Is there anyone here today whose name is Rockefeller? No? Then maybe there is a member of the Kennedy family, other than Mrs. Currie – and I don’t think she is of the Hyannisport Kennedys? No one? Well, let me try someone else – the Sultan of Brunei, possibly the richest person in the world. Your majesty, are you here today? Is there a Sultan sitting in my worship service? I guess not; he is a Muslim, after all. But if you are here today, sir, this would be a very good time for you to put your tithes in the plate!
None of these ultra-rich people in our congregation? Nobody from old money? How about new money? Bill Gates, of Microsoft fame, are you here? If so, we sure could use new computers for the After-School ministry! Bill, a tithe would not be necessary. If, as they say, you are worth a hundred billion dollars, I’ll be happy with just one percent – one measly billion will be fine. Huh? Bill Gates is not here either?
Well, then, I guess we know who we are, don’t we? We are the working stiffs. We are people who have to work in order to eat. We are the folks who live from paycheck to paycheck. Or if we don’t work now, because we are retired, we did at one time. Most retirees can remember the lean times, when there was always more month than money and the soup got watery at the end of the week. We are or were the people who have had to work in order to eat.
Or, again, if we don’t work now, because we are too young and are in school, well, may I be the one to tell our young people the news? The news is, guess what, that when you finally finish your education, somebody will expect you to work! When you get your B.A. or your M.A. or your Ph.D., someone will tell you to get your J.O.B.! Work is a part of life. We work in order to eat.
That’s fine. But the Bible, as always, brings another point of view. The Bible puts another spin on reality. The Bible will tell us that life is more than working so that we can eat. The Bible will teach us how to eat in order to work.
I raise with you today this question: do you work to eat or do you eat to work? Do you work to eat or do you work to eat? There is a difference.
The Christians of Thessalonica had gotten the wrong idea about work. Having heard that the Lord might be returning soon, they decided that all they needed to do was sit down and wait. Jesus is going to return, the end of the age is coming, so, hey, why work up a sweat? Let’s sit down in the old rocking chair and let it happen! Kind of like a man I know who took out a thirty-year mortgage on his home when he was already close to seventy years old, because he knew he’d never have to pay the thing off! What, me worry?! Relax, why work? The Christians of Thessalonica figured that God would take care of everything, so why bother to work?
To these lazybones Paul delivered a stinging word of rebuke:
II Thessalonians 3:6-13
I
What has happened to the work ethic in our time? Why is it that employers complain that workers do not want to work? Our late Minister of Music, William Garrett, had charge of personnel matters for the Montgomery County government; he used to agonize about having to fire so many people simply because they would not do their jobs. Bill kept asking, “ Where is the work ethic?” Where is the work ethic?
I wonder if people get lazy because they never got a witness about work? Is it, in part, because no one ever shared with them the meaning of work?
Paul says that we work as an example to others. Our work is a part of our witness.
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.
I’m thinking of my father today, because, were he still alive, this would be his 97th birthday. I’m thinking of my father and his witness about work. As a young man he experienced the depression of the 1930’s, and felt fortunate to find work at all. He moved houses in Indiana, he laid concrete pipe in Texas, he managed a service station in Kentucky, but none of that really worked out. In fact, his service station business failed because he extended so much credit to so many people who had no work, and ran out of money. My father would have had every reason to feel that work was pointless. But he did not. He did not give in to laziness or to despair. His work was his witness.
My father taught his sons the dignity of work. When he got a job in the post office, he began to show us how work has
power. He would get up early and come home late, sometimes working overtime, but he would not complain. Instead he would tell us what he was doing to make sure his people got the right mail at the right time with the right attitude. His work was his witness.
If you want to know what has happened with the work ethic in our time, then ask what you and I are doing with our witness about work. Find out what legacy we are leaving to others. What do we do? Think about it. Some of us complain constantly about our jobs. We have nothing good to say. The boss is demanding, the people are nasty, the work is hard, the pay is small, the commute is tiring, and nobody down there appreciates me! And that’s just on Mondays! Our witness is negative.
