Embodying Faith in a Secular Job

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we are looking at Paul’s counsel in regard to how the Christian responds to the mercy and the grace of God. We present ourselves and we present ourselves to service to the church or to the community or just one on our own, if that’s how it has to be. But we are in this world to serve, to give. to love, and it is a tremendous call. And yet, and of course, we recognize we’re not, you know, we’re not able to fulfill it as perfectly and as properly as it should be fulfilled. We look at this counsel in Romans chapter 12, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another, and so on. And we think, my goodness, I can’t do this. And this is where we recognize by faith that our human nature is counted as crucified and dead. It is counted as no longer identifying us or condemning us so that we live by faith in Christ’s resurrected nature. And this means that Christ lives his resurrected nature in us. So we say, Lord, I know I can’t live this love message well or perfectly, but by faith in Jesus, I want him to live it through me. Now, yesterday, or the other day anyway, I was telling you that there are some people who say, you know, I have no time to serve the community, to serve the world. I’m so busy working and coming back home tired and having dinner with my family and falling asleep and starting all over again. And I remember a preacher years ago that I didn’t hear personally, but I read his sermons, and he said, how much longer does it take you to work in your secular job and dedicate that to the Lord than it does to do that same job personally? You know, I can’t complete that sentence. I don’t know how to put it together. But the point that he was making was that it takes no longer to do your secular work dedicating it to God than it does to do your secular work not dedicating it to God. There you go. I got it. So that’s an important idea, isn’t it? You may say, I don’t know how to serve the Lord. I don’t have time to serve the Lord. I’m too busy working. Well, use your work as an instrument and a vehicle for God’s grace. How about that? You say, how? Well, let me give you an example. Years ago, I went to my regular supermarket, and there was this lady. I believe I’ve told you this before recently, but it’s worth telling again. There was this lady, and sometimes I would be in that store at 6.30 or 7 in the morning, and she would always give a cheerful smile and a good morning and God bless you. And this went on consistently for weeks and several months. until I finally couldn’t stand it any longer. That is, I couldn’t stand asking her, not asking her, what makes you tick? Why are you so cheerful? And she said, Jesus, my Savior. And I thought, what a testimony. Here is a woman doing a regular secular job, and yet she has turned it into a sanctuary. She has turned it into a worship service. This is her giving witness to Jesus in the most mundane circumstances. So think about that. That is a way of serving the Lord and taking no extra time to do it, but serving the Lord through the secular work you do. Many, many years ago, decades ago, when I was still in the ministry, but it wasn’t pulling enough money for me and my wife and two children to survive, my ex-wife… I had to do some part-time work, and I, for two years, became a delivery boy, or guy, for… Domino’s pizza delivery. So there I was, working in the afternoon about 3 or 4 o’clock till about 10 or 11 o’clock at night. And there were so many occasions. I was the odd man out in the place because I was about 35 or something. No, I would have been more than that. I would have been 45. And there were only kids there. I mean, 19 or 20 year old kids. Well, that did the work. And of course, by in about mid morning, just before the rush, We would be folding a Domino’s pizza boxes. So we’d all be in a circle there folding these boxes. And there were so many young people that just swore as if it was a volcano coming out of their mouth. They couldn’t complete a sentence without the F word. And so one day I just said, tell me, George or Pete or Mike or whoever, what do you think is behind the word F? And they were so shocked to hear me say it. And they said, what do you mean? And I explained that when you use the word F, the F word, there’s somehow within your mind an inability to express your feelings or your thoughts except through that word. And so then that led to, so what are you angry about? And that led to their empty lives, and that led to conversations about God. So over a period of months, I became known as the professor, and we talked about God, and we talked about the Bible. One day I went into work there, and the manager of that particular store—he was only 19 or so—he came out of the store before I got in and said, “‘Get in my Jeep.'” I said, “‘What are we doing?’ He said, “‘We’re going to get a Bible.'” He said, I can’t get to the age of 21 without finding out what’s in that book, all because of what I was sharing with them. And so there was a lot of conversation about God and the meaning of life and salvation in Jesus, and it all happened during folding boxes at Domino’s Pizza delivery store. So, you know, it made me realize, oh, and I’ll tell you something else. When I would deliver pizza sometimes, I would go to a house and an area of the city that I would never have seen. I dreamt of going to while doing my ministry, and I thought to myself, my goodness, I guess it would be an advantage to every minister to do part-time Domino’s pizza delivery because you go to places you would never dream of going. in the ministry, some terribly poor and broken down places. And I remember one person, and she had at least four or five children at her skirts. And I said, may I pray for you? Oh, she said, please do. So after delivering the pizza, I had prayer with that family right there. And I thought to myself, I would never have found that person if I had not been doing pizza delivery. Then there was one time in the middle of the night, not the middle of the night, the late night, about 11.30 or 11, I was delivering a pizza and I was held up at gunpoint. Two or three people were in front of me and two or three behind me and they asked for my money. I gave it to them, the pizza delivery money. Actually, you’re not allowed to carry more than $30 at one time, but I had $120 on me. And so I gave them all of that. And I became pretty nervous because they told me to go upstairs. And I went upstairs and there was no exit to the upstairs apart from going back where I came from. And there was silence for 20 minutes or so. And I finally thought that I’d come to my end. I prayed to God for my children. And then I went back home, back rather to Domino’s Pizza Delivery. And they said, the manager said, well, you probably want to go home. So go home. I went home and then I came in the next morning. And the manager said to me, you know, when you first came into this place, when you first joined our employ, we all gave you a thumbs down because you looked like the type of guy that wouldn’t make it delivering pizza. But you are the first and only person, apart from myself, that has come back to work the next day after being mugged the night before. And he said, I congratulate you. And that is where my faith in Jesus Christ had a profound effect on that manager. That’s when he later asked to buy a Bible. So you see how things can be done. You may be at a secular job, and it may be risky, but you may perhaps offer to pray for somebody, and that may have a profound effect upon your colleague, your workmate, and you have witnessed in a way that you couldn’t have done even if you had developed an independent ministry. So you see, we’re doing things in the odd kind of way. That’s what Christians are. They’re oddbods. Bless those who persecute you, it says in verse 14. Bless and do not curse. So somebody’s cursing you out, and you’re blessing him in some way, or you’re not cursing him back, and you are helping him and easing his stress. And he wonders, what in the world makes you tick that you would be so helpful to me when I curse you out at work and humiliate you before others? This is what we do as Christians, and this is how the influence of Christ grows throughout the world. So don’t ask yourself, what can I do in the limited time that I have to serve my community for Jesus Christ? But rather ask, how can I serve Jesus Christ in this work that I am already doing? Now, then you may be able to find some other ministry that you can add on to your 40-hour week. But if you can’t and you’re too tired, there are things you can do right there at work. I remember years ago when I first became a Christian. The one man who influenced me—I was 15 and I was working in the advertisement department of a newspaper— And this 18-year-old kid just seemed so clean-cut, and he never swore, and he was always cheerful. He never said anything about Jesus, but I later learned that he was a Methodist. And I thought to myself, I would like to be like that guy. I didn’t know that that was one of the influences that later on, a matter of just a few months later, led me to Jesus Christ. And so think of it, what you can do and what you can be in your community. So there’s lots of good advice here. I urge you to read Romans 12, verses 9 through 21, and it will lift up your heart as you realize what the challenge is of living the Christian life for Jesus Christ. Well, thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here and How It Happens. This is a broadcast you can hear any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. and I’m looking for five new supporters of this program who will become partners of it, its listener-supported radio, who would support it at $50 per month for a year. If you would like to be one of those five partners, please send your first donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado 80160, and Market Partner, or… Go to faithquestradio.com to make your donation there. Thanks so much. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.