1. INTRO: .

Ø Scene Setup: Perchik teaching Tevye's children on the story of Jacob and Laban's daughters.

Ø Application: The Scriptures should speak with God's voice, not ours. Exegesis, not isogesis, but what does the Corinthians and the Bible in general say about employers and worker’s rights.

DVD Chapter: 12 Start Time: 01:00:58 End Time: 01:01:33

2. Scripture 1 Co. 9:1-18

3. Workers Rights

A. Paul making a ministry defense.

Ø Remember, they thought him less of an apostle: rhetoric, now money.

Ø I am the founder, and spiritual father of you all.

Ø What of my rights as a worker?

B. What workers have a right to.

Ø Workers deserve a share in the profits, sustenance & family

Ø God is concerned about justice for workers, including church workers.

Ø We lived on just about minimum wage. But no kids. No future.

Ø 2 people in shared space, no kids, no insurance, no real hope

Ø Is that the hire they are worthy of?

C. (on the other hand) Implementation & action

Ø Government directed economies have not thrived, and many have not survived. Those that have survived have often done so without giving a better living to the same folks we want to help.

Ø I have had multiple Cuban friends who attest to this.

Ø This kind of complexity, makes me glad I left my management/marketing degree behind for a master of divinity.

Ø AT THE VERY LEAST: What if you can change that for some, if not the system?

Ø Is there anything more important than justice in the workplace? Maybe so…

“Daddy Day Care” Scene Setup: Charlie Hinton has returned to his job in advertising. Was running a day care center out of his home that allowed him to spend a lot of time with his son, the advertising position pays much better for the labor given, and carries more social prestige.
In a meeting, Charlie realizes that the product, a kid's cereal, is bad for them.

Scene: Charlie remarks that the cereal they are pitching, Cotton Candy Puffs, is bad for kids because it is made up of sugar and red food coloring. His boss tells to zero in on the core values, and noting that the ages between 2 and 6 are key branding years. Charlie comes across a picture his son Ben had made of the two of them smiling and holding hands. Charlie announces that he has discovered the core value -- his kid-- and he quits.

Application:
There are things more important than work.

DVD Chapter: 25 Start Time: 1:19:20 End Time: 1:21:03

4. A Greater Passion

Ø Segue: Love for family was more important to Charlie than the level of his pay, even though that was important. For Paul there is something even more important than that.

1. Paul’s Passion

Ø Loving God and being loved by Him is its own reward. Like lovers willing to die for one another just to please their beloved.

Ø Paul finds that this kind of love is more important to him than his rights. And this passion to please his love leads him to make Jesus his beloved cause his own: the extension of the gospel.

Ø (Review vs. 12b and 15ff.)

Ø He started the work there, lead them to new life in Jesus, sowed spiritual seed, put up with anything to avoid hindering the gospel of Christ.

Ø What is the gospel of Christ? The good news of the savior/messiah. That those who were condemned, lost rebels, became forgiven, beloved sons and daughters, when Jesus took the punishment due them, and set square their account with God.

Ø Did Paul have such an account? He was chief among sinners. Could he have paid any other way? Parable of the debtors, wages of sin.

Ø How did the forgiven feel? Is that how Paul felt? And what if he could give that away to all who wanted it? That is what he was doing with passion.

5. Invite: Do you have that kind of passion?

Ø Do you have a passion for anything deep enough to give up your rights to justice or fairness?

Ø I am asking. Would you like to really live? Find passion, forgiveness and love, being adopted by the Father through Jesus? Already done that? Give it away. Change the world. Change the lives of those around you. Sow peace, love and justice.

Ø How about you? Ever did anything wrong? Ever? The wage is death. Jesus died for you.

Ø I left my mgt./mktg. behind. I found more passion for the one thing I could believe in with all my heart. It was also something that would make a bigger difference in people’s lives than even something as great as a more just wage system.