Nehemiah 3:8, 31-32

“Who Are You Working For?”

Today, we bring to an end of our series where we have been looking at the Book of Nehemiah. We could probably spend all year in the Book of Nehemiah … there is so much in here that I think speaks to our circumstances today. But you’d probably get bored with that. And besides, Nehemiah is hard preaching. Someone said to me the other day, you sure have been meddling and stepping on our toes a lot in this series. Well, I hope you realize that when you feel that I am pointing the finger at you, I recognize that there are always three fingers pointed back at me.

But hopefully, we have learned some things in this study about how God calls each of us and how God seeks to fulfill his purpose in this world. We have learned that the Book of Nehemiah is about rebuilding. It’s about how God seeks to rebuild and restore his movement upon this earth and how God seeks to rebuild and restore broken people and broken lives.

And what we’ve come to understand, is that when God wants to move his movement in this world forward, He always does this through people … people whose hearts break for the things that break the heart of God and people who are “servant leaders” as opposed to “volunteers”. You remember that we have defined servant leaders as those who submit their will to God, as opposed to volunteers who assert their will to God at their convenience.

And God speaks to servant leaders through their “passion”. This is why it is so important that we learn to identify and articulate our passion. Where do you see the greatest need in this world? What burden or passion has God placed upon your heart? Where do you see the broken place in the wall that needs rebuilding?

The last couple of weeks we talked about how successful servant leaders are able to translate their passion into strategic actions and how their strategic actions keep servant leaders moving forward through whatever challenges or obstacles they may face in pursuing God’s call.

This week, we are turning to the 3^rd chapter. And if you look at chapter 3, you will notice that it is a listing of the different people who are working on the various places of the city’s wall. And the reason I want to look at this chapter today, is because it is a clear picture of who God uses to move his movement forward in this world.

And one of the things that I want you to notice in this chapter is a phrase that is repeated again and again and again. At the beginning of each verse is the phrase, “Next to him” or “after him.” “Next to him, so and so built” and “after him, so and so built.” In the Hebrew, “next to” literally means “hand on hand.” How would we say that today? We work “hand in hand.” And what I hope that we are beginning to see in this series, is that it takes every person who knows God working “hand-in-hand” to move God’s purposes forward in this world. If we are going to rebuild the wall and move God’s purpose forward in this church and in the world, it is going to take every one of us who love the Lord to work “hand-in-hand”.

And then, notice what it says in verse 8. Verse 8 is a good example of what we read in the other verses here in chapter 3. Listen to what it says: “Next to them Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs; and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.”

Now, what I want to focus on this morning is how God uses people in their day jobs. How can God use your vocation and your day job for the purpose of rebuilding the wall of his Kingdom? What I hope to do today, is to help us catch a vision for how God can use us in terms of our vocation in life, whatever that may be. For those of us who have a day job, I hope that you can leave here today with a renewed vision for how God can use you in that setting to further his purpose in this world. For those of us who are retired and don’t have a regular job, regardless of our status in life, there is a place on the wall for us to be at work. That place may be in your family or without the constrains of a family and a job, the world is wide open to where you can make a difference.

How can God use your vocation and your day job for the purpose of rebuilding the wall of his Kingdom? Today, we’re going to look at this by asking 3 questions. First, “What is work?” Second, “Why work?” And the third question is, “Who are you working for?”

Let’s begin by asking that first question: What is an occupation and what is a job? Now, let’s not allow the world to define this for us, but rather let God’s Word define this for us. And from a Biblical perspective, “a job” is “a calling”. How many of you have heard that word “calling” before? Usually we equate that word with a limited number of people, don’t we? Some would think of school teachers, but most think of clergy as having a call, right? So, a clergy person has “a calling” and the rest of you all just have “a job”.

But again, don’t let the world define this, but rather the Word of God. Listen to what it says in the Book of Exodus 35:35: “The Lord has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers--all of them master craftsmen and designers. So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded.” - Exodus 35:35, 36:1

You see, it is no accident that you have your day job or vocation. God has given each of us this diversity of gifs and passions, and careers and professions, so that we can use those things to help bring about God’s purpose in this world. Your day jobs are needed for the welfare of this city and to meet the needs of God’s people in this world.

What has happened is that we have become confused about this since the Middle Ages, during the time of the Enlightenment. In the Middle Ages, some philosophers came up with this division where they divided work into “secular work” and “sacred work”. Up until this time, all work was understood as being God’s work. Everybody knew that they were working for God’s purpose.

All sciences were God’s sciences. Biology, Geology and Zoology … “logy” comes from the word “logos”, which is the word for Jesus. John’s Gospel says, “The Logos came into the world and all things came into being through the Logos, and all things are held together through the Logos.” So, what is biology? It is the study of life that is given and held together by the Logos. What is zoology? It is the study of animal life that was given by the Logos. What is geology? It is the study of the earth, which was given and held together by the Logos.

