You
may be seated. Greetings in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ! I thank God and the Congregation for the opportunity
to stand behind this anointed desk we call a pulpit. I’m grateful for this
opportunity to bring to you the word of God, as the Lord has laid it upon my
heart.
What I would like to talk to you about today, are the
five most important things in your life: Part 5. I want everyone here to think
about what the five most important things in your life are. Most of you have
been here as I have presented my list during the first four parts, so you’ll
know where I’m heading. For those of you who’ve heard the first four parts, I
would hope that you have fervently prayed over that list, and I would hope that
you’ve made it your own.
As we have done in the previous messages, we will be
discussing the prioritization of our lives. You see, we all need to prioritize
whether we know it or not. We prioritize things in our minds, and we prioritize
things in the physical; on paper, a computer, in an iPod, or some other kind of
electronic or paper planner. Those who prioritize things in their mind only;
are more apt to forget things, or the order in which those things need to be
done.
As
an example: Most people
will not take the time to pray unless they plan for it. Neither will they take
the time to read their bibles or study God’s word. The people, who are most
likely to do those things, are the people who prioritize God’s work as number
one.
People will make a list daily in order to
accomplish the tasks of the day. If it’s a mental list, what do you think is
going to be the last thing that comes to mind? For most people it’s the work of
God, or enhancing their relationship with God.
If they will make a physical list with God
at the top, more than likely they will do what they have tasked as number one
first. Once this is done for a long enough period, it will become second nature
to put God first and a person won’t even have to think about it.
Today, we will discuss what I believe the
prioritizations should be for each of us as a Christian. You have hopefully
made your own personal list of the most important things in your life. I will
now give you the list that I desire to live by. The five most important things
in your life; in my personal opinion, are as follows: and I ask that you repeat
them with me.
The very
first is:
1. Your personal, intimate, eternal, relationship with
God.
2. Your personal, intimate, ‘till death do us part,
relationship with your spouse.
3. Your personal, intimate, until they leave home, relationship
with your children.
4. Your personal, intimate, ‘till the rapture,
relationship with your local church.
5. Your personal, intimate, until you retire,
relationship with your job.
Since this message is titled: Part 5. You’ve probably
figured out that we’re going to be talking about “Your personal, intimate,
until you retire, relationship with your job.” If you will stand and turn with
me to our text today:
2Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded
you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
From the beginning, men have had to
work. God gave man the job of “dressing and keeping the garden” in Genesis 2:15.
Should any of you not think that gardening is a tough job, please feel free to
come and clean my flower beds. You will find very quickly that it can be a very
rough job.
Scripture is very plain that men
should always have a job. Our text in 2Thessalonians 3:10 tells us that. We’ve shown the
example from Genesis
2:15. We also have an example from Genesis 3:17-19.
Genesis 3:17-19 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy
sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Due to the sin of man, God has required
that a man work all the days of his life. While in this day and age we look
forward to what we call retirement, in those days it was not available. We work
hard today to provide for our future, and it we are not successful enough, we
must continue to labor until we die. That said, there is never any retirement from
the house of God, but we’ll get into that a little more later on in the
message.
What I would like to do now is to show you
biblical reasons for working. God didn’t just give us work. He didn’t just tell
us to work, but God has a purpose; reasons if you will, for us to work.
1.
To support your family
1Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for
those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
I do not believe that God has determined
that a healthy man should live off of his wife’s wages. I believe that a “healthy”
man should have a job and provide for his wife. It may not be a great job at
first, but he needs to work. He needs to fulfil the role God has given him as
the provider for his family.
With the exception of your present employer
engaging in illegal activities, you have no excuse for quitting your job before
obtaining another job. You may not like your current job, you may even hate it,
but scripturally I believe you’re doing wrong if you quit your present job
before getting another one. If you aren’t working, you’re not providing for
your family and 1Timothy 5:8 says that’s a sin.
If your job is preventing you from
attending church on a regular basis; or if it’s interfering with your family
life you need to change jobs, but you don’t quit the one you have until you
have the new one. There is an old axiom that says, “It’s easier to get a job if
you have a job”. Prospective employers will hire a person that has a job before
they’ll hire a guy who’s quit his job.
Also, an employer will generally hold a
person in contempt that is always changing jobs, with one caveat. They will
almost never hold it against a man for changing jobs as long as each job was a step
up from the last one!
Many men today want to start at the top of
the ladder instead of the bottom. As the military puts it, “You have to learn
to follow before you can be qualified to lead”. When you climb a ladder, you
start at the bottom and work your way up one rung at a time, the same with your
job. You have to prove that you’ve mastered your current rung before you can
move up to the next rung.
