Renewing God's Gift of Work

While we tend to think of Labor Day weekend in terms of the end of grange fair and the beginning of the school year, today I want us to take a few minutes and actually think about labor and our jobs. With so many people unemployed and underemployed you would think that those who have jobs would be happy, but the majority are not. A recent survey has shown that just 45% of people fortunate enough to have jobs today are happy with those jobs. Job satisfaction is at its lowest rate since records have been kept so if you are one of those people who are not satisfied with your job, you are not alone, but there is something you can do about it, and no… I don’t mean you can quit your job. The truth is that many times being unhappy at work has nothing to do with the work we do, our work environment, coworkers or even our boss, it has to do with us and there is something that we can do about us – and the Bible gives us some direction on how to renew our attitudes toward work. Now, if you are one of the 45% who are happy with your job that is great, but please don’t tune out what God might be saying today because the things that we can do to renew our satisfaction in work are the same things that can help us keep not just stay satisfied but even become happy and feel fulfilled in the work we do.


Before we look at how to renew our job satisfaction we need to first understand why we work and why work for so many is difficult. The simple answer to why we work is found in Genesis 1 and the story of creation. We work because we have been created in the image of God and God works. Genesis chapter 1 is the story of God working. God separates light from darkness, God forms the dry ground and calls it earth, God brings for vegetation on the earth, God places stars in the sky, God forms the fish of the seas and the birds of the air and God created animals that roam the earth and then God formed humankind in his image. For six days God worked look at Genesis 2:2-3. So we know that God works and since we are children created in the image and likeness God we have been created for work and in Genesis 2:15 & 19 we see that God invites Adam to join him in the work of creation.

Adam was invited to partner with God in working the land and then God gave Adam the job of naming all the animals. What an amazing thing, Adam couldn’t create the animals but God wanted him to experience the joy of creating so gave him the job of naming all the animals. What a fun job that would have been, and what an amazing partnership Adam got to experience – he was invited into partnership and got to work with God. So Genesis 1 and 2 shows us that we were created to work and that God intends work to be a partnership of blessing and joy, but for many of us it is not, so what happened?

As we read on Genesis 3 we see that what happened is that sin happened. Adam and Eve turned away from God and the consequence of their sin was not only that they were removed from the Garden of Eden, but work was no longer going to be a joy – it was going to be difficult, look at Genesis 3:17b-19a. Sin destroyed the joy and blessing of work and in many ways, sin still destroys the blessing and joy of work. The sin of greed and pride and fear and ego corrupt the work place and destroys our enjoyment of work and the satisfaction we can find in it. Sin makes our work difficult and demanding and it devastates us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

But this is not how God wants us to live. God does not want us to live under the curse of sin, God wants us to experience freedom, forgiveness, and new life which means that God wants to renew and transform our experience of work and find in our jobs not just satisfaction, but meaning and purpose and joy once again and the first step in this renewal process is for us see that all work is a gift from God.

Now the reason we know that work is a gift from God is because God called people from and to every type of job. We don’t know what Noah did before God called him, but God called him and equipped him with skills to be a ship builder. Joseph (in the OT) was a business manager and a administrator. King David started out as a shepherd. Nehemiah, who God called to undertake the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was first the wine taster for a King. Peter was a fisherman, Matthew was a tax collector and Paul was a religious leader and teacher but also a tent making or tanner. Because God used people from all walks of life and every job imaginable, we see that all jobs are valuable and every job is a gift from God.

One of the things that can begin to help us find satisfaction in our work is to understand that no matter what job we have, our work is a gift and therefore has meaning and value. It doesn’t matter what you do, your job is important. If you think about it, the person who cleans the hospital is just as important as the doctors, maybe even more important when it comes to stopping the spread of infection. Too many times the dissatisfaction with our jobs comes from feeling like the work we do isn’t important and that no one notices or values it, but when we begin to see that all work is a gift from God which means that all work has value and meaning, then maybe our attitudes begin to change. The work may not change, but our attitude towards our work can change which means our experience in working can change.

When we begin to see our jobs as a gift from God we will also begin to do what Paul tells us to do in Colossians and work at our jobs with all our heart as if we are working for the Lord. If our jobs are a gift from God then in some sense we are working for the Lord, but more than that, I think we need to see it like God intended it to be and that is as a partnership or working with the Lord.

Not only are all jobs a gift from God, but we need to look at our work as a vocation and not just employment. The word vocation means calling and if all work is a gift from God, then the job we have today is the job God has called us to and if God has called us to this job then God has something for us right where we are. God has something for us to learn or do in the job we have right now and as we begin to discover this we will find more satisfaction. So why has God called you to the job you have today? It may be for no other reason than to be his presence in that workplace. Maybe the reason God has given you the gift of your job is because he wants his light to shine in that place and he wants his grace to be experienced by those you work with, look at Colossians 4:2-6.

Paul’s job at that moment was to be a prisoner. As odd as that sounds, Paul did see that as his vocation. God had called Paul to that place to share his light and love and maybe that is why God has placed us where we are. Maybe you are in your current job just so you can share God’s light and love with those around you. If that is the case then we need to take seriously what Paul says in Colossians 4:5-6. Do we make the most of every day we go to work? Do we make sure every word we speak is seasoned with God’s grace and truth and love? Are we praying for opportunities to share God’s love in word and action? If doing God’s work in partnership with God becomes our focus at work then our attitude towards the job can change and we can find satisfaction in what we do because our reason for work has changed. It’s no longer about the job or the money – it’s about working with God.

