FAS: Play video of “That’s My Job” Conway Twitty
LYRICS: I woke up cryin' late at night when I was very young
I had dreamed my father had passed away and gone
My world revolved around him, I couldn't lie there anymore
So I made my way down the mirrored hall
And tapped upon his door
And I said, "Daddy, I'm so afraid
How will I go on, with you gone that way?
Don't wanna cry anymore so may I stay with you?"
And he said, "That's my job, that's what I do
Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe with me, that's my job, you see."
Later we barely got along, this teenage boy and he
Most of the fights it seems were over different dreams
We each held for me
He wanted knowledge and learning, I wanted to fly out west
I said, "I could make it out there if I just had the fare
I got half, will you loan me the rest?"
And I said, "Daddy, I'm so afraid
There's no guarantee in the plans I've made
And if I should fail, who will pay my way back home?"
And he said, "That's my job, that's what I do
Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe with me, that's my job, you see."
Every person carves his spot and fills the hole with life
And I pray someday I might light as bright as he
Woke up early one bright fall day to spread the tragic news
After all my travel, I settled down within a mile or two
I make my livin' with words and rhymes and all this tragedy
Should go into my head and out instead as bits of poetry
But I say, "Daddy I'm so afraid
How will I go on with you gone this way?
How can I come up with a song to say, I love you?"
"That's my job, that's what I do
Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe with me, that's my job, you see."
"Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe with me." 4
[Screen 1]
My good friend Jeremy Hughes played that song for me as we were headed to Lexington the other day. What a picture of who God is in this old country song. It brought to mind the most well known scripture in the Bible, John 3.16…For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. [Screen 2]
The song says, That’s my job, that’s what I do, everything I do is because of you, to keep you safe with me. That’s my job you see.
I believe that is the best way we can look at God and get a real feel of his character. We must see Him as a loving heavenly Father.
Let’s look at it this way. Was there ever a time in your life when there was not much peace with your earthly father? I am willing to bet there was. If you had a good dad or mom, lets not leave her out of this, they would more than likely say no sometimes and make you mad. As the child you would think that is my problem.
My parents won’t let me do what I want to do. Why can’t I go play in the street? Why can’t I stay out all night? Why can’t I go to that party? If my parents would just say yes to what I want we would all have peace in our happy family. You know, be the cool parent, the friend to your child who goes along with whatever they want.
Your parents probably thought, yes, if we say yes now we will have peace and our child will be happy, now, but have problems that will take away that happiness later.
So do the parents decide to say yes now and later on have to say you got what you wanted, don’t come running back to me and expect to live here for free? Do we as parents opt for as my dad always said the path of least resistance.
Or…do we do the one of the most difficult things any parent has to do with their child. We tell them [Screen 3] “no” even when we know saying no will destroy the peace that exists between them as parent and child. The child is going to be mad and rebel. There will be conflict.
If in their decision they can give in. They can keep the peace they now have. Go ahead kids. Do what you want, when you want, with whom you want. And they keep the peace. No conflict. For now.
But as parents they must ask. Do I do what is best for them (the kids) or do I do what is best for me?
Do I just keep the peace now and go along or do what is best for the kids and say no to keep them out of harm.
Tough stuff. The nightmare of having a teenager.
Same with God. We have a heavenly father who just like these parents, has to make a decision on how to deal with His children.
You see, good parents do this: [Screen 4] Their love is too strong to simply go along.
Did you get that?
Their love is too strong to simply go along.
In the same way, [Screen 5] God’s love is too strong to simply go along. 1
God loves us way too much to say yes to something that is going to hurt us.
God’s job is to be the perfect heavenly Father. Sounds like a pretty tough job. Think about what God’s job entails. He has a world full of children who are wanting to do what they want when they want with whom they want. Like having a world full of teenagers.
Jesus tells us the only way to understand God and his job is to see him as a father, [Screen 6] a perfect heavenly Father who sometimes says no to His children. Because He loves you too much too simply go along with something that will hurt you.
Even though he knows they will turn away.
Even though He knows the peace in their relationship with him will be degraded.
Even though He knows they will never live up to what will keep them from falling from the ideal.
His Ideal for us that will save us from destroying our self.
So God had to come up with a Way, a rescuer, a deliverer, a way to escape the enslavement we find ourselves in when we have done what we want when we want with whom we want. God had to come up with a [Screen 7] Savior. Our plight seems pretty dismal. We’ve brought it on ourselves. Someone would have to love us an awful lot and feel we are worth it to step in and take the job as Savior. Don’t you think?
Imagine God trying to recruit such a Savior. Jonathon Bruner our resident author helped me come up with a job description for such a needed Savior.
Imagine with me how this job description would sound to a person thinking of actually taking this job: [Screen 8]
Wanted: Savior
Heavenly Enterprises has an immediate opening for the position of Savior.
