THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"The Calling to Work”Rev. Carl Haak July 12, 2009; No. 3471
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Dear Radio Friends,
For the past several weeks in our programs on the Reformed
Witness Hour, we have sought our strength and direction from God’s Word during
these days of economic uncertainty and woe. We began by hearing God’s promise
that He will give us our daily needs. As He rained manna from
heaven upon
We saw last week that we are to view money and things as the
stewards of the Lord. We looked into the principle of God’s sovereign ownership
of all things and His distribution of money and things as it pleases Him. We
saw that, while we do not have ownership of anything, we have responsibility in
all things. We confessed that God is the sole owner of all things. Not an inch
of what we possess is our own. But it is God’s possession. And we are to
celebrate this. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.
When Adam, the first man, opened his eyes and looked around all
the creation, there were two things that were evident to him. First of all, he
knew that he did not make it. And secondly, he knew that he did not own it. It
was not his bush, his gold, or his resource. But God said to Adam, “I have
given it to you that you might be a steward, that you might use it. Adam, I did
not make these things for Me out of some aesthetic
need that I had.” For God looks upon His own beauty.
And there is nothing so beautiful as God. But God said
to Adam, “I made it for you, that you might manage it for Me,
that you might use it for My honor, for My glory.”
So we saw last week that we are to be faithful stewards and we
are to use all earthly things out of faithfulness to the living God.
Now today we want to look at our calling as a steward to work, to be diligent. We read in
Romans 12:11
that we must be diligent in business.
And here, as we come to the calling of work, we come to another principle. And
that principle is that work for the believing child of God, redeemed in the
blood of Jesus Christ, has dignity. It is a calling given to us from our Savior
Jesus Christ. The Bible calls us the servants of the Lord. And then, concerning the working man, we read in
Colossians 3:23, 24,
“And whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men:…for ye
serve the Lord Christ.” We serve the Lord Christ. Redeemed in His precious
blood, we are His servants in all that we do. Whether you are in kindergarten
and coloring and learning your ABCs, or whether you
are in the ninth grade taking exams, or whether you are a business owner with
employees, you have been given a calling. You are entrusted with work to do.
This is true because we were created in the image of God. God, our heavenly Father, works. Jesus said in
John 5,
“My Father worketh; He is constantly active, preserving, caring for,
and directing all things.” So also we, in His image, were created in Christ
Jesus to work. Work did not come because of sin. Work is not a curse. Man was
made to work. When man was made, before sin entered the world, God had said,
“Dress the garden, Adam, and keep it.” Yes, sin has brought a curse, made work
hard. Now we work and sweat, the sweat of our face and
in tears. But that does not take away from the fact that work in itself is a
privilege, a calling from God. Six days, says God, shalt
thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.
In that day you are not to work. We have a calling to work.
This calling to work, first of all, admonishes us against a sin.
The sin is the sin of sloth. In the book of Proverbs, you will find repeated,
urgent warnings against the sins of being lazy, the sins of a sluggard, the sins of sloth. In
Proverbs 6:6
we read, “Go to the ant,
thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” There we are warned against
being a sluggard. A sluggard is a lazy person. He does not want to work. He
wants his own ease. He does not want to spend his energy. He has abilities, he
has opportunities, but he refuses to use them—perhaps because he does not like
his job. He does things only by constraint. You have to force him to do it.
The book of Proverbs, as I said, has a whole lot to say about
laziness, and how laziness will bring tragedy into a person’s life. For
instance, if you turn to the 26th chapter
and the verses 13-16: “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.” A
lazy man comes with absurd excuses why he cannot work. There is one great
obstacle after another that prevents him from working. And verse 14: “As the
door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful
upon his bed.” He cannot get out of bed. He wants a little more sleep. He rolls
over with a groan, just like a creaky door. Verse 15: “The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth
him to bring it again to his mouth.” He is so lazy he cannot get his hand out
of his bosom, out of his pockets. He is so tired he falls asleep. Verse 16:
“The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a
reason.” He always knows better; he always has a reason why he cannot work; he
always knows better than seven men who are telling him of the opportunities
that he has for work. No, he knows better.
This sin is in our nature. It is the sin of procrastination,
Proverbs 6:9-11,
“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise
out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the
hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth,
and thy want as an armed man.” Procrastination—when you say, “Yah, I’ll get to
it. Just another minute.” And then that minute
multiplies and becomes a day, and that day becomes a week, and the week becomes
a month, and the month becomes a year. And soon we are ensnared in inactivity,
every opportunity now has slipped by, and it is too late.
The sluggard does not finish his work. Perhaps he begins. There
is a novelty about it. It is sort of exciting. But then the reality of daily work settles in and it gets boring. We read in
Proverbs 12:27:
“The slothful
man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but
the substance of a diligent man is precious.” He goes out hunting, first
opening day. He is excited. Deer season, or elk. He is
enthused. He sees one down in the valley. He shoots. The animal is dead. But
now he has to skin it. And he has to pack it up. He has to carry it out. That’s
too much work. That’s too much trouble. He leaves the meat to rot. His life is
filled with unfinished projects. He cannot stick to it to the end. He comes
with excuses. He reasons why he cannot do it.
And then he becomes dissatisfied. He begins to say that life is
not fair. He has it so bad. He wants what others have. He wants their
promotions. He wants their talents. He becomes bitter and resentful.
We read in
Proverbs 21:25, 26:
“The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.
He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the
righteous giveth and spareth
not.” He complains that everybody has it better. He criticizes everything: the
job, the economy. No one thinks about him. He criticizes everything except his
own laziness.
God says that this sin is in our nature, this terrible sin of
sloth. And God says that we must be aware of this sin, for sloth will bring us to poverty (see
Proverbs 6:10, 11).
