Following Jesus Away From Church
11.12.06
“What if church members were blessed
for what they are doing in the world
instead of chastened for not doing more at church?”
“What if the church’s job were to move people out the door
instead of trying to keep them in,
by convincing them that God needed them more
in the world than in the church?”
if you are going to follow Jesus
you must follow him away from church
Jesus has a great deal for us to do in the world
God needs you more in the world than he needs you here.
Church services are good: for teaching and communion.
But most of the time God wants us out there.
Martin Luther
“The entire world should be full of service to God,
not only, the churches but also the home, the kitchen,
the cellar, the workshop, the field” and I might add
the office, the garage, the classroom, the hospital, etc.
Richard Sibbes
“We would not thrust religion into a corner,
into a narrow room, and limit it to some days,
and times, and actions, and places…
To serve God is to carry ourselves as the children of God
wherever we are: so that our whole life is a service to God.”
This morning
I want to move you out the door,
teach you how to serve God out there.
teach you how to serve God in your work.
in your daily life
six days a week
when you are not at church
Two important preliminary points:
1 We can serve God in our work
not just religious activity
like going to church, helping at church, prayer,
reading the Bible and helping the needy
2 Work means more than job
work does not mean only that for which you are paid
A mother has work.
Work means the work you do:
paid or unpaid
The question we are trying to answer from Scripture:
How do we serve God in our work?
A repeated theme throughout the New Testament
is the command to do good.
Titus 3:14
“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good,
in order that they may provide for daily necessities
and not live unproductive lives.”
doing good is not only churchy activities,
teaching Sunday School
or giving to missions
Our work is doing good to others
when we serve other people
through our work.
1 You serve God through work
by serving others
Colossians 3:22-24
Paul is speaking to bondservants.
Bondservants worked in service
to a master and the people in his household.
In the same way our work should be a service to people.
Our work for others
is real service to Christ.
When we work in this way
God smiles on our work. He is pleased.
In this congregation we have:
mothers, fathers, plumbers, engineers, painters, teachers,
artists, counselors, managers, carpenters, security guards,
caterers, secretaries, computer administrators, etc.
We have one woman who works at caring for her husband.
We have one man who works at caring for his wife.
William Perkins
“Choose not the calling in which you may be most rich and honorable
in the world; but that in which you may do most good.
The main end of our lives is to serve God in the serving of men
in the works of our calling… by this we learn how men of humble place
and calling may comfort themselves.
Let them consider that in the service of men, they serve God.”
Paul challenges us: how do we do our work?
We should not work only when people are looking,
but when no one is looking.
We should work with all our hearts
because we are serving Christ when we work.
Some of you need to be challenged here.
Some of you don’t like your work
and don’t think your work is important,
so you do it half-heartedly.
Some of you loaf at work.
Some of you do the least amount you can do just to get a paycheck.
Do your work with all your heart.
It is the Lord Jesus you serve.
Another challenge:
Do not focus primarily on earthly reward:
money, raise, promotion, success
make it your goal to do good work and serve others
and look to heavenly reward
Another challenge:
It is possible some of you have a job
that does not really serve other people.
It will be difficult to put your heart into such work.
Ask the Lord if you should look for another kind of work.
Another challenge:
Are you treating people with honesty and justice?
Is the nature of your work and the environment
in which you work such that you must
lie, cheat, rob and treat people with injustice?
You will not be excused for this because it is company policy,
you were just following orders, or everyone else does it.
Leave such work and find other work.
The Lord will provide.
2 You serve God through work
by working in a manner
that wins the respect of outsiders
and brings glory to Christ
1 Thess 4:11-12
3 You serve God through work
by providing for your self
and for your own family
and not being dependent on others.
2 Thess 3:10-12
(1 Timothy 5:8 one who does not provide for his family
is worse than an unbeliever)
There are qualifications to the rule
“if a man will not work he shall not eat”
those who are too sick, physically weak to work
those who have lost work and are earnestly trying to find work
4 You serve God through work
by making money
to share with those in need
Ephesians 4:28
For students who are working now
to prepare for future work
(not future jobs)
your vocation may not have an income
and for some of you stuck in between
looking for work
for those of you in retirement
who should work still even if it is not for pay
for women whose children have grown
and are looking around for work to invest themselves in
I offer these questions
to ask yourself
from Cornelius Plantinga
Where are the needs great?
Where are the workers few?
Where are the temptations manageable?
How honest is the work I’m thinking of doing?
How necessary or how healthy are the goods or services
I would help provide?
How smoothly could I combine my proposed career
with being a spouse, if that’s also my calling, or a parent,
or a faithful child of aging parents?
How close would I be to a church in which I could give
and take nourishment?
Is my proposed career inside a system so corrupt that,
even with best intentions,
I would end up absorbing a lot more evil than I conquer?
If you turn go north on Dodds Avenue
turn left onto Mccallie
on your right (right after the Hope office)
is a very small house you will probably miss
It is a doctor’s office: cramped and rundown
inside is a small waiting room
and a row of very tiny little closet-like rooms
with curtains you pull
This is the office of Dr. Eleanor Stafford and Dr. Minnie Vance
They practice together for over 50 years
Dr. Stafford just died a few years ago
They are pediatricians
The have cared for sick children there
Many of these children from poor and struggling families
For 50 years Stafford and Vance
did not try to get rich
did not try to get glory
they simply humbly served people
They took care of children
When I walk into that office
I feel like I am in a holy place
so much work has taken place there
work for others, work for God
it is a much holier building
than most churches
Serve the Lord Jesus
in your work