But what happened is that some philosophers … René Descartes and Francis Bacon in particularly, divided life between God’s part, which is sacred and human life, which is secular. So, some people have God’s work and that is called “sacred work.” And other people have “secular work”, which is just ordinary work. So now there became two categories of people in the church. There are the clergy who have “sacred work” and everybody else had the drudgery of an everyday “secular job”. This distinction didn’t exist until the late 1400’s and early 1500’s. But you know, Jesus wasn’t a priest. Jesus was a carpenter, right? And isn’t it interesting that God chose the vocation of a carpenter for his rebuilding purpose in this world.

Now what this kind of thinking has done, is that it has caused us to compartmentalize our lives into all these little boxes. So, we have our “day job box” over here that is separate from everything else. You know, “I have to go to work.” And then, we have our “family box” over here. And then, we have our “community service box” and our “spiritual box” over here. And everything is separate. But people, don’t you see that your day job, your family, your community service, and your spiritual life … all of this is God’s work. So, when we ask the question, “What is work?” as Christians we understand that all of our work is God’s work. Your life’s work is more than just your job, it is God’s work.

The second question is “Why do we work?” Now, if we’re going to understand how our day job is part of God’s rebuilding purpose in this world, the idea is not to try to find how you can spend more time here in the church. That’s an inward, institutional approach to doing church. The idea is, how do we take the faith we confess and celebrate here in the church and take it out into the world where we work. You see, God’s work is not just what we do here in the church. This is where we come to worship … to thank God … and to gain clarity about what we do in our day jobs and lives outside the church.

So, answering this question, “Why we work?” is critical. It is the question asked in Ecclesiastes 1:3 “What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?”

And when we seek to answer this question, “Why do we work?” we need to understand that it is about more than “money”. Work is the highest expression of our love for God, because it is the means through which we serve people. Work is really an expression of our worship.

I mean, how many hours a week do we spend here at the church? If we go to Sunday School and worship … maybe two hours a week. Where do we spend most of our time? It’s at our jobs, right? Those who are retired often tell me that they work more after retirement than they did when they had a job, they just don’t get paid for it. So, where we spend most of our time demonstrating our love for God is in our job setting, where we serve other people by committing our energies to the welfare of God’s community.

Last week, I was traveling in my car to the Conference Center for a meeting with the Bishop and cabinet. I don’t know if you have traveled down Hwy 165 south lately, but it is a mess. There’s construction everywhere. I got to Columbia and the traffic came to a stop and the traffic was all backed up. I could see the trucks up ahead and the machines digging up both sides of the highway. It was cold that day and there those folks were digging and working. I’ve always heard those folks referred to as “ditch-diggers”. That’s what my parents always threatened me with. If you don’t get your act together, you’re going to be one of those guys out there in overhauls digging ditches. And what meaning can you possibly find in ditch-digging?

So, I’m getting frustrated … I’m worried about being late to my meeting. And then, I come to this woman holding one of those signs that says, “Stop & Slow”. And what possible meaning can you find in holding one of those signs all day? When I came to her, I rolled down my window and asked her, “What’s going on?”

She said, “We are restoring water to this section of the city.” I went, “Whoa!” They were out there in the cold restoring water to the city. Water is a matter of life and death. How many of us could work out in the cold and have the know-how to do that? Would you know how to restore water to a city? I wouldn’t. That gave a whole new meaning to being a ditch-digger. If you are a ditch-digger and you understand that you are restoring water, which is a life or death issue for people … what an expression that is for loving God. I saw God in those ditch-diggers that day. And what is our work supposed to be, if it is not to reveal God’s presence in the world by helping one another?

Let’s say you are a cook who works in a restaurant. How does God’s Word define your job? Well, let’s look at Nehemiah. Remember that he was a culinary expert who cooked for the King. And also remember that Nehemiah had this discipline of taking time away from his job to connect with God and renew his spiritual focus. You see, if we are always working at our jobs and we are committed to excellence as we should be … the danger is that we can become exhausted. And if we don’t deal with exhaustion, then it becomes depression, which is threatening to our life, our family, and to God’s purpose in the world.

We talked about this last week with Elijah. Elijah had gone through this season of victory with his battle against the prophets of Baal. But he wasn’t paying attention to his exhaustion and his exhaustion turned into depression. So, an angel of the Lord came to him and told him to eat. I think this angel was a cook. He said, “What you need is little food and some sleep. You need to take care of yourselves.” Do you see where I’m going with this?

I think of the restaurant cook who is trying to find meaning in his or her work. And what I see, is that he or she is providing a setting for people to renew their life’s passion and to refresh their relationships. When we go out to eat, we typically don’t go by ourselves. We go out with our spouse or our friends. And during those times, we renew our spirits and we refresh our relationships. So, the cook’s job is a way of serving God and God’s rebuilding purpose in the lives of people.

Again, work is about more than money. We devalue work when we only work for money. When money is our goal, then we will forget that our purpose is to serve God’s purpose and we even try to find ways to work less. You can never measure the value of your job by its financial worth. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “One shall not live by bread alone.”

I know of a man whose job is to make plastic trash bags. Can you see how making plastic trash bags is a way to serve God and minister to others? What would this world be like if we didn’t have those who did this? Think of all the pollution. “The earth and all that it contains is God’s” and God is concerned about how we treat this earth.

