WELCOME
Communion Worship Service
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Establish The Work of Our Hands
If You don’t build it we labor in vain
Without Your Spirit we stand with no strength
I know my time is passing away
And the works of Your hands are what will remain
Let the favor of the Lord rest upon us
O Lord establish the work of our hands
O Lord establish the work of our hands
Teach us to number the length of our days
Pour out Your power we’ll pour out Your praise
Teach us to run to finish the race
For only what’s done in love will remain
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Call to Worship
For us all as we celebrate Labor Day and the beginning of a new season:
O God, Creator of Word and world and work,
We thank you for our minds, hearts, and hands.
May we use the gifts you have given us to be your ambassadors
In a lost and lonely world, to help and heal,
Create and cultivate, and fill the earth with good things.
All: Bless the work of our hands.
Be with the students going back to school.
As they learn all about your diverse creation,
May they also learn to love their neighbors as themselves.
Give them the courage to be kind.
Open their hearts and minds to all you would teach them.
All: Bless this season of learning and growing.
Be with those who stay at home.
In the quiet work of dish soap and diapers,
Cooking and cleaning, may they know the holiness of each task.
You are in the quiet days, the simple service
That is often overlooked.
All: Bless the sacred ordinary.
Be with all who are employed.
Thank you for the gift of gainful work,
A way to provide for themselves and their families.
May they find joy and meaning in their calling,
And use their efforts to edify this community and beyond.
All: Bless our service.
O God, we lift unholy hands and
Ask for the grace of your redemptive touch.
Take our humble offering of work in every season
And use it to bring light and life to your world.
Make our every moment holy.
All: Bless this offering we pray. Amen.
Songs
Above All
Above all powers above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There’s no way to measure
What You’re worth
Crucified laid behind the stone
You lived to die rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all
Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me
What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer
There is no more for heaven now to give
He is my joy my righteousness and freedom
My steadfast love my deep and boundless peace
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus
For my life is wholly bound to his
Oh how strange and divine I can sing all is mine
Yet not I but through Christ in me
The night is dark but I am not forsaken
For by my side the Saviour he will stay
I labour on in weakness and rejoicing
For in my need his power is displayed
To this I hold my Shepherd will defend me
Through the deepest valley he will lead
Oh the night has been won and I shall overcome
Yet not I but through Christ in me
No fate I dread I know I am forgiven
The future sure the price it has been paid
For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon
And he was raised to overthrow the grave
To this I hold my sin has been defeated
Jesus now and ever is my plea
Oh the chains are released I can sing I am free
Yet not I but through Christ in me
With every breath I long to follow Jesus
For he has said that he will bring me home
And day by day I know he will renew me
Until I stand with joy before the throne
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus
All the glory evermore to him
When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me
When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Prayer
Prayer of Confession & Assurance
Confession:
God of mercy, you know us so well. We like to think that we can hide from You, but we know we are just kidding ourselves. You have offered to us new life characterized by honesty, compassion, joy, and peace. You have invited us into ministries of peace and justice, but we have far too often turned our back on opportunities for service and witness to your transformational love. Forgive us for our stubbornness. Help us to turn around and listen to your words of hope. Remind us again that you require compassion and mercy in all who serve you; that you will guide our steps and our lives. Give us courage to truly be your witnesses in this world. AMEN
Assurance of Forgiveness:
Even if you have transgressed and done what you know to be wrong, remember that God will heal and forgive you, sending you on your way to become a person of peace, hope, love and justice. Be at peace. God is with you. AMEN.
Labour Day
God Works!
Today's Message: Pastor Dave Page
I suspect that most of You are familiar with this Acronym – TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday!
As our culture relates to – Everybody’s ‘livin’ for the weekend’ and heh, look, I’ve worked in the marketplace for a long time. When the end of the work week comes, the Sabbath approaches, and some downtime is in sight, I am giving thanks to God for Fridays too. As I considered how to take this opportunity to talk to you about Labour Day and the intersection of our work and our lives as Jesus followers, It caused me to wonder. How often do any of you think to yourself, “Thank God it’s a new week?”
TGIANW – Thank God It’s A New Week!!
Obviously, this is an acronym I’ve concocted for our purposes here this morning, but I want you to really consider what it might represent for you as we explore together why for us, as Christians, a phrase like this might make a lot of sense.
As Jesus followers, our worldview about the workplace is supposed to be different than what many in the culture around us would feel. In fact, I would go so far as to say that how we think about work would be viewed by some people around you as backwards. As you know, our culture has a lot to say when it comes to the workplace. For example, for some, work is very much an idol – something to be worshipped in many ways.
For others, work is how they identify themselves – it’s their purpose, it’s the center of their lives. We talked a bit about that last week when we asked, “what is the focus of your life?” For many, work is where they find a sense of success and recognition, because, after all, this is what the world around tells us is important these days.
The impact of this on the world around us then, is that you have many out there today who despise or even resent their work. They become cynical about it and view it merely as an unfortunate, but necessary, means of paying the bills. It’s drudgery, meaningless almost.
As we suggest to you week in and week out, we are called to be different. As believers, we understand the true value of work and we know that it was not ever designed to, or should it be, what carries our lives focus, let alone our hopes and aspirations. Work is good; but our work needs to remain in its proper place and that place is not at the center of our lives or in a place of angst and perpetual unhappiness. Remember, from the outset of creation, God was and is a worker!