Working with all our heart also means learning all we can in the job God has given us because sometimes God has us in a job today in order to prepare us for the work He has for us tomorrow. Think about King David. He started out as a shepherd and one of the things David learned as a shepherd was how to use a sling shot and how to be courageous in dangerous situations. God used that job to prepare David to take down the giant Goliath. God used David’s previous work experience to accomplish his purpose and plan and God may have you in a job right now in order for you to learn how to do the job God has for you next month or next year.

Every job I have ever had has helped me in ministry today. One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher and every football dinner I get to put those skills to use in the kitchen. My job as a nurse’s aide has made me more understanding of people who struggle with health issues. My job as a theater manager gave me some basic financial sand management skills that help in the administration of the church. Even my jobs working in the national parks helped me see that sometimes the work we do is just the means to the ministry. Sometimes God gives us a job so we can be the salt and light in the lives of our coworkers and there is can be great satisfaction in knowing that God has placed us in a job to be his presence and voice.

It also could be that the job we have today is preparing us for some larger mission God has for us in the world. Ruth Larwill was an ordinary soccer mom living in Brisbane Australia who had an ordinary job, spent lots of time with her family and loved to bake cakes. One day she heard God say to her, go to Cambodia and teach people how to make cupcakes. Ruth had never been to Cambodia, knew no one in Cambodia and had no money to get there. A few days later Ruth went to her job and her boss called her into her office and said, Ruth, we are very sorry, but we have miscalculated your pay and have underpaid you for quite a while, so here is a check for the what we owe you. Do you know how much money it was? It was exactly the same amount of money needed to purchase an airline ticket from Brisbane Australia to Cambodia. Her current job had prepared her for God’s larger mission.

Ruth went to Cambodia and found out that there is a huge market for specialty cakes and she found she could start a cake business with girls who had been rescued from human trafficking and prostitution and needed jobs to help restore their lives. Today Bloom is a thriving ministry which is saving and redeeming girls lives and they are baking cupcakes for the leaders of Cambodia and the world. God had given Ruth a job and a passion that prepared her for a larger mission in the world. So again, every job is important. The job you have has value and it can provide opportunities for ministry today and it can prepare you for a larger mission God has for you tomorrow – the key is to make the most of every opportunity God gives us and work at job as if we are working not FOR the Lord but WITH the Lord.

Two more quick things I want to say about how to gain job satisfaction, and we will look at these in more detail in our life apps series, but I think it’s important to say something here as well.

The third key to job satisfaction is knowing when to rest from our work. If we go back to Genesis, we see that while God was a worker and he worked hard for six days, God also took time to rest. God knew if he was going to go back to work and do a good job – he needed time to rest and reflect. Many times we don’t find satisfaction in our jobs because our jobs are consuming too much of our time. We were not created to work 7 days a week. We were not created to work 20+ hours a day. Our bodies, minds and spirits need rest and quality times of rest and reflection are essential to job satisfaction. I can also assure you that as you take time to rest, not only will your job satisfaction increase, but so will your enjoyment of family and friends and life in general.

So rest is essential to renewing our attitudes toward work, and so is encouragement. Everyone needs to be encouraged in the work they do which means that each and every one of us needs to encourage others. Look again at Colossians 4:3. When Paul asks the church to pray for him and his work he is not just looking for the help of God, I think he is looking for encouragement from God’s people. While we can’t always go around and ask people for encouragement, if all of God’s people made encouraging others a priority, everyone would be encouraged and if we encourage people in their work and they know that we value and appreciate what they do – their satisfaction in work increases.

This week there are two groups of people I want us to focus on encouraging and I want to invite you to work with God and encourage them. The first are all those who work in our schools. With school starting on Tuesday, there will be teachers and aides and counselors and bus drivers and cafeteria workers and janitors who will all be working hard and many of them do their work for very little money. I want us all to find ways to encourage them. If you know anyone who works in the schools – thank them. Bake them some cookies, send them a card, write them a note, let them know you are praying for them this week. Encourage them in some practical way. If you are going to pray for them – great, but then let them know you prayed for them so they can be encouraged.

The other group of people I would invite you to encourage are nurses. As you may know, this week Erin and Jordan Robison (Corina and John’s daughter and son-in-law) were expecting their third child and were almost ready to deliver the baby when the baby died. After spending some time with them in the labor and delivery unit at Mt, Nittany Hospital, I have to tell you that the nurses on that unit are amazing. The care and compassion they showed to the family was incredible and they do their jobs in difficult circumstances. But that got me thinking that the nurses on every unit are amazing. They have to work in some of the most difficult and emotional settings there are and they don’t know what they will find when they walk into any room at any given moment, and yet they do their work with grace and strength and compassion. My heart and life were encouraged this week by the nurses on labor and delivery and I would invite you to encourage the nurses that you know. If you have a doctors appointment, thank the nurses who are there. If you visit in the nursing homes, thank the nurses who are there. If you are visiting in the hospital, thank the nurses who are there – they have a hard job and do amazing work.

This labor day if you are part of the 55% of people who are not satisfied with your job and are just thankful for an extra day you don’t have to work, then there is something you can about it. Don’t quit, instead go to work tomorrow or Tuesday and see your job as a gift from God. Ask God what he is calling you to do and who he is calling you to be at your job. Learn everything you can for the mission and ministry God may lead you to in the future and strive for a healthy balance between work and rest. And then, help someone else increase their job satisfaction by encouraging them in what they do. Let them know their work is noticed and valued and deeply appreciated. Don’t endure the drudgery of work, redeem it and find God’s blessing.


Next Steps – Renewing God’s Gift of Work
1. Pray
• Thank God for your job. Whether it is a paid or volunteer position, thank God for the gift work He has given you to do.
• Pray for those who are looking for work.

