Labor Day – "Well Done. . .”

MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

(PowerPoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com & request #412.)

TEXT: Gen. 2:2,7,15, 3:17 19, 7:33; Matt. 7:23, 25:21; Luke 10:2; Col. 3:23-24

A. This is Labor Day weekend, & I come to it with mixed emotions because I ‘m not sure what to do with this particular holiday.

All year long we gear up for holidays. For Christmas we get in the spirit of giving. For New Years we talk about new beginnings. For the 4th of July we get all patriotic. For Thanksgiving we try to get in a thankful mood.

But what are we supposed to do for Labor Day? If we’re honoring work, shouldn't we go to work an hour early on Labor Day & say to our boss, "I'm so thankful for this job that I'm here early, & I don't even want to be paid for today, because I appreciate my job so much."

Well, we probably won't volunteer to do anything like that, will we? Instead, most of us expect to have the day off with pay. But somehow that just doesn't fit the pattern of how we honor the other holidays.

B. Statistics reveal that if we live to retirement, we’ll have worked nearly 100,000 hours of our life. Now figure that out, & it comes to 48 years of 40 hour weeks, 52 weeks a year. We’ll have spent that much time at our job.

Now put that together with the fact that many people don't really care about their jobs, & they look at their work as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. So it is no wonder that Labor Day weekend comes along & we're not really sure what we should be honoring.

ILL. I heard a story about an employer who brought his employees in once a month for a pep talk. He would inform them of the future plans of the company, & try to excite them about their work so that they would be enthusiastic about what they were doing.

On one occasion he called them in & said, "We have just purchased a bunch of robots. And these robots will free you from some of the menial things that you have been doing in the past, tightening screws, & so on."

Instantly he sensed from the expressions on their faces that they were concerned about job security. So quickly he added, "Now don't worry about your jobs. Nobody is going to lose a job as a result of these robots. There will be some reduction in the work force, but that will be taken care of through retirement & natural attrition. You'll all keep your jobs."

"In fact," he said, "this will even work to your advantage. As we perfect the work of these robots you will probably not even have to work a full 40 hour week, & you can take a day off now & then with no reduction in pay."

He said, "As we get this system perfected even more, maybe you can have two days off. You'll only have to work 3 days a week.

“In fact, our ultimate goal is that the time will come when you will only come in one day a week, on Wednesdays. That will be it, & you'll still get your full salary."

Then one of the employees in the back row raised his hand. "Sir, will we have to come in every Wednesday?"

I think Labor Day should remind us that work is a blessing, & not a curse. So I want to talk about work as a blessing. I want to talk about work as service. Finally, I suggest we need to remember that “One of these days…”

I. WORK IS A BLESSING

A. In Genesis 2:2 we read, "By the 7th day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the 7th day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the 7th day & made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done."

That tells us that God is a worker, & we have been created in His image.

Vs. 7 says, "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, & man became a living being." Vs. 15 adds, "The Lord God took the man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & take care of it."

Now realize, this is before sin entered the world. God gave man, as a part of the blessing of Paradise, the privilege of caring for it. Can you imagine what it was like to take care of the Garden of Eden before sin? All Adam had to do was plant & prune, pick & eat.