Pastoral Position Paper - Dean Helleckson

We wake up Monday morning grumbling and complaining that its already here. We wished the weekend was longer and that last night's sleep was too. We slip into our routine and can't wait for the coming weekend to sleep in and do something "fun". We go to work with as much enthusiasm as a bear coming out of hibernation.

The world works for recreation, status, leisure, and play. In other words, they work for "the weekend". The Christian has been called by God to delight in his labor and to do his work as unto the Lord. The Christian rests to work.

Living for leisure is a lie from the world and the church has been bathing in it. If we are going to see a cultural transformation and take the nations for Christ we must reject the lie of "living for leisure".

The world is selling us the promise of Freedom 55. You work, and put the right amount of money away, in the right account, and you will get
what you have always dreamed of; freedom from work at fifty five! Work now looking forward to that glorious day when you can lay on the beach
all day. This is coveting the life of the worm. So you achieve this point one day, then after a week on the beach you are saying, "This is boring!" A couple of years later, because you have been lying on your back for so long, you die from fluid in the lungs. You view work as a necessary evil. It's the devil you put up with to receive glory on the other side.

The prevailing attitude is, "Mondays stink but hold on because Fridays coming!" Sleeping in and indulging yourself are the goals in life. They tell us, "you need time for yourself," "don't work too hard." The question is asked, "working hard?" The response is, "hardly working." At the beginning of the week your conversation is all about what you did on the weekend. By the middle of the week the conversation is centered around what will be done on the coming weekend.

The Media promises us freedom, joy, pleasure, and glory, if we can only get away from work and indulge ourselves playing. When you indulge yourself in pleasure you end up enjoying it about as much as a drunk does his beer. He no longer delights but is addicted to his drunken stupor.

We must operate according to our design. A wrench wasn't meant to be used as a hammer. The One who created us is the One who determines why we were made and for what purposes. The world thinks that they decide why they were made, and what would be best for them. Their reasoning goes something like this, "If one is good, two is better, if two is better, than three is incredible". So down the road of indulgence, disobedience and unbelief they go, living a frustrated life chasing the lie.

looking to the very beginning to the One who created us we get an answer to the question, "why?" God created us in His image to reflect Him to the rest of creation in the most glorious way. We, above the the rest of creation, are the ones who are most like God and were made to be a visual representation of God. The command in Genesis 1:28 was, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Then in Gen. 2:15 it says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." No where does it say that we were made for the weekend, or Freedom 55. God made us to work, take dominion of all that he has created, and subdue it. When we do what we were created to do we find pleasure and purpose in life. A wrench is happiest turning bolts.

Rest makes sense to a working man. If one is good, two is not necessarily better. There is a line that must not be crossed if you are to delight in the gifts God has given you. Don't be deceived by the illusion that more is better. More just numbs your senses. Let praise flow from your lips to the One who has given you these wonderful gifts!

The book of Proverbs is full of exhortation to be diligent and warnings to the lazy man. Proverbs 10:4 says, "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." 12:24 says, "Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor." 22:29, "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." The warnings against laziness are a real slap in the face. Proverbs 6:6-8, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest." 6:9-11, "How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an
armed man." 10:5, "He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during have not is a disgraceful son." 18:9, "One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." Now how's that for some thought on what God thinks about those who live for the weekend, and Freedom 55?

In Eph. 6:5-7, and Col. 3:22-24, Paul exhorts the believers to work as unto the Lord, not as unto men. In other words, work as if God were your employer and were watching you continually, because... He is. If you were working as a servant of a king whom you dearly loved and he were in your presence as you worked, how would you work? It does not take too much imagination to realize that you would be doing your absolute best in every sense of the word. Well, that is exactly what the Word is telling us to do. If leisure is what we are after, and we are convinced that this is what we need to be looking forward to, then let's look at Sodom for an example. In Ezekial 16:49, it says, "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Leisure leads to Sodom but Labor leads to possession of the kingdom. Joseph on the other hand is a great example for us. He was a man who did his work as unto the Lord. He suffered unjustly at times because he would not compromise but the Lord exalted him and it was not long before he was ruling the entire kingdom. We pray that God's kingdom would come so His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and then we go into our callings and don't obey His revealed will and, as a result, the kingdom does not come.

You young men and women take heed at this point because many of your sins are a result of idleness. Sexual sins could be avoided by making life busier so you have to set your alarm in the morning, work hard all day, and then go to bed exhausted. If you need to, put more work on your plate. Get a part-time job, take more classes. You are full of way too many hormones to be idle. You would save yourselves a world of grief if you were living a fruitful and productive life. Don't be the
typical college student who squander much of his time doing nothing.

By this point you are probably thinking that I am a workaholic who does not believe in vacations, holidays, or rest. The issue I am trying to address is the anti-word pleasure mentality. Rest is a gift from God and we need to delight in it to His praise and glory. We cant forget though about the biblical balance. The scripture commands us to work six days and to rest one. So this is what we ought to do! Lets delight in the six days as well as the one.

