Labor Day 2013

Labor Day Weekend Sermon September 1, 2013

1 Thes. 4:11 (NKJV)11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

2 Thes. 3:10-12 (NKJV) 10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.11For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.12Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

A This is the Labor Day Weekend. (Strange holiday)

1 While we call it "Labor Day," we try to do as little labor as possible and most working people have the day off.

a Nobody has wished me a "Happy Labor Day".

aa We didn’t get any Labor Day cards.

bb We don’t decorate the house, or give Labor Day gifts.

cc The florists and greeting card manufacturers haven’t found a way to capitalize on it.

b It’s a bad weekend for a Church because everyone wants to travel.

2 Labor Day is different things to different people.

a To the factory or office worker, it may be a day off.

aa For policemen, who deal with extra traffic and alcohol abuse, it’s a tough day.

bb To farmers and ranchers,it’s just another day to feed the cattle and work in the fields.

b For preachers, it is an opportunity to talk about work.

c Work is a very important part of God’s will for people.

B The U.S.S. Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser ship to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island in World War II. It was a night action fought August 8th and 9th in 1942.

1 Although the Astoria scored two hits on the Imperial flagship Chokai, she was badly damaged and sank shortly after noon on August 9th.

a About 2:00 that morning, a young Midwesterner, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast when the Astoria’s number one eight-inch gun turret exploded.

b Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, Staples was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.

2 More of that true story a little later!

I God has always honored and provided work.

A Genesis 2:2 (NKJV) And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

1 God is a worker Himself and appreciates rest: He created us in His image and gave us work to do.

a Genesis 2:15 (NKJV) 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

b Even from the beginning, God gave men work to do.

2 When Jesus came to earth, God honored work:

a His birth was first told to working shepherds

Luke 2:8 (NKJV) 8Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

b Jesus learned a trade as a carpenter.

Mark 6:3 (NKJV) 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?"

aa Jesus was known as a carpenter!

bb He worked with His hands in Joseph’s carpenter shop.

3 Jesus chose working men as His disciples.

a Peter, Andrew, James & John were fishermen.

b Matthew who was a tax collector.

c The Bible doesn’t tell us what Philip, Batholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus, James, Thomas, and Judas did for a living.

aa I think it’s safe to say that they had jobs.

bb Jesus called them from their labors to become "fishers of men".

B Jesus told His disciples

Luke 10:7 (NKJV)7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.

1 What was Jesus saying to them?

a He didn’t want them going out begging from house to house.

b Jesus expected His disciples to earn their keep!

2 So why do so many people think of work as something bad?

a Because sin caused work to be unpleasant.

b Genesis 3:17-19 (NKJV) 17Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ’You shall not eat of it’: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground,