MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
TEXT: Gen. 2:2,7,15, 3:17 19, 7:33; Matt. 7:23, 25:21; Luke 10:2; Col. 3:23-24
A. This is Labor Day weekend, & I come to it with mixed emotions because I ‘m not sure what to do with this particular holiday.
All year long we gear up for holidays. For Christmas we get in the spirit of giving. For New Years we talk about new beginnings. For the 4th of July we get all patriotic. For Thanksgiving we try to get in a thankful mood.
But what are we supposed to do for Labor Day? If we’re honoring work, shouldn't we go to work an hour early on Labor Day & say to our boss, "I'm so thankful for this job that I'm here early, & I don't even want to be paid for today, because I appreciate my job so much."
Well, we probably won't volunteer to do anything like that, will we? Instead, most of us expect to have the day off with pay. But somehow that just doesn't fit the pattern of how we honor the other holidays.
B. Statistics reveal that if we live to retirement, we’ll have worked nearly 100,000 hours of our life. Now figure that out, & it comes to 48 years of 40 hour weeks, 52 weeks a year. We’ll have spent that much time at our job.
Now put that together with the fact that many people don't really care about their jobs, & they look at their work as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. So it is no wonder that Labor Day weekend comes along & we're not really sure what we should be honoring.
ILL. I heard a story about an employer who brought his employees in once a month for a pep talk. He would inform them of the future plans of the company, & try to excite them about their work so that they would be enthusiastic about what they were doing.
On one occasion he called them in & said, "We have just purchased a bunch of robots. And these robots will free you from some of the menial things that you have been doing in the past, tightening screws, & so on."
Instantly he sensed from the expressions on their faces that they were concerned about job security. So quickly he added, "Now don't worry about your jobs. Nobody is going to lose a job as a result of these robots. There will be some reduction in the work force, but that will be taken care of through retirement & natural attrition. You'll all keep your jobs."
"In fact," he said, "this will even work to your advantage. As we perfect the work of these robots you will probably not even have to work a full 40 hour week, & you can take a day off now & then with no reduction in pay."
He said, "As we get this system perfected even more, maybe you can have two days off. You'll only have to work 3 days a week.
“In fact, our ultimate goal is that the time will come when you will only come in one day a week, on Wednesdays. That will be it, & you'll still get your full salary."
Then one of the employees in the back row raised his hand. "Sir, will we have to come in every Wednesday?"
I think Labor Day should remind us that work is a blessing, & not a curse. So I want to talk about work as a blessing. I want to talk about work as service. Finally, I suggest we need to remember that “One of these days…”
I. WORK IS A BLESSING
A. In Genesis 2:2 we read, "By the 7th day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the 7th day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the 7th day & made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done."
That tells us that God is a worker, & we have been created in His image.
Vs. 7 says, "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, & man became a living being." Vs. 15 adds, "The Lord God took the man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & take care of it."
Now realize, this is before sin entered the world. God gave man, as a part of the blessing of Paradise, the privilege of caring for it. Can you imagine what it was like to take care of the Garden of Eden before sin? All Adam had to do was plant & prune, pick & eat.
B. Then Adam & Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. We read the result in the 3rd chapter, beginning with vs. 17.
"To Adam He said, 'Because you listened to your wife & ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
'It will produce thorns & thistles for you, & you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are & to dust you will return."
Did you notice? The curse is not work. The curse is the thorns & thistles & pain & death. The curse is blood & sweat & tears, not work.
ILL. Every year some of you become enthusiastic gardeners. You grab your hoes, turn over the ground & plant the seeds. You just know that you’ll have a bumper crop of all those great vegetables you love to eat freshly picked from the garden.
But it is not long until weeds have come, & bugs are eating away at your delicate plants, & you're sweating profusely, & you begin to lose your enthusiasm for gardening.
Work can be fun. But when you put work together with thorns & thistles & other parts of the curse, then it is not much fun anymore.
Maybe it is the same way in your work. If you didn't have a disgruntled boss looking over your shoulder, if you didn't have co workers with whom you don't get along, if you didn't have projects that were so hard, your work would be the most enjoyable thing in the world.