We need to see busyness as a good thing, when it's balanced. Busyness for busyness' sake is not good. There are many worldlings who are very busy but yet they are unbalanced. They spend eighty hours a week at the office and are on their third spouse. We are not one-dimensional in our calling. God has called to do many different tasks, and often all at once. For example, you may be a student, employee, daughter, friend, wife, and mother. These callings all come under your fundamental calling of being a Christian. Compartmentalizing life and thinking that callings do not overlap and run into one another is wrong thinking.

From the time we wake, to the time we hit the pillow, we should work hard. That means as a student, employee, daughter, friend, wife, mother, worshiper, etc. our tasks don't end until the day does. Delight in all that God has called us to be and do. Have a great attitude about the callings God has given us and embrace them enthusiastically, and when rest, holidays, and vacations come they are more appreciated.

We have perverted imaginations. We dream in color and the streets are paved with gold. Our imaginations need to be sanctified and submitted to the Word. Have you ever found yourself on holidays completely bored, unfruitful, feeling a little guilty, thinking, "this isn't what I thought it would be!" Next thing you know you are grumbling, complaining, and you have a stinking attitude. You went with great dreams, imagining nothing but great fun, relaxation, and total enjoyment only to get ticked, bummed, and grumpy. You packed your Bible and some extra reading material having great intentions of reading and spending great time with the Lord. By the middle of the week you can't even find your Bible and the only praying you did was before some meals. So, spiritually drained, bummed and depressed you find yourself coming home not ready to go back into your calling.

We imagine the holiday at the beach much better than it really is. The only time that things are better than we imagined are when we have real low expectation and don't imagine much good and then we are pleasantly suprised. Then we try to repeat the experience and we can never do it. We even try to trick ourselves by having low expectations and then be pleasantly suprised but it doesn't work because we know that we were trying to trick ourselves. It is interesting that God tells us to
imagine how glorious things will be in heaven and not things on this world (Col. 3:2 ). I believe this is because there is no way that we can imagine it as good as it will be. He says in (1 Cor.2:9), "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him." So go ahead, get excited about heaven because you will not be disappointed.

We need to prepare our holidays rightly. They need to be diligently planned in order to fulfill the goal of restoring and resting to come back into our weeks, ready to go. In the Old Covenant the believers would have all their vacations and holidays focused around the Lord. They would have these tremendous feasts that were designed to celebrate and remember the Lord and His goodness. We don't vacation and holiday like this anymore, we go to Hawaii and lie on the beach and forget to read the Bible that we brought with us with good intentions. We are not equipping ourselves for life's callings. We plan vacations to Disney World with thoughts of great family time but end up with empty pockets... and hearts

Sometimes we go and spend weeks with family or friends that are unbelievers, and we are beyond empty on the way home. Spending time with unbelievers is not wrong but when we do this sacrificing Lord's Day worship and fellowship with believers then it is wrong. Why not make vacation plans that would be restful and helpful for everyone. When you do spend time with unbelievers make sure it does not mean that you don't fellowship with believers or worship. You could plan holidays with other believers and put the enjoyment of God in the center of it. Include feasting, singing Psalms, reading the Scriptures, and other great soul rejuvenating stuff. Spend time as a family in prayer. Go to some places were you could learn something great. Make sure that there is a good church where you can worship in on the Lord's Day. Never be led to think that God understands that you need a holiday and that he would not mind if you spent your day sleeping in rather than worshipping with the Church. Get out of bed you sluggard, and worship the God of Heaven, and be truly renewed.

Lastly we must be enthusiastic, diligent, and committed to our callings and reject the lie of leisure if we are to see a kingdom take-over. If this happened, we would see a Christian take over, and the world would be looking to the church instead of the church looking to the world. There shouldn't be better employees, employers, fathers, mothers, children, students, friends, etc. than Christians. Christians should be the most honest, hard working, skillful people that there are because they do all things to the glory of God. If we were to give ourselves to our callings, like we should, there would be a corporate take over. Employers love those who serve them well.

The reason this nation is the way it is is because the church is the way it is. It is not the president's fault, its the Church's. If we would only repent and give our lives for the kingdom we would see Gods kingdom come. If we would start living according to God's revealed will we would see His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Throw off the lie of leisure and start giving yourselves to your callings and then maybe, just maybe, we would start to see a take over in our generation. Once the world has gone their way in their sin, who is left to show them how to raise children, drink beer, dance, work, lead a country? The world is only getting stupider and stupider and it will not be long and they will have to go to another source. They should be looking to the church! We are the only ones who truly know how life should be lived. Let us throw off our disobedience and the world's lie and lets be people of faith and take this world for Christ sake! Amen.