Be About Your Fathers Business- Let's Go to Work!

"So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

At Wednesday nights service Pastor Josh, worship pastor at our church walked by me in the hall. I said, “hey man of God!” Two other men were in the hall walking ahead of him. I said, “Three men should be turning around to see who is calling them.” Man of God. Quite a name isn’t it. When you look through scripture you see so many great men of God.

My father was illiterate. As a child he was taken out of school and what he did was work so that the family could make ends meet. From a large family he worked and at thirteen he earned a man’s wage for a day’s pay. When he came to Jesus when I was about ten years old he desired to read so badly and went to adult literacy classes. As a plasterer he worked very hard. Tons of cement would go through his hands, arms and shoulders up to the walls and ceilings of most of the houses built in Yakima, WA where he lived and worked. At night his arms hung in pain from the extremely hard work of the day.

Because he wanted to do something for the Lord he volunteered my brother and I to clean the church each Saturday- my first ministry. That was not enough, he started inviting people to church and would pick them up in our car and make sure they would be in the house of God and hear the Word of God. In fact from the time I was fourteen years old he started driving Sunday school Bus Ministry for the Stone Church in Yakima. For thirty-eight years he drove the Sunday school bus. Many people came to Christ and I know there were many who bless him for faithfulness and love to bring them to Christ. He couldn’t teach, preach or pastor, but he could drive the Sunday School Bus and make sure by visiting homes on Saturday that they would be in God’s house on Sunday. Favorite helpers in the bus ministry was Bruce and Mary French.

John Wanamaker was an amazing man, and many people in Philadelphia are familiar with the huge store known as Wanamaker's, which bears his name. He was a Postmaster General for many years, but he also founded a Sunday school that grew to over four thousand students. Can you imagine that? Someone came up to this guy, who had this huge business and a mega-Sunday-school, and asked, "How do you find the time to run your Sunday school in addition to your business and other obligations?" Wanamaker replied without hesitation saying, "Why, the Sunday school is my business. All these other things are just things! Forty-five years ago, I decided to take God at His Word that if I would seek first the kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, then all these other things would be added unto me."

What's your business? A plumber? A dentist? A carpenter? A homemaker? A teacher? WHAT'S YOUR BUSINESS? Your real business is that you're a servant of God. You may be serving God as a plumber, as a homemaker, as a teacher, or as a carpenter, but you're a servant of God. Paul says to serve Him with all your heart because when you get the eternal view, you'll see that your service to God is not in vain. God sees it, God notes it, and God will forever remember it. The time is short, my friend. Let's be about our Father's business, let's get to work! Nothing you do for the Lord is useless, but useful in His Kingdom.

Living Sacrifice

"I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1, AMP).


In the service at Hope Church in Springfield Pastor Gary has been teaching on giving. He said he has neglected the subject. When he quoted the fact that only 18% give more than $500.00 a year I was befuddled. I just could not understand believers that don't give, that refuse to give, or disobey in their giving. Unbelievable! It comes from the firm conviction that giving is a blessing, an act of worship, an act of obedience that goes to the heart of who I am. My wife and I are amazed at the blessing of God over our lives as we give, tithe, missions, missions projects, and to aid pioneer pastors struggling in their call of ministry.

In the service on Sunday, there came an exhortation that encouraged the congregation to give themselves to God with the Romans 12:1 passage. Pastor exhorted the congregation to do the same. I was reminded of a situation in India serving in Madras that God had used that passage. After the service on Wednesday night seeing Pastor Gary in the hall Jeanne encouraged me to relate the story.

In Mylapore, Pastor Thilagaran was forced out of his building by Hindu owners. As the congregation started coming to church early Sunday morning they were met by thugs who threw rocks, rotten fruit and had sticks to hit the people and drive them away. When I got a call, I immediately went prayed with pastor and his wife and left to go preach at the scheduled service at Nunganbakkam with Pastor Samson. Though I had prepared a message it was laid aside as the Lord began to speak to me another message. It was that I was to talk about sacrificial giving. God was asking me to take an offering for the Mylapore Church that had no place to meet. I shared with the people the message God had given to me about giving and the principles of God's blessing in giving. I shared with the congregation the events of the morning in Mylapore. I asked them to give a sacrificial offering to aid the Mylapore Church.

Ushers came, we prayed and then three young men stepped up to the altar area. I went to each of them and asked what they wanted? One young man wanted to give an eye, and two wanted to give kidneys. The shock of what these young men offered caused me to stop the offering. I asked the ushers to come back. In that moment God gave me an answer for them and the congregation. The Romans 12:1 passage of offering your bodies as living sacrifices. I shared this with the congregation and the young men. I asked them to climb into the offering bags as it were! Symbolically to take a step to give themselves to God. They had no job and no money to give. They wanted to give. If they gave a body part for someone in need they would be paid a large sum of money for it. They felt then they could give.

That morning I asked the people to give themselves and to also give sacrificially as God directed them. So many people took off watches, rings, gold earrings, gold nose studs and gold necklaces in the offering. As the users brought the offering to the front I asked the deacons and pastor to come and pray over this offering as we were going to take it to Mylapore Pastor. We took the offering from Nungambakkam to Mylapore, Madras (Chennai) to present it to the church in Mylapore. Tears were shed, men praying one for the other and loving each other as their hearts were touched by the sacrifice of the church offering for them. It may have been more symbolic than substantial in total amount, but the result in the three young men was wonderful. Over the next several years these young men had good jobs, married and had children. The lessons learned from a sacrificial offering and they offering themselves to God proved to them the help, provision and blessing of God in giving.

"No sacrifice I ever make for Christ could be compared to what He has made for me." C.T. Studd was a man who gave up a huge athletic career for the Lord. He could have been very famous. He said, "If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." There is nothing I could ever do that could ever outweigh what Christ has done for me."

I'm sure you have heard of David Livingstone, the great missionary who went to Africa. He disappeared for years as he was serving the people of Africa, sharing Christ with them and ministering to their practical needs. He didn't do it for anything he could get out of it and people were amazed by his sacrifice and good heartedness. Frequently when he was interviewed by people they would say, "Oh, Dr. Livingstone, what great sacrifices you have made," and this was his reply: "I never made a sacrifice. We ought not to talk of sacrifice when we remember the great sacrifice that He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us."

In light of the sacrifice Jesus made for us, we owe Him everything. The apostle Paul reminds us of what Jesus gave up for us:

"You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Jesus walked away from it all to come to the slums of this earth in order that we might be saved.

A pastor must decide what kind of obedience, impact, and heritage he will leave. All Christians really must do the same. We all have the same commands of scripture and hold the same Bible in hand.

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

In his book, "The Making of a Disciple," Keith Phillips shows how Jesus' plan, if followed, would reach the whole world. It has been the desire and goal of our lives to see the World come to Jesus.

The chart below assumes the evangelist reaches one person a day, and the disciple trains one person a year (then each disciple in turn trains others, etc.).

      YEAR           EVANGELIST            DISCIPLER
          1                         365                                 2

2                         730                                 4           3                      1,095                                 8           4                      1,460                               16           5                      1,825                               32           6                      2,190                               64           7                      2,555                             128           8                      2,920                             256           9                      3,285                             512           10                    3,650                          1,024           11                    4,015                          2,048           12                    4,380                          4,096           13                    4,745                          8,192           14                    5,110                        16,384           15                    5,475                        32,768           20                    7,300                   1,048,576           25                    9,125                 33,554,432           30                  10,950            1,037,741,824 Pray for God to give you two people this year to invest in their eternity. As a Missionary I have often prayed for the Lost of the world. Many times I have done an illustrated sermon of the opportunity of discipleship to win our world. In a crowd of 100 people, between year six and seven the entire congregation as an example of community would be discipled and won. Please pray Lord of the Harvest for laborers. Please join the ranks of discipling. You are either discipling others or need to be discipled.