WILL WORK FOR JESUS

Sermon Notes, September 1, 2013

Pastor Jan Sinozich

 

Pastor Jan’s sermon was titled “Will Work for Jesus.”  The scriptures were Ephesians 6:5-6; Daniel 6:20; Jeremiah 29:5-7; and 1 Corinthians 5:9-11.

We tend to divide everything into secular and sacred, giving God a few hours on Sunday, and spending the rest of our time in the secular world.  The Old Testament had the sacred temple, the priests, and the rituals, and everything else was on the secular side.  But the New Testament teaches that we’re all priests, our bodies are sacred temples, and God’s Holy Spirit lives in us.  Every day is holy.  Our everyday work becomes our service to God. (Romans 12:1)  Everything we do affects others.  Ephesians 6:5, addressed to slaves but appropriate for employees, tells us to obey our boss like we’re doing it for Christ.  Where and how we work is part of our mission.

We can serve God where we work.  Daniel was a captive, a slave in a pagan environment.  He became a government worker!  King Nebuchadnezzar respected his faithfulness to God; Daniel rose higher and higher among the leaders of Babylon.  After Babylon was conquered, once again Daniel’s outstanding qualities were recognized and King Darius appointed him as one of the highest officials in the land.  But there came a time when pressures were put on him to do things that were against God, and King Darius was forced to have Daniel thrown in the lions’ den. Daniel 20:6 records Darius’s reaction when he went to check on Daniel the next morning, “…Has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”  Daniel worked in a pagan environment, for a pagan king, but the king knew that Daniel served God continually.  What do our fellow-workers know about us?

All of us are ministers.  We are to serve God where we are.  In Jeremiah 29:7, God says “I have carried you into exile.”  All the people, including Daniel, were right where God wanted them.  He’s telling us the same thing.  The workplace is all about relationship.  The church is all about relationship.  Relational evangelism is about seeing every person as a God-given opportunity for service.  If we keep our eyes on Jesus, we react differently to problems, and people will see the difference.  In the 29^th chapter of Jeremiah God gives instructions on how to live in a pagan environment. We’re to be at peace with society, as best we can, but we’re not to give in to their way of doing things.  Our workplace is our mission field, a sacred place, where we can serve the Lord and live the witness that is Jesus Christ.