Qualified candidates must possess the following skills:
Must be a people person.
Honest and trustworthy.
Someone highly motivated and willing to work long hours in hostile conditions.
Must exhibit compassion and caring in the face of adversity.
Self-confident and goal oriented.
Selfless and forgiving.
Applicants should be capable of performing many tasks such as:
Feeding large crowds with minimal supplies. You know a little bread and some fish to feed 5000.
Healing many afflictions, including blindness, lameness, leprosy, demons, etc.
Mixing drinks at weddings, including be able to change drinks when necessary. Like water to wine maybe.
Controlling weather and nature. Like stopping a storm or walking on water.
And providing salvation for the world even those that mock Him.
Must sign a waiver that frees employer if injured or crucified while on job.
Applicants must work weekends and be available 24/7, 365.
The work is hard but the benefits are eternal.
Starting salary: $0.00 3
Wow. Any takers. Would any one want this job? Anyone at all?
No one? Pause….. [Screen 9]
God did. Yep. GOD DID!
God came to the earth as the Immanuel. No, this is not just a song we sing at Christmas. It is God with us in the person of Jesus Christ.
He came to take the job as Savior.
And everything He did was because of you to keep you safe with Him…
A real dad. A heavenly Father whose job is described in the Bible in many ways.
[Screen 10] Psalm 68.19, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
Jesus bore our burden at the cross. He still carries us to God’s ideal for us through the grace we receive. [Screen 11]
2 Thessalonians 3.3, But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
Our Lord is a Father who in His job is always there to protect us from the evil trying to destroy us. We need only to lean on and be obedient to His lead.
[Screen 12]
1 Peter 5.7, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Our Lord is a Father who cares for us. We are his treasured ones. The beloved ones, who are following His Son. [Screen 13]
Jeremiah 31.3, The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
God loves us so much we should be drawn to Him. The thing is if we are truly reflecting His love to others, no one can resist the Love of our Father God.
The Lord our perfect Father loved us, He loves us and will always love us forever.
God reaches toward his people with kindness motivated by deep and everlasting love. He is eager to do the best for them if they will only let him.
Rather than thinking of God with dread, look carefully and see him lovingly drawing us toward himself, as a Father longing to be with His children. [Screen 14]
2 Corinthians 5.18-19 kind of sums it up, All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [Screen 15] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. [Screen 16] And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Mark Batterson, in a book I am reading “IF”, tells the story of finding some highlight reels from his college basketball days. It was the old VHS tapes that could be spliced and edited. His dad had saved every three-point shot he had made. He had saved every dunk and every rebound that he had done in his whole high school career on one tape.
Mark showed the tape to one of his older professors and the professor was really impressed.
He commented, “Boy Mark you never missed a shot.”
Now what the professor failed to realize was the tape was not just one game. It was a highlight reel of Marks entire career in high school. The professor didn’t notice that the color of the uniforms changed from home red to visitor white on Mark. And the opponents must have spent most of their time changing jerseys. For a short moment one old professor thought Mark was the greatest basketball player ever.
But the reality was that Mark’s father had made him look better than he really was.
Isn’t that exactly what our Heavenly father does with our life game tape?
All the turnovers are deleted. All the missed shots are edited out. They don’t show up on the screen. They don’t show up at the score table. 2
When we accept Christ as our Savior, God edits out what keeps us from His Ideal. He not only edits out the sin, He edits in the righteousness of Jesus Himself.
What is left that He sees… is a life that is free of any blemish or stain.
[Screen 17]
God has done it all.
The gospel is not about what we can do.
It is about what God has done through Jesus Christ and the cross.
There is nothing we can do to save our selves. God chose to be reconciled to us. He did it all for us.
He came to earth for us.
He taught his disciples to teach us to be His church.
He brought light to a dark world for us.
He healed the broken and the sick for us.
He suffered pain and bled for us.
He endured the mocking and the humiliation for us.
He died on a cross and was placed in a tomb for us.
He arose from that tomb to conquer death for us.
He prepares a place that no man has seen, no ear has heard or human mind has conceived for us that know Him as our Father through Jesus Christ the Son.
God did and does it all for us.
That’s His job. [Screen 18]
Everything He does is because of us, to keep us safe with Him. That’s His job you see.
[Screen 19]
So. What’s our job?
We are to shine His light to everyone we meet so that they may meet the Father and be brought into the family and receive the joy and forgiveness our Father has given… to us.
That’s our job. [Screen 20] We are to be Jesus for them.
Thank you God for all you have done and the promises we know you will keep.
And Lord it is our job to pass it on to all people.
Bibliogrphy:
1 Andy Stanley, “Happy” DVD study, Peace with God session.
2 Batterson, Mark, “IF”, chapter 3, pages 34-35
3 Bruner, Jon, “God’s Job Description” written with help of our worship leader.
4 Twitty, Conway, That’s My Job