In many jobs, you have to prove you’ve
mastered the next rung before even being considered for that rung. That
requires extra work. If you want to be considered for a higher position than
you currently occupy, you can start by going above and beyond the norm required
by your boss.
2.
To support the church.
Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye
say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Those who are
intimately familiar with the workings of a church know that a church needs
funds to exist. Without funds you can’t have lights, air-conditioning in the
summer, or heat in the winter. You also don’t have sound systems, or pianos, or
organs, or drums, or pews, or song books, or any of the other things that we as
individuals have come to expect of a church in this day and age.
If the church needs
funds to exist, and you aren’t paying tithes and giving offerings because
you’re too lazy to work, shame on you! Now I realize that some are not able to
work due to injury or age. But those men who are young enough; and healthy
enough to work, who won’t because they don’t want to; are sinning just as bad
as the liar, or the murderer, or the adulterer.
1Corinthians 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they
which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
The bible is
specific that ministers are to be employed by the church and not man. This
isn’t always possible because a church might be too small to pay a Pastor what
he needs to support his family. When this is the case, the man of God has to
work a day job and that takes away from his study time, his prayer time, his
visitation of the sick time, and from other areas of his ministry. I believe
that a church will always be benefited by having a Pastor that works full time
in the ministry as soon as it’s economically possible for him to do so.
Does this mean that
a man can’t be effective as a minister if he’s working full time? No, as there
are examples of men who were full time in the ministry that were very
successful. Let’s see what the bible says about them.
2Thessalonians 3:8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for
nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be
chargeable to any of you:
Let’s take a closer look at Paul, Aquila,
Priscilla, and their circumstances. They were in a line of business that
allowed them to instantly compete anywhere they went, with anybody else in the
same business. They were tent makers, and tents were a common form of home in
those days.
Those who were
involved in this ministry were not Pastors. They were what we would call Evangelists,
or perhaps Missionaries in this day and age. One of them was even called an
Apostle, that person was Paul. Paul could start a church, or convert a
synagogue to Christianity, or train up a church and then leave. Those who are
left behind are the ones who build the church and sustain it. Those people had
to work as well to provide for that one who is the shepherd of their flock.
Let’s look at the
difference between a Pastor and an Evangelist. An Evangelist can preach the
same batch of messages all year because he’s going to a different church pretty
much every week. A Pastor has to write around 150 messages a year in comparison
to 14 to 21 messages a year for an Evangelist.
If you wonder why an Evangelist sounds so
smooth with his delivery, it’s because he’s had lots of practice. He may have
preached that same message thirty times already in the last year. He has it
completely memorized. A Pastor is lucky if he has an hour or two to go over his
message before preaching it, and most of that time is spent praying over it.
If you provide for a Pastor to be full
time in the ministry:
· He has more time to study.
· He has more time to pray.
· He has more time for visitation.
· He has more time for his family, which is
something a young Pastor is always in need of!
Just think, if the Apostle Paul did so
much while working full time in those two cities where he did so, how much more
could he have accomplished if he had been able to devote all his energy to the
ministry? If you intentionally aren’t working, and you know you should be, how
many people might be lost because you’re lazy?
3.
As a witness.
If there is one thing you can do to make
Christianity look bad, that’s be unemployed. If you claim to be a Christian and
you’re healthy, and you’re not actively looking for a job, you’re bringing
reproach to the
1Corinthians 3:8-10 Now he that planteth and he that watereth
are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own
labour. 9: For
we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's
building. 10:
According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder,
I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man
take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
There are too many
people out there that want to have fine things in life, yet they won’t work for
them. They complain that others have things they can’t afford, yet they won’t
do what’s necessary to get a job that pays well enough for them to purchase
such items.
If it takes a
degree to get that type of job, and you want those things that badly, then do
what you need to do to in order to get that degree. Take night classes, apply
for a student loan, or join the military so the military pays for your
education. Quit griping and get to work! If you won’t put out the effort, then
quit your complaining!
God has said that you will reap the reward
of your own labor. What do you want to accomplish in life? God has said that He
will help you. It’s up to you to set those priorities for your life, and then
to work to accomplish them.
One other thing to consider; everything
that you do has a reflection on God and your walk with God. How are you
representing the Lord? Will others in your line of work want to be like you? Or
do you scare them away from Christ because of your attitude? Are you butting into
other people’s business at work? Or do you take care of your job and wait for
them to ask you if they need help. Let’s read 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do
your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12:
That ye may walk honestly
toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
The bible plainly tells us that we are to
be quiet and do our own work. There are times you may see a person struggling
to take care of a problem, and you want to help them….Don’t!!!! Let them ask
you for help first. If you walk over and offer them a solution, most people
will not appreciate it. They will label you as a “know it all”. If you wait for
them to ask you for help, they will think of you as a resource.
