FEARLESSLY COURAGEOUS
Desk of Dennis Piller
9 2 2024
Labor Day: Do You Labor In Vain?
A Labor Day holiday celebrating a year of hard work. A day off. Barbeques, hotdogs, families and laughter. Who doesn’t need a break and a national holiday proclaiming a day off? Labor Day caused me to consider what has been the labor of my hands. How much was me and how much did I rely on God to get me there? To direct my path? To open up closed doors? To pay the way forward? To be on the right trajectory? The right company? The right future and testimony? Am I caught up in a pretty good life? A routine that will pick up again tomorrow, next week…It’s already September… and soon to be a new year! Christmas…. NO, I’m not already!
Another day older and deeper in debt…do you remember the old song?
The truth is if we want something different we must do something different.
You know the definition of insanity? Continuing to do the same old things and expecting or hoping for a different result! Not Happening!
So what does God say about Labor?
Psalm 127 1
“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat– for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him”.
I love researching different thoughts and ideas people have about their interpretation of scripture. Like: Do you hear the warning in Psalm 127:1 – It is useless to construct a house without depending upon the Lord. Perhaps, by “house” he was thinking not only of a building but also of a family. As believers the most crucial construction business there is; We are building our marriages, building up our children and neighborhood on Christian values…We are constructing lives built on the building blocks of 66 books to live life by…To build a legacy for 1,000 generations after us. Building our lives and the church.
The Psalm asserts that unless God builds (verse 1), UNLESS God watches (verse 1), and UNLESS God gives (verse 2) even our work to honor him will be in vain. No matter how much we create, how carefully we conserve, or how hard we work, it is futile and foolish to try to do so independently of God.
IT WILL ALL BURN UP LIKE HAY AND STUBBLE.
1COR 3:12 SAYS; “Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s 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”.
Psalm 127 teaches of a fundamental human dependence on God for life’s most basic tasks. It speaks three times explicitly and once implicitly of the futility of human activity without God’s accompanying blessing.
I think of Peter denying Christ three times. I remember Jesus asking him three times; Do you love me, Peter? Three times Peter says he does with more intensity each time Jesus asks. Three times here it tells us explicitly to not build without his architectural approval. Without His plan, not the plan you just seemed to fall into.
Maybe that’s the message. We fall into our plans but we must look up for His?
He would rather you do nothing than try and offer something he didn’t bless.
When we build our tower of Babel alone…then that’s what it is? Babel. Gen 11:1
Our monument to our independence. Our achievements. Our Glory! Not his.
Look at John 15:5 if you are looking for more proof of how serious
God is about our self-dependence.
Jesus is the vine, the true source of life for us believers. We are branches connected to Him, drawing that life from Him as branches draw the necessary nutrients to survive and flourish. At first glance, we may assume that branches bear fruit, but in another sense, the true sense, it’s really the vine that makes it all happen.” The Holy Spirit!
The Vinedresser represents the Father and cultivates his plants. The True Vine represents Jesus and the fruit’s vital life source, and the branches represent the disciples who determine the result of the fruit.
What does all this say to you about your fruit? About your labor? About how you have gotten here. Every construction company must take inventory and assess how they have done. What has worked and what hasn’t? How much capacity for growth do we have for the next quarter? Do we have the right personnel in place?
We Christians have a higher calling. We are supposed to answer to the beat of a different drummer. We are supposed to be an example. A light on a hill as a Testimony to God’s blessings and God’s grace. When we toil on our own, when we strive for our own independence we are without the blessings of God because we did it in rebellion, even though we may have a bank account that says otherwise.
John 15:1 says it better than I can:
“I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I to you, you will produce plenty of fruit. But separated from me you won’t be able to do anything.
If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be like a branch
that has been thrown out and has dried up”
Lord help us stay connected to the Vine, to Jesus, so we might offer to you what you will accept from us. The fruit that YOU brought to bear. Lord, I may have drifted a bit this year but forgive me as I want what you want for me. I want your blessing above man.
I want to stay connected and be a part of the storehouse of blessings under the umbrella of the maker of Kings and Empires.
Chris Tomlin How great is our God
