Our Labor for the Lord

"Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash." Matthew 7: 24-27 (NLT)

Note the two distinct things Jesus says we must do. Listen and follow. Sometimes in the life of the over-churched we got the listening part down real well but the following becomes more difficult. The result is we begin building our foundation on the shifting sands of this world that offer no stability. Our life sways then like a shaky building, teetering based upon which way the wind blows. One false doctrine after another we can fall for because we are not building on the Rock. Because when the Sanballets and Tobiahs of the world came against us, we complained about all of the rubble that used to be our lives and the job of cleaning it up just seemed to daunting. But do you want to know what the enemy says when we start wavering like this? Let's go back to the story of Nehemiah:

Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, "Before they know what's happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work." Nehemiah 4: 11 (NLT)

And that is exactly what the devil does to Christians who fail to take their labor for God seriously. He ends their work. Before we know what is happening we are back in the bar. We are back into pornography. We are back to the vomit we thought we had left behind when Jesus saved us. But that event was supposed to lead to a progression. Here was how Nehemiah answered the challenge:

But from then on, only half my men worked while the other half stood guard with spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. The leaders stationed themselves behind the people of Judah who were building the wall. The laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. Nehemiah 4: 16-17 (NLT)

We are the laborers in the Kingdom of Almighty God beloved. We too need to shoulder the burden of the work with one hand while holding the weapon He has given us in the other the Word of God. It is the Word that cuts through the lies of the enemy. It is the Word that reminds us of the promises and power of God. It is the Word that needs to be the foundation upon which we build. Not the world and the solutions of man. Not our friends and therapists. Not medication and group therapy. But what are we building with today? What are we holding in our hand as we shoulder our burden? Your work this Labor Day and every day after is founded upon what God has already said. We just have to read it, believe it, and put it into practice in the building of our house; in the building of our lives.

Lastly the key verse also deals with the building of the city or the church. The Kingdom of God is still being built by the people God has called to the work:

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2: 10 (NIV)

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