The part of the check that I'd like to focus on
is in verse number eight here, where the Bible reads,
we are confident, I say, and willing,
rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent,
we may be accepted in him, for we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he had done, whether it be good or bad.
Now, this weekend is Labor Day weekend,
and I think that most people don't really understand
what that holiday means, and probably if we were to go
around the room or around the city asking people,
what is Labor Day, what are you celebrating?
I think probably 90 some percent of people would not know,
and I'll be honest with you, I don't even know
what we're selling, I don't even know why we have Labor Day.
It doesn't make any sense to me, but apparently it goes back
to some labor dispute, some union going on strike
in the 1800s, and then the government just wanted
to make them happy, so they made this holiday
and had some big parade for the labor unions.
It's just funny how everybody just celebrates something,
they don't really know what they're celebrating,
and they just, hey, cool, let's have a day off,
let's have a barbecue.
But I'm gonna preach about labor, just because it made me
think about it, just the fact that it's Labor Day weekend,
because it's a subject that the Bible talks about
over and over, and the word labor, or some derivative
of the word labor, is used well over 100 times in the Bible.
And God's talking about it constantly.
This morning I was just quoting through a lot of chapters
of the Bible this morning, and just going through scores
of chapters, because I got up really early,
and literally, almost every chapter had the word labor.
It just kept having the word labor, labor, labor, labor.
And I just kept seeing it over and over again.
And let's look at this passage, then we're gonna go
to a few other places, but look at 2 Corinthians 5,
verse eight, it says, we are confident, I say,
and willing rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.
Let me say this, when the believer dies,
or passes from this life, they go straight
to be present with the Lord.
A lot of religions don't believe that those that are saved
go to heaven when they die, but the Bible's clear
that Paul said, I have a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Not to just lay in the ground and lay in the earth asleep,
but to depart and to be with Christ.
And he said, we have a desire, he said, we are willing
rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.
That's all death is to the Christian,
it's just to departure from the body
and being with the Lord.
And it says, wherefore or because of this, we labor.
That whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
Now, obviously we know that our salvation
is not based on our works.
And labor is just another word for work.
But labor is a stronger word for work.
When you think of the word labor,
you don't think of an easy task.
Any job is work, even if it's an easy job.
But when you think of labor,
you think of somebody who's working really hard.
For example, Brother McBury's wife was just in labor.
That's not easy, that's hard work.
And there's a lot of pain associated with it.
When you think of going to a job site
and you have electricians and carpenters and plumbers,
and then you have guys that are just known as laborers.
Well, they're doing some hard physical work.
They're usually digging a hole or they're picking up trash
and they're usually lifting a lot of heavy objects.
They're usually doing a good day's work
by the end of the day and have put out a lot of energy
and gone through a lot of pain and sweat
in order to get their work.
That's what we think of when we think of labor.
And the Bible says because of the fact that someday
we're going to be absent from the body
and be present with the Lord.
Because of that, we labor.
That whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
Now, we know that works don't save us.
The Bible says for by grace,
you should be saved through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
And we know that it's possible to be saved
and not to do any works at all.
Because the Bible says, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justified the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
And the Bible talks about that his sins are forgiven.
He's saved in the subsequent verses.
We know that works don't save us,
but because of the fact that we're gonna be face-to-face
with Jesus Christ some day,
we should wanna be accepted of him.
We should wanna be pleasing in his sight.
That he would be pleased with us
and that we would not be ashamed before him at his coming.
And the way that we're gonna be able to face him
and be accepted of him and for him to be pleased with us
is if we've done the work that he gave us to do.
He said, that's why we labor.
We do it for him.
For example, my children are my children
no matter what they do.
No matter how bad they are, no matter how good they are,
all six of them are just as much my child as the other.
No matter how they turn out, they're my children.
Nothing can ever change the fact that I'm their father
and that they're my child.
That's the same thing with being saved.
Once you're saved, God will always be your father.
You'll always be in the family.
He'll never leave you nor forsake you.
He'll never cast you out of your family.
But if my children are going to be accepted
with me, they're gonna have to do what I tell them to do.
And if my children disobey me and they won't do the work
that we tell them to do,
they're gonna constantly be disciplined.
They're gonna constantly have a rift between them and me
if they're not obeying and doing the things
that they're supposed to do.
And Paul said, while I'm absent,
while I'm present in the body, I wanna be accepted of him.
I want him to look down and see my work as acceptable
and my life as acceptable.
And when I'm absent and standing before him
at the judgment seat of Christ,
and when I give an account of the things
that have been done in my body,
I want to be rewarded for my works
and for my works to be acceptable in his sight.
Go to 1 Corinthians 3 quickly.
You can figure there in 2 Corinthians 5.
1 Corinthians 3, and let me start out by saying this
this morning.
You will be rewarded for your works
when you get to heaven.
And in fact, that's the thing that the Bible says
over and over you're gonna be rewarded for.
You're not gonna be rewarded
for how you're dressed this morning.
You're not gonna be rewarded just for being
such a nice person and just being,
even just necessarily obeying his commands.
I mean, those are great things to do,
just to abstain from some of the wickedness
that our world engages in.
Maybe you're abstaining from drinking,
you're abstaining from partying,
you're abstaining from drunkenness and reveling
and wantonness and fornication.
You're abstaining from those things,
but what's really gonna earn us the rewards in heaven,
according to the Bible.
If you don't believe me, well,
sit back and listen to all the scriptures
that I've got here on this.
You're gonna be rewarded according to your works.
And you're gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ
and give an account of the things done in your body.
And you're gonna be rewarded.
Look at 1 Corinthians 3.
This is another chapter that deals
with the judgment seat of Christ.
It says in verse 11,
And for other foundations can no man lay,
then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the foundation, being saved.
Christ in you, the home of glory.
Now if any man build upon this foundation,
now is every man going to build upon this foundation?
Not necessarily with the right materials,
because he says if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest.
Every man's what?
Work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he had built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss.
But he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.
Another verse that shows that even if none of your works
were the right works that were the gold, silver,
precious stones, it still says that you yourself
shall be saved, but you're gonna suffer a loss of reward.
You're not gonna get the reward.
You say, why would God reward us?
We, man, he gave us everything.
Why, he doesn't have to do that.
I mean, he already gave us salvation.
We already owe him our life and our soul.
Why would he reward us?
Because salvation is a free gift.
And so when we work for God, we're not paying him back
for what he did for us.
We can never pay that back.
That's a free gift.
He won't accept any payment.
And that's why he says, well, because it was free,
if you work for me, if you do works, I'll reward you.
I'll pay you for those works, because those are not
in exchange for the free gift of salvation.
Any works that you do, I will reward.
And so God will reward our works.
He's gonna look at our works, and at the judgment seat
of Christ, he's gonna see whether they're good or bad.
Bad is the wood, hay, and stubble.
Not necessarily sins that we did, but just work that we did
that has no lasting or eternal value.
And then the gold, silver, and precious stones
are those things that we did that had eternal lasting value.
Go to Revelation chapter two.
You see, when God looks at a church,
and he wants to judge that church,
the first thing he looks at is the works.
That's the first thing he looks at, according to the Bible.
Go to Revelation chapter two.
You see, God is looking down upon us.
The Bible says the Lord's throne is in heaven.
The Lord is in his holy temple,
the Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.
God is in heaven looking down, constantly passing judgment
upon those of us that dwell on this earth.
And that's why Paul said, I wanna be accepted.
I want him to look down on me and be pleased.
He is in heaven, he is looking down.
He is judging and trying us.
He looks at our church this morning,
and he looks at every Bible-believing Baptist church
in this whole area and across the world.
But as he looks down upon Phoenix, Arizona,
and let's say he were to give our church a grade
or to judge our church,
as he did in Revelation two and three, seven churches,
he talks about what they're doing right,
and he talks about what they're doing wrong.
He tells them what they need to change.
And if God were to look down upon
maybe the seven churches in our area,
or just even more than that in the Phoenix area
that are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the first thing he's gonna look at
to judge that church is the works that we're doing.
Not what kind of building we're meeting in,
not what kind of numbers we have in the attendance,
not necessarily the offering plate.
That's not what he's looking at.
He's not looking at how we're dressed this morning,
first and foremost.
The first thing he's looking at is our works.
Look at Revelation chapter two.
As he begins to talk to these seven churches,
he begins to talk to the church of Ephesus.
He says in verse two, I know thy works.
First thing he brings up to the first church,
and then look at the next thing he brings up, thy labor.
So the first two things that he looks at
is the work that we're doing.
Thy work, thy labor, and thy patience.
And he begins to bring up other things.
He says, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles,
and are not, and hast found them liars,
and hast borne, and hast patience.
And look, the last thing he brings up,
and for my name's sake, hast labored, and hast not fainted.
So he starts out talking about their work,
and he ends up talking about their work.
And all seven churches, it's the same thing.
That was Ephesus.
Jump down to Smyrna, verse nine, I know thy works.
That's the first thing he brings up,
and tribulation and poverty.
Jump down to verse 13, I know thy works,
and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
Verse number 19, Thyatira, I know thy works,
and charity, and what?
Service.
Doing something, serving.
He says, and faith, and thy patience.
Oh, and by the way, did I forget to mention, and thy works.
I mean, look at this.
He says, I know thy works, and charity, and service,
and faith, and thy works.
And he says, and the last would be more than the first.
Look at chapter three.
Same thing.
We look at Sardis, verse number one.
And unto the angel of the church, and Sardis write,
these things saith thee that at the seven spirits of God,
the seven stars, I know thy works.
Verse eight, Philadelphia, I know thy works.
Verse number 15, the church of Laodicea.
I know thy works that thou are neither cold nor hot.
I would thou work cold or hot.
How did God know that the Laodicean church
was a lukewarm church?
How did he know it was a dead church?
How did he know that they weren't cold or hot?
That's easy.
I know thy works.
He said, I can look at the work that you're doing,
and I can tell that you're lukewarm,
that you're not fired up, that you're not on fire.
You're just comfortable.
You're lukewarm.
Go back to chapter two, the first church,
just quickly, of Ephesus.
Remember he told them, I know thy works, thy labor.
How thou hast labored.
He says in verse four of chapter two,
nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen,
and repent.
And how are they going to fix the problem
of losing the first love?
He says, and do the first works.
Now look, you can't argue with the fact
that God is emphasizing about a church
the work that they're doing.
That's what's coming to his mind first.
That's the first thing he wants to talk about.
That's the last thing he wants to talk about.
That's how he judges that church.
And I submit to you this morning
that there could be a church in this city
that has their doctrine straight down the line.
They cross every T.
They guard every I.
The preaching is on fire.
I mean, the preaching is rebuking the sin
and iniquity of our land.
And the preaching is teaching the deep truths of God
from the Bible.
And the people are dressed right,
and they act right, and they look right,
and they talk right.
But if that church is not doing any work,
if that is not a laboring church,
he's not even going to be socking me, please.
That's the first thing he's going to look at you.
What's wrong with you?
You don't have any works.
Where are the works?
What are you doing that can be classified as work
or better yet, labor?
The word he brings up over and over again
in Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation 3.
Go to chapter 22 of Revelation,
since we're in Revelation anyway,
and I'll read to you from Revelation 14, 13.
This is, well, I'm not going to go too much
in the context of where it is
just because that's not the scope of the sermon,
but it says in Revelation 14, 13,
and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
write, blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth.
Yea, said the Spirit, that they may rest
from their labors and their works do follow them.
That's the one thing you can take with you
when you go to heaven.
That's the only thing you can take with you, your works.
He said that those that die in the Lord,
those that are saved, who pass from this life,
those who are absent from the body
and present with the Lord,
they don't take their car with them.
They're not going to take their wardrobe.
They're not going to take their house,
but you know what's going to follow them?
Their works.
That's why the Bible said,
lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth
where moth and rust doth corrupt
and where thieves break through and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
How do you do that?
Your works.
That's what follows you.
That's what earns you a reward.
That is the gold and silver and precious stones
that will be in your spiritual portfolio in heaven.
It's the works that you've done on this earth
and nothing else.
That's all he brings up
in regard to 1 Corinthians 3
and 2 Corinthians 5.
Revelation 22, look down at your Bible, verse 12.
And behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me
to give every man according as his work shall be.
That's where the reward's going to come from.
You say, I want to earn a lot of rewards in heaven.
Get to work.
I want God to be pleased with me.
I want to be acceptable to him.
Then get to work.
That is what God demands.
That's what God expects, working.
Go to Matthew 20, Matthew chapter 20.
And you see, a church should be a workplace.
Now a lot of churches,
they don't give you the opportunity to work
like you want to work.
Because you might be sitting there thinking,
man, this sounds great, you know I do.
Let's get to work.
Now if you ever showed up at your job
and they said, sorry, we don't have any work for you today.
And you had to go, who's ever had that happen?
You're all ready, you're excited,
you got your clothes on, right?
You got your boots on, you got your tools on,
and you show up for work and they say,
sorry, we just don't have any work for you to do today.
And you're a saint.
You go home, you're bummed,
and not only that, you don't know what to do with yourself.
You know, because you got this whole day ahead of you
and you were all psyched up about going to work
and you wanted to make that money,
you wanted to do something,
and there's nothing to do, it's a disappointment.
But that's the way churches are across America today
and across our city.
You show up, you're all dressed up,
you show up with your Bible,
and you're ready for something
and they're just, sorry, no work for you.
We don't have any work for you.
You know, and we've got spiritual,
we talk about the unemployment in this country.
You know, it's in the news every day, you know,
9% unemployment and it's really 20%
if you really count everybody around.
And I talk about it a little,
what about the spiritual unemployment?
I mean, if you look at believers,
if you look at Christians,
the unemployment rate's not 9%, it's 90%.
It's 99% of people sitting there
sucking up God's spiritual unemployment check
and they're not looking for work.
They're not, you know, I think to get unemployment,
correct me if I'm wrong,
don't you have to prove
that you looked for a job or something, is that right?
Because I remember people used to call us
as for a job and my dad would say,
some of these people don't really want a job,
they're just, they have to say
that they called so many people
or they have to prove that they're looking for work.
You know, and so, you know, look for work
and they're always unemployed spiritually
and they're the ones, I guess, who've given up.
They always talk about it in the news, like, you know,
what about the people who've stopped
even looking for a job?
They've just given up on work.
What?
And yet, everywhere I go,
it seems like there's a sign that says we're hiring.
Almost everywhere I go.
There's a disconnect going on
between what's being played on the news
and the radio and reality.
Because everywhere I go,
I see a sign that says we're hiring
and they're saying, no jobs, no jobs out there.
You know, there's a job to do spiritually.
And, you know, having a job is really important
and working and making money and supporting yourself
and supporting your family is extremely important.
But the most important thing that we do on this earth
is the work that we do for God.
And some of you are spiritually unemployed.
You need somebody to give you a kick in the pants
and get you working.
And you're not looking hard enough
if you can't find work to do at our church.
Open the bulletin.
It's on Monday, it's on Tuesday.
I'll give you a hint.
It starts with an S and it ends in Olin.
Okay?
And it's pretty much every single day
going on around here.
And you can go out and preach to God.
Yeah, is there other work to do?
Sure.
You know, we've got our piano player.
He works hard.
And it's hard work doing the music
and doing that kind of stuff.
But not everybody's talented in that way.
Not everybody has the ability to do that.
There are other jobs to do around here.
And people fulfill those jobs cleaning and doing other things.
But you know what?
The job that everybody ought to be doing
is being out soul winning.
Amen.
We ought to have zero unemployment in this church.
Because everybody who wants a job has got a job.
And you know what?
It's the best job.
It's a better job than playing the piano.
It's a better job than preaching the sermon.
It's a better job than cleaning the building.
Hey, soul winning is the most fulfilling job
in God's kingdom.
Going out and preaching the gospel
and winning people to Christ.
But you've got to do some work in your life
if you want God to be pleased with you.
And if God's going to be pleased with our church,
he'll look down and see a working church.
And by the way, this is the most workingest church
I've ever been in.
There is a greater percentage of people in our church that
are really workers, that are out doing the work, that
are laborers than any church I've ever been in.
That's got to please God.
He's got to look down at that and be pleased with that.
But let's not be like that church in Revelation
where he says, you know, thou hast a name
that thou livest in our day.
You know, you used to be doing a lot of work.
Now you seem to have petered out.
You've lost your first love.
Go back to doing the first works,
and that will be straightened out.
Look at Matthew chapter 20, verse 1.
It says, for the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is a householder, which
went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
Now look, just let that sink in, that verse.
That's what the kingdom of heaven is like.
Do you get that?
That's what God's kingdom is like.
It's like a guy who's hiring people to work for him.
Now is that what you think of when
you think of the kingdom of God?
Is that what you think of when you think of the kingdom
of heaven?
Is that what you think church is about?
Oh, church is about me coming and having a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
That's not the way he looks.
He says, no, I'll tell you what the kingdom of heaven's like.
It's me, your boss, and your manual laborer
that's supposed to work for me.
That's the way he looks at it.
And he says, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is a householder, which
went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
Now I see this a lot when I'm driving through California.
And you'll see all these tons of workers, tons of laborers
in these vineyards, and in these other just orchards,
and in these other farms.
And they're picking fruit by hand.
And if you heard people say, hey, these
are the jobs that Americans won't do.
So you'll see like a lot of people,
they're undocumented that are doing it.
But think about it now.
These are the jobs that Christians
won't do, spiritually, harvesting the great harvest.
Think about it.
Jesus Christ said, the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few.
Except that God doesn't just bring
in some migrant workforce of angels
to come do the jobs.
These are the jobs that Christians won't do.
So I'm bringing all the angels to do.
No, he has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
And we ought not be someone who says, oh, that's too hard.
That's too much hard work to go out into the harvest
and win souls to Christ, and preach
the gospel to every creature, and to be
the spiritual laborer, the spiritual harvestman that's
out there harvesting the great white in the harvest fields.
No, I'm not going to do that.
That's below me.
I want to have a cush office job in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, there's nothing wrong with having a cush office job.
And maybe some of you have a white collar job.
When you sit in an air conditioned building,
and you're in front of the computer,
and the water cooler's there, and everything's really,
you got your chair that's, they came and measured you
when you got the job so that your chair would
be ergonomically suited to you.
Or maybe it's like those people who work at Apple computers,
where they give them, I think it's at Apple, right?
Where they give them a nap every afternoon.
They turn out the lights in the whole building,
and these adults take a nap after lunch on their job.
I think it's at Apple.
Maybe I'm mixing that up with another company.
You know, that's a pretty nice job.
Hey, this job's great.
I mean, Ron does a nice job, and they
say we're going to have a paid nap time?
I don't know.
I'm not going to argue with that.
But you know, where's my feedback?
Hey, hey, read me a story.
You know, check it out.
But honestly, you might have a job like that in your life,
and if you do, hey, great.
Thank God that you're not, that you're being the heat.
Other people have more of a physical manual labor job.
But let me tell you something.
In the kingdom of heaven, those white collar jobs
just aren't available.
He's looking for laborers.
He's not looking for executives.
He's not looking for somebody to just be a supervisor.
You know, he's looking for people that are laborers,
and he said, I'll compare it to the guy that's out picking
strawberries in California.
That's the kind of worker that I'm looking for.
Somebody who will get out there, roll up their sleeves
in the hot sun, and work.
That's what he needs.
And so he says he went out to hire laborers into his vineyard.
And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day,
now, you want to talk about inflation.
I mean, a penny's different in the Bible.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, a penny in the Bible,
if you study the Bible, it's basically a reasonable wage
for a day's work.
A 12-hour day, they received a penny.
It was not like today's penny, obviously.
And he sent them into his vineyard,
and he went out about the third hour
and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
So he basically, he hired these guys
at the beginning of the day.
They were the ones who were up early.
They were ready to work.
They were standing out around the campfire, as it were,
waiting to be hired.
He hires them.
He brings them into the vineyard.
He agrees with them.
He negotiates a penny a day.
But he goes out three hours later,
and he sees other people just standing around
in the marketplace.
And he said to them, go ye also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is right, I will give you.
And they went their way.
Again, he went out about the sixth hour
and ninth hour and did likewise.
And about the 11th hour,
he went out and found others standing idle
and sayeth unto them,
why stay ye here all the day idle?
They say unto him, because no man is hired.
You know, there just aren't any jobs.
Where are the jobs?
And he said, okay, well, go ye also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
This is who God is.
He's out recruiting workers.
He's looking for laborers.
And he'll keep coming back.
And look, you can see this guy in the story.
It seems like this guy just has so much work,
he's never gonna run out of work,
because he just keeps going back and finding more workers.
I mean, he gets everybody and offers a job to everybody
that's standing there.
Then he finds other people that, you know,
the ones who kind of rolled out of bed at 10 o'clock,
and he says, hey, I want you guys to work too.
He's hiring people at five in the evening,
saying, get out there and work.
I mean, this guy has so much work to do in the story
that he just hires everybody at any time.
He just needs, that's a picture of who God is.
He's got so much, I mean, there is so much work to do.
There is so much work, we've got a city of, you know,
three point whatever million people in this area
that need to hear the gospel,
and our church needs to reach this city
with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's a big job.
Go look at our sorting map, that's a huge job.
I mean, it looks like an impossible task,
and we need all the laborers we can get.
We'll go out at the third hour, the sixth hour,
the ninth hour, and we are looking for workers, for laborers.
Now go to, if you would, First Corinthians chapter three,
where we just were a little bit earlier.
But you see, the purpose of our church
is to do work.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you
another scripture from Ephesians chapter four.
It's talking about the purpose of a church,
and the purpose of having a pastor,
and the purpose of having people teach you the Bible.
And it says in Ephesians 4-11,
he gave some apostles, and some prophets,
and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry.
Not just to perfect the saints
so that we can put them on display and say,
wow, look at these wonderful church members we have.
Look how great they are.
Look how perfect they are.
You know, the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
so that we can work,
so that we can do something.
I mean, if you showed up to your job,
and by the way, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like,
your job.
It's like a guy hiring laborers.
That's what the Bible says it's like.
If you show up to your job,
and let's say you've got your hair
in that perfect hair net,
and you've got, you've got the name tag,
and you've got your shirt tucked in,
and you're smiling, and you're within uniform,
and you look great, and then you just don't do the work.
You just sit down and say,
you know, I'm just gonna relax a little bit.
I'm here.
Aren't you glad I'm here?
Aren't you glad I came to work today?
I clocked in on time.
I'm dressed right, I look right.
You're not gonna have that job.
You're gonna be fired.
Even if you look great and follow all the rules,
even if you're just a slow worker,
or even if you're just not a very productive worker,
your job is going to be taken away from you.
You are not gonna get a paycheck.
Your boss is not gonna be pleased with you.
So why do you think that God is gonna be pleased with you
just because you're dressed right?
And hey, I'm all for dressing right.
I'm all for showing up on time.
I'm all for following God's rules.
But if you're not doing the works,
how are you gonna get a reward?
How do you expect to be rewarded?
I mean, if you did that at your job
and you showed up like I just said,
and then at the end of the day you said,
okay, I'm here to pick up my paycheck,
you know what your boss said, for what?
Pay you for what?
You know, let's say you went out of that strawberry patch
in California, right?
And let's say you just went out there
and just started playing ball, running around.
Or maybe you were exercising, getting a really good shake.
You're doing push-ups and you're doing sit-ups
and you're sweating and you go back to your boss
and at the end of the day you say,
okay, I'm here to get paid.
And sweat's pouring off your body.
And he says, you know, pay you for what?
Well, can't you see I've been working?
Look at me.
Where are the strawberries?
What have you produced?
Where's your output?
You haven't picked anything.
You didn't do the work that I told you to do.
And there are a lot of Christians out there,
they're busy, they're sweating, they're working hard,
but they're working at all the wrong things.
It's all the stuff that God told them not to do
or didn't tell them to do, you know?
I mean, let's say he sent them out
to harvest the strawberries,
it's because if they don't harvest them,
they're gonna go back, they're gonna rot,
they're gonna split, it's a time-sensitive thing,
which is why they have to bring in so many workers
in a short amount of time
just to get those strawberries and get them harvested
before they decay.
What if you showed up and you just spent the whole day
just pulling weeds?
Well, these weeds needed to be pulled, you know?
And I was sweeping up the place
and I was making the rows nice and clean.
They'd say, look, that's not what you're being paid to do.
That's not what you're being told to do.
And a lot of Christians say they wanna do their own thing
and it's not what God told them to do.
It's not the work that he gave them to do.
You know, Jesus said, I finished the work
which thou gavest me to do.
And God has given us work to do.
He's told us to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature.
He's told us that the harvest is plenteous
and that we should pray that laborers
would go out into the harvest and reach the harvest.
He didn't say, hand out a tract.
Can somebody show me that verse in the Bible?
I heard somebody say the other day,
do like Jesus did, hold up a sign and, what?
What did Jesus do?
And I was thinking to myself,
the only sign that Jesus held up
was the one that they nailed above his head
while he was hanging on the cross.
He said, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.
He didn't hold that sign up.
Somebody else nailed it above his head.
Jesus did not hold up a sign.
There is no verse that says,
thou shalt hold up a sign until I come.
Hold up the sign for Jesus.
Show me that verse in the Bible.
Wasn't it there?
Well, it's still a good idea.
You go ahead and do that.
I'm gonna do what God said to do.
He said, daily in the temple and in every house,
they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
He said, go ye therefore to the highways and hedges
and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.
He said, open my mouth boldly
to make know of the mystery of the gospel.
He said, to preach.
He said, as you go, when he said them out two by two,
he said, as you go, preach.
He didn't say, hold a sign as you go.
Put on a lot of bumper stickers as you go.
Wear a t-shirt that has scripture on it as you go.
I'm not saying that those are necessarily bad things.
It's just everybody I've ever seen doing those things
wasn't a soul winner.
That's all I noticed,
because they think that's a substitute or something.
Just put on a t-shirt.
And whenever I see somebody wearing
some kind of an evangelistic t-shirt
or having like five billion Christian bumper stickers
on the back of their car,
just every square inch is plaster with this Christmas.
And their front yard is filled with signs
saying, prepare to meet thy God.
Look, hey, I'm not saying that that's wrong,
but you know what, I am saying this.
I've never met anybody like that
who actually wants souls to preach the gospel.
Because you know what?
It's just become a substitute.
They want to do everything except what God told them to do.
And I love what our buddy Gordon from Australia said.
He's a guy who came from Australia
and he was soul winning with us here for a while.
And they told him in this church
to hand out tracks and flyers.
And he said, well, I've got, he said,
I'll just let Australia Post do that.
You know, that's the post office job.
I'm a soul winner, I'm a spirit filled believer.
I'm gonna go preach the gospel.
I'm gonna open my Bible and show people how to be saved.
You know, that's the, I'm not a mailman.
You know what I mean?
And he said, if we want to do that,
why don't we just pay the mailman to do it?
We can just hire the mailman to do it.
And he doesn't even have to be saved.
He doesn't even have to be filled with spirit.
He can hand stuff out for us.
And he hit the nail on the head.
I don't know that whoever he told that to
liked it very much, but it's the truth.
And I'll tell you right now,
we need to do the works that God has told us to do.
God's commanded us a lot of works to do
and that's what we need to do.
Where did I return to?
First Corinthians three says this in verse eight.
Now he that planteth, and this is talking about spiritually,
you know, sowing the seed of God's word,
reaping the harvest of saved souls.
He says, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.
And every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor.
So according to that, there's not a reward
just that you just went to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Oh, you were part of Faithful Word?
Well, here's a reward,
because you put up with that preaching.
You get the biggest trophy in heaven.
You know, you actually can handle that.
You actually listen to that week after week.
You actually showed up at Faithful Word Baptist Church?
Well done, now good and faithful servant.
Enter thou into the joy of my Lord.
Now, you're gonna receive your own reward
based on your own work.
You're not gonna get rewarded for my work.
I'm not gonna get rewarded for your work.
Now if I won you to Christ,
then I'm gonna get some reward for your work.
And if you won somebody to Christ,
you're gonna get some reward for their work.
But you know, that's because my work
was initially getting you saved
or your work was initially getting someone else saved.
And you know, we are rewarded for raising children
that grow up and serve God and they go out and serve God.
And we're gonna receive a reward for that.
Because the Bible says we'll receive a reward
based on winning souls to Christ
and also on turning many people to righteousness.
And there's so much on that.
But anyway, the bottom line is
that you are gonna be rewarded for what you did,
not what someone else did
or not just because you went to a church that did a lot.
It's what you've done that counts.
Verse nine says, for we are laborers together with God.
Ye are God's husbandry.
Husbandry is basically vineyards and growing of grapes.
Ye are God's building.
You don't have to turn there,
but it says in Luke chapter 10,
I already quoted from Matthew nine, Luke 10 two.
Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great,
but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.
I'm just gonna read these for you.
First Corinthians 15, 58.
Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
God expects us to always be abounding with work.
He said in Colossians 129,
wherefore I also labor, striding according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily.
First Timothy 4, 10.
Therefore we both labor and suffer reproach
because we trust in the living God
who is the savior of all men,
especially of those that believe.
Acts 20, 35, I've showed you all things
how that's so laboring you ought to support the weak
and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus,
how he said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
And we can go on and on and on.
If I read you every verse on labor,
that would take the whole sermon aside
because there's so many verses on labor.
And then we'd go to all the verses that talk about work.
And we'd be reading hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of scriptures.
But you get the idea.
I'm not gonna go on and on about it.
But I will say this, go to Philippians chapter two.
Philippians chapter two.
So number one, we saw God's kingdom, it's all about work.
It's all about getting work done.
And if you go to a church that's a working church,
well, God looks at that and says, hey, I like that.
They're doing something.
And they're actually doing the work that I told them to do.
Not just making up their own work.
But look at Philippians chapter two.
He says in verse 25,
yet I supposed it necessary to send you Epaphroditus,
my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier.
But you're a messenger and he administered my wants.
You see, the Bible uses this phrase over and over again.
Fellow laborer or companion in labor.
You know, working with someone creates a relationship
and a bond with that person.
Now, first of all, the Bible says
we're laborers together with Christ.
If you wanna have a close walk with God,
if you wanna have a bond
and a genuine relationship with God,
it's when you're working with God.
It's when you're working together.
It's when you're fellow laborers
or as the Bible says in Philippians 2.25,
when you're companions in labor.
How many times have you worked with somebody
and become very close with that person?
I mean, sometimes you work with somebody,
and you spend more time with that person than your wife.
I mean, when you're going to work
and spending 10 hours a day with somebody
and working with that person all day long,
five days a week, 10 hours a day,
I mean, you're gonna get pretty close with that person.
And by the way, that's why you shouldn't work that way
with someone of the opposite gender
as you're married, by the way.
I mean, look, I'm married.
I'm not gonna spend 10 hours working a day
with a woman that's not my wife.
That's a recipe for trouble.
And a lot of this, a lot of adultery
comes from the workplace.
That's right.
You know, when you're just really close.
I remember I was sitting in a restaurant,
I saw these two police officers.
It was clear that they were not married.
They were married to someone else,
but you could tell they weren't married to each other.
And they're just heartless.
They literally drive around me all day long.
I mean, that's a bad situation to be in right there
when you're just having that close of a relationship
with someone of the opposite gender
that you're not married to.
You know, when you're married to somebody else,
that's a bad situation.
But that's not what I'm preaching about.
But you become close with the people that you work with.
You know, I've had some really close friends over the years
that that friendship developed or worked.
And it was great when I could win somebody
to Christ on the job.
And then I could really, every day,
I could help them grow and read the Bible with them
and talk to them and preach at them,
the whole, you know, while we're working.
And you know, get them straightened out.
And then they would save and then teach them everything.
And it's been a good opportunity throughout the years.
Because when you work with people,
you become really close with people.
Because you have shared experiences.
Why are my wife and I so close after 11 years of marriage?
Because we've had so many shared experiences together.
You know, we've gone through the process
of having children together, you know.
And we've raised those children together.
We've gone on trips together.
We've spent time together.
And so we have all these memories,
any memory of the last, you know,
hey, remember this, hey, remember that?
That is what brings us closer, okay.
Well, when you work with somebody,
you develop a lot of memories too.
Hey, remember when we were on that job
and you know, we destroyed that place.
You know, remember we dropped that piece of equipment.
Remember this, you know, remember that water
was spraying everywhere, you know.
You know, funny stuff happens when you're working, right?
You know, and interesting things happen on the job.
You develop a lot of memories.
You develop a really close bond with people
with whom you work.
You know what else develops a close bond with people?
Solely.
Working in the ministry.
And when we go all solely together,
we go on two by two, man, you become really close with me.
You become friends with people.
Now, I remember when I was younger,
I went to a church a few different times
where I went to a church and I went to that church
for like a year and a half.
And I literally didn't know anybody at that church.
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever been that way?
You know, I went to that church
and I went to the teenage youth group
and I did not know anyone.
And every week I would walk into this youth group
and just sit down.
Nobody would talk to me.
I didn't talk to them.
They were all talking to their friends.
I just kind of sat there, listened to the service.
Then I'd go to the main service, sit there, listen.
And it was just, that was it.
I didn't know anybody.
I had no friends in that church, did not know anybody.
And I bet you that there are a lot of people like that
who go to a lot of churches like that
where they just show up, they sit, they listen,
they don't know anybody, they don't have any friends.
Now, there have been people who've come
to our church before who kind of just show up,
don't really know anybody, don't really talk to anybody.
They might just kind of rush out
as soon as the service is over.
Maybe they get here just right as it's starting
and they just kind of get out of here.
But I'll tell you this, you know,
and have you ever noticed that in most churches
there's kind of an inner circle?
Our church doesn't really like that,
but I've noticed a lot of churches
there's like the inner circle.
And sometimes you're like,
how do I crack into that inner circle?
You know, because I feel like I'm way out.
I'm in orbit right now.
How do I crack into the inner circle?
Now, here's the, let me give you the secrets
of the inner circle.
It's real easy to crack into the inner circle
of faithful word of God is.
Now, thankfully, our inner circle
is a lot bigger than our outer circle.
That's good.
But here's how you crack into that inner circle.
And you know, it's like that at school, right?
The cool group.
When I was, now I don't know,
when I was a kid, there's no new thing under the sun.
And I'm sure today the same things exist
just under different names.
But when I was a kid, we had the cool group
and then we had the nerd herd.
And the nerd herd was a little bigger than the cool group.
And getting into the cool group,
it's like you have to crack into that cool group.
And it's by invitation only.
And it really was all based on where you eat lunch.
You know, if you're in the cool group,
you eat lunch over here, you know, with the cool group.
If you're in the nerd herd, well, you eat lunch over there.
Okay, and you figure it out pretty fast.
And I remember, you know, I got to school on the first day.
It's like I gotta get in that cool group, you know?
And it worked out because I knew somebody
from a church that I'd gone to a while back.
So they brought me into the cool group on the very first day
because I had that connection.
Otherwise, I would have been doomed.
And once you get in the nerd herd,
the longer you're there, the harder it is to get out of it.
Once you're there, you're stuck.
Obviously, I'm kidding.
I mean, I'm telling the truth about it
the way it was in school.
But obviously that's stupid, that doesn't matter.
Obviously, we shouldn't strive to be in the cool group.
Because let me put it this way.
You know, when I was in the cool group,
it's not like I was serving God and preaching the gospel
and doing the right things.
Otherwise, you'll never be in the cool group like that.
So if you're a real Dallas Christian,
just get used to being in the nerd herd
because that's where you're gonna be.
You're not gonna be in the cool group.
But I'm using that as an illustration.
I'm not promoting peer pressure.
I'm not promoting ostracizing people at school.
I'm not promoting any of that.
I'm just speaking of the realities of my,
I'm just getting it out of my chest, okay?
So from my childhood, I'm scarred for life.
What I'm trying to say is that, you know,
if you want to get into the inner circle
of Faithful Word Baptist Church,
it's real easy, you just go soloing.
You know everybody.
You get to know everybody.
And you know, anybody who goes soloing in our church band,
they know everybody.
And there's a closeness there,
and there's a friendship there that develops.
And really, every time you go soloing,
you go with a different partner.
And when you go with that soloing partner
for a few hours, man, that's your new friend.
And that's how you make friends.
And I mean, people who go soloing all the time in church,
they've got tons of friends in this church.
Because everybody they've ever gone out soloing with
is never a friend.
They've talked to that person, they've chatted,
they've talked about their lives,
they've had shared experiences of weird stuff
that happens out soloing.
I mean like, now I go soloing with Brother Garrett
for many hours every week.
We go soloing together all the time, during the week, okay.
And so he and I, I mean, if we started doing the stories
of soloing, I mean, we'd probably have 100 funny stories
of soloing, just because we've done
so much soloing together.
Like I'll just tell one quickly.
We were in this neighborhood,
and I mean, I could tell a million of them.
You know, but we were out soloing in this neighborhood.
It was the most unreceptive neighborhood we'd ever seen.
And nobody's listening, nobody's getting sick.
We start walking down the street,
and this teenage boy's across the street.
He starts walking our way down the street,
and we both saw this guy.
We didn't even talk to each other,
but we're both thinking the same thing.
A teenager is gonna listen.
You know, because when you're out soloing,
you love talking, you know, teenagers are often receptive.
They haven't kind of formed their opinions yet.
So they're usually open to at least listen to the gospel.
They're not just hardened.
And we both see this teenager,
and so we both just kind of start walking
toward this teenager.
And I'm not kidding, he literally,
just as soon as we started walking toward him,
just ran away from us and jumped over like a 10-foot wall.
I mean, we start walking toward him,
he just turns around, doesn't say anything.
We didn't even say hi.
We just started going toward him.
He just runs and just jumps over like a,
maybe it wasn't 10 feet, but it was pretty high.
It was like over eight feet or something.
He jumps and just throws himself over a wall.
And he looked at each other and just burst out laughing.
I think it was time to find another neighborhood
to go soloing.
I mean, we had so many funny things happen.
And if you miss soloing,
you can tell all those funny stories.
You know, me and Brett were all soloing in this.
You know, we knocked on the door and he asked,
you know, can I show you how you can open strike a diet
today and go to heaven?
And she says, well, you know,
I think my hands might smell like tuna.
I was making a sandwich.
And Brett says, well, that's okay.
I can show you anyway.
You know, it's just funny things that people,
or people will come to the door with the phone
up to their ear, pretending like they're on the phone
and then the phone will ring.
I can't believe that they were just holding it up.
You know, I mean, just all kinds of crazy stuff.
You know, funny things will happen.
And you know, when you go out soloing,
you gain companions in labor, as the Bible says here.
People who labor with, let me read you,
oh, flip over to Philippians 4.
You're in chapter two.
Companions in labor.
Fellow laborers.
People that you've been soloing with.
People that you've worked with.
And you have fun stories together.
You're spending time together.
And you know, it's real easy to,
and this is kind of the buzz word today among churches.
And I've seen this in the advertising.
This is what Madison Avenue is putting out for churches.
Now, get plugged in.
You know, who's seen this kind of advertising for churches?
Get connected.
Get plugged in, you know.
And they made it.
But basically, their way of plugging you in
is a small group Bible study.
Now look, here's the thing.
I'm not against studying the Bible.
But you know, studying the Bible's not really necessarily
out doing the work in the vineyard, though, either, is it?
I mean, it's not necessarily bringing in the harvest.
I'm all for studying the Bible, man.
I'll study the Bible all day long.
I want to read the Bible all day long.
But you know, the real way you're going to get plugged in
is by getting out there and doing the work.
And if you work at Baptist Church, you say,
where's the small group Bible study, man?
I want to get plugged in.
I want to connect.
Hey, the small group Bible study is door-to-door soul in it
instead, rich in the Gospel.
Then we're getting other people saved.
And you'll have, you know, weirder stuff's going to happen
out solely than in that Bible study.
So you're going to have way better stories.
You're going to have a lot more fun.
You're going to meet a lot more people.
And it's the ultimate way to get in the inner circle
at this church.
I mean, you know, the inner circle is just those
who go soul-winding.
It's not even a defined thing.
It's just, if you go soul-winding, you know everybody.
You're friends with everybody.
That's how you make friends.
And you say, oh, I went to that church
and they just weren't that friendly.
And you know, I just don't have any friends.
Hey, a man that had friends must show himself friendly.
Go off soul-winding, you'll have all the friends you need.
Verse three of Philippians four.
And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow.
How about that word for you?
Yoke fellow.
You know, hey, I'm glad that I have a lot of yoke fellows.
Now that sounds kind of weird in today's lingo.
But that's what he means, a fellow laborer.
A yoke fellow.
A yoke, do you know what a yoke is?
A yoke is a device that attaches two animals together
so they can both work together and plow
and that one doesn't get ahead of the other.
They put a yoke, a wooden yoke to hold them in place.
So he's saying, hey, this guy's my yoke fellow.
We work together.
We're side by side.
We're inseparable.
We're joined together by this wooden bond.
And he says, I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow.
Help those women which labored with me in the gospel
with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers
whose names are in the book of life.
Now this shows right here that women can get involved too.
You know, and I thank God we have a church
where the ladies go out soul-winding
and the ladies are workers.
And thank God for the ladies who clean the building
and do other things as well.
That's a huge blessing.
That's hard work.
That's definitely labor.
And also thank God for the ladies who go out soul-winding
that are out giving the gospel, preaching the gospel.
And sometimes the ladies can achieve more
than the men out soul-winding sometimes
because it's just hard to say no.
You know, they see me and they're like, get out of here.
Slam the door, blankety blank.
But when it's, you know, a couple of nice ladies,
you know, we'll talk to people, you know,
oh, a couple of nice ladies came by with a stroller
and they thought that was, you know,
they listened to you with the stroller.
You know, listen to this guy with a beard, you know.
But anyway, you know, fellow laborers, yoke fellows,
Romans 16, six, don't turn there.
Greet Mary who bestowed much labor on us.
First Thessalonians 3, two, Timotheus our brother
and minister of God and our fellow laborer
in the gospel of Christ.
Philemon one, says Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ
and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved
and fellow laborer.
Why was he a dearly beloved?
Because he's a fellow laborer.
That's who you're gonna love dearly,
the people who are your fellow laborers.
And he talks about at the end of Philemon,
Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers.
They got mentioned in the Bible
just for being a fellow laborer.
We don't even know who those guys are.
They got mentioned because they were workers,
because they were fellow laborers.
So not only does God command us to work,
not only does he want us to work,
not only does he judge us by our work,
not only does he reward us by our work,
but working for God is gonna build you
the close relationship with other Christians that you need.
It's gonna build you to close friendships
with other believers and help you to get quote,
plugged in as it were at Faith Ward Baptist Church
and to get into the inner circle of Faith Ward Baptist.
Translation, that's how you make friends, by working.
So on Labor Day, the world doesn't even know
what they're celebrating.
99% of people, I mean just start asking people,
what is Labor Day?
What are we celebrating?
I mean people know what Christmas is.
They know what Memorial Day is.
What is Labor Day, just a sale at JCPenney?
No, I mean is that what it is?
Nobody even knows, and I don't even know.
I still can't figure, I read about it this morning,
and I still can't figure it out.
But the bottom line, I don't really give a rip about it,
to be honest, and I'm not celebrating it.
I'm celebrating my own personal holiday, Labor Day.
It's just gonna be a celebration of work,
just a celebration of laboring for God.
And maybe that's why, maybe the reason
that it's just a day off to celebrate the fact
that you worked other days,
I guess that's why it's called Labor Day, I don't know.
I'm not gonna be at any stores at 3 a.m.
but I'm taking it as an opportunity to remind our church
that it's all about the labor, it's all about the work.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for our church dear God,
and I thank you that you do know our works,
and I know that we're not mentioned in the Bible
with the seven churches there,
but I also know that if you were to look down
at our church, I believe the first thing you'd say is,
I know thy works, because you don't change,
and that's what you said to them.
And I just pray that you would be pleased
with our works, and that our works would be acceptable
to you, and that you would look down and see our labor
and our works, and be pleased with us.
And Father, I pray that you'd be pleased
with me personally, and I pray that every single person here
would strive to be a laborer and worker,
and to ask themself this question,
what work am I doing for God?
We love you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.