1 Thessalonians 4:8-12

Your Work and Gods Work

Sermon preached August 30, 2014
Opening
An old-time Southern, hell fire & brimstone country preacher had a teenage son, and it
was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many
young men, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too
concerned about it.
One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He
went into the boy's room and placed on his desk four objects: - a Bible, - a silver dollar,
- a bottle of whisky and - a Playboy magazine. I'll just hide behind the door, the old
preacher said to himself, "when he comes home from school this afternoon, I'll see which
object he picks up.
If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be!
If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a businessman, and that would be okay, too.
But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good, low down drunkard, and, Lord,
help me.... what a shame that would be.
And worst of all..... if he picks up that magazine he's gonna be a skirt-chasin', no good
bum.
The preacher waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's footsteps as he entered the house
whistling and headed for his room. The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned
to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked
over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He
picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and
took a big drink while he admired this month's centerfold.
Lord have mercy," the old preacher whispered, "He's gonna be a politician!

Its Labor Day weekend, thought it might be helpful to think together not only how to
choose what work we do, but how to make it a way we live out our faith.
and I hope Central will be the kind of church that helps you make those connections - that
helps you figure out how to live your faith in the everyday
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Challenges with doing so
Division of world into secular and religious realms
Began with Kant - theres the world based on facts and empirical research, and
then theres the interior world of faith - things that cant be proven - and the two
have nothing to say to one another. Faith is a matter of the heart, personal,
private, and it should be kept safely in churches and homes
Our culture - bought into this big time - how many of you have rules and policies
at work prohibiting any kind of display or speech about religion?
Church has bought into this, in part
many more conservative churches go along with this - have a dualistic world view
- world is bad, fallen into sin, and if you are really sold out for Jesus you will
leave your secular job and go into full-time ministry
that if you are a musician, for instance, and a Christian, the only acceptable use of
that gift is to sing Christian music - and you would never even consider playing
secular music in a secular place like a bar or restaurant - because you only use
your gifts and vocation within the sacred sphere.
or, if you do work in a secular workplace, like a law firm or a bank, you stand
over against that in an adversarial relationship
see the thinking? real, more spiritual Christians get out of the workplace - so
really get no help on how to live out our faith, at work
This a real problem, for a number of reasons:
works is where you spend most of your waking hours - nearly all of them if you
are a mother or own your own business - so you divorce your faith, from where
you live most of your life.
And you isolate your faith, to your life in the church - the handful of hours a week
that you spend in the church or with other Christians.
Is this really what the Lord wants for us? I dont think so. Lets look at what Paul has to
say.
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1. Work is a good thing
Paul is talking to those who are choosing not to work - they are not unemployed - these
are people who can work but dont want and are sponging off others.
and his point here is that work is a good thing - whatever kind of work you do - is better
than being idle and doing nothing.
let me say to the retired people here - were not condemning retirement - plenty of retired
people are just as busy and maybe doing even more than people working full-time - Paul
is talking about the kind of person who is 27 and living in his parents basement and
refuses to work because every job is somehow beneath him
Now this is kind of counter-cultural. Work a good thing? Lots of people dont
experience it that way
Dennis Bakke used to be CEO of a corporation called AES and a few weeks into
his new job he visited one of the companys plants in Penn. and was told that
within two weeks of starting a job doing shift work - usually right out of high
school - that person will figure out the day they can retire and circle that date.
Dorothy Sayers once said that people are dying for lack of biblical vision of meaning of
work - modern doctrine of work is that work is that which you do for a living, make
money so you can do what you really want to do
2. Christianity gives us a vision for the purpose of work; first part of that vision is that
work is a way we fulfill part of the Great Commandment
remember it - love God...love neighbor as yourself - one big way we are to do that, is
through our work
the functional reason you should do a job is that it helps other people - find this in the text
- vs. 10 & 11 one sentence - vs. 9 & 10 about love, vs. 11 & 12 about work - seems like
two separate subjects but there is no sentence division in the Greek - so work is a way of
expressing love - gotta put these verses together - so working is a way you love.
sometimes that is pretty clear
John Maxwell story about the making of parachutes during the Second World
War. These parachutes were made by hand in a tedious, painstaking, repetitive,
boring process. The workers crouched over sewing machines and stitched for
eight hours every day. The endless line of fabric was the same color. Then they
folded, packed and stacked the parachutes. All...day...long.
