Sunday, September 5, 2010: Work Can Be Spiritual

Work Can Be Spiritual
Matthew 6: 19 – 34.

I. Introduction.

This is Labor Day Weekend…The last three day weekend of the Summer…The last opportunity for family vacation or to get some work done around the house…Or your last opportunity to wear your white patent leather shoes…

But Labor Day is an often overlooked holiday…It is a unique holiday, because it is not devoted to any particular religious group or nationality…First Monday in September is Labor Day in America…Other nations have their own days set aside as Labor Day…

In America, Labor Day began in 1882 when the Central Labor Union designated September 5 as a “working man’s holiday.”

Even though Labor Day is not a Christian holiday, it does fit with our Protestant work ethic and our understanding of the value of a good day’s work…As Christians, we ought to give thanks to God for our work and for allowing us to live in a country where work is available…

We can even pause today and look at the biblical perspective of work…The Bible presents us with two ways we can view our work…

Read Genesis 3: 17 – 19…Work as a Curse…This curse came as a result of the Fall and a consequence of human sin…Notice there are two sides of that curse: work and separation from God…Through Christ our relationship with God has been restored, so we have reason to believe that the first part of that curse has also been broken…

Read Colossians 3: 22 – 25…Through Christ, our work does not have to remain a curse…It can be a blessing and a kind of service to God…

Today I want to encourage you to let Christ break the curse that has held our work captive and move to an understanding of work as a blessing…There are three ways that you can know if your work is a blessing or a curse…

Read Matthew 6: 19 – 34.


II. Is Your Work Irreverent?

Work that is irreverent is work that does not show reverence toward God…We show reverence by honoring God and loving God through our actions…Revere is another word for worship…to focus our mind, attention and affection on God and to act in ways that reflect those thoughts and love for God…

Many people like to compare the Old and New Testaments and say that the OT is about Law and the NT is about Grace…This is a great idea, except it is wrong and does not reflect what the Bible teaches…Grace does not just show up in the NT…The OT is all about Grace…Law does not just show up in the OT…The NT places legal requirements that are actually tougher than the OT…

In the OT, believers were required to give a tithe or 10% of parts of their income to God…In the OT, believers were required to give 1/7 of their time—one day out of every week totally devoted to worship and rest…In the NT, Paul called all Christians to present themselves as “living sacrifices” to God…In other words, the NT requires more than the OT ever thought to require…Now, believers are required to give 100% of both financial assets and time…Worship is not reserved for Sunday mornings…It is for every day of the week…We are to worship God with all that we have…

Paul said in Colossians 3 that Christians ought to work as if God himself were our boss…Not the earthly boss that we report to every day…We can even worship God through our work…

How can we know if our work is Reverent or Irreverent? We should compare our work to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6. Are you storing up for yourself treasures in heaven or treasures on earth? Reverent work stores treasures in heaven.

If all you are doing in your work is storing up treasures on earth…Then your work might be more of a curse than a blessing…


III. Is Your Work Irrelevant?

Work that is irrelevant is work that does not accomplish anything significant…Or make a meaningful contribution to change the world for the better…

I have confessed to you before that I like to do things…I don’t like to be idle or to waste my time…I can remember when I was in school how I always hated having a substitute teacher…Because having a substitute usually meant doing busy work that didn’t seem to accomplish anything…

When our work is a blessing, it is relevant work…Work that makes a difference…

How can we know if our work is Relevant or Irrelevant? Again, we should compare it to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6. Is the Kingdom of God your number one priority? Or do you spend your time worrying about food, drink, clothing, etc…Relevant work places the Kingdom of God as the top priority…Irrelevant work focuses on secondary concerns like food, drink, clothing and ironically creates more stress…

In France in the 1600’s, a man named Lawrence entered into a Carmelite Monastery. He was a very spiritual man, but he was not very educated. Since he was not educated, he had no hope of ever becoming a priest. Yet, he wanted to enter into the Monastery to grow closer to God.

Since Lawrence was a layman, he didn’t get one of the “cool” jobs in the Monastery. He was assigned to kitchen duty. Every morning after breakfast was served, Lawrence would go into the kitchen to wash the pots. As soon as the pots were cleaned, it was time to reuse the pots to cook lunch. Then, after lunch, Lawrence would return to his work of washing the pots. Again, as soon as the pots were cleaned, it was time to use them again to cook supper. (Does this sound familiar to anyone?) And after supper, Lawrence would once again wash the pots.

Lawrence thought that he would have more time to spend with God in the Monastery, but all his time was spent washing pots. This led Lawrence to a great spiritual discovery. Washing the pots was a way for him to spend time with God. He was not washing pots for himself, he was washing pots for others. He was not only washing pots for the Monastery, he was washing pots for God. (Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, [Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1982])


IV. Is Your Work Irresponsible?

Work can be irresponsible when it does not consider the needs of others…Does your work look out for your own needs, or for the needs of others? This includes family…

How can we know if our work is Responsible or Irresponsible? Again, compare it to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6…Does your work give life to others, or does it actually take away life from others? When our work is responsible to God, then it provides for our personal needs and for the needs of others—including our families…

Work that is Irresponsible is work that only looks after our own personal, selfish needs…It is nothing more than stress and worry and “vanity, vanity”…

Jesus’ words on this subject were plain enough…Worry and Stress cannot add to your life…They actually take away life…

Many people today tend to find their meaning and identity in their work…This had led many to spend inordinate amounts of time working…Of course, it is easy to rationalize this kind of addiction… “I am just providing for the needs of my family”… “I just want my children to have more than I had”… “My family comes first, so I work to provide for my family”…

The reality is that this kind of addiction to work does not improve the quality of life for a person’s family…It actually destroys the family…It does not give life to others…It takes away life from others…By creating more stress, anxiety and worry…Jesus said that you cannot improve your life through worry!


V. Conclusion.

I took a group of college students on a mission trip to Mexico during Spring Break of 1997. We worked on several building projects at a Christian orphanage in the Mexican city of Reynosa. On our last full day, our host took us on a trip to observe the site of a new mission he was trying to develop.

This was a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico that was so small and so remote that it didn’t even have a name. They just referred to it as “Fish Island.” We drove four hours southeast from the Texas border on the worst roads I have ever driven in my life.

We were not prepared for what we saw when we got there…Families lived in shacks and crates and cardboard boxes on the beach with no access to electricity or plumbing. The filth and smell was unbelievable.

The men made their living by fishing. Every morning they rowed in small boats onto the Gulf to a small island that was just over the horizon and out of our sight. On the other side of that island they fished and then brought what they had caught back to the beach to sell to the trucks that came by every afternoon.

They made next to nothing for their fish and lived in filth and poverty. Just as I was beginning to feel sorry for these Mexican families, I learned something else. They didn’t work year round. They only worked for six months each year. And this was not because of the weather or the fishing season.

They only worked for six months, because that is how long it took them to earn enough money to live for the rest of the year. Once they made as much money as they wanted, they took their families and moved back to an inland village to live.

These poor fishermen did not live a glamorous lifestyle…And they did not have the wealth and luxury that you and I are used to…But it seems to me they had something that we have missed…They have broken the curse…