Title: Your Place in The Marketplace (Labor Day)

Date: 2008-08-31

Reference: I Peter 4: 10-11

It’s hard to believe this is the last day of August and Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day really signals the end of Summer. This is the last Summer Worship Service before we resume our Fall-Winter Schedule. We’ve had a very successful Summer Season in terms of attendance and activities. Now we shift gears and move into Autumn activities.

I really do enjoy Labor Day Weekend. The weather is still nice and the long weekend gives us a chance to catch up on some chores before Winter sets in. My list for the weekend grew all last week and I’ll never get it all done. It’s the thought that counts.

This is also a time for us to pause and thank God for allowing us to work and put bread on the table. More than just working we thank God for allowing us to represent Christ wherever we find ourselves during the work week. Wherever we work or spend our time is our primary place of ministry.

The Apostle Paul said in the 3rd chapter of Col. “Do your work willingly as though you were working for and serving the Lord Himself and not just your earthly master.”

In Eph. 6 he writes: “Try to please your supervisor at all times and not just when you think they are watching. In this way you represent Christ.”

In that day and age Christians were held in suspicion by society as a whole. People didn’t understand this new cult spun off from the Jewish Faith. Paul said to the Christians: “Make the very best employees, the best servants, the best soldiers. Gladly do the work no one else wants to do. Be on time. Be honest. Be dependable. Earn the respect of your superiors and your co-workers.

In this way you honor Jesus and earn the right to speak about your faith to those you work alongside.”

The situation has not changed all that much in these many years since Paul wrote this advice about labor. The slogan of a major car company is: “Quality is job One.” The company tells it’s customers it’s priority is sending top-notch cars off the assembly line. Manufacturers know that consumers look for quality in everything they buy. We don’t want to spend our hard earned money on items and services we know are below par and don’t represent someone’s best effort.

How you and I do our job, everyday, reflects our personal quality standard. With each task, however simple or complex, we tell others how much we value our job. We must take pride in our work and not just do enough to get by.

Christian workers should do their very best at work because work is God’s plan for us, and because our ultimate accountability is to Jesus Christ. God said in the 3rd chapter of Genesis: “You will have to sweat to earn a living. You were made out of soil and you will once again return to soil.” Some see work as a curse from God. I have always seen it as a blessing from God. God knows we are fulfilled when we look back on a job well done. God’s Spirit within us encourages us to rise to the occasion. We are satisfied when we work.

I know things may not always be perfect at work. The boss may be unreasonable. Conditions are not ideal. Expectations are unreachable. Perhaps we feel we aren’t paid what we feel our labor is worth. Jesus understands our situation and gives us strength to face every task. In every job our goal is the same.

To point to Jesus through our actions, attitudes, and words. To represent Jesus in the workplace, the school room, the market place, wherever we find ourselves during the week. We do this by working with a passion for excellence in all we do. Remember we are accountable to God. I pray our personal standards point our co-workers, customers, and even our supervisors to Jesus.

The key to being a Christian on the job is to bring meaning to our work not to try and find life’s ultimate meaning in our work. Too many over the years have made work a God. Titles, positions, salaries, recognition have become a lust of life. Many work hard to assure success and power without counting the cost. In those times, fear of failure grips us. Exhaustion and fatigue creeps upon us. We become irritable, defensive, even paranoid. In those conditions we don’t do our best work and we certainly don’t represent Christ very well. We aren’t very creative working under those negative conditions.

We must never allow our work to become more important than our relationship with God. If we are retired and no longer working each day we must never allow our hobbies and interests to become more important than our relationship with God.

Whether we are still working or retired what we do is an expression of our faith. Work done well brings glory to God. Effectiveness, dependability, honesty, trustworthiness, punctuality, reliability, and consistency earns us credibility with our co workers. When we are seen as credible we are free to share our faith in Jesus.

God may have placed you where you are working, not just for the job, or the work to be done, but for the influence you will have on people with whom you work.

Again the Bible says: “Do your best at your job. Earn your wages.

And if you are the employer pay the wages to those who have earned them.” I’ve always believed in the mirror test. All that matters is you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there that you’ve done your best. At the end of any project, presentation, or task if we can say “ I did my best,” then it’s enough. It’s all we can do. We may have made mistakes, we may not have pleased everyone. But if we honestly did our level best no one can expect more from us than that.

God has given each of us spiritual abilities, talents, and gifts. God has made an eternal investment in each life. God wants, expects, and deserves a return on the investment. In today’s reading Peter writes: “Each of us has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.”

If we don’t use the talents we’ve been given other people will be cheated because we are not contributing what God has uniquely equipped us to provide. Just because we cannot do the spectacular doesn’t excuse us from doing what we can. Faithfulness does not depend on what I do not have or cannot do. Faithfulness depends on what I do with what I have. We can do three things with our time. We can spend it, waste it, or invest it. The best use of our time is to invest it in something that will outlast us.

Christians, friends of Jesus, should have a reputation for being the most dependable, positive, people at work. Others should always know, by our actions, who our true boss is. We are always known by our actions. Our actions count for more than our words.

Before freedom came to Romania the government was very strict about how churches evangelized. It was against the law to openly proselytize in any way.

Christians were routinely discriminated against in every possible way. Christians often took the jobs others did not want. The military made it very difficult for recruits from religious homes. Through it all many employers were forced to admit the Christians were the very best and most trustworthy workers in the marketplace. Christians were often the most dependable, loyal soldiers. Even after they were given the most difficult and tedious assignments. The Christians knew they were representing Jesus. Through their attitudes, actions, and work habits they pointed to Christ. Quoting Scripture and praying openly were not allowed. But they worked hard and did their very best and they stood out. And when they were questioned about their work ethic they gave God the glory.

Romanian employers were often heard to say: “I am not personally religious or superstitious in any way. I don’t go to church, I don’t pray, I don’t know about God. But I wish I had many more Christians working for me. I can trust them They work hard and earn their money.” One construction supervisor told me Christians did not steal supplies as other workers did. “They are trustworthy with supplies as if they were paying for them themselves.”

This should be our attitude as well. Whatever we do, may we do it for Christ. Someone has said: “Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it. We should autograph our work with excellence.” That is especially true since we are trying hard to represent Jesus in our work and activities.

God honors our work and allows us to support ourselves through our labor. God allows us to make enough to be able to share with others who need our help. Abraham Lincoln was a truly great man.

Lincoln was not great because he once lived in a log cabin but because his hard work and determination got him out of the log cabin and into the White House. Remember God is far more interested in what you are than in what you do. Each of us will take our character into eternity but not our career. Our career is simply one way of displaying our character and pointing to Jesus. We find our security and our purpose in the Lord and we bring that with us to work.

Whatever we find ourselves doing this week may we do it for the Lord.