You see, when we can answer this question, “Why do we work?” it affects the approach to our work. And every day, no matter how mundane our job may seem, we do it in the spirit of Christ. And you know, Jesus had some pretty mundane jobs … like washing feet. How mundane was that? But when we do our work in the spirit of Christ, it will demonstrate “competence” and “excellence”. Nehemiah did what nobody thought could be done. He rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem that had been destroyed for 150 years in 52 days. How did he do it? If we look at chapter 4:6 we will see that, “The people had a mind to work.” The NIV puts it this way, “The people worked with all their heart.”

What does that mean? It means that the people were committed to excellence. God is a God of excellence. In whatever we do, God is a God of excellence. When people looked at Jesus, no matter what he was doing, even if he was washing feet … they said, “He does all things well.” And when they looked at Jesus’ work, they said, “Jesus’ work has authority. It is not like other people who are doing the same kind of things.” What does “authority” mean? It means that he was an expert in his work. God is a God of excellence.

Now, if you are doing your work in the spirit of Christ, not only will your work demonstrate excellence, in that, you will work “with all of your heart” … but it will also demonstrate “character”. Your work will have integrity. It will be ethical work. Sometimes we get into trouble when we think that our work is all about money and success, because then we begin to exploit people, rather than serve people. I have had sales people sell me a product because they benefited more from that sale, rather than selling me another product that was better for I needed. You see what I’m talking about here?

In the 9^th chapter of Luke we read about Jesus’ encounter with a man named Zaccheus. You remember what Zaccheus’ job was? He was a tax collector. But he wasn’t just any tax collector … he was a chief tax collector. So, he wasn’t just good, he was excellent. We are also told that Zaccheus was very rich. And this is what happens to excellent people who do their jobs well, they receive a return. How you work effects the return you receive from your labor. But Zaccheus achieved this at the cost of exploiting the people that he served.

Now, after he had his conversion experience due to his encounter with Jesus Christ, no longer did he exploit people, but now he used his work to empower people and he used half of his resources to serve the poor. This is a good example for what it means to follow God’s purpose through our work. This is “why” we work.

Okay, we’ve talked about “what” work is. Work is not just a job, it is a calling. Your life’s work is really God’s work. And then, we’ve talked about “why” we work. Work is more than money … our work is an expression of worship. It is where we spend the most of our time demonstrating our love for God by how we serve people.

Now, here’s the 3^rd question: Who are we working for? In Acts 1:8, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he said, “You shall receive power to be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Notice that it doesn’t say “when you believe in Jesus” it says “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” When you submit your life to Jesus Christ and say, “I’ll go wherever you want me to go. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” When we submit our lives to Jesus Christ, at that moment, he comes into our lives, because he can use us. This is what we call “being filled with the Holy Spirit.” And when he comes into our life, we now have his power to be his witnesses in the world. We become “the salt” and “his light in the world”. And it is through your life’s work and your vocation that people see the presence and the purpose of God made visible.

How do we do this? Two things. First, they will notice your “priorities”. Remember what we read in the 8^th verse of Nehemiah today. Notice the two vocations listed there. There was “a goldsmith” and “a perfume maker” working on the wall. Now, what is gold? Gold is the return that we receive for our labors. You remember how the Magi followed the star that led them to where Jesus was born? When they got to Jesus, what did they lay at his feet? Their gold. You see, as a Christian, what the world will see through your work is that your priority is not the gold. As committed Christians, we have laid the gold at the feet of Jesus in order to serve the needs others in this world.

The second vocation was that of a perfume maker. What is perfume? Perfume is “an aroma”. When most people approach their work, they do so in a very routine … drudgery, boring, have-to, kind of way. But when People of God approach their work, it is not boring, dull, or routine, because God’s people approach their work in a way that it brings “an aroma” of hope and purpose to others. And this is how we make Christ visible … through our priorities.

And all of this comes from our “passion”. When we have this spirit of Christ living within us, we can’t help it … we have this passion to make Christ known. Everyday, we get up wanting others to know about Jesus Christ, because we know the difference that Jesus can make in our lives. We know that we are never going to have peace or solve the brokenness in our world or in our lives, apart from the power and principles of Jesus Christ. This is our passion as Christians.

But how do we share this passion in our job settings that are becoming increasingly resistant to a Christian world-view? Most of the institutions we work in today have rules against sharing our faith, because that might offend others of other religious views. You see, we have to learn how to bear witness to our faith in a pluralistic society today. And we don’t have to go around yelling “Jesus” to do this. Jesus’ principles and presence are to be made known in how we live our lives. This has always been the power of the Gospel. Our actions will always speak louder than our words.

So the bottom line is that if you want to make a difference for Jesus in this world, you don’t have to quit your day job. It’s not about leaving your job to become a preacher or spending more time in the church. God doesn’t want us to spend all of our time in the church. God wants the church to spend more time in the world. It is in our jobs … in our life’s work, whether that’s in a job or at home with our families … it is there that God is calling us to make a difference. You see, your life’s work is for one purpose. It is to assist the Master Carpenter in building God’s City.