Monday: Working for Jesus 4

"If a man WILL NOT work, he shall not eat."

Good Monday morning, my dear brothers and sisters. What a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. 5 months 5 days till Christmas. Thought you might want to know that...

Monday is the day we pray for our leaders, those who have power over us. Also the day we pray for our military, our veterans, our police, firefighters, and all others who work so hard to keep us safe. When you pray for our military today, please pray for Brittany Lehman and Daniel Lehman, yes our grandchildren, brother and sister, who have both enlisted in the United States Navy and will be leaving in the very near future. Prayers also today for the Saylor family and for Don Saylor who is having surgery tomorrow. Pastor Carol has requested prayers for her brother Bud, she tells it is a very serious and personal health issue. Also please pray for our son Matthew.

Working for Jesus 4: 2 Thessalonians 3: 10 - For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man WILL NOT work, he shall not eat." (NIV)

As I move forward on this series of Working for Jesus, I want to review a few points ...
1. You cannot work your way into heaven, it is a gift from God.
2. You must have faith and believe in Jesus.
3. You cannot have faith if you do not have deeds or works.

In other words, we must have the faith in Jesus, but we also must be working for Him, which He has commanded us to do. See Mark 16: 15. But we cannot labor under false pretenses, the labor must be a labor of love for Jesus, and we must have Jesus in our hearts.

Working for Jesus 4. Recently we had some work done in our house. I over heard one of the workers telling the other they were taking too much time in framing out something that will be covered up, no one would see it. Besides that the work was shelving, just going to have food for a food pantry sitting on it. Did it make a difference? Years ago, when I was just a little tike, I painted with my dad and late brother Leonard who was 4 years older than me. I was afraid of the high places so I would of course get stuck painting the banisters. I was impressed how my dad and brother would stretch out those long ladders, 40 footers, to reach high in the air, and that is low in some standards. My dad would teach me that I needed to be proud of working on those banisters, which I learned to hate. 25 cents per hour was nice money back then so I did it. I guess I was about 10 or 11. My dad painted houses in the summer and on nice weekends to support his teaching job. Daddy had this other saying, after telling me how I needed to do a really good job on the banisters, he said when we go up high, we do a really good first coat, we make sure we get to each and every spot and do it right, for on the second coat, if we don't reach the spot, it would be ok, for "high work was not eye work."

Dolores and I built our home about 23 years ago, and used a "stick builder", one who built from scratch, but also the one who had the very best price. It is a good house for the dollar, but every time something does go wrong and we need to "open things up", we find the hidden bad work. One time the roof fell in and water was running in during a snow storm. The house was not very old at that time and we called the contractor. After all the roof had a 25 year warranty and should still be covered. The contractor said there was nothing wrong. I said the water is running in. Not his fault, not covered by warranty ... I asked, is not a roof on a house to keep the water out? He said it was because of an ice buildup along the edge, the man knew I did not climb. When he was done, I told him he lied to me, for this time I did climb, I held on tight and went to the edge of the roof and looked it over, it had fallen in and there was a belly on this part of the roof. So he left and I called in a roofer who opened up the roof, and found that there were no braces from the upper part of the roof to the lower part, it needed to be cross studded, and the rafters just sort of bent over. You see here again is an example of people covering up work they think people cannot see.

Folks, this happens a lot here in America, not just in the building trades, but in cars on assembly lines, private contractors, etc.. With all that said folks, there is One who sees all the work we do, and in the end He will judge us, and our work will also be judged. FOLKS, ANY JOB WORTH DOING, IS WORTH DOING RIGHT. Contractors and others might think they are doing right because it passes the codes, however, does it pass muster with God? Folks, God knows! Any job you do, in the short term or long, you should look at like, God is going to check out my work, because, He is going to do it.

And folks, again I want to point out to you, that "if a man will not work, he shall not eat." This again is from the Bible, you see God does not want us to be lazy. Now someone is going to say they just cannot work, and I am going to tell you that there are very, very few people who cannot work and those people who can work need to be taken care of. Folks, working does not mean you need to go out and dig a ditch, or be president of a bank, in fact right now many people are laid off from their jobs and drawing unemployment. Does that mean they cannot work, or does it mean they will not work? A suggestion, if you are looking for work, in the meantime do some free service type work. Maybe even back where you were working, if they use volunteers, again most all of us can do something. I watch the folks in our flock, and yes, I am going to preach on this one day. How do I tell seniors in a retirement home who are 70, 80, 90 and one at 102 that they should be working? Let me tell you that the activities people get them involved. They help set up the activities, each doing what they can, some push wheelchairs, we have four or five seniors each week putting out and picking up song books. When church is over, some push others to lunch, saving the staff. During the week you will find them greeting people at the entrance, some of the seniors call bingo, and it goes on and on. Also, our attendance is going up and we know we have turnover in retirement homes. People move out, go to full nursing homes, or go to Jesus (I pray). So the residents who attend service are bringing in the new folks, the new members of the family. They are still working for the Lord. One dear sweet lady helps set up the dining room, and she does it daily. I have seen them getting the green beans ready, they have a garden and the food is picked by those doing the back yard farming, and it is used right there at the Bridges. Do you see where I am coming from? If a person can sit at a computer, they can work and do something, does not mean they might be able to hold a full job, but they can work for the Lord. Again, there are a few who might not be able to wor and we need to help them. Sometimes people will come to our food pantry, and yes, you do think, why are these healthy people not working, but we do help them and God will sort it all out in the end ... REMEMBER THAT, GOD IS GOING TO SORT ALL OF IT OUT IN THE END ...

Dear Father in Heaven, Working is harder for some than others, yet we all need to be working for You. Your word tells us that if we do not work we shall not eat, so help us all to be able to do something. Lord, I pray today for our president and all of our leaders, I pray our president's soul first and then that he brings all things to You. Lord please be with our veterans, with our military and all of their families. Be with Daniel and Brittany as they head to the Navy. Be with Don as he heads to surgery. Be with all those health workers who work with talent on loan from You. Lord, please keep blessing this line. And Lord, be with our son Matthew and with Pastor Carol's brother Bud. Lord, Lord, Lord, help us all. Lord, for that one on line who needs the job, please open the door, in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Want to work for Jesus? Try sharing your blessings ... love ya, dan.