The one who traveleth is, literally, one who is an armed robber or
burglar who comes in the middle of the night. He scopes out his target,
he breaks in, and he takes everything away, so that when you wake up you find
that you have nothing. So is sin, every sin. Sin is erosion. Sin, before your
eyes, takes everything out of your life until it is gone. And
so the sin of sloth.
We must learn, from a spiritual point of view, the danger of
idleness. Our parents would tell us that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
We are called in the Scriptures to occupy our time with our calling. If we do
not use our time, the devil will use our time. Idleness.
There is so much idleness today—in the summer, perhaps, for a boy of twelve,
thirteen, fourteen years old. Nothing to do. Sits before the computer day after day. Idle
time. And in this idle time he gets into bad friendships, wastes his
time, and uses his time for self and for fun and for friends and for all types
of things. Bored out of his mind for his family, bored out of
his mind at home.
We must be diligent in our work. If we do not fill our time with
work, then the devil will fill our time. If we do not use our energies and
talents to serve the Lord, the devil will put those energies to use.
We must apply this word to ourselves. We must apply this word to
our spiritual lives. When we think about the lazy person, we need to ask, “Of
whom have I been thinking? Have I been thinking about someone else? Or have I
been thinking about myself?” Have you looked into your own attitudes, attitudes
of procrastination, of not finishing work, of taking the easy road, of looking
for the cushy job, of jealousy over what other people have and their
promotions, making excuses why you could not do better on a test or on an exam?
God’s word comes to us.
And then think of the spiritual application. The word of God is
not speaking just about our earthly life, but of our spiritual life and of the
So we run our business well. So we do on the earthly level what
is necessary to get the job done. Good. But what about the
soul? What about the church? What about being diligent toward the house
of God, twice on the Lord’s Day? Are you a sluggard? How much effort do you put
into your spiritual life? How much effort do you put into your devotions, into
your relationships, into love in your marriage? Are you working at it? Are you
working with your children, bringing them up in the fear of God, or do you say,
“Yah, someday I’ll have to do that”? Are you witnessing of the gospel to
others, or do you say, “Well, others will do it”? Spiritually we have a work to
do. Are you idle?
Once again, the devil looks at our life and he says, “If you
don’t use your time and your talents in the service of God, I will use them.”
Go to the ant, says the word of God. Consider her ways and be
wise. You know, when the Lord calls us there to go to the anthill, that is a
very humbling thing, is it not? Here we are, as men and women, and God says,
“I’m going to teach you from an ant. I’m going to speak My
word to you through an ant—the ant on your kitchen floor who found its way to
that crumb that you missed. You cleaned so carefully and yet he found it. And
now he has called all of his buddies and they are carrying that crumb off.” God
is saying, “Don’t get so high and mighty about yourself.” He does not say,
“Sluggard, lazy one, what I want you to go and consider is the American dream,
consider the Fortune 500 Club, consider the story of the guy who started out
with an electrical kit and now he’s a multi-millionaire computer man. Go to
Donald Trump.” No He does not. He says, “Go to the ant, the ants who are swarming through the cracks in your patio. Pull up a
chair and look and learn.” Ants teach us how we are to serve God.
We read in
Proverbs 6:7, 8:
“Which having no guide, overseer, or
ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” The ants are
industrious. They cannot stop moving. They are cooperative. They do not fight
each other. They are self-motivated. They do not need a foreman, a ruler to
settle the squabbles. They all know the good. They are all motivated. Now, God
made you, as a child of God, to be like that ant. He does not say, “Sluggard,
go to the snail.” He does not say, “Sluggard, go to the parasite that latches
hold and sucks out.” But, go to the ant, the industrious ant, who works, and you work like that ant. Learn the lessons that
God teaches in the creation of the ant.
We must then do our work with singleness of purpose. We must do
our work with dispatch. We must not do our work half-heartedly. We must not do our work out of a resentful spirit.
Colossians 3:22, 23:
“…not with
eye-service, as menpleasers; but in singleness of
heart, fearing God: …do it heartily, as to the Lord,” for we serve the Lord
Christ.
Then we are to receive our calling knowing that it has come to
us from God. And we are to do it with thanksgiving. We must not refer to our
jobs as menial. We must not say, “I’m just a housewife; or I’m just a builder.
I’m not a big-shot. I don’t have any prestige.” Do not talk that way. You are
to say, “I am a servant of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He has
assigned to me a portion in His kingdom to be faithful to Him. My heavenly
Father has a counsel. Every moment of time, every detail, every event of the day
in my life fits that plan. And His place that He has given me to work also fits
in that plan.” Do not say concerning your work, “Well, what does it matter?
It’s all going to burn up anyway. How does this have anything to do with the
Be wise in your work. God has given you not only a calling, but
also a mind. Use your mind. Put your heart into your work. Serve the Lord
Christ.
For the sluggard, his poverty will come, his ruin will come. It
will come upon him, and it will come upon his family. By the grace of God, in
diligent labor, comes the blessing of God in peace of mind. The idle and the
lazy are depressed. They are stuck on themselves. They sink more and more into
depression. But God gives to His children peace and satisfaction. The Lord will
provide. That is the peace that the Lord gives us.
We learn that truth in the Scriptures, and thus our goal is to
be faithful in everything that we have. We must keep our priorities straight.
Work is a calling, but that calling is also subservient. It is subservient to
our calling spiritually. We must provide for our homes. We must provide for the
church. We must do our work as faithful stewards of what God has given us. And
then we are to apply this to our spiritual lives. We are to be diligent
stewards also of the spiritual things of God.
Do you hear the Word of God? Do you love the Word of God?
Cherish it. Be a diligent worker. And may all that we do be for His glory and
honor.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for this Word. And we pray that we may
indeed be faithful and diligent stewards. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.