This is something that I struggle with at
times. I know my job, and I know it well. When I hear one of the guys in my
work group, or even someone in another work group struggling in an area in
which I have expertise, I have to bite my tongue and wait until they ask me for
help. If you can form that habit you’ll be more highly thought of by most
people. The less ego a person has, the easier it is to help them, but it seems
like most people have rather large egos these days….
I believe that verse 12 speaks of you
putting in a full day’s work. Are you putting in a full day’s work or are you
doing just enough to get by? As Christians, we should be setting the standard
for hard work on our jobs. No one else should be able to outwork us! As a man
once said, “Can you look your boss straight in the eyes when you pick up your
paycheck, or do you have to walk up to him backwards in order to get it?”
Now
let’s look at Colossians 3:22-24
Colossians 3:22-24 Servants, obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness
of heart, fearing God: 23: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not
unto men; 24:
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye
serve the Lord Christ.
We need to keep in mind
who we really work for. We don’t just work for a man; we’re working for the
Lord! Any job that you’re working on, you’re working on for the Lord. You need
to work at it hard enough, and do a high enough quality job that Jesus can brag
on you for it! You sure don’t want him mad at you for doing such a sorry job on
it, especially if you’re being lazy. Remember, your inheritance from the Lord
is in large measure derived from the labor you put into your job.
I’m not talking about
your salvation; I’m talking about the rewards over and above that greatest of
rewards which we know to be salvation. Do you want your mansion in heaven to be
a pile of hay behind the outhouse on the back 40?
Personally, I’d rather have several large
rooms, well furnished for entertaining guests like King David, the Apostle Peter,
or maybe the Apostle Paul. I’d like to have a couple of angels to doing all my
housework. You know, make the beds, do the dishes, clean the shower, take out
the trash.
By the way Men, if your wives are doing
those things for you, you’d most definitely better treat her like an angel!!!!
If you don’t, you have no right to complain when she’s up in the air harping at
you…..
Now, let’s look at our opening text again,
only we’re going to add a couple of more scriptures along with it.
2Thessalonians 3:10-12 For even when we were with
you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 11: For we hear that there are some which walk among you
disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12: Now
them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with
quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
Again, we are
exhorted not only to work, but to work quietly, earning our keep. Verse
11 tells us what happens
to people that don’t work when they should be. It says they’re busybodies.
Busybodies are trouble makers, gossipers, the folks who complain the most and
do the least. In my opinion, you don’t have the right to complain if you aren’t
heavily involved in the work.
If you don’t think
enough outreach is being done, try doing some yourself. If you don’t think the
preaching is good enough, go start your own church, and do your own preaching.
Now, not everybody who leaves a church and
starts a new work is leaving because they didn’t like the preaching where they
were. They should only leave and start a new work because “God” has called them to preach, and they should only start a new
work if “God” has called them to do
that as well.
Now
let’s look at Ephesians 4:28
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him
labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to
give to him that needeth.
At any given time
there may people in a congregation that made their living on the wrong side of
the law. They stole, cheated, and robbed their way through life. But through
the blood of the lamb, they have been forgiven of those trespasses and given
eternal life.
What better witness is there to a lost
world than the person who might at one time have been considered the scum of
the earth, who is now holding down a full time job and living as a responsible citizen?
The change in that person’s life is undeniable! The presence of God is manifest
in that individual and it’s a huge testimony to the power of God to change
lives!
If the musicians will come at this
time:
Today we have
learned that one of the top five most important things in our lives is working
on a job. Whether for the church or a secular employer, it makes no difference
to God. I’ve laid out three reasons why that’s so important for you.
1.
To support your family
2.
To support the church
3.
As a witness for God
I want to ask everyone here today a few
questions. I’m not going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes as I
normally would do. I’m not even going to ask you to raise your hands if the
answer is yes to a question. I just want you to answer these questions honestly
in your heart.
1.
Does
your work ethic glorify God?
2.
Are
you working hard, or hardly working?
3.
Is
there something you can do better than you have been on your job?
4.
Do
people at work respect your output and the quality of your work?
5.
Would
Jesus be proud of “how” you do your work?
I would like for everyone to think about
those things while on the job tomorrow. WWJD is an acronym for “What would
Jesus do?” How do you think Jesus would handle your job? You might want to
consider that as you perform your daily duties at whatever job you may have!
If we could all stand at this time.
Pastor, would you end this service with a prayer….