Labor Day - Taking Christ With You

For most Americans tomorrow is a holiday / it’s Labor Day / & in the opinion of some / it is the most hypocritical of all of our holidays

They say that if Labor Day is a celebration of the unique rights & freedoms that we, as workers, enjoy in our nation, that if we’re really thankful that we have jobs while some don’t, that if we’re really serious about labor being a blessing, then what we should do on Labor Day is go to work & tell the boss, "I’m going to work today, & I’m going to work for free, just for the joy of working."

But no, we’re not going to do that, are we? Most of us will say, "I don’t want to work on Labor Day.... but I do expect to get paid for it anyway."

Maybe we’re not quite as dedicated to the celebration of labor as we thought.

I want to begin by asking you a few questions, "Do you really like your job? How many of you look forward to going to work on Monday mornings because you really miss seeing your boss? How many of you miss your fellow workers so much that you can hardly wait to get back & see how they’re doing?"

If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then you’re in the minority / Surveys reveal that 65% of American workers are unhappy with their jobs / Many of them go to work simply because they have no other choice. "I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go."

Some reason they are unhappy with what they do because it is the same old routine day after day / life seems to be a meaningless merry-go-round with no real purpose to it.

Tennessee Ernie Ford “16 Tons” / "You load 16 tons, & what do you get, another day older & deeper in debt.

Haven Gillespie sang, "Up in the morning, out on the job, work like the devil for my pay. Fuss with my woman, toil for my kids, work till I’m wrinkled & gray... But that lucky old sun just rolls around heaven all day."

PROP. Now this morning, I want to share with you what I believe will help you see our work as an exciting opportunity to serve God.

With this in mind, I want you to examine a few thoughts...

Ephesians 6:5–6 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

I. SEE EVERYDAY WORK AS SERVICE FOR GOD

A. Almost Everything we do in life / affects someone else

1. We have food because there are farmers who planted the crop or raised the cattle.

a. We are the beneficiaries of their labor

Jesus spent the first 30 years of his life in the little town of Nazareth / helping his earthly father out in the carpenter shop / Why? Because work is important! / Because people need houses / People need yokes for their oxen / chairs on which to sit / Tables on which to serve their food

2. Even preaching bears a responsibility / and effects others

a. No matter what your job is / it makes a difference / because others are effected by what we do

i. I am convinced it’s what Paul meant when he wrote

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

B. One of our problems in life / even as Christians / We like to divide everything categories

1. Into secular & sacred / Christian Non-Christian categories

i. Often times work falls into the non-Christian category / after all / it’s just work

a. But we ought to see our everyday work as a service for God

2. You can see that sacred & secular separation pattern in the O.T. / but not in the N.T. /

i. The O.T. says, "Over here is the sacred with its temple & priests, & everything else is secular."/

ii. N.T. teaches that we are all priests, / our body is a temple / God’s Holy Spirit lives in us / every day is holy!

a. N.T. tells us that we can take God with us wherever we go, & that He can be a part of everything we do.

1. We can serve God in the way we work & where we work every day!

II. SERVING GOD WHERE YOU WORK

A. LTS BEGIN WITH EXCUSES

1. You say, "You don’t know where I work / You don’t know my boss / You don’t know the kind of people I have to work with / You don’t know the power struggles that go on / the flirtations / the cursing / You don’t know the dirty stories that are told / The pornography that is passed around."

a. You have no idea what environment I have to work in

i. Let me revisit our scripture / I know it’s addressed to salves / but closest thing we have them today are workers / like you / me / lets substitute the word

"Workers, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like workers of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart."

b. Now that’s interesting / He’s saying, "Even though your boss is a two-legged monster / who is about as pagan as anyone you’ve ever seen / do your work for him as though you are doing it for Christ."

2. You say, "You don’t know my boss or you’d never suggest that / Or / I work in a secular / pagan office in a secular company / There is no way that Christian principles will ever change that."

B. I want to take you back to the O.T. for a moment ? remind you of man named Daniel

1. You’ve heard about him ever since you were children in Sunday School / Daniel was carried away captive to Babylon / taken from Jerusalem (where he was surrounded by people who believed what he believed, who believed in one God)

2. But now he is in a totally pagan environment in Babylon / As time passed / King Nebuchadnezzar appointed him a government official / He became a government bureaucrat!

Just look at our political scene today / I think if you want to get as far away from God as possible / then run for office / become government bureaucrat / Serve in that environment / you will probably be as far from God as you can possibly be

3. But as Daniel worked in his government office / sitting behind his government desk / doing all his government duties / Yes as a government bureaucrat

1. BUT he was able to serve God!

2. Matter a fact / King Nebuchadnezzar respected his faithfulness to God / Daniel rose higher & higher among the leaders of the country

4. But when King Nebuchadnezzar died / Babylonian Empire began to disintegrate / It was conquered by King Darius /

5. Once again Daniel’s outstanding qualities were recognized / He was soon appointed one of the highest officials in all the land

6. But there came a time when pressures were put on him to do things that were against God / So Daniel said, "That’s enough. That’s as far as I can go." / King Darius.... who had become his friend / was forced to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den

1. You know the story / God shut the mouths of the lions / Daniel was unharmed / The next morning, Darius came rushing to the lion’s den / expecting to find the mangled bones of Daniel / Listen to what Darius said

Daniel 6:20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”

C. Isn’t that interesting? Did you catch that?

1. Daniel worked in a pagan environment / He worked in a pagan office /Surrounded by ungoldly people / had an ungodly king / Yet, the one thing that unsaved / pagan king knew about Daniel was that Daniel served God continually!

a. APPLICATION: Do your fellow-workers know that?

b. Do you try to serve God continually in the environment of your work?

c. Have you seen yourself as a walking temple of God? Living in a way that will point people to 1 true God?

d. Have you been able to put God first where you work / so that your fellow workers know that you are trying to serve God?

2. Easy to say, "Well, Daniel was extra-ordinary.... I’m just ordinary."

a. If you’re ordinary… its okay / God made more ordinary people than He did anybody else

i. He didn’t make very many geniuses / He didn’t make very many five talent people / But He made a lot of ordinary people / just like you and me!

3. Even better / God delights in taking ordinary people / infusing them with extra-ordinary power

a. And when an ordinary person goes to an ordinary workplace / determined to be faithful to God / God can do extra-ordinary things through him or her /

i. And God always is glorified when that happens

Now the third thing I want you to see:

III. ALL OF US ARE MINISTERS

A. All of us are ministers, no matter who... OR where we are

On occasion I have had people say to me, "I wish I could do what you do... I wish I were a preacher." In case you didn’t know / I spent 4 years in the USMC / another 4 in finance where my boss did as much cocaine as we did Several years in real estate before becoming a pastor / but I have always had to work / still do

I know a bit about the language / & the things that go on in the workplace

1. But I want you to understand something / I am no more a servant of God now than I have a title of pastor / then I was then

a. You see / Bible teaches that all of us are ministers no matter what our job description / or workplace / or who we work with / might be

i. If you’re a Christian / you’re a minister of God

2. Now God may call you out of that to a mission field / or to be a pastor / or whatever. And if He does, you should always respond /

a. But you will be no more a servant of His then / then you are right now

i. Your ministry is wherever you are / that’s your sphere of ministry

B. You say, "Well, I’m a victim of circumstances / I have this job because I couldn’t get the one I wanted / I have to make a living, so here I am, & I hate every minute of it."

1. Daniel was a victim of circumstances, too / Let me ask you, "Why was Daniel in Babylon?"

a. Answer is that the Babylonian army took him to Babylon

b. But notice... Jeremiah 29:7 God says, "I have carried you into exile." "I have carried you from Jerusalem to Babylon."