2. Ask God to reveal His will for you at your job.
• Who at your place of work needs to experience God’s grace and peace and how can you share it?
• List ways God can use your current job to prepare you for future positions in work and ministry?

3. Rest and reflect
• Make sure days off aren’t filled with more work.
• Take time to reconnect with God, family and friends. (What can you do this holiday weekend to truly rest.)

4. Encourage Others
• Write a note to appreciation to one of our Growing in Faith or Bellefonte Playschool staff members or anyone who works in an area school district.
• Thank those who work as a nurse in any setting.

Anchors of Faith

For the last month we have been looking at different stories of sea voyages in the Bible and what we can learn from them about how to make the most out of our own voyage of faith. Now I don’t know if you ever noticed it before, but there are not a lot of stories in the Bible about sea travels and that is because God’s people weren’t really sea-faring people, they were nomadic shepherds who lived and travelled in the desert and wilderness areas instead of heading out onto the high seas. So we hit the big 3 sea voyages found in the bible when we talked about Noah, Jonah and Peter but there is one more significant ocean voyage that I thought we might take a look at today and that is the story of Paul’s voyage to Rome.


Paul had been arrested for his preaching about Jesus and had spent some time in and out of jail for his faith when he finally decided to appeal his case to Rome. In Paul’s day, if you were a Roman citizen and did not like the outcome of your trial, you could appeal the case to a higher court so Paul decides to take his case to the very top and go Rome and in Acts 27 we find the story of Paul’s voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. To sum up their voyage in a word – it was bad. The weather was against them the entire way and as they were sailing south of the island of Crete they ran into a vicious storm and this is where we pick up the story: Acts 27:18-39.

In the middle of the storm when they felt that all hope was lost and they were about to be torn to pieces on the rocks it says they let down 4 anchors. These anchors, one thrown off each side of the boat, helped hold the boat in place during the storm so they wouldn’t drift on the rocks and have the boat destroyed. The anchors provided stability and security that gave them a glimmer of hope that they might be able to survive. As I thought about those anchors holding the boat steady, I asked myself, what it is that holds us steady in the midst of life’s storms? When we are feeling tossed about by life and afraid that we will be torn to pieces by the problems and circumstances around us, what are the anchors of our faith that give us hope and keep us focused? While there might be many, I want us to consider 4 that we find in this story of Paul.

The first anchor of faith is knowing that God has a purpose for our lives. Look at Acts 27:23. What gave Paul courage and strength in the midst of the hurricane that raged around him was knowing that God was not done with him yet. The word that came to Paul was that he shouldn’t fear the storm because God still had a purpose for him. When we understand that God has a purpose for our lives, the storms may blow all around us but we can feel confident and secure knowing that they won’t overwhelm or overtake us because God still has work for us to do.

The key here is knowing God has a purpose for us and he tells us that he does in Jeremiah 29:11. God has a purpose for our lives and no matter what storms may come, God will work to accomplish His purpose, and we hear this in Philippians 1:6. So God will work to bring about his purpose and this truth can give us the strength and stability we need when nothing around us makes any sense. When everything seems to be falling apart financially, emotionally, relationally or physically we need to remember that God has a purpose for our lives and God will keep working to help us accomplish that purpose.

Knowing God has a purpose for our lives is the easy part, knowing what that purpose is the hard part. If you are struggling to find God’s purpose and want to know what it is, then I invite you to simply ask God to reveal it to you. An angel stood by Paul on the boat, in the storm, during the night and revealed to him that God’s purpose for him was to get to Rome so he could stand before the Emperor and share the good news of Jesus. God revealed Paul’s purpose to him and I believe God still wants to reveal his purpose to us, but to find it we have to be willing to ask and then we have to be willing to search. Let’s go back to Jeremiah 29, God says he has a plan for us, but how do we discover that plan? By asking and then searching for God, look at Jeremiah 29:12-14. God promises he will reveal himself to us when we search for him and when we search for God’s plan – he will reveal that too.

I really do believe this because God did this for me. At a time when I was caught in a storm and feeling tossed about wondering which way to go and what to do with my life I asked a friend if he thought God still spoke to people in dreams and he said, Yes, I do. So I told him I wanted God to speak to me and tell me what to do with my life. He told me to ask God to reveal himself and his purpose to me – so I did and you know what happened? Nothing. Day after day, week after week – nothing happened. But several months later God spoke in a dream and what I heard as was this: 2 Timothy 2:2. That’s it. God finally revealed himself to me and gave me one single scripture verse, an obscure verse, a verse I didn’t even know. I had no idea what the verse was so went and looked it up and this is what it said: 2 Timothy 2:2.

So now everything was clear – right? I was struggling to know if I should go back to school or keep working and this told me what I needed to do with my life – right? It told me to go back to school, no, wait, it told me to keep working. Wait, it didn’t tell me much of anything. I still didn’t know my purpose which meant that I had to keep searching. So I prayed about this verse, read it every day and searched until I found God’s purpose for my life in it. Today I am still doing what this verse says, I am simply entrusting to reliable and faithful people what I know about God in hopes that you will share with others. When life has gotten crazy and I have felt like giving up or giving in (not that I have ever felt that way here, mind you) – this verse comes back to me and God’s purpose becomes the anchor that helps hold me fast. When we know God’s purpose for our lives and can claim that for ourselves, it can be that anchor that holds us through the storms.

A second anchor of our faith is knowing that God offers us salvation, look at Acts 27:31. God said they would all be saved if they did what? If they stayed in the ship. Do you remember from a few weeks ago what they ship came to symbolize? The church, and Jesus himself. So as long as we stay in Christ – we will be saved. As long as we stay connected to God through Jesus Christ – it doesn’t matter what happens around us, we will be saved. The truth is that there can be incredible peace that comes when we know that God will save us and be there for us and give us life no matter what happens and the best example of this every seen was seen in Jesus.

The most chaotic time of Jesus’ life was the time of his arrest, trial and crucifixion. There is great confusion and turmoil and events just start taking off and yet the picture of Jesus through it all is of a man at peace. He is not anxious, he is not afraid, he is not angry or agitated, he is at peace and that is because he knows that salvation and life are coming. Jesus knows that while the cross may look like it wins on Friday – the victory of the empty grave is coming on Sunday. While the storms of betrayal, arrest, trial, flogging, crucifixion and death blow all around him on Friday – Jesus is at peace because he knows that resurrection, salvation and life are coming on Sunday.

We can find that same peace in our lives when we know that the final victory is ours. We can find peace when we know that salvation is ours through the love of God given to us through Jesus Christ. This is the promise we hear from Romans 8:35-39. All the storms listed here, dangers, hardships, troubles, demons ,the future and even death can’t tear us apart when our anchor is in the salvation God offers through Jesus. Even in the midst of death when everything seems to be lost – the anchor that can hold us steady is that God offers us salvation and life.

The third anchor that can help hold us steady no matter what is going on around us is that God provides. Look at Acts 27:35-36. In the midst of the storm Paul tells the people to eat and take nourishment and this reminds us that no matter what may be happening in our lives, God is the one who provides for us. I have to say that we have seen this anchor at work all week. When Donny Robson died a few weeks ago it was hard for his family to see how God was going to provide for them and care for them, but then God laid it on one man’s heart to finish the work Donny began, and slowly a team of people grew and plans were made to finish the house Donny started. Once the work started people came out of nowhere to provide all the resources for the work, even food to feed the workers. In the midst of their storm – God provided.

Jesus promises us that God will provide, look at Matthew 6:25-32. If God provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field then we can be certain that God will provide for us because as children created in the image and likeness of God, we hold a special place in God’s heart. If God provides for birds and flowers how much more will he provide for us. So we don’t need to be afraid or anxious, God will provide. Sometimes it’s hard to see how, or when, or where, but if we throw out this anchor and trust God, he will be there and he will provide.

And then the last anchor of our faith is found in Acts 27:38. Now this is not a call for us to go home and throw everything away, we need to look at this a little more symbolically and in light of the words found in Hebrews 12:1b, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. What we need to throw overboard and purge from our lives is sin and we do this, we confess our sin to God because we know that God will forgive. That’s the fourth anchor we see here, God’s forgiveness.

The Bible is clear, when we confess our sin - God is faithful and will forgive us. The Psalms say, as far as the east is from the west that is how far God will remove our sin from us when we confess our sin and let it go. The simple message of Jesus was - repent and believe, and repent means to turn away from sin, or to throw our sin overboard and out of our lives. Knowing that God forgives us is an anchor that can hold us in life and faith because when everything starts to go wrong, we begin to wonder if God really cares for us or loves us. We wonder sometimes if the problems we face are because of our sin and we doubt whether or not God can or wants to forgive us. But God does forgive. God wants to forgive. God is just waiting for us to get serious about confession and repentance so he can forgive. One of the most powerful and enduring images of God given to us by Jesus is of God as a loving father who runs out to forgive his son when he returns home.

What are the sins that need to be confessed in your life today? What are the things that we need to get rid of and who will help us throw them overboard? The truth is that sometimes we need help to get rid of sinful actions and behaviors in our lives and so we need to ask for help and with love and grace and patience we need to offer help. Once we lay aside the weight of sin in our lives, we will begin to experience the power of God’s forgiveness and the freedom and new life that comes with it.

So Paul let down four anchors to hold his boat steady during the storm and those anchors helped save his life. There are also anchors of our faith that we can trust in to find stability and strength in the midst of our own storms and four of them that we see here are: God’s purpose for our lives, God’s salvation offered to us through Jesus, God’s provision and God’s forgiveness. These are four anchors, but there are more and I want you invite you to share the anchors of your faith with others.

On this week’s next steps we are inviting you to think about what the anchors are that hold your faith steady. What are the truths of God that keep you balanced and help give you perspective during difficult times? What are the anchors that keep you balanced, give you perspective and help keep you pushing on in faith? It is important for us to share these with one another because they may become the anchors that will hold them in steady in times of need. So I invite you this week to share your faith. Identify the anchors of your faith and if nothing else, email them to us so we can share them with the church. Our hope is to compile a list of these anchors and include them in the newsletter as a source of encouragement to everyone in the church. So please take this next step and identify the anchors that hold your faith steady and keep your lives strong.


Next Steps ~ The Anchors of Faith

God’s Purpose: What is the purpose God has for your life?
Pray with patience until God reveals His purpose.
Seek God’s purpose with perseverance. Jeremiah 29:11-14

God’s Salvation: Thank God for the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Read Romans 8:35-39. What storm are you going through?
How can God’s love help you find your balance & strength?

God’s Provision: List 3 things God has provided for you this week.
1.
2.
3.
How does this help you trust God for the future.

God’s Forgiveness: What sins need to be confessed and “thrown overboard”? Open your hands to God’s forgiveness in prayer.

Other Anchors:
What 4 Anchors (truths about God) help keep your faith strong?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Share these with someone who needs encouragement this week.
If you are willing to share these anchors with the congregation, please email them to the church office. (Names will not be listed.)
faithchurchoffice@yahoo.com

The Voyage ~ Our Voyage

For the past month we have been using the image of a sea voyage to talk about how to make the most out of our faith. The first week we realized that every voyage needs a captain and while the temptation is for us to appoint ourselves captain – the voyage God is calling us to take means letting Jesus be the captain and giving control and the direction of our lives to God. We also realized that while it might seem like being a passenger is the way to go, the real action of a voyage isn’t found by having people serve us but by being part of a crew where we serve others and we’ll talk more about that in a moment. Last week we realized that the kind of voyage we need to take isn’t a trip in a one man kayak but a ship where we learn to depend on and rely upon shipmates, and when we do all of this the right way, we will be able to survive any and all storms in life.


Today I want us to focus on what we can do to not just endure our voyage but make it a good one. What is it that makes our faith strong enough to not only survive the storms but vital enough to bring power and joy and peace and purpose to every part of our lives. As we think about this I want us to think about the 3 core values we have a church. As God’s people gathered together as Faith Church we are committed to 3 things, connecting people to God and one another, serving Christ and our community and growing deeper in our faith and wider through the sharing of our faith. These are not just three things we pulled out of the air, in many ways these are the core values or principles of faith itself and so if we want to have a good voyage we need to commit ourselves to these 3 principles.

You have probably seen this analogy before, but it is a good one. Let’s compare our faith to the strength and stability of a 3-legged stool. When all 3 legs of a stool are strong and stable – the stool is usable. You can stand it to reach things you couldn’t otherwise, you can rest on it, you can place things on it – it is practical and helpful, but if you take one of those legs away, or if one is weak or shorter than the others, the stool isn’t good at all. The same is true with our faith – a strong faith requires three things: a connection with God and others, serving Christ and the community and growth. If any one of those is missing or weak, our faith won’t be able to support us. If we aren’t connected to God, our faith will fall apart. If we aren’t serving God and giving to those around us we aren’t experiencing the full power of our faith and if we aren’t growing then we are dying. If any living organism isn’t growing – it is dying, so we need all three legs for a strong faith.

While we call these three legs, connect, serve and grow, others have given them different names. Some people use the image of the body and talk about head, heart and hands and when they do they talk about the principles of knowing God, loving God and serving God. In many ways they are all the same 3 things.

Head – Knowing God - Grow
Heart – Loving God - Connect
Hands – Serving God – Serve

So if want to have a good voyage or a vital faith we need to focus on these 3 legs, so let’s start with connect or the heart and learning to love God. The first and most important command we have been given is to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. It was the foundation of the law given to us by God in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5) and Jesus said it was the greatest command which forms the foundation of his teaching in the New Testament (Matthew 22:37). We are to love God and what we need to remember is that developing this connection takes time.

We all know that strong and loving relationships take time. It takes time to get to know one another, it takes time to get comfortable with one another and feel vulnerable with one another and learn how to trust one another, but it’s not just idle time sitting together, it’s time sharing and giving and caring and serving one another that helps relationships grow. When people come to me and talk about how they have grown apart in their marriage I often find that it’s because they have stopped spending time together. If you want to keep your marriage strong here is something very simple you can do, go out on a date with your husband or wife. Set aside time to be alone together and while this might be hard because of children and schedules, the investment of time and energy will pay off in the end.

Relationships are hard work; they not only require an investment of time but they also need good communication. Now sometimes the communication that is needed is the quick communication that takes place during the day. We call or text one another about what we are doing and where we are going throughout the day and we do this to just stay connected, but relationships also need longer times of intentional conversation where we can share our goals, dreams, hopes and concerns. It’s often this kind of communication that suffers most in our relationships. We might find time to go out and eat and have a good time, we might do well at staying connected during the day, but many times it’s the deeper conversations that we struggle with.

For example, the number 1 stress in marriage is not children or jobs, its money. Whether it is our attitude toward money or how we save it or spend it, issues around money are the leading cause of divorce and yet one of the things we never want to talk about with anyone is our money, but we need to have these kinds of conversations. We need to talk about money and our goals for the future and our fears about growing old or having children, or not having children. Strong relationships take time and an investment of energy and good communications, and the same is true with our relationship with God. If we want to connect with God and deepen and develop our relationship of love with God then we need to give God time and make sure there is strong communication and the way we do this with God is through regular worship attendance, daily prayer and daily Bible reading.

Let’s call worship attendance a kind of date night. It is time we set aside to be in the presence of God. We meet with God. We share with God. We open ourselves up to God. At times we even eat (communion) with God. Regular times of worship are essential to our connection with God, but worship one hour a week can’t sustain this relationship just as a date with your spouse once a week can’t sustain a marriage. Think about how weak and fragile your marriage would be if you only spoke to your spouse one hour a week? I know, some of you are thinking that might be good – but trust me it would not be good, it would be dangerous. So while we need regular weekly worship, we also need daily prayer, daily conversations and communication with God.

Daily prayer might be intentional and focused or it might just be a quick simple prayer in the middle of a day, while we are driving the car or washing the dishes or sitting in a meeting. When a concern or joy or question comes to us we need to learn how to direct these thoughts toward God. We need ongoing conversation with God or daily prayer, but we also need more intentional times of conversation with God where we share our hopes and dreams and listen for God’s direction and love – this comes through daily reading and reflection on God’s word.

There is no better place to go to deepen our connection with God than to God’s word. Part of staying connected to God is hearing his voice and it’s the Bible that gives us words of inspiration and encouragement, words of challenge and conviction, words of hope and grace and love right here. We need to take the time to read and reflect on God’s word if we are going to stay connected to God. A few years ago a nationwide study was done on what helps improve people’s faith and the one thing that helped people develop their faith at any level more than anything else was the reading and reflection on God’s word. If we want to keep strong this one leg of our stool, the leg of connection to God or loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, then we need to commit ourselves to at least these three things, regular worship attendance, daily prayer and daily reading and reflection on God’s word. These three simple things can do so much for us, the question is will we commit ourselves to this way of life? Check out the next steps? Where do you want to be in these practices by the end of the year? Make the commitment today and begin to set goals to get yourself there.

