Labor Day Sermon

+ Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost +
September 5, 2010
Loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. Dt. 30:20
As we celebrate the annual Labor Day weekend, it would be helpful for us to reflect on the Biblical view and meaning of work. Where do we look for jobs? Do we look to the government? Do we look to major corporations? Or do we look to God. God speaks to us through his servant Moses even today: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” What does this message have to do with work and labor? Well, think about it like this: our work can produce life and a blessing; or death and a curse. Work produces goods or services. So evaluate the goods and services that your work produces on the basis of life and death, blessings and curses. Let me sate the obvious: Please don’t stick around a work environment that is committed to producing death and curses! Listen very carefully! Our work, those 40 hours a week, more or less, represents the single most important opportunity believers have to be the ambassadors of Jesus Christ, people who let their light shine before men who can see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
1. Loving the LORD your God
a. We love, because He first loved us. Begin and end each day with this thought
b. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren…..
2. Obeying His voice
a. The written word; 10 commandments
b. The voice of the Church, the Holy Spirit through the means of grace
3. Holding fast to Him
a. Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they kave not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. (Isaiah 41:10; 42:16)
b. Like a little child in trust and confidence. Confirmation vows:
Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?
I do, by the grace of God.
Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?
I do, by the grace of God.