What is it with our culture and work that can make us so unhappy?
A new report says 71 per cent of Canadian workers want to leave their jobs this year and look for better opportunities. – March 2024 (Hays Recruiting) The report goes on to say that more than half of Canadian employees feel more stressed this year than last year, and nearly half are unmotivated to work. They called this report ‘alarming’ and that it revealed growing discontent among workers.
In contrast to this I would present to you a scriptural way to think about the work we are called to do. Think through this with me from the very beginnings of creation itself; as work appears in Genesis 1 and 2. Before the fall, before evil comes on the scene, work is part of God’s desire and plan for how creation will function.
In Genesis 3, however, work becomes something else:
Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:17-19
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
In a cosmic instant, work becomes what we sometimes experience it to be now: toil, painful, by the sweat of our brows. Now follow me here, before all that, work was a good thing, created by God. As we’ve noted, God himself was and still is a worker, and in that alone he brings a measure of glory to all work. The writer of the book Genesis uses a very common word in Genesis 2:2-3 when referring to the work that God is doing. Mal – k-ah – is a Hebrew word for work – meaning labouring work, ordinary, service, plain work.
Scripturally, we understand the truth that our God works, and work is a natural part of the created world. Our working is part of God’s plan for our lives. However, that is not the way a growing number of people around us understand work and there’s some danger for us in that. Like many other areas of our lives, the message that the world is professing does not equate with what God’s Word says, and the area of our work life is no different. Therefore, we need to guard our minds. One way in which we can guard our minds as it relates to work is to reflect on how our everyday work connects to the ways we see God Himself at work in the world around us. That’s important because having an awareness of this will go a long way to helping each of us find greater meaning in our workday. It will help us not to be drawn into the pervasive and troublesome attitude that what we’re doing is just so useless or not valuable.
Let’s explore this a little bit more. I want to show you two ways that we can see that God is at work in the world.
The first way that God is at work in the world is through his ongoing work of carrying out His plan for His creation. God did not create the world and then walk away. God is present in our world, every minute of every day and he’s busy!
Psalms 65:9-13 says:
9 You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.[a]
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.
Jesus himself taught about this:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:25–33.
Our God is at work!
There’s more. Part of God’s plan has another continuing work for the world and that’s YOU and I. Each of us, through our work, is supposed to be a piece in the puzzle of His plan for creation.
Now follow me again on this,
- God is the source of all life.
- God is the source of the food we eat;
- God is the beginning of all our medicines.
But, in us having access to food, medicine, and other things, God’s plan is to use humanity to work. Doctors/nurses, pharmacists, chemists, and truck drivers, understand that first and foremost, this is all part of the mandate given to us from Genesis 2. God’s plan for humanity is to love and serve our neighbour through our work, and particularly the work that participates in God’s ongoing provision for His creation.
Hear me Church – the work that you do matters!! It matters particularly because through that work you become an image bearer of our God. You are showing to everyone around you that God is a giver. Through our work we are contributing in the very unique ways we are called to do our part in getting His work done.
God is at work and He is telling us that YOUR work matters!!
Here’s the other significant way that God is active in the world. It’s in carrying out His plan for the redemption of and the restoration of His perfect creation. As the final chapters of the scriptures bear witness to, God is on His Holy quest to renew all things.
Do you want a really simple way to think about the story of the Scriptures – think about four things in succession:
- creation,
- fall,
- redemption,
- and renewal.
We’ve talked before that with the coming of Jesus, in a way, the renewal of all things has begun. The kingdom is both now and not yet. Jesus gives us a glimpse of the kingdom to come. Think again about our discussion of the Sermon on the Mount. This becomes a reality during his earthly ministry, and through the presence of the Holy Spirit here, God continues to do that work today. God is unrelenting at moving forward His plan for love and peace in a world that is growing in corruption, evil, and pain. Each of us then gets to play a part in that plan of restoration and renewal through our work.
- Doctors figure out how to repair broken bodies.
- Environmental trades work to take our garbage and turn that into recycled consumable goods.
- Agronomists and Scientists each help restore waist areas of the planet to bountiful fields of food for a hungry world.
In each of these ways and countless others, you are at work in God’s plan of restoration. Your Work Matters!
As we might consider that our work actually really does matter, we can also start to understand how, in combining our faith and work, we can impact the culture of our workplaces. Simply by your presence, you can engage in such a way that words like calm, neighbourly, and in service to one-another, all become demonstrated descriptors of our workplaces. Not only should we be aspiring individually to be like this but, depending on the influence you might have in your organization, it may be in your calling to see to it that the organization itself behaves honestly and ethically and treats both customers and employees fairly.
I have a really good example of this. One of our congregants contacted us last week because someone in their workplace was struggling with food insecurity. The entire workplace was working to try and help, and this person said: “I bet my church would help” – and of course, we did!
Don’t ever think that its not possible for you to be a positive influence in your workplace.
Can work be a downer somedays? Of course it can! Everyone experiences a bad day at work. But our God created work, and your work matters. It matters because work is good. It’s good for us and it’s good for one another.
I mentioned earlier that there is a Hebrew word for work – m – la-kah. Well, there can be many Hebrew ways of communicating the same one English word we use. Consistently, another word for ‘work’ shows