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How did they stand it? Well, every morning before they began their work, they
gathered as a group. One of the managers reminded them that each parachute
would save someone's life. They were then asked to think, as they sewed and
packed, how they would feel if the parachute was strapped to the back of their
son, their father, their brother.
These laborers worked sacrificially, unerringly, uncomplainingly, because
someone connected what they were doing to a larger picture, to a larger mission
that involved the saving of lives.
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some jobs - its obvious that your work is a way to love others - like if you are a teacher
or a mother or a police officer or a farmer ...
sometimes less clear, have to think about it and re-think why youre doing what you do,
maybe change the reason you do, what you do.
David Petko - systems analyst, works for Ferguson - used to denigrate his work by
saying I help make potties - well, indoor plumbing is a pretty good invention I
think...
investment advisor - helping people increase wealth, hopefully so they can be
financially secure and do good with their resources
School custodian - not just health, but a shabby, unclean facility ruins morale and
makes children think they arent cared about
Artists and musicians - creating beauty, helping people enjoy beauty
What we are talking about is contributing to the common good - God is interested in the
flourishing of human beings and the creation of a good society.
and this is the first way you find godly satisfaction in your work - by discovering it as a
way to love other people, and to do it from that attitude of love
3. Second part of the vision for work is that its a way to use our gifts and talents for good
Paul recommending that the Thessalonian Christians lead a quiet life, mind own business
- sounds like withdrawal from the world, but its not - commentators say it means strive
for quiet, rest, sense of ease
Now, how does that connect with work? Quiet, rest, sense of ease we associate with time
off from work, away from work, lying on a beach, taking a cruise - how can we
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understand this as coming from our work?
Well, I think we can find quiet, rest, peace and joy by finding work that not only is a way
we love other people, but work that fits us - our passions, talents, interests - God calls us
to do work we are equipped to do - and that is what brings the sense of peace and
satisfaction Paul is talking about
Idea is that there is a huge spectrum of jobs - your uniqueness means that there are some
jobs that fit you in which you will flourish, and others where you will be frustrated and
cranky.
so we are encouraged to find work that BOTH is a way we can love others AND inspires
us - what gets a fire in your belly, and what can I do that I am passionate about that will
lead to more peace and joy and justice in the world?
Everyone is gifted for certain kinds of work - some jobs fit us really well:
Wine critic Robert Parker Jr - has no formal training in wine. ...
Not only does he taste 10,000 wines a year, but he stores the sensation of each one
into a permanent gustatory memory. Parker told an interviewer that he remembers
every wine he has tasted over the past 32 years and, within a few points, every
score he has given as well. That amounts to several hundred thousand relevant
memories, which apparently he can summon up at will. He said he has no idea
how he does this, except perhaps through intense concentration while tasting wine
He said, "A wine goes in my mouth, and I just see it. I see it in three dimensions.
The textures. The flavors. The smells. They just jump out at me. I can taste with a
hundred screaming kids in a room. When I put my nose in a glass, it's like tunnel
vision. I move into another world, where everything around me is just gone, and
every bit of mental energy is focused on that wine." Afterward he can't help it - he
just remembers.
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Thing is, you gotta figure out what it is
Resources - Marcus Buckingham, Now Discover Your Strengths; and Richard
Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute?
But even if wd are not in a job that fits us perfectly - we need to be looking for a way to
use your gifts in creative ways that can bless other people thru your work
Me - used to be a computer programmer, systems designer - my main ability is
that I communicate pretty well - even when working as a computer programmer I
would be the team member who would write reports and manuals and give oral
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presentations because I could express the complicated with clarity.
You - maybe you are organized - and you see a way to organize your company or
departments work to increase efficiency and profitability - see if you can get that
added to your job while hopefully something else gets taken away
If this not possible may indicate you should move on
amazing mobility we have compared to previous times. In the olden days, your
father was a shoemaker, youd probably be a shoemaker - and if you chose
another profession, like a printer, youd be apprenticed to an experienced printer
(like Benjamin Franklin was), learn the trade and almost always youd be a printer
until you died.
Today - we have incredible vocational mobility - through education - we can take
some courses and learn a new trade; we also have freedom to pick up and move,
to change jobs as we will
And complexity of our economy means there is an enormous range of jobs
available - for example:
Golf Ball Diver. The worse you golf, the more Jeffrey Bleim earns. He
pulls on a wet suit, 25 pounds of scuba gear and dives for gold in the form
of abandoned golf balls. On a typical day at Falcons Fire Golf Course in
Kissimmee, Florida, hell retrieve 5,000 golf balls. Theyre shipped off to
a refurbishing company, which pays Bleim about 10 cents apiece.
Here are some others:
Odor sniffers - working for International Flavors & Fragrances
Worm ranchers - really!
Even porta-potty technicians.
If you havent found a job that fits you - keep looking - theres bound to be something
you can do that fits who God created you to be.
4. Work with your hands...
This was counter-cultural in Pauls time - the Greco-Roman world believed that work
was degrading, and manual labor was especially degrading - culture said that if you got
into the world of mind and the arts, that was where it was at.
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Working with your hands is counter-cultural today too - weve had this push in our
culture for a long time that the best thing to do is go to college and get an academic
degree, and weve devalued vocational training, learning a trade, working with your
hands. Result is a shortage of trades people - great opportunities now - a young man in
my last church took a years worth of welding classes, became a welder and is making
over $100,000 a year.
Paul is saying that just because you live in a culture that says manual labor is degrading,
Im telling you different - ANY work done according to the above principles is blessed
and good
ties back to creation and incarnation - God with his hands in the dirt - even becomes
physical, and in resurrection of Christ God redeems the physical
so we believe all work has dignity and value - Jesus was a carpenter - or builder - had
calluses, knew what a hard days work was like - that feeling of tiredness and satisfaction
at the end of a productive day.
so sweeping streets - bringing order out of chaos akin to creation in Genesis - God loves
the material world and we are making it more liveable -
so in our work we imitate the God who made the world - and work with him in
redemption of the world
Closing
But maybe we wonder what good weve done - looking back over a work career. Maybe
we wonder what good we can actually do, looking ahead at decades of work before us.
If we are faithful in following Christ through our work, we will touch more lives and do
more good than we will be able to see in this life. But one day, there may be a big
surprise waiting for us
Its like the true story of James Carter. In 1959, James Carter was a convict in a
Mississippi prison. While working on the prison's road crew, Carter taught his fellow
convicts a mournful song called "Po' Lazarus." A visitor happened to record the men
singing. The recording ended up in an archive file. Forty years later, the producers of the
movie O Brother, Where Art Thou came across the recording and used "Po' Lazarus" as
the opening song on their soundtrack. The soundtrack was a surprise hit, selling millions
of copies. Imagine James Carter's surprise when, 41 years after his stint in prison, two
men from a record company showed up at his door with a $20,000 royalty check for a
song he didn't even remember. Since then, this obscure song from the prison road crew
has earned Carter thousands of dollars.
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1. John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You . (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), p.
28.
2. William Langewiesche, "The Million-Dollar Nose, in The Atlantic Monthly, December 2000,
pp. 42, 50.
One day you and I are going to stand before the Almighty and look back over our lives.
And every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year will be
reviewed. Not to make us cringe and hide with embarrassment - but so we can see what
good we did with the lives God gave us. And one big way we do that is through our daily
work. If we prayerfully, steadily, doggedly seek to serve Christ through our work, one
day well see the good we did, the difference we made, the lives we touched. And well
hear Gods verdict on our lives - Well done, my good and faithful servant. Amen.
Endnotes
The exegesis of 1 Thessalonians used in this sermon draws on the work of Dr. Timothy Keller of
Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
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