The Rewards of Work
The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. (Proverbs 13:4) NIV
Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper. NLT
INTRO: When I discovered that the theme for this week’s message was "The Reward of Work" my first instinct was to ask, "Really, work can be rewarding?" Who knew? Now, of course you will be pleased to know, that I enjoy my work immensely. I cherish the challenge of teaching and mentoring young people to know Jesus, and to share their faith. Yet I suspect that when given the choice between leisure and work, most of us would choose leisure. Especially if it didn’t affect our economic position. The reality is that work is a necessity of life. Work is just a fact of our existence. The nature of work may have changed, as societies have progressed. Yet one thing remains, work is work.
It might surprise you that God did not intend work to be viewed as drudgery. Having created the first man and woman, God “… took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). What work they were required to do was not burdensome. Human beings were created to work in God’s garden. It is the agreement they had with him. What could be more peaceful and give greater contentment than to spend time tending to his creation.
Yet, after Adam and Eve, had fallen from God’s grace, they were driven from paradise with the promise of blood, oil, tears, and sweat as punishment for their disobedience.
In Genesis 3:16-19 God says to Eve,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
So one can rightly ask, "How can work be rewarding, when it can be difficult and tiresome?" I suspect as we see countless times in the Bible that this reward has more to do with our attitudes toward work. It has less to do with “labor” than it does with “living well.”
1. Wanting More/Working Less
Living well as Christians in a society that has become so fast paced and so focused on material things is difficult. We want to be successful, wealthy and be able to afford all the comforts that go with such a lifestyle. For some, the danger can be that we want such things, faster than we are able to afford them. Worse, even beyond what we are willing to do to earn them. In short, the temptation can be that we want to have more by working less. That is the kind of person that is referred to in this proverb as a sluggard, or a lazy person. A sluggard is said to be “a self-indulgent person who spends time avoiding work or other useful activity.”
There is no room in the Kingdom of God for selfish indulgence. A “me” centered person is only looking out for their own interests. They are not interested in sharing their resources. A self-indulgent person looks at what their neighbor has and says, “I want what they have.” Unfortunately, this is as far as they are willing to go to pursue their interests. They have no interest in working in order to get it. A self-indulgent person will never see the rewards of his labor.
See what Jesus says to his disciples in Luke 12:33-34
“Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
ILLUSTRATION: One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.
About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. “You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman. “You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”
The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”
“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer.
“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling.
The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”
“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.
The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.
“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.
The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”
Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”
The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”
The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”
It is easy to be trapped into thinking that we LIVE to WORK. If we can learn anything from today, we will realize that we WORK to LIVE. There is a grave danger in being so consumed by our work, in order that we can accumulate wealth, prosperity, and possessions. In this, we can miss the life that Jesus is calling us to live. A life that is free from the mad-grab dash for material things. The fisherman was not being lazy, he was being faithful to the passion that God had given him to fish. He was not consumed by the need to have more than what he was already satisfied with. Yes, he could have built up a great fleet of boats, and had scores of people working for him. But what a waste if he could not enjoy life now. The reward was not great wealth it was the knowledge of a life lived well.
2. Living Well
If we work to live and not live to work, then what are these rewards? If it is not about the money, then what is it about? It is about living well.
Living well means that we are not self-indulgent. John Wesley taught that prosperity is not about being rich, so that you can live a luxurious life. John Wesley had these three things to tell his followers;
(1) Gain all you can
(2) Save all you can
(3) and Give all you can
God rewards your hard work so that you can help others, not yourself. If we can learn to live within our means, so that we can be a blessing to others, I believe wholeheartedly that we will discover what it means to be prosperous. It is not selfish to pursue Godly rewards, if we are willing to do it God’s way and not our own way. The pursuit of wealth and prosperity is empty unless we realize that the true purpose of any reward is to glorify God. A sluggard is too selfish to Glorify God, but a true servant, a person who is diligent in all that they do, gives glory to God. In so doing, they reap the rewards of a blessed and prosperous life. This is living well.
It is easy to believe that we are entitled to such blessings instantly. Such is the pace of our lifestyles. God wants to transform our lives. Often a quick fix is not in the scope of God’s will. Living well means that we are to learn the principle of PERSERVERANCE. This means being content and patient so that regardless of the rewards, we honor God in everything we do. When the blessing comes, we will understand the significance of God’s gifts.
ILLUSTRATION: There is no greater example of this to me than our recent adoption of Olivia Grace. Bonnie and I had been talking for sometime about adoption. It is something that we wanted to do in honor of the blessings God gave to me as an adopted child. I was blessed with a loving birth mother and with parents who would raise me into the kingdom of God. As we waited for our package of joy, there were months of anguish and heartache. Not only did we seem to be waiting forever, we experienced the closest thing to losing a baby in every sense. In May this year, we were to drive from our home in Florida to San Antonio to pick up the baby that had been placed with us. Just as we were leaving the house, we received the phone call to tell us that the birth mother had changed her mind. It was devastating to us. In these few weeks that followed, we wondered if we could do it again. As we dug deep into our faith, and as God restored our resolve, we were shortly matched again. Right up to the point of receiving Olivia from her birth mother, we were anxious to say the least. I can say with the utmost of confidence, that we received the greatest joy we could have ever imagined. It was well worth the wait.
A diligent person confidently waits for the reward that the self-indulgent person is too impatient to wait for. This also is living well.
3. Staying Sharp
Finally, we need to stay sharp. As we seek to glorify God in our labors, there can be a cost. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat will fatigue us. Since the first human act of disobedience, the characteristic of our work has changed. Sin has caused human beings ultimate physical collapse. As we experience this demise, we can lose sight of what is important. We soon forget the Glory that is due to God through our diligent efforts.
ILLUSTRATION: Some years ago, a young man looking for work approached a foreman of a logging crew and asked him for a job. “It depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you take this one down.”
The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. The foreman was impressed and exclaimed, “You can start on Monday!”
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday soon rolled by. Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.”
Startled, the young man asked, “I thought you paid on Fridays.”
“Normally we do,” answered the foreman, “but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last place on Wednesday.”
“But I’m a hard worker,” the young man objected. “I am the first to arrive, the last to leave, and I’ve even worked through my coffee breaks!”
The foreman, sensing the boy’s integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your ax?”
The young man replied, “Well, no, sir. I’ve been working too hard to take the time.”
Take the time to sharpen your axe.
Take time to keep your spiritual life sharp, so that when the toil leads to strife you can endure.
I Read the bible
II Get close to the source (Jesus is the source from which life is found)
III Obey Jesus’ teachings
IV Pray that the Holy Spirit will refresh you
V Don’t quit! (Persevere)
