LABOR
“Quality of Life Series”
8/31/04
LEADER: What was the first job you ever had? (ALLOW ANSWERS)
TOM: I shined shoes when I was 7…got my SS card when I was 14 washing dishes and changing flats in my Mom’s truck stop in Plains, TX, ran a bulldozer in the oil field, and was an insurance claims adjuster …all before I was 23 years old.
SANDI: I sold all occasion greeting cards door-to-door; sold a commissioned painting for $25; Did silk screening in the Spoofer Shop at NTSU; worked at Six Flags; worked the graveyard shift at TI for a year; managed a ladies sample shop in Preston Center; and flew for Braniff…all by 23 years of age.
LEADER: Did you know the average number of jobs an American worker has held by age 40 is 8.
(Charis Conn (Ed.), What Counts: The Complete Harper's Index)
(http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/work.htm)
LEADER: How did you do in those early jobs…the early years…
And how are you doing now?
We can call our work history successful if we’ve:
· learned something in each position we’ve held
· gained a good work ethic
· given our employer an honest day’s work
· done our best with a good attitude
· honored the Lord
· qualified for a good recommendation
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #1
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“People forget how fast you did a job - but they remember how well you did it. “
Howard Newton Author
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.”
Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, American Industrialist, Philanthropist
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3
“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it.”
Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker/Author
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #4
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world.”
Orison Swett Marden, 1850-1924 Author/Founder of Success Mag.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #5
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”
Martin Luther King, 1929-1968 Black Leader/Nobel Prize Winner
LEADER: We will be celebrating Labor Day next week…always the first Monday of September each year.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Origin of Labor Day”
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/?id=890 EXCERPT
The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5, 1882. It is unique among our national holidays in that it does not celebrate a single individual, a battle, or a religious occasion. It is dedicated to honoring the American worker and celebrates the contributions to our society made by the hard work and commitment of everyday American workers. God has richly blessed our nation with a strong and vital labor force, and it is to Him and to them--the laborers of our nation--that we owe our gratitude for the prosperity and benefits we enjoy.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #6
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Helen Keller 18801968 Blind/Deaf Author/Lecturer
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #7
“If it were not for labor, men could neither eat so much, nor relish so pleasantly, nor sleep so soundly, nor be so healthful, so useful, so strong, so patient, so noble, nor so untempted”. –
Jeremy Taylor, 17th century English bishop
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #8
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“I believe that good things come to those who work.”
Wilt Chamberlain 1936- American Basketball Player
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #9
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/?id=890
"In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread'; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labor. And inasmuch [as] most good things are produced by labor, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To [secure] to each laborer the product of his labor...is a most worthy object of any good government."
Abraham Lincoln, in a speech December 1, 1847
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #10
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“It is better to wear out than to rust out.”
Richard Cumberland 1631-1718, British Philosopher, Theologian
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #11
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“Remember that your work comes only moment by moment, and as surely as God calls you to work, he gives the strength to do it”
Priscilla Maurice, Author of “A Working Woman’s Guide to Joy”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Bumper Sticker Philosophy”
Our Daily Bread, September 5, 1994
(http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/work.htm)
If you're into bumper-sticker philosophy, you've probably seen the axiom, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." For a vast portion of the workforce, that's the best reason they can muster for going to the job each day. According to one poll, only 43 percent of American office workers are satisfied with their jobs. In Japan, the figure dips to 17 percent. In the first century, Christian slaves had even less reason to be enthusiastic about their work. But Paul gave them a way to grasp a glimpse of glory amid the grind. He wanted them to "adorn the doctrine of God," that is, to show the beauty of their faith in Christ by how they work (Ti. 2:10).
A significant and often overlooked way that we serve God is in our everyday tasks. Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays -- not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #12
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“By the work one knows the workmen.”
Jean De La Fontaine 1621-1695 French Fables Author
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #13
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in --that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”
Mother Theresa, 1910-1997 Albanian Roman Catholic Missionary
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “For His Glory”
H. A. Ironside, Illustrations of Bible Truth, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 37-39.
(http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/work.htm)
"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17
When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or "cobbler," as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.
On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoe shop.
It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.
What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.
One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, "I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?" He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, "They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!"
"Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god."
"Harry," he said, "I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, 'Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.' I want Him to be able to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"
Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #14
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/?id=76
"Our aim is not 'success' the way the world measures it but to please Christ by
the way you tackle work. Work is an act of worship to a Savior."
John White, 20th Century Christian author
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “In the Love of Him”
Jeanette Clift George, Travel Tips From A Reluctant Traveler, 1987.
(http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/work.htm)
About six years ago, I was speaking at a luncheon held in the civic auditorium of a city in Oklahoma. I settled myself at my place at the head table. I picked up my fork and noticed that two rose-petaled radishes adorned my salad plate. Someone had take the time to pretty up two radishes, just for me. Then I noticed that each salad at the head table had two neatly curled radishes. I turned to the lady sitting to my right. "I'm impressed by the radishes, " I said. "You're impressed by what?" she asked. "The radishes," I said. "Look, each salad plate at our table has curled radishes." "Yes," she said, exercising a questioning smile. "They're pretty." "They're more than pretty," I said. Someone took special care to do these." "Don't they all have them?" she asked, gazing out at the tables. I looked and was astonished. Each salad plate was adorned with two curled radishes! "They are curled! That took a lot of time!" "I'm not on the planning committee, but Gertrude is," my table mate responded. She turned to get the attention of Gertrude, three chairs down. "Mrs. George wants to ask you something about the radishes, "she whispered. "The what?" Gertrude mouthed "The RA- DI-SHES!" "Is there something wrong with your radishes?" she asked. "No. They are fine. I just thought it was nice to have them all curled." "Oh, Marietta does those." "All of them?" I knew the head count in the room and was astonished. "That's almost eight hundred radishes!" "Yes, but Marietta wants to do it. Would you like to meet her? She's in the kitchen." So Gertrude and I went into the kitchen, and there I met Marietta, the lady of the radishes. "Gertrude tells me you curled all those radishes. They're lovely. Each salad looks so...festive." "I don't mind doing it. It just takes time," Marietta replied. I didn't know what more to say so I left.
Later, I spoke, and there was an encouraging response. Afterward, ladies scurried past me with murmured greetings, and a few lingered to speak of God in their lives. When we finished, it was raining heavily so we hurried across the parking lot to the car. Through the rain, I could see a lady, carrying a large polka-dot umbrella that had collapsed on one side waiting by our car. It was Marietta! She was smiling as though we had found her on a sunny day in an especially delightful garden. "I had to see you. I heard your speech. It was good!" she said. "I have to go home now."
I slipped inside the car. Marietta crouched down close to the window and called to me, "Just remember this. You keep telling people about Jesus, and I'll keep curling the radishes." The rain and my tears splattered the picture of her face as we started to back out of the driveway. Ah, dear Marietta, I haven't forgotten. We are to do our jobs in the love of him who does all things well.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #15
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/?id=76
"The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God. Work and worship literally become one. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever; and man carries out that function when he does what God sent him into the world to do. Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to God. This means that the doctor on his rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the teacher in his classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at his canvas, the shop assistant at his counter, the typist at her typewriter, the housewife in her kitchen -- all who are doing the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of worship."
William Barclay, Author and Bible Commentator
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #16
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
Aristotle 384-322 BC
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #17
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.”
David McCullough 1933- Pulitzer Prize winning author
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #18
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”
Johnny Carson 1925-
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #19
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.”
Colleen C. Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #20
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“If your work is becoming uninteresting, so are you. Work is an inanimate thing and can be made lively and interesting only by injecting yourself into it. Your job is only as big as you are.”
George C. Hubbs
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #21
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.”
Thomas A. Edison, 1847-1931, American Inventor, Founder of GE
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #22
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.”
George Halas, American Football Coach
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #23
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“I don't think anybody yet has invented a pastime that's as much fun, or keeps you as young, as a good job.”
Frederick Hudson Ecker, Chairman of Metropolitan Life
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #24
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
“Every calling is great when greatly pursued.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894, American Author, Poet
LEADER: “In Celebration of Labor” #1
From Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint 9/01/03 EXCERPT
Christians have a special reason to celebrate Labor Day, which honors the fundamental dignity of workers, for we worship a God who labored to make the world—and who created human beings in His image to be workers. When God made Adam and Eve, He gave them work to do: cultivating and caring for the earth.
In the ancient world, the Greeks and Romans looked upon manual work as a curse, something for lower classes and slaves. But Christianity changed all that. Christians viewed work as a high calling—a calling to be co-workers with God in unfolding the rich potential of His creation.
This high view of work can be traced throughout the history of the Church. In the Middle Ages, the guild movement grew out of the Church. It set standards for good workmanship and encouraged members to take satisfaction in the results of their labor. The guilds became the forerunner of the modern labor movement.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “In Celebration of Labor” #2
From Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint 9/01/03 EXCERPT
Later, during the Reformation, Martin Luther preached that all work should be done to the glory of God. Whether ministering the Gospel or scrubbing floors, any honest work is pleasing to the Lord. Out of this conviction grew the Protestant work ethic.
Christians were also active on behalf of workers in the early days of the industrial revolution, when factories were “dark satanic mills,” to borrow a phrase from Sir William Blake. In those days, work in factories and coal mines was hard and dangerous. Men, women, and children were practically slaves—sometimes even chained to machines.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “In Celebration of Labor” #3
From Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint 9/01/03 EXCERPT
Then John Wesley came preaching and teaching the Gospel throughout England. He came not to the upper classes, but to the laboring classes—to men whose faces were black with coal dust, women whose dresses were patched and faded.
John Wesley preached to them—and, in the process, he pricked the conscience of the whole nation.
Two of Wesley’s disciples, William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, were inspired to work for legislation that would clean up abuses in the workplace. At their urging, the British parliament passed child-labor laws, safety laws, and minimum-wage laws.
LEADER: “In Celebration of Labor” #4
From Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint 9/01/03 EXCERPT
Here in America we’ve lost the Christian connection with the labor movement. But in many countries—from Canada to Poland—that tradition still remains.
Much of our culture has a distinctly Greek view of work: We work out of necessity. But, you see, we are made in the image of God, and as such we are made to work—to create, to shape, to bring order out of disorder.
LEADER: “Paul’s Letters”
The Word in Life Study Bible, New Testament Edition, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville; 1993), p. 706.
Paul’s letters have much to say to believers as we live out our faith in the work world. As he does here in Colossians 3:22-4:1, Paul usually speaks to both leaders and workers about the tough character and choices required to honor Christ in a difficult workplace environment.
LEADER: Let’s look at “FINANCE” (cont from “Paul’s Letters)
The following work topics and scripture references are taken from
The Word in Life Study Bible, New Testament Edition, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville; 1993), p. 706.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: I Corinthians 9:7-10
7 Who
at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and
does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of
the flock? 8 I am not speaking these things according to human
judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?
9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, "YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE
OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING." God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10 Or
is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written,
because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of
sharing the crops.
LEADER: Workers Deserve Payment for their work
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 4:1
Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.
LEADER: You are accountable for fair employee compensation.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Timothy 6:9-10
9
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish
and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For
the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it
have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
LEADER: We are to handle wealth delicately.
Let’s look at “MANAGEMENT”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15
14 We
urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the
weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another
with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another
and for all people.
LEADER: We are to help each employee discern the best thing to do.
Let’s look at “SUPERVISORS”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 13:1-2
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For (there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
LEADER: We should develop a respect for authority.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
12 But
we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor
among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction,
13and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live
in peace with one another.
LEADER: We’re to do our work respectfully.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 3:22-24
22 Slaves,
in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external
service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing
the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord
rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive
the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
LEADER: We’re to give our employers obedient, hard work.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Timothy 6:1-2
1 All
who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of
all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.
2 Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful
to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because
those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach
these principles.
LEADER: We are to honor those in authority over us.
Let’s look at “TASKS”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Corinthians 7:17
17 Only,
as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let
him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.
LEADER: We are to seek to be in the Lord’s will for our lives and our work.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
17 For
momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are
temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
LEADER: We should view stress and trouble in perspective.
Let’s look at “WORK RELATIONSHIPS”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Galatians 5:14
14 For
the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR
NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ephesians 4:31-32
31
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from
you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another,
tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven
you.
LEADER: We are to value people highly.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ephesians 6:5-9
5
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with
fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;
6 not by way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render
service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever
good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave
or free. 9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up
threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there
is no partiality with Him.
LEADER: We are to treat and motivate employees with respect rather than threats.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 12:3
3 For
through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
LEADER: We are to have a reasonable view of ourselves.
Let’s look at “C0-WORKERS”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Corinthians 12:4-8
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
LEADER: We should acknowledge differences and accept the contribution of others.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Timothy 5:1-2
1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.
LEADER: Treat others with understanding and respect.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Titus 3:1-2
1 Remind
them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for
every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing
every consideration for all men.
LEADER: We should develop a reputation for good relationships
How about “COMMUNICATION”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 4:6
6
Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you
will know how you should respond to each person.
LEADER: Communication should always be gracious and truthful.
Let’s look at “RESPONSIBILITY”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 13:6-8
6 For
because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting
themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax
to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom
honor. 8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who
loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
LEADER: We’re to fulfill our commitments.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Philippians 4:12
12 I
know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in
prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being
filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
LEADER: We should learn to handle times of bounty and times of leanness.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Timothy 5:8
8 But
if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his
household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
LEADER: We are to take care of our own family.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 12:13
13 contributing
to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality
LEADER: We are to care for the poor and the weak.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Titus 3:14
14
Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so
that they will not be unfruitful.
LEADER: We are to discern needs and meet them.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Corinthians 3:9-15
9 For
we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise
master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man
must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a
foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now
if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will
show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test
the quality of each man's work. 14 If any man's work which he has
built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man's work
is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as
through fire.
LEADER: We’re to remember our accountability.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Philippians 4:6-8
6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace
of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.
LEADER: We shouldn’t let our responsibilities weigh us down with worry.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 12:1
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
LEADER: We are to give our whole selves to God.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 1:17-18
17 He
is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have
first place in everything.
LEADER: Remember who gets the ultimate credit.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #25
http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Work&id=1
Every day's a perfect gift of time for us to use,
Hours waiting to be filled in any way we choose.
Each morning brings a quiet hope that rises with the sun.
Each evening brings the sweet content that comes with work well done.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #26 http://www.cfdevotionals.org/devpages/de970114.htm
"O spend your time as you would hear of it in the judgment!"
Richard Baxter 1615-1691 Clergyman
LEADER READ: QUOTE #27
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/?id=76
"As our nation observes Labor Day this year, I salute every hardworking American for your role in helping this country to grow and thrive and for your innovation, creativity, and energy on the job. I also encourage you as you strive to keep in balance the demands of work alongside vital responsibilities to family, friends, and the community. Your efforts carry on the proud traditions of past generations of American workers and demonstrate your adaptability and enthusiasm for meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
Today our nation takes a moment to say thanks,
thanks for what all you do; thanks for those who carry a hammer; thanks for the
police; thanks for the school teachers; thanks for the fire fighters; thanks to
people from all walks of life who work all across our country. It's fitting we
honor the strength of America. May God bless the American worker and may God
bless America."
President George W. Bush
COMMENTS IF TIME:
STOP FOR AT 10 TILL
FOR PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES:
CUT AND DISTRIBUTE FOR READING:
QUOTE #1
“People forget how fast you did a job - but they remember how well you did it. “
Howard Newton Author
QUOTE #2
“The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.”
Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, American Industrialist, Philanthropist
QUOTE #3
“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it.”
Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker/Author
QUOTE #4
“The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world.”
Orison Swett Marden, 1850-1924 Author/Founder of Success Mag.
QUOTE #5
“Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”
Martin Luther King, 1929-1968 Black Leader/Nobel Prize Winner
“The Origin of Labor Day”
The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5, 1882. It is unique among our national holidays in that it does not celebrate a single individual, a battle, or a religious occasion. It is dedicated to honoring the American worker and celebrates the contributions to our society made by the hard work and commitment of everyday American workers. God has richly blessed our nation with a strong and vital labor force, and it is to Him and to them--the laborers of our nation--that we owe our gratitude for the prosperity and benefits we enjoy.
QUOTE #6
“The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Helen Keller 18801968 Blind/Deaf Author/Lecturer
QUOTE #7
“If it were not for labor, men could neither eat so much, nor relish so pleasantly, nor sleep so soundly, nor be so healthful, so useful, so strong, so patient, so noble, nor so untempted”.
Jeremy Taylor, 17th century English bishop
QUOTE #8
“I believe that good things come to those who work.”
Wilt Chamberlain 1936- American Basketball Player
QUOTE #9
"In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread'; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labor. And inasmuch [as] most good things are produced by labor, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To [secure] to each laborer the product of his labor...is a most worthy object of any good government."
Abraham Lincoln, in a speech December 1, 1847
QUOTE #10
“It is better to wear out than to rust out.”
Richard Cumberland 1631-1718, British Philosopher, Theologian
“Bumper Sticker Philosophy”
If you're into bumper-sticker philosophy, you've probably seen the axiom, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." For a vast portion of the workforce, that's the best reason they can muster for going to the job each day. According to one poll, only 43 percent of American office workers are satisfied with their jobs. In Japan, the figure dips to 17 percent. In the first century, Christian slaves had even less reason to be enthusiastic about their work. But Paul gave them a way to grasp a glimpse of glory amid the grind. He wanted them to "adorn the doctrine of God," that is, to show the beauty of their faith in Christ by how they work (Titus. 2:10).
A significant and often overlooked way that we serve God is in our everyday tasks. Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays -- not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
“For His Glory”
"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17
When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or "cobbler," as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more. On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoe shop. It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times. What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in. One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, "I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?" He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, "They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!"
"Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god." "Harry," he said, "I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, 'Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.' I want Him to be able to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"
Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.
“In the Love of Him”
About six years ago, I was speaking at a luncheon held in the civic auditorium of a city in Oklahoma. I settled myself at my place at the head table. I picked up my fork and noticed that two rose-petaled radishes adorned my salad plate. Someone had take the time to pretty up two radishes, just for me. Then I noticed that each salad at the head table had two neatly curled radishes. I turned to the lady sitting to my right. "I'm impressed by the radishes, " I said. "You're impressed by what?" she asked. "The radishes," I said. "Look, each salad plate at our table has curled radishes." "Yes," she said, exercising a questioning smile. "They're pretty." "They're more than pretty," I said. Someone took special care to do these." "Don't they all have them?" she asked, gazing out at the tables. I looked and was astonished. Each salad plate was adorned with two curled radishes! "They are curled! That took a lot of time!" "I'm not on the planning committee, but Gertrude is," my table mate responded. She turned to get the attention of Gertrude, three chairs down. "Mrs. George wants to ask you something about the radishes, "she whispered. "The what?" Gertrude mouthed "The RA- DI-SHES!" "Is there something wrong with your radishes?" she asked. "No. They are fine. I just thought it was nice to have them all curled." "Oh, Marietta does those." "All of them?" I knew the head count in the room and was astonished. "That's almost eight hundred radishes!" "Yes, but Marietta wants to do it. Would you like to meet her? She's in the kitchen." So Gertrude and I went into the kitchen, and there I met Marietta, the lady of the radishes. "Gertrude tells me you curled all those radishes. They're lovely. Each salad looks so...festive." "I don't mind doing it. It just takes time," Marietta replied. I didn't know what more to say so I left.
Later, I spoke, and there was an encouraging response. Afterward, ladies scurried past me with murmured greetings, and a few lingered to speak of God in their lives. When we finished, it was raining heavily so we hurried across the parking lot to the car. Through the rain, I could see a lady, carrying a large polka-dot umbrella that had collapsed on one side waiting by our car. It was Marietta! She was smiling as though we had found her on a sunny day in an especially delightful garden. "I had to see you. I heard your speech. It was good!" she said. "I have to go home now."