Work without thorns & thistles is great. But when you put the thorns & thistles in, then it becomes a burden.
C. When God first made man He blessed him, & made him a partner in caring for the Garden. The Bible teaches that we are also partners with God in the work we do. In some vocations that is more obvious than in others.
ILL. Think about a farmer. Farmers work hand in hand with God. Farmers during a severe drought, learn that lesson all over again. We depend upon God, for we are in a partnership with Him.
In the ministry, all I can do is sow the seed & wait on the Lord to give the increase. A doctor can perform surgery & remove diseased parts of the body, but then he must wait on the Lord to do the healing. And it is probably the same way in your work, too.
D. I think that a most fulfilling part of life is to know that you have worked hand in hand with God, & are fulfilling His will, doing what God has called you to do.
But some of the saddest words in the Bible are the words of Jesus when He looked at the people who were coming to Him, & He said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." (Luke 10:2) There is always plenty of work, but there just never seems to be enough workers.
II. WORK SHOULD BE A SERVICE
A. Secondly, work should be a service. Jesus was a carpenter, & spent the first 30 years of His life in a carpenter shop. He knew what it was to have callused hands & sore muscles. He knew how to swing a hammer & use a saw & make something with his hands that would be of benefit to others.
He probably made yokes for oxen to make it easier for them to pull the plow & for the farmer to get his work done. He probably made tables & chairs where families could sit & eat & laugh & enjoy each other's friendship & love. His labor was used to serve others, to make life a little bit better for them.
B. That is the work of the church too. There are people who need to be brought to the saving power of the cross, & be redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, & to receive that life which will never end.
One of the hardest problems in the ministry is knowing when to help & when not to help. And I always wonder, "What's the best thing to do?"
It'd be nice to have an unlimited supply of money to pass out to everybody who asks. But the longer I'm in the ministry, the more I realize that's usually the worst thing you can do for someone, just to give them anything they ask for.
So how do we solve that problem? When should we help, & when would it be a greater service to say "No"?
C. I’m not sure that there is an easy answer. But I have found something helpful to me. You see, both the Bible & life itself teach us that people are poor for different reasons.
1. For instance, 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 another area of poverty. It is caused by laziness, by not being willing to work. The Book of Proverbs is full of proverbs that deal with people who won’t work. And the advice given to people who won't work is that they should learn from the activities of the ant.
One ridiculous passage says, "The sluggard says, 'There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!" (Proverbs 26:13) Anybody reading that passage realizes that the sluggard was just making an excuse. But I suppose that any excuse can sound good to someone who really doesn't want to work.
Sometimes people come 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 took one look at his world, & in 2nd Thessalonians 3:10 says, "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
As Christians we have a ministry to those who are poor because of calamity or oppression or service for God. But not to those who are unwilling to work.
III. ONE OF THESE DAYS
One of these days you & I will stand before the heavenly Father, & He'll look at us & say one of two things. Either "Depart from me. I never knew you." (Matthew 7:23) or "Well done, good & faithful servant. You have been faithful in a few things. I will now give you charge of many." (Matthew 25:21)
ILL. Most of us have shopped at a JCPenney store at one time or another. J.C. Penney himself died in 1971 at the age of 95 & left an empire of 1,660 stores he built without compromising the principles he had received from 3 generations of Baptist-preacher ancestors.
J.C. Penney didn’t drink or smoke, & for many years demanded the same from his top employees. Penney said, “I believe in adherence to the Golden Rule, faith in God, & the country.”
He also said, “I would rather be a known as a Christian than a merchant.” Apparently, Penney thought that being a Christian was the most important thing in life. And I’m convinced that he was right!! (Steve Shepherd on Sermon Central)
Col. 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord.”
Eternity will be sweet for the laborer who has worked in harmony with God, & finished the task set before him. Jesus completed His task on earth. He went to the cross & died as a sacrifice for our sins. Now it is up to us to accept that sacrifice, & to serve Him faithfully the rest of our life.
Will you? We extend the invitation of the Lord this morning, & pray that you will respond as we stand & as we sing.
INVITATION
