MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2016)
(PowerPoint for this message is available free of charge. Just e-mail me at mnewland@sstelco.com with your request - #223.)
TEXT: Ephesians 6:5 6; Jeremiah 29:5 7; Daniel 6:20
A. For most Americans tomorrow is a holiday. It's Labor Day &, in the opinion of some, it is the most hypocritical holiday of all.
They say that if Labor Day is a celebration of the unique rights & freedoms that we, as workers, enjoy in our nation; & if we believe that work is a blessing; & if we're sincerely thankful we have jobs while others don't; then what we should do on Labor Day is to tell our bosses, "We want to work today, & we'll do it for free, just to celebrate the privilege of working."
But we won’t do that, will we? We’ll celebrate Labor Day by not working!
B. So let me ask a couple of questions, "Do you look forward to going to work on Monday mornings?” And, “Do you really like your job?"
Now if you answered "Yes" to either of those questions, then you're in the minority. Surveys reveal that many American workers are unhappy with their jobs. Most go to work simply because they have no choice about it. "I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go."
And many of them would say that they’re unhappy because it is the same old routine day after day after day. And as a result, they often view their life as being an endless merry go round.
ILL. A generation ago Tennessee Ernie Ford sang, "You load 16 tons, & what do you get, another day older & deeper in debt." And Frankie Laine sang, “Up in the morning, out on the job, work like the devil for my pay. But that lazy old sun got nothin’ to do but roll around heaven all day.”
They don’t write songs like that anymore!
PROP. But this morning, instead of considering our jobs to be drudgery, I want us to look at them as challenging opportunities.
I. AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE OF SERVICE TO GOD
First of all, we need to see our work as an opportunity to be of service to God.
A. Do you realize that almost everything we do affects someone else? We have food because there are farmers who planted the crop or raised the cattle, & we’re the beneficiaries of their labor.
Jesus spent most of the first 30 years of his life in Nazareth helping His earthly father in the carpentry shop. Why? Because work was important. People needed houses. People needed yokes for their oxen. People needed chairs & tables. And many people must have benefited from the carpentry skills of Joseph & Jesus.
ILL. At times there are even those who say that they’ve benefited from one of my sermons. Someone will say, "You know, I never thought of it that way before. Your sermon really changed my perspective about that."
And of course, that makes me feel good. But at the same time it reminds me of the awesome responsibilities we have. What we say & do are important, & they make a difference because others are affected by them.
B. So we need to realize that we can serve God in the way we work.
But someone may say, "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, the dirty stories that are passed around."
Let me share a scripture with you. Ephesians 6:5-6 is a passage that I think is very appropriate today. It is addressed to slaves, but the closest thing to slaves today are workers like you & me. So let's substitute the word, "worker," for "slave" & listen to what God has to say.
"Workers, obey your earthly masters with respect & fear, & 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 slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart."
Paul is saying, "Even though your boss is a monster & as pagan as anyone you've ever seen, do your work for him as though you are doing it for Christ."
C. We also need to realize that we can serve God no matter where we work.
Go back to the O.T. for a moment & consider Daniel. As a young man Daniel was taken captive to Babylon, far from his home in Jerusalem where he had been surrounded by people who believed what he believed, who worshiped God. Then he finds himself in Babylon, living in a totally pagan environment.
But despite that, Daniel remains faithful to God. And the next thing we know, King Nebuchadnezzar has appointed him to an office, & Daniel is a government bureaucrat.
Now if a lot of what we hear today is true, if you want to get away from God, become a government bureaucrat. Work in that kind of environment & it probably won’t be long until you'll be about as far away from God as you can possibly be.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, for as Daniel worked in his government office, sitting behind his desk, doing all his duties as a government bureaucrat, he remained faithful to God.
King Nebuchadnezzar respected him for that &, as a result, Daniel rose higher & higher among the leaders of that pagan country.
But when Nebuchadnezzar died, the Babylonian Empire began to disintegrate, & finally it was conquered by Darius, King of the Medes & Persians. Once again Daniel's outstanding qualities were recognized, & he was soon one of the highest officials in the land.
But he had enemies, & plots were made & pressures applied to force him to do things contrary to his faith in God. Daniel said, "I will not do that. I will remain true to God." And King Darius, who had become his friend, found himself tricked by the plotters into ordering that Daniel be thrown into the lion's den.
Well, you know the story. God shut the mouths of the lions, & Daniel was unharmed. Then early the next morning, Darius came rushing to the lion's den, fully expecting to find only a part of the mangled remains of Daniel.