2. Here is Daniel in a pagan place / surrounded by pagan people / but the Bible says that that is exactly where God wanted him to be

We’ve heard the old adage that "one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel"

Only true as long that we think that bad always wins, & good never does

a. But the Bible teaches that we can overcome evil with good

C. If you’re in a secular workplace, working next to a “sinner” / then see that as a God-given opportunity to influence that person for good

1. That person whom you work with every day / whose eyes you look into / whose voice you hear / who’s probably shared a few fears / hopes / dreams / who’s told you about the new car they’ve bought / possibly about their kids & family / doesn’t it make sense that that person is the one God would like to see you leading to the Lord?

a. That’s lifestyle evangelism / when you go to work & see that place / and those people as your God-given opportunity for service

D. 4 suggestions for witnessing for Christ effectively

1. First of all, don’t brag

a. Don’t go to work & brag about how wonderful your Christian life is / Don’t brag about how righteous you are / how you are a model husband or wife / Don’t brag / That will only turn them off

i. Self-righteousness has always been repulsive / It simply won’t work

ii. Instead look for opportunities to share God’s love in / well / a loving way!

2. Secondly, don’t nag

a. Don’t carry a big Bible under your arm / every time somebody cusses pull it out & say, "Look here. It says, `Thou shalt not swear.’"

b.Every time they talk about being hungover / don’t pull it out & say, "Look, it says, `All drunkards are going to hell.”

i. All you’re going to do is turn them away / You may think that you are being bold / It’s not / You’re simply turning them away.

3. Don’t lag

a. As a Christian it is important for you to do your work & do it well / Important to set an example for others / to be there on time / novel idea.... maybe even early / to do your job & maybe a little bit of their job if they’re falling behind / to help them out in any way you possibly can

i. If you’re lazy / if you’re slothful on the job / it’s a poor testimony for the Lord

ii. So do your job & do it well / as if you are doing it for Christ

4. Fourthly, don’t sag (not talking about your pants)

a. Be really careful not to go back to your old way of life / Be really careful not to listen to their language / start to use it yourself / Engage in trash talk / Be really careful not to see the bright lights of a far country & be enticed

i. Make sure you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus

E. How to reach them

1. It’s when you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus / when you don’t use their language / when you react in a different way to problems & difficulties that come

a. Sooner or later they will come up & say / "I notice you’re different / What has caused the difference?"

b. They will / because inside they’re hurting / Inside they’re looking for answers & solutions

i. And if you can mirror what Christ can do in a life / sooner or later the door WILL swing open for you to share your testimony with them

ii. If you’ll just be there every day / setting that solid consistent Christian example

2. Back in that 29th chapter of Jeremiah / God gave instructions to COI / how they should behave in a pagan environment

Jeremiah 29:5–7 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

3. Very practical instructions / to a Christian people / living in exile (living in sinful world)

a. I believe we too are in exile.

b. This world is not our home / We are just a’passing through."

c. Jesus is building a real home for me, & I’m anxiously awaiting that home

4. But in the meantime, I’m here / And while I’m here, God says, "Settle down. Build a house. Plant a garden. Get married & have children. Find wives for your sons, & marry off your daughters. They too will have children. Go out & work & prosper, because as the city prospers you, too, will prosper."

a. You see, He is saying, "You be God’s person / Be different / yet blend into society.

b. Don’t give in to their way of doing things

i. Daniel didn’t. Meshach, Shadrach & Abednego didn’t.

ii. They went so far, & then they said, `This is as far as we can go.’"

a. There were fiery furnaces / lion dens / But God saw them through all of that,

b. He’ll see us through, too / if we’ll just settle down, build houses, get married, have children, go to work, & be the stable part of society until finally society realizes it needs changing

c. And we’re the ones who have the message of change / the message of Jesus Christ.

You carry it in your heart this evening / Carry it to the workplace next Tuesday. Someone desperately needs to hear that message. I hope that in some way you can see your workplace as a sacred place, where you can serve the Lord, where you can witness your faith with those who don’t know Jesus.

If you’re here this morning & Jesus is not your Lord & Savior today, then we extend His invitation. We pray that you’ll respond to Him. That you’ll know that Jesus Christ went to the cross & died for your sins, that He was buried & on the third day He arose from the dead, victorious & triumphant. And He offers His sacrifice as payment for all your sins.

We offer that invitation & pray that you will respond as we stand & as we sing.