Or – and this too is a negative witness – or we work obsessively. We can’t quit. We don’t know when to stop. We feel guilty unless we are toiling away at something, anything. Some of us have taken the drive to accomplish and have made it demonic; there is nothing else in our lives but work, work, and more work. No wonder we burn out. No wonder no one wants to follow us. There’s no grace in it.
In other words, many of us just work to eat. We work because it’s a necessity. But there’s no joy in it, no power in it. The witness is not one that others want to imitate. We need to work in a way that inspires others. We need to work as a witness. But how can we do that?
II
The Scripture teaches us that if we focus on Kingdom work, we will make all our work meaningful. If we focus on how to use all that we do for Kingdom purposes, our daily work will have power and joy rather than drudgery and despair.
You see, sometimes work is just not exciting, is it? Sometimes the things we have to do are just plain boring. Like the fellow whose job it was, as the cars rolled by him on the assembly line, just to tighten up the nuts that hold on the wheels. All he did, day after day, was put on wheels and tighten up nuts. One day he threw down his wrench and screamed out, “If I have to tighten one more nut, I’ll be the next nut.” Sometimes our work is so dull, that it bores us, and we lose our motivation. We want to quit.
But did you know that when that happens, sin lies at the door? If you are working to eat, and that’s all it is, and that work gets boring, it won’t be long before you will begin to focus on something destructive. Let Paul tell you what will happen:
For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
Don’t you like that phrase? “Mere busybodies, not doing any work”. It means that once we can no longer find any meaning in our own work, we start messing in other people’s business, we criticize, we grumble, we try to control. Once we lose our motivation, we will focus on the wrong things and become destructive of others. Mere busybodies.
I will make it even clearer than that. Once we take our eyes off of Kingdom work, all of our work will go sour. Once we forget that our basic calling as believers is to be redemptive, everything will mess up. We’ll begin to point fingers, we’ll begin to accuse, we’ll begin to complain. Once our work becomes blah, we will become chronically unhappy, and will decide to make everybody around us unhappy too.
“Mere busybodies, doing no work.” It’s not that busybodies are not busy; they have plenty to do. But it isn’t constructive. It’s destructive. But I tell you, mark this down: those who invest in Kingdom work are the most satisfied people in the world. Those who use their time and their resources to build up others have neither time nor energy to become controllers and complainers. If you focus on Kingdom work and give yourself to something redemptive, you will find the time to do it, you will discover the energy to do it, and you will not be interested in griping.
We have been talking of late about multiplied ministries. We have been asking, week by week, whether anyone has heard the Spirit of God guiding you into some ministry. It has been exciting to see a number of you respond. It has been fulfilling to see others join those calls. I must remind you, it is my personal goal to involve every member of this congregation in at least one redemptive ministry. I want to see every single soul who worships in this place caught up in doing Kingdom work. And why? Why would I want to do that? Just so that we can have a busy church? No, it makes more work for me and for the staff. To have a larger church, with more money coming in? To the contrary, any time you start a new ministry, there is likely to be a financial drain to support it. So why am I pushing for multiplied ministries?
For your benefit as well as for those who will receive services. For your spiritual welfare as well as for the welfare of those who might be helped by what we do. Because the Bible teaches that if you are not busy with Kingdom work, you will become a mere busybody, doing no real work. Because the Bible teaches that if you focus on the needs of others, you will forget about yourself, you will lose the desire to complain, and you will find authentic happiness. We are going to become a serving church not only because the Gospel demands it, and not only because the needs of people cry out for it, but also because your happiness and your spiritual health depend on it.
Brothers and sisters, get on board the ministry bandwagon, get on board with Kingdom work, or else face the possibility that in your own spirit you will degenerate into mere busybodies, busy, yes, but busy about the wrong things. Working to eat, but souring in the spirit. What a tragedy that would be, when we know full well what the remedy is!