Listen to what King Darius says in 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?’”
Isn't that interesting? Daniel worked in a pagan office, in a pagan environment, & for a pagan king. Yet, the one outstanding thing that pagan king knew about Daniel was that Daniel served God continually.
APPL. Do your fellow workers know that? Do you try to serve God in the environment of your work? Have you been able to put God first, so that fellow workers know that you’re trying to serve Him?
You say, "Well, Daniel was special, & I'm just ordinary." If you're ordinary, thank the Lord. He made more ordinary people than He did anybody else. He didn't make many geniuses. He didn't make very many 5-talent people. But He made lots of ordinary people.
God delights in taking ordinary people & filling them with extra ordinary power. And when ordinary people go to ordinary workplaces, determined to be faithful to God, God can do extra ordinary things through them. And God is glorified when that happens.
II. AS CHRISTIANS, WE ARE ALL MINISTERS
A. Secondly, we must realize that as Christians we are all ministers, no matter who we are.
ILL. Before I became a full-time preacher I spent 8 years working in grocery stores, an oil company, & in a department store. But I want you to understand that I’m no more a minister of God now than I was then.
You see, the Bible teaches that we’re all ministers no matter what our job or where our workplace may be. If we're a Christian, we're to minister.
Now God may call you to work in a mission field, or a preaching ministry, or to some other full-time ministry. And if He does, you need to respond. But you will be no more a servant of His then, then you are right now.
Wherever we are, that's our 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."
Daniel was a victim, too. Let me ask you, "Why was Daniel in Babylon?" And of course, the answer is that the Babylonian army carried him there.
But in Jeremiah 29:7 God says, "I have carried you into exile." Daniel is in a pagan place, surrounded by pagan people, but the Bible says that is exactly where God wanted him to be.
So if you're in a secular workplace, working next to someone who is as pagan as pagan can be, then see that as a God directed opportunity to influence that person for good.
That person with whom you work every day, whose eyes you look into, whose voice you hear, who has shared hopes & dreams with you, & has told you all about kids & family, doesn't it make sense that is the one God wants to see you leading to Him?
SUM. That's evangelism when you go to work & see that place & those people as your God given opportunity for service.
III. HOW DO WE WITNESS EFFECTIVELY?
If so, then how do we witness effectively? Back in Jeremiah 29:5-7, God gave instructions to the children of Israel as to how they should behave in a pagan environment when they were taken from Jerusalem. Listen to His words.
He told them, "Build houses & settle down; plant gardens & eat what they produce. Marry & have sons & daughters; find wives for your sons & give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons & daughters.
"Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace & 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."
Those are very practical instructions, & just as relevant today as they were then because, in a very real sense, we’re in exile too. The old spiritual says, "This world is not my home. I'm just a'passing through."
But in the meantime, I'm here. And while I'm here, God says, "Settle down. Get married & have children. Go to work & prosper. And be God’s person in this place.”
Daniel was. And so were Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Yes, they had to face fiery furnaces & the lions’ den. But God saw them through all that, & He'll see us through our trials, too, if we'll serve Him.
ILL. The Korea Christian Gospel Mission & Geon Children’s Home newsletter often contains poignant articles by Dr. Yoon Kwon Chae. In one of them he wrote:
“Believe me, our children are hungering for love. Nowadays, only two-thirds of our children are orphans. The rest of them have one parent living somewhere. Some of our children know where, but they don’t want to go back because not a few were mistreated by them …
“One of our boys was so badly beaten by his stepfather that we found 4 broken bones when he came to our home. One of our girls was burnt by cigarettes all over her body.
"Half of another girl’s hair was pulled out by its roots by her step-grandmother & she is almost bald. No wonder they don’t want to go back home & why they are hungry for love.
“I know other children who don’t want to go back home. They escaped from North Korea & they don’t want to go back home because they will starve. They have seen people starve to death & they are haunted by the thought of starvation.
"So they run away from home, cross the border of North Korea into China, risking their lives to beg in the streets of China.
“Of course, there are also adult defectors. And when they are caught in China they are forced back to North Korea, chained by wire on their wrists & sometimes through their ear lobes or even their noses. . . .
“A number of our Seminary graduates are working as missionaries among the defectors. Of course, you know that China is not a free country to work in for missionaries. So our graduates disguise themselves as teachers or merchants. And when they are caught working as missionaries, they are arrested as spies.
“Many of them have already been arrested as spies & are in prison. But they keep on spreading the Gospel & the love of God, & they will keep on working as missionaries until their last breath.”
INVITATION:
