Read Psalm 127
Why do we work? This is not some rhetorical question used because Tom couldn’t find any other way to begin the message.
Why do we work? There’s a whole bunch of people in this country asking the same thing? Why do we need to work? Let’s just make everything free and we don’t’ have to work.
And then we read these words in this psalm:
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
Two words that we don’t want to think about in any of our endeavors are in vain. Without success, to no avail, fruitless, without purpose top the list of meanings for this short preposition.
The psalm says that you get up early to go to work. You stay late just to get basics—just for your food, and it amounts to nothing of value. It all seems to be for nothing.
Imagine being a supervisor and starting the morning meeting with “OK folks, let’s get ready for another long day that doesn’t really amount to much.”
We have been exploring the subject of rest and spent some time on the topic of the Sabbath and resting from our labors, but now let’s look at those labors. Why do we work?
I read this excerpt from the psalm and think that the big bears have the right idea. Let’s just go into a torpor or even hibernation. Why work?
Why work? Let’s start with God put man in the garden to work and take care of the garden. So, considering that everything that God does or makes is good, work must be good. Every good gift is from above, so work must be a good gift from God.
We are designed to work, not all of the time, but much of our time is to be given to work. So, why do we work?
Is it out of obedience to God? I guess that it could be, but if that was the case you could just pick up trash along the highways and byways of this land and be obedient. It won’t put food on the table, but it’s work.
Paul wrote that if you don’t’ work, then you don’t eat. That’s pretty straight forward. So, we work in order to eat? That’s pretty basic and brings us back to the psalm. You work in vain early to late just to eat.
We are working to eat. Nothing says crown of God’s creation like working to eat. Is there not more to life than eating and drinking?
Paul wrote that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. It’s about being right with God and joy and peace and just living with God’s Spirit running the show.
So, there must be more to work than just getting our basic needs supplied. There is existence and there is life. We know life by living in the Kingdom of God. Life comes by following Jesus. Life involves work.
So why do we work?
Let’s look to God’s wisdom for a moment. Let’s go to the proverbs.
A hard-working farmer has plenty to eat, but it is stupid to waste time on useless projects. That’s from the Good News Translation of Proverbs 12:11. It’s still meeting basic needs but with counsel against wasting our time on things that don’t matter.
Proverbs 12:24 says: Hard work will give you power; being lazy will make you a slave. In this case work has to do with worldly relationships. If you don’t work for yourself and your family you will belong to someone else.
We know this from another proverb as well. It follows that one about bringing up a child in the way he should go. What does it say?
The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Ouch! I use this proverb frequently whenever I discuss budgets and the godly use of money, but it comes back to work.
Let’s continue in the Proverbs. No matter how much a lazy person may want something, he will never get it. A hard worker will get everything he wants. That’s 13:4 if you are keeping score.
It seems that work gets you more than just food. The worker—the hard worker—gets what he desires. Think on that one for a while. It’s wisdom for sure but what if that became the central theme in our lives. What if it pushed God aside or at least bumped him down a few notches?
We need to understand our counsel within the full biblical witness.
Here is a really cool proverb. Work and you will earn a living; if you sit around talking you will be poor. It’s 14:23 and describes about one-third of my encounters with people who need help.
So many people can’t pay their bills, can’t find a job, and have more time on their hands than they know what to do with. There should be an oxymoron or two somewhere in that statement.
I have seen a wide range of reactions—from tears to anger so pronounced that veins were about ready to pop out of the person’s neck--when I ask someone who is out of work these questions.
How many hours a week do you want to work?
The most popular answer is, “I dunno.”
So, I respond, “How about 40? That’s something of a traditional work week.”
Usually, the reply is, “Yeah, OK, that sounds good. Unless I can get some overtime.”
So, I respond, “How much overtime?”
The answer is predictable, “I dunno.”
So, I continue with the three questions for one answer game. “How about 20 hours overtime?”
“Yeah, OK, that sounds good. Unless I can get more.”
“How much more.”
Don’t laugh. “I dunno.”
“Let’s just say another 10 hours. That makes a total of 40 hours regular time and 30 hours overtime. That’s 70 hours a week. Can you handle that?”
“Yes.”
The affirmative answer should not convey any degree of confidence or commitment. Usually by this point, people are just getting upset that I haven’t thrown in the towel and opened the vault of money piled high for people who are out of work and have become exhausted by trying to figure out how much they might be willing to work in a week.
It is at this point where people really don’t like me. I say, “You need to spend 70 hours a week looking for a job. Not sitting at home wishing someone would call you with a top-level executive job, getting off your butt, hitting the pavement, and finding a job.”
The most common response: “Well, I don’t have time.”
The dichotomy of not having the time to find a job for which one hopes to work at enough be paid overtime seldom registers with those who find their way to my office.
When I say that finding a job is your job until you are hired, you might think that I had said terrible things about the family lineage.
There is real value in work. There is real value in having a job. There is real value in having a work ethic so that laziness and lethargy have no home.
But is it really about the work? Why do we work? Here’s another proverb.
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
You even got this one—Proverbs 16:3—in the King James Version. It’s about wanting God’s blessing upon our work. Let’s jump to the New Testament, specifically Colossians 3:23-24.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
So are we working to eat? Sure.
Are we working because we were made to? Sure.
Are we working so we won’t be enslaved to creditors? Sure.
But most of all we are working for the Lord. Regardless of our job or profession or vocation, we are called to work for the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, should we prosper in our work? Is wealth a sin? Can I have more than I need to meet my basic needs?
God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, told his Chosen People that he had plans to prosper them. What does prosper mean?
· Succeed, mostly in material terms but also in health and fitness.
· Flourish
· Thrive
· Achieve financial success
· Blossom
· Progress
The list goes on. Prosper goes well beyond meeting basic needs. So many preachers rant against prosperity these days. Some make it central. So what is it?
Consider yet another proverb. It’s 13:22 if you want to check it later.
A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,
but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.
Think about what that says in the witness of everything we know from God’s word. The first part of the inheritance that we should leave our children and their children is the gospel. Nothing else in the world will be of much value without Christ Jesus.
We understand the words of our Lord. What good is it to gain the whole world, yet lose our soul?
But we should have something for our children and their children. That means that not only do we meet our needs, but we leave something for our descendants.
It seems that we work for God and are blessed to leave something of our labors for our surviving family members.
But we who are right with God are also blessed to be a blessing. The fruit of our labor should bless God, our families, and still be enough to bless those who have less.
So why do we work?
God made us to work. We work to eat. We work to bless God. We work to bless our families. We work to bless others. But…
Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
Unless we are working where God has sent us, it’s just for eating enough to work the next day.
So, if we work to get rich, God is not in it. We get the money and that’s it.
If we are working for God and are blessed with riches, that’s another story.
So, why do we work?
If it is for our own gratification, to get the stuff that our hearts and minds crave, to acquire the best things in the kingdom of the world; that’s all that you will get. That stuff wears out. That stuff does not survive the grave. You can’t take it with you.
You can leave it for you family, but will it be a blessing to them. The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. You can’t trick God when it comes to work and wealth.
But if you are working for God in everything you do, you have treasure in heaven. If you also have treasure on earth, we know to put it to work.
Meet your needs.
Bless your family.
Bless those who have less.
But all of these things without God’s blessing are efforts without purpose. The tangible things that we manifest in the world out of selfish motives don’t produce treasure in heaven.
When we seek first God and his kingdom and his righteousness, then we have more than enough in this world and treasure in the age to come.
Why do we work? God has not only made us to work but given purpose to our work. Everything that we do is for the glory of God, or it has no purpose.
God sent us into the world to subdue it. That is to take what he gave us charge over—stewardship is the good church word—and make something good of it. We work with our hands, our minds, and our hearts to put a smile on God’s face by our labors. We bring all that is entrusted to us and make it work for us so as to please God.
We work not just because God made us to work, not just to put a roof over our heads and food on the tables, not just to leave something for our kids and grandkids, not just to bless those who have less, but because God told us to do purposeful things.
Which brings us back to rest. I have said and written many times: There is no Sabbath to take in a life without purpose.
We are to work at purposeful things and then rest from them. Things that do not align with God’s good will for us cheat us out of purposeful production and rest.
It’s not enough just to grind away each week for a paycheck when your heart knows there is little purpose to what you do. So, do you quit your job?
Not until you find one that aligns with God’s purpose or you can bring God’s purpose into your current state of employment. Change jobs or change the job that you have into something that serves the Lord.
Because if you are not working at purposeful things, you will feel guilty in your rest. “I didn’t do anything of value all week, and now I am resting from it. What gives?”
It’s an unbalanced equation.
Your purposeful work will provide for your needs, give you status in this world, store up treasure in heaven, take care of your family to include your descendants, bless those whom the Lord has led you to bless, and make you better prepared to rest.
There is no Sabbath to take in a life without purpose.
Find employment that aligns with God’s purpose or bring God’s purpose to your employment. Either way, your ability to work and rest hangs in the balance.
The Lord is neither constrained nor restrained to either bless you now or in the age to come. Seeking his kingdom and his righteousness in everything that we do blesses us now and in the age to come.
Who here wants to do anything in vain?
The Lord gives rest to those he loves. How do we enjoy this rest? By working at purposeful things then taking a Sabbath rest.
There is no Sabbath to take in a life without purpose.
You need rest. Working for God makes you ready to receive the rest that he has in store for you. Work at what you do as working for the Lord, not for men or riches or because you love the things of the world.
Work for the Lord’s good purposes and you will be ready for his wonderful rest.
If you can’t, ask yourself if your work is aligned with God’s purposes or is it solely of the world. God made you to work at purposeful things and take rest. The world doesn’t care if you rest or not.
Work for the Lord’s good purposes and you will be ready for his wonderful rest.
Amen.
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