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I Want to Be a Worker

From the shade with a cold drink in one hand and a fan in the other, many who were once workers for the Lord now watch the dwindling few still sweating in the harvest field.  We come up with a variety of excuses as to why we’re on our extended break: we’re too … old, tired, busy, or sore!  Or, the work is too difficult or dangerous … people just aren’t receptive enough anymore to the gospel … or the world doesn’t allow us to reach out like we did years ago.

I. Luke 10:1.  To be  a worker for the Lord, you must want to love and trust His holy Word, just as the song says:

I want to be a worker for the Lord; I want to love and trust His holy word; I want to sing and pray, and be busy ev’ry day, In the vineyard of the Lord.

Just before Jesus sends out 72 disciples ahead of Him, He tells several that following Him requires diligent and often difficult hard work (Luke 9:57-62).  The well-known servant to the poor, Mother Teresa, died at 87 still working with her last strength.  can we argue that love and trust for Jesus’ Word isn’t connected to faithful action (James 1:22) when His Word tells us that if we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14:15)?  Are we not told to serve one another through love (Galatians 5:13)?  And to love and forgive one another as Jesus did (John 15:13; Colossians 3:13)?

II. Luke 10:2-3a.  To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to lead the erring in the way, again as the song says:

I want to be a worker every day; I want to lead the erring in the way That leads to heav’n above, where all is peace and love, In the kingdom of the Lord.

Because we’ve used Luke 10:2 to promote the need for evangelism but disconnected it from our personal responsibility, we pray often that God will send workers to His harvest field.  If He hasn’t and the attendance in our assemblies shrinks, we shrug because God is in charge of the increase after all (1 Corinthians 3:6).  Peering into the brightness at the shady edge of the harvest field, we lament how few are laboring in the hot sun to fill the Master’s barn with sheaves.  Yet, just as the 72 were sent, so are we (Matthew 28:18-20) and also to our erring, fellow workers (Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15-17).

III. Luke 10:3.  To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to trust in Jesus’ power to save, as the song tells us:

I want to be a worker strong and brave; I want to trust in Jesus’ pow’r to save; All who will truly come shall find a happy home, In the kingdom of the Lord.

He sent them out like lambs among wolves!  Why would Jesus do that? It’s because we partaking in our own adventure is that important to Him.  God is wild at heart and wants those made in His image to step out of our comfort zones to do the work He’s prepared for us.  Out of fear we make excuses and justify why we can’t do that work, placing our limitations on the God for whom nothing is impossible.  But, obedience is required from faith (Romans 1:4-5; James 2:14-17), and God, who promises to be with us, lets us wield His divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Wanting to be a worker for the Lord begins with obedience to the gospel.  You’ve got to don our work clothes (Galatians 3:26-27) and then head out into the field.  If the song has changed for you, a longtime resident of the shade, to “I want to sit in pews for the Lord …” then perhaps it’s time to step out onto the soil and become a worker once more.  Do you want to be a worker for the Lord?

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You Troubler of Israel

Are those striving to live for God the problem in today’s world or those who have left His standard for their own?  The wicked king Ahab tried to label the prophet Elijah a “troubler” but was quickly told that it was his evil that was troubling the nation.  Who’s the real troubler in our humanistic culture today?

I. 1 Kings 18:17-19.  In his 1989 hit, Billy Joel famously sang, “We didn’t start the fire.”  This is where Ahab and the leaders and influencers in our humanistic culture believe they can call those who live by the Lord’s commandments “troublers.”  After all, Ahab didn’t introduce the worship of foreign gods; that was Solomon and Jeroboam before him.  He was just a product of the culture he inherited (1 Kings 16:30-33).  In the same way, humanists believe that Christians stand opposed to their commandments to live within the fire we’ve all inherited.

II. 1 John 1:5-10.  Billy Joel’s song continues, “No, we didn’t light it, but we’re trying to fight it.”  Ahab and today’s humanists excuse their actions because their intentions are good, but they do not step into the light to let their deeds be known for their darkness (John 3:19-21).  Thus, they judge evil as good and good as evil (Isaiah 5:18-23).  No excuses will do (Luke 14:18-24), and they truly believe that they render a service to the gods of their making (John 16:1-3) while they persecute God’s people.  We can know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20).

III.  Romans 1:18-32.  Judgment is coming for our humanistic culture whether they acknowledge it or not (Matthew 7:13-14).  As those who profess to follow God, we must be careful not to get caught up in it and live a compromised, lukewarm faith like Ahab believed about himself in his time.  The “tolerant” who follow the false religion of Humanism today believe that only man can be man’s savior and so government is god, and so they are intolerant of any who deviate from their politics and edicts, labeling them like Elijah was–troublers!

Are you a proud “troubler” according to the culture?  Or does the world not even know that you once professed to oppose them when you obeyed the gospel?  Have you compromised with the culture and think yourself better than those around you by degree of worldliness?  What would you have to change to no longer live by the excuses you make and be called a “troubler” by the world?

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Evading Duties

The first stanza is based on M.B. Steinmetz

Give me courage to squarely face my life —
Evading duties cannot bring me peace,
Nor can encircling self with indulgent vices.
If I am blind to fear, restore my sight,
To prepare for a worthy passage with you, O God.

Let no excuse impair my soul’s condition,
Always discontent with my present state;
To pull at the hidden roots of a bitter spirit,
That Christ might larger loom in spiritual sight,
The lens to see the world and eternity.

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But He Could Not

A man went to his neighbor to borrow a shovel but was told that he couldn’t because the neighbor had to take his wife to the doctor next Tuesday.  “What’s that got to do with me borrowing your shovel?” the man asked.  “When you don’t want to do something,” the neighbor answered, “any excuse will do.”

We make excuses to not trust and obey God all the time: no one’s interested in the gospel!  I’m too busy to read my Bible!  I’m too exhausted to go to church this morning!  We placate ourselves with these, but does God accept any of our excuses?

I.  Judges 1:1-18.  God’s people had just lost a great leader in Joshua, but God had promised to be with them in conquering the land if they would just trust and obey.  As long as everything was going well, they did not struggle to do what God asked of them.

II.  Judges 1:19-36.  It did not take long, however, for their faith to meet resistance.  As soon as the going got tough, those who thought themselves tough could not or did not do what God asked of them.  They began to make excuses instead and just accept that that was how things were.

III.  Luke 14:16-24.  Oh, how that sounds like God’s people today!  God has given us the same promise today that He will be with us (Matthew 28:18-20).  He has even said He will give us the same power (Romans 8:31-32) today that He gave His people all those centuries ago.  God was not pleased that they did not trust and obey Him (Judges 2:1-5).

Will we trust and obey (1 John 2:3-6) or make excuses?

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We have no excuse

We have no excuse, O Lord who knows our hearts. You have revealed yourself to us in Jesus Christ and made that revelation available in Scripture. You have provided the way back to yourself. You freely give your Spirit to enable us in our faith.  We can pray to you at any time for our needs. You have left nothing to chance, with every purpose fulfilled, and every plan brought to fruition. Continue reading “We have no excuse”