 5 o’clock? Not if the job isn’t done. Our God is a God of excellence. Don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your very best. Keep in mind on the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. If you’re doing your job for the approval of Jesus, you’ll always do more than the bare minimum.
In the time of Jesus, the Jews were under the domination of the Roman Empire. A Roman soldier had the legal authority to demand that any Jew to carry his equipment for exactly one mile. Jews hated to do this, and they bitterly counted each step. At exactly one mile, they dropped the load and said with disgust, “There! I’ve done what is required!” But Jesus requires a higher standard for His followers. He said, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Mt. 5:41) Jesus’ point was that a Roman solider wouldn’t soon forget the person who cheerfully carried his equipment the second mile. Are you a 1 mile worker or a 2 mile worker? Do you do only the bare minimum or do you go the 2nd mile and leave the mark of excellence on your work? People always remember the second-mile-worker. I have read that in any field, whatever field you’re in, 10% of the people in that field can truly be considered effective or good, and only 3% are excellent. I want to be part of the 3%. I don’t want to be just good; I want to be like God, who does all things with excellence and always goes the extra mile.
There’s the story of a homeowner in Oklahoma who had a carpenter working on his house. Hour after hour, he watched in amazement at the quality of this man’s work. He was so impressed by the carpenter’s careful work that he said, "You’re different. What motivates you to be such a good worker?" He found out that the carpenter was a Christian and that he did his work as an offering to God. He said, "If that’s the way you work, I want to know what you believe." So he went with him to church that Sunday and began to learn what it really means to follow Jesus and live for him. And several weeks later, he ended up giving his life to Christ. It was the quality of the carpenter’s work that was his witness to his faith. When we work with excellence and go the extra mile work, it brings glory to God and attracts the attention of others.
Second, when we work in the spirit of Christ it not only demonstrates competence, but also Christ’s character. You begin to serve people and minister to their needs so that they might come to know the heart of Christ and His love for their lives. You begin to love them as Christ loved them. But serving God in your work also means you’re going to have integrity in your work. In his book, Your Work Matters to God, Doug Sherman says we’re in the midst of a “moral mudslide” in the American workplace and Christians are caught in the drift and in many instances the instigating the slide. This shouldn’t surprise us in the wake of the World Com and Enron scandals of a few years ago. In fact, the CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, was a United Methodist and the Administrative Board Chairman of his church in Houston, TX. But it’s not just CEO’s that falter, it’s employees like you and me too. Did you know employee theft is one of the greatest threats to business today, reaching upwards of $40 billion a year. It is estimated that 95 percent of all businesses experience employee theft. Employee theft can take many forms, from stealing office supplies or merchandise, to stealing intellectual property and confidential information to stealing time by improperly reporting sick leave and vacation to. In fact, time theft – arriving late, leaving early and playing sick – accounts for an additional $150 billion. The sad truth is that Gallup found that there is no difference between churched and unchurched people when it comes to lying, stealing, and loafing. Which means Christians might be acting religious on Sunday, but like everyone else the other six days.
Following Jesus though means you’re going to always do the ethical thing. There’s the story of a college student who worked at a shoe store. He discovered that if you get the sole wet before you attach it to the top of the shoe, the shoe wears out quicker, and then people come in and buy more shoes. So he went to his boss, and said, “I know how we can make a lot more money! If we get the soles wet before we put them on the shoes, they’ll wear out faster, and we’ll sell more shoes!” The boss said, “Son, someday, I’m going to stand before the throne of God. And there’s going to be a big pile of shoes in front of me. And I don’t want God asking me why so many of them were wet and soggy! I promised God that no matter what I did in this life, I was going to do my best for Him.” The college student said, “That was a lesson I never forgot.” Work is not just your job, it’s a calling because everything you do is for God. It’s an expression of worship.
Sixth, work with passion. In this entire chapter, there is only one guy mentioned who worked zealously. Look at verse 20: "Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section…" The Hebrew word means "to burn or glow" and suggests that Baruch burned a lot of energy. He was not just serving; he was on "fire." This is amazing because in 4:6 we read that "the people worked with all their heart." Everyone was working hard, but in a crowd of committed construction workers, Baruch stood out from the rest. God needs people like him who will say, "I don’t really care what others are doing, I’m going to do my very best." What if every one of God’s people worked like Baruch? What might we accomplish for God?
Anyone want to be like Baruch this morning? Are you willing to go the extra mile and burn with zeal and passion in your service of Him? Are you tired of just going through the motions or even sitting on the sidelines? Are you ready to get fired up and work to build the kingdom of God through Gretna UMC? Now’s the time to kick it up a notch! The need is greater than it’s ever been. And if the truth were known, most all of us could do a lot more, with a lot more passion, than what we’re doing right now. And if we do, Christ will make himself visible through us and He will be glorified. You have one vocation, one life, and one calling: to do His will and glorify Him in all you do. That is your vocation, that is your life-calling and it is for the purpose of serving the master carpenter in building the city of God.
Will you bow your head in prayer with me? Lord Jesus, we thank You for the gift of our work, for our jobs, for the privilege of having a means of provision as well as discovering your purpose. We ask that You use this week as a time to re-imagine and recharge our work and that we reclaim our work as a holy calling. Hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you." Amen.