III
Now, I do know that even when you are doing Kingdom work, you will get tired. I do know that even the best of us lose our way. After all, we are human, and we get tired. Or frustrated. Or disappointed. Or discouraged. Let me tell you, it is hard for the preacher to get his motivation going on Labor Day weekend, when half the church is on the highway and the humidity is a hundred and ten percent! You almost want to throw away a Sunday like this! It’s easy to get tired even of Kingdom work.
And so Paul ends his admonitions with a pointed phrase:
Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
Do not be weary in doing what is right. You know, that sentence has been in my prayers so many times. I have prayed that in scores of hospital rooms, praying for those family members who are looking at long-term care and how much it drains you to look after an invalid. “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.”
I have prayed that phrase in counseling sessions with church leaders, who have felt that they just cannot keep up with the demands that we put on them. I have prayed that, despite aching bones and anxious hearts, they not grow weary in doing what is right.
I have prayed, “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right,” knowing full well that all of us need to be refreshed. All of us need to be restored. In heart and spirit, we need to be replenished. And today I know where refreshment will come from; today I can see how God restores us.
God refreshes us at this Table. Christ restores us at this banquet. Here He takes us beyond working to eat and gives us something to eat so that we may work. Here, at this Table, I begin to taste and see the meaning and the power of my work, for at this Table I am reminded that there was one who labored in order to accomplish the Father’s will, one who pressed forward and completed that work. Here at this Table, despite my frustration, I remember that there was one who was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. We complained about Him. Yet He did the Father’s will, even unto death; and now God has highly exalted Him, God has given Him life, God has refreshed Him. Here at this Table, I find nourishment and strength to do what I am called to do, because here I see that He was obedient, He worked, and, though He died, now He lives. That redeems my work. That refreshes me.
On Friday morning, that member of the Building and Grounds Committee that resides in my home asked me to drive with her out to the hardware store to pick up supplies for Saturday’s projects. I didn’t really want to do it. It felt like an intrusion into my spiritual work. It felt like another time leak, and I had had too many of those all week long. Nevertheless I went. When we got to the store, I grabbed a cart, sprinted around the store, loaded the rocks and the lumber and whatever, and hurried to the checkout counter. The instant we got the stuff paid for I dashed to the car and began to load it. Margaret said something about taking it easy, remembering that my aging back and hundreds of pounds of rock might not go together. Well, let me tell you a little secret. Have you learned that if you tell me I cannot do something, I will work all the harder just to prove to you that I can? If you want me to do something for you, tell me you think I don’t have time or energy for it, and I will break my neck to get there and do it, nyah, nyah, nyah!
So I got the rocks loaded, but time was a-wasting. I got the mulch loaded, but the clock was ticking. Let’s get that lumber in. Won’t quite fit. Let me give it a shove. Margaret said, “Wait for me to help.” But the word “wait” is not in my vocabulary. Got to stay busy, you know. I gave that lumber a mighty shove and slammed down the hatchback, only to arrive at the front seat of my car and discover that I had leveraged the lumber up against the windshield. I am now driving looking at you through splinters and cracks.
Well, now, not only do I face the cost of replacing the windshield; and not only do I have to take precious time to get the repairs done; and not only do I have to listen to a lecture about patience all the way home; but also I have to feel a sense of discouragement in my heart. Here I am, trying to do something for the church, Lord, and this happens?! I just felt tired and discouraged and deflated. The crack in the windshield was nothing compared to the crack in my spirit.
Until – until I thought of the Kingdom. Until I thought of you and what you need. Until I thought of this person and that person and what if happening in their lives. Until I thought of Christ and His broken body, beside which a broken piece of glass is nothing. Until I thought of this Table, where the emblems of His spending Himself, for me and for you, are spread. Until I came to this Table, where, because He lives, my heart is restored, my determination is refreshed, and my work is made joyful. Until I came to this Table, where I no longer just work to eat, but I eat to work.