I slipped inside the car. Marietta crouched down close to the window and called to me, "Just remember this. You keep telling people about Jesus, and I'll keep curling the radishes." The rain and my tears splattered the picture of her face as we started to back out of the driveway. Ah, dear Marietta, I haven't forgotten. We are to do our jobs in the love of him who does all things well.
QUOTE #11
“Remember that your work comes only moment by moment, and as surely as God calls you to work, he gives the strength to do it”
Priscilla Maurice, Author of “A Working Woman’s Guide to Joy”
QUOTE #12
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/work/
“By the work one knows the workmen.”
Jean De La Fontaine 1621-1695 French Fables Author
QUOTE #13
“There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in --that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”
Mother Theresa, 1910-1997 Albanian Roman Catholic Missionary
QUOTE #14
"Our aim is not 'success'
the way the world measures it but to please Christ by the way you tackle work.
Work is an act of worship to a Savior."
John White, 20th Century Christian author
QUOTE #15
"The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God. Work and worship literally become one. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever; and man carries out that function when he does what God sent him into the world to do. Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to God. This means that the doctor on his rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the teacher in his classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at his canvas, the shop assistant at his counter, the typist at her typewriter, the housewife in her kitchen -- all who are doing the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of worship."
William Barclay, Author and Bible Commentator
QUOTE #16
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
Aristotle 384-322 BC
QUOTE #17
“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.”
David McCullough 1933- Pulitzer Prize winning author
QUOTE #18
“If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”
Johnny Carson 1925-
QUOTE #19
“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.”
Colleen C. Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines
QUOTE #20
“If your work is becoming uninteresting, so are you. Work is an inanimate thing and can be made lively and interesting only by injecting yourself into it. Your job is only as big as you are.”
George C. Hubbs
QUOTE #21
“I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.”
Thomas A. Edison, 1847-1931, American Inventor, Founder of GE
QUOTE #22
“Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.”
George Halas, American Football Coach
QUOTE #23
“I don't think anybody yet has invented a pastime that's as much fun, or keeps you as young, as a good job.”
Frederick Hudson Ecker, Chairman of Metropolitan Life
QUOTE #24
“Every calling is great when greatly pursued.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894, American Author, Poet
“In Celebration of Labor” #2
Later, during the Reformation, Martin Luther preached that all work should be done to the glory of God. Whether ministering the Gospel or scrubbing floors, any honest work is pleasing to the Lord. Out of this conviction grew the Protestant work ethic.
Christians were also active on behalf of workers in the early days of the industrial revolution, when factories were “dark satanic mills,” to borrow a phrase from Sir William Blake. In those days, work in factories and coal mines was hard and dangerous. Men, women, and children were practically slaves—sometimes even chained to machines.
I Corinthians 9:7-10
Colossians 4:1
1 Timothy 6:9-1
1 Thessalonians 5:14-15
“In Celebration of Labor” #3
Then John Wesley came preaching and teaching the Gospel throughout England. He came not to the upper classes, but to the laboring classes—to men whose faces were black with coal dust, women whose dresses were patched and faded.
John Wesley preached to them—and, in the process, he pricked the conscience of the whole nation.
Two of Wesley’s disciples, William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, were inspired to work for legislation that would clean up abuses in the workplace. At their urging, the British parliament passed child-labor laws, safety laws, and minimum-wage laws.
Romans 13:1-2
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
Colossians 3:22-24
1 Timothy 6:1-2
1 Corinthians 7:17
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Galatians 5:14
Ephesians 4:31-32
Ephesians 6:5-9
Romans 12:3
1 Corinthians 12:4-8
1 Timothy 5:1-2
Titus
3:1-2
Colossians 4:6
Romans 13:6-8
Philippians 4:12
1 Timothy 5:8
Romans 12:13
Titus 3:14
1 Corinthians 3:9-15
Philippians 4:6-8
Romans 12:1
Colossians
1:17-18
QUOTE #25
Every day's a perfect gift of time for us to use,
Hours waiting to be filled in any way we choose.
Each morning brings a quiet hope that rises with the sun.
Each evening brings the sweet content that comes with work well done.
QUOTE #26
"O spend your time as you would hear of it in the judgment!"
Richard Baxter 1615-1691 Clergyman