The next leg of the stool we are going to look at is grow because it’s not enough for us to be connected to God, we need to grow in our understanding of God and how God works in our lives and in our world.

When I was in high school wind surfing was popular and my cousin had a windsurfer he brought down to my grandmother’s beach house one weekend. I could stand up on the board and pull the sail up pretty easily, but my problem was that I didn’t know anything about sailing. So I would stand there and move the sail all around not knowing how to catch the wind and move the board and so all I did was drift along the shore.

When I got to the end of the beach my cousin was there and he hopped on the board and in two minutes had sailed I back to our house. I walked the beach home.

 The problem I had was that I didn’t understand how to sail and catch the wind and turn the sail and move my feet to get the board to do what it needed to do. I didn’t know enough about sailing to move forward and enjoy the experience. Sometimes this is how we are in our relationship with God. We know God somewhat, but we don’t know enough about God to really have our faith move us through life.

We need to take the time to learn more about God and how God works in the world. The Bible has answers for us but, we need to take the time to learn what they are. We need to know the history of God and how God has moved among his people in the past. We need informed theological answers to the questions we face today and when the bible isn’t clear on some specific issue we face in the 21st century, we need to learn how to read God’s word in such a way to find some answers and direction.

One of the biggest blessings we have at Faith Church is a really good church library that can help us learn more about God and God’s will and I would encourage you to take some time to dig deeper and use your mind to learn more about God and really move from just loving God to knowing God and growing your faith.

Growing in our understanding of God will also help us grow the church because the more we know about how God moves in the world the more we will be able to share our faith effectively with others. People are searching for God today. People are hungry for something powerful and something that will make sense to them and God is powerful and God can make sense when we take the time to understand the fullness of God’s will and ways and then be confident enough to share it with them. So growing in knowledge will help grow the church and a growing faith is the only kind of faith there is because if our faith is not growing – it is dying.

And the last leg is service – serving Christ, the church and the community. Service requires one thing at the very beginning, we have to stop focusing on ourselves and begin to focus on others. You see our faith isn’t just about our relationship with God it also is about how our relationship with God effects others. Jesus put these two things together when he was asked what the greatest commandment was. His response was (Matthew 22:37-40). Of course Jesus was simply reflecting the truth of the God from the very beginning. God has always called his people to care for the widows and orphans and the strangers in need. God has always called us to reach out and serve others – the difficulty we have is taking our eyes off ourselves long enough to see and then meet the needs of others.

Serving others requires us to make a decision to follow God into mission and ministry. God is calling each and every one of us to some kind of service and we need to be willing to allow God to show us this work and lead us into it, which is something we see in all three of our nautical examples. If you remember we are looking at the examples of Noah, Jonah and Peter and each one of them was called by God to a mission and ministry in the world, each one of them was called to serve God, let’s take a quick look.

Genesis 6:9, 14, 22

Noah walked with God; he had a relationship with God so we know he was connected. Noah listened to God, he learned about God’s plan for him in the world (to build an ark) and then finally Noah followed and served.

If you remember Jonah, at first didn’t want to serve the people of Ninevah, he wanted them all to die, but after sitting for three days in the belly of a fish he began to agree to God’s call to serve and finally went and his words helped save the people of Ninevah.

Jonah 3:1-3

Peter also heard a call of God, it was a call to become fishers of men and women and to work with Jesus to help bring people into God’s kingdom and help them experience the fullness of God’s life and although he was afraid, he said yes. He followed Jesus. Luke 5:10b-11

What we see in each of these three men is that God had a purpose for their lives – God had a voyage he wanted them to take and for them to set sail they needed to be connected to God and able to listen and they needed to grow – but those two legs weren’t enough, for their voyage to be complete, they needed to serve. God called them to serve and God calls us to serve. God is calling each and every one of us to serve in some way. We can’t just stay as a passenger – we need to become part of the crew and serve God and the first step in serving is just making ourselves available to God. It’s saying, OK God, here I am. Send me. Use me. Can you say that today?

After we make ourselves available to God we can then ask God, where do you want me to serve? Is it right here, or is it on the other side of the globe? Am I to meet the needs I see in my own community or am I called to tackle the global problems of poverty, hunger, slavery and war? How is God calling us to serve? If you asking yourself that question today I would invite you to reflect on this questions, What area of need do we see that stirs your heart? Is it seeing people hungry? Is it seeing children need shoes or clothing or medical attention? Is it knowing that people need the grace of God to bring their hearts and lives healing and wholeness? Whatever stirs your heart might be the beginning of God’s mission for your life?

Now don’t think that saying yes to God will suddenly mean moving next week to Africa or South America or China to be a missionary. It might, but it’s not my experience that God works that way. God usually leads one small step at a time. For example, if seeing people who are hungry stirs your heart maybe God is asking you to take some canned goods to the food bank. Maybe after a few trips to the FaithCentre you feel the desire to volunteer there one day a week. After a while you might want to start talking to the clients at the food bank and help find the cause of their situation and do something about it. Maybe this leads you to a ministry that helps feed the hungry in poverty stricken areas of our state and region and maybe then it leads you to feed the poor in Africa. The big question is are we willing to take the first step?

Noah took the first step and began to build the ark, Jonah finally took the first step and began a journey to Ninevah, Peter took the first step and let go of his nets. What is the first step God is asking you to take? Service is one of the legs of our faith that we can’t ignore. It has to be just as strong as the other 2 which means we need to find ways to serve those in our church and community and world. Again, on the next steps we invite you to think about how God is calling you to serve. You may not know where it is yet, that’s ok, will you make yourself available to God. Tell God you are willing to serve 1 hour a week or 4 hours in a month and then just trust God will lead you to his mission for you. Just take that step of faith today.

For us to have a good voyage, we need to commit ourselves to three vital principles, three core values – connection with God, growing in our faith and serving Christ and the world. Can we commit to this voyage today? And can we commit to taking this voyage together?


Next Steps ~ Our Journey


My Commitment to developing my own Spiritual Journey.

By the end of this year (2012) I will:

• make it my goal to attend worship times               per month.

• make it my goal to have                 conversations with God each day.

• make it my goal to read my Bible                        minutes each day/week.

• invite                            friends and/or family to worship.

• give hours of my time each month to serving others by:                                .

The Voyage ~ Shipmates

One of the things that we learn from the voyages of Noah, Jonah and Peter is that each one of them needed shipmates. They needed friends and companions on their journey and so we do. Our journey in life and faith isn’t made in a one man kayak (at least it shouldn’t be) it needs to be made in a ship where we learn to lean and depend on others as we travel together. Friends, helpers and companions are important in life; in fact, they are vital and necessary because we have been wired for relationships. God has created us for companionship. God created the world because in love God wanted to share his life with others so when God created us in his image – he created us for companionship, we were literally wired to be in relationship not just with God but with others, this is what we hear from God himself in Genesis. After God finished creating the world he created Adam and placed him in the middle of the garden and called everything good, but then God realized that there was one thing that was not good, and that was Adam being alone – Genesis 2:18.


Because Adam had been created for relationship – being alone wasn’t good so God created for Adam a helper and companion. We all need helpers and companions in life and I’m not just talking about the relationship and companionship of marriage. While those are important and the covenant of marriage between men and women has been ordained by God, those are not the only relationships we need in life – we also need friends to travel with us in life and to support us in faith. God makes this clear to us throughout the Bible.

At the beginning we see that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone so God created Eve. When God called Abram to follow him to a new land, he wasn’t to go alone, he was take his wife and his nephew Lot and all the people who were part of their family. When God called Moses to be a leader of the people, he sent along Aaron and Miriam to support him. When David was a young man his support came from a friend named Jonathon and what was the very first thing Jesus did when he entered into public ministry? He called together 12 men and created a team for support and companionship. God has created us to be in relationship with one another and that is why God called the church into being. The church is God’s instrument to bring people together. The church isn’t our idea, it is God’s. Jesus said that where two or more gathered that he is there with them, so it is God’s desire for us to meet together and grow in our relationships and commitments.

So it is God’s will for us to be in relationship with one another, we not only see it through the stories of the Bible, but God is so concerned about our relationships with one another that over 30 times in the New Testament God gives specific teaching about how to develop and strengthen those relationships. We have listed many of these passages for you on the next steps, and these “one another” passages show us how important it is to God’s purpose and plan that we get along with one another.

So we were created for relationships and if we are going to experience the fullness of life and the power of our faith then our voyage needs to have shipmates. Noah, Jonah and Peter all had shipmates who were vital to their survival. Let’s look at Noah; while we always call it Noah’s ark, he was not the only one on it. There was his wife and their three sons and their wives and they were all vital to God’s purpose. Noah needed all of them to accomplish God’s plan. I mean think about it, there is no way that Noah could have built the ark by himself and there is now way he could have fed, watered and cleaned up after the animals for an entire year without some help. And when they left the ark there is certainly no way Noah could have repopulated the earth by himself. He needed his wife and they needed their sons and their wives. So Noah simply could not have been successful on his voyage if he had been alone.

Jonah also didn’t travel alone. While he may have been running from God all by himself, when he got on the boat and started sailing to Tarshish, he had shipmates and those shipmates saved him. When the storm came it was the shipmates who came and woke Jonah up and began to question him. They challenged him and asked him the hard questions and you know what, we all need friends who will be willing to ask us hard questions in life. Now Jonah’s friends did threw him overboard - which I know doesn’t sound like being a very good friends, but remember what we learned last week, Jonah was saved by being thrown off the boat – so those shipmates saved Jonah’s life.

Peter also had shipmates, in fact when Jesus called Peter to follow him – he wasn’t alone, he was on the boat with his 3 fishing partners and when we look at that story we see that Jesus shows us the importance of friends and companions by not just calling Peter to follow him but by calling Peter, Andrew, James and John. The first 4 disciples were already a team so we see here the importance Jesus placed on our need for strong relationships and partnerships.

Having shipmates in life and faith is important and we need to understand and accept this truth before we can go on and talk about where to find them, and how to develop them. So let me ask you what might be a difficult question. Beyond your spouse, if it is 3:00 in the morning and you really need some help – who could you call? If you needed someone to sit with you or talk with you in the middle of the night – who would you call?

I remember clearly the night that my grandfather had a heart attack while he was visiting us. After the ambulance took him to the hospital and my Mom and Dad drove my grandmother to the hospital, my sister and I found ourselves home alone. It wasn’t 3:00 in the morning, but it was late at night and we didn’t know what to do. None of our friends could drive to be with us, so who could we call? We ended up calling out youth leaders, Ed and JoAnn Foster. Ed and JoAnn came immediately and sat with us and talked with us and helped us through that difficult time until our parents got home. Who are the Ed and JoAnn Fosters in your life? Do you have these kinds of companions?

Now let me ask you a more difficult question. Who would call you at 3:00 AM if they needed someone to talk to, or sit with? If you have come up with some names of people you would do that for, do they know it? Do they know they can call you at three in the morning? If not, can you tell them?

Now, if you had a hard time coming up with any names, you are not alone, finding and developing good friends is difficult and the first step is to understand that we need them - the second step is to be intentional in beginning to make them. Are we willing to open ourselves up and begin to make friends? If you are at a place where you are looking to do that then let me encourage you to look for these friends in the life of the church. While we can certainly find and develop close friendships outside the church, when we develop them among God’s people we share values and priorities that can help us go deeper with one another. Now if you are looking for a place to develop relationships with those in the church, the best place to start is in a small group.

Small groups are the best place where strong friendships can develop. Small groups can be the place where we can find those people who will be willing to get a phone call at 3:00 AM and then come to our house to help. Small groups can be a place where we can develop a friendship so strong that we won’t mind getting a phone call at 3:00 AM to go and help someone else. Next month we are going to start up our small groups and if you want to find and develop these kinds of shipmates then we want to help you get connected. In fact connecting people to one another is one of our core values at Faith Church – we don’t want to just connect people to God we want to connect people to one another because we know that relationships with one another are vital to our spiritual life.

In the narthex we have a table that we have often called our welcome table, but we are now going to be calling it our connection table because if you stop there you will find people who will work to help connect you to a group in the church that will not only deepen your faith but give you the opportunity find shipmates that will voyage with you in life.

Now if you join a small group, I want to prepare you for something, because after your first meeting with these people you will go home and say to yourself, that wasn’t all that great, in fact I felt strange and uncomfortable and some of the people seemed just a little odd so I’m not sure I’ll go back. I know you will think that because we all think that. The truth is that it takes time to develop strong relationships. I remember one of my best friends in college was a woman named Rachel Manring and I met her at our campus Christian fellowship one night and then a few days later I saw her eating alone in the dining hall and I asked if I could join her. By the end of lunch I thought to myself, wow, I hope that I never have to eat with her again. She was what one might call an air-head and we had absolutely nothing in common. By the end of the year, however, we were the closest of friends, and we remained friends for many years after college (and by the way, she knows this story).

Friendships take time. Companionship takes time so if you join a small group this fall, give it some time. More than that, take the time to work on the relationships. Invite people from your small group or Sunday School class to your home for dinner. If you all work at Penn State, find a day to have lunch together or take a walk on campus together. Relationships take time and energy and effort but they can be rewarding and in the end we might even end up with lifelong friendship with people that will support us through the storms.

That happened to one small group I heard about a number of years ago. They were a very diverse group of people who shared nothing in common but chose to travel together. During their journey a storm set in and they were forced to depend on one another and through the years they grew together, maybe you’ve heard their story.

(Video Clip)

Ok, so it wasn’t a true story, but Gilligan's Island illustrates something really powerful about small groups. Each group will have a skipper who tries to lead and each group will have a Gilligan who in the end makes everyone laugh. There will be people who will have more money than you, be more beautiful than you and smarter than you, and there will also be some wonderful person who will show up each week with a coconut cream pie – or homemade cookies. Each group will be diverse and just like on Gilligan’s Island, each group will grow. Leaders will become humble and listen to the Gilligans of the group. The rich will learn that they can’t find meaning in their wealth just like those who are beautiful will learn that physical beauty and strength is only skin deep. In other words, everyone will grow themselves and the group will grow together and you will learn to be there for one another when the head hunters come!

All joking aside, strong and healthy relationships take time and energy to develop, but they can be rewarding and life changing if we will invest in them, and it is God will for us invest in them. That God wants us to have shipmates in life can also been seen in the sacrament of communion. This is a meal we share in together. We don’t eat it alone, we eat it with others. We are handed the bread and the cup by others. We are all part of one loaf and share together in one cup which means we need to come together as one and be committed to one another so we hold together as one loaf.

All that we do in the church is to bring us together and develop ourselves as one body which shows us that God’s desire is for us to be connected. So don’t go through life alone seek out those shipmates who will help you and help bring you the fullness and power of life.


Next Steps ~ Our Shipmates

1. It is 3:00 in the morning and you need some help…
• Who do you call?
• Who would call you if they were in need?
• If you can’t name some people above, make the decision today to begin to develop shipmates who can be friends, helpers and companions on your journey.

2. Name one person with whom you would like to develop or deepen a friendship.
• What can you do this week to be their friend?

3. Beginning in September, small groups will form around the sermon series Life Apps. If you are not currently part of a small group, sign up to be part of one at the Connection Table.

4. Over 30 times in the New Testament we are given direction on how to develop relationships with “one-another” (these scriptures are listed below). Read and apply one of these scripture every day for the next month.

The One Another passages from the New Testament
John 13:14
John 13:34
John 13:35
Romans 12:10
Romans 12:16
Romans 13:8
Romans 14:13
Romans 15:7
Romans 16:16
1 Corinthians 1:10
1 Corinthians 16:20
2 Corinthians 13:12
Galatians 5:13
Ephesians 4:2
Ephesians 4:32
Ephesians 5:19
Ephesians 5:21
Colossians 3:13
Colossians 3:16
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Hebrews 3:13
Hebrews 10:24
Hebrews 10:25
James 4:11
1 Peter 1:22
1 Peter 3:8
1 Peter 4:9
1 Peter 5:5
1 Peter 5:14
1 John 1:7
1 John 3:11
1 John 3:23
1 John 4:7
1 John 4:11
1 John 4:12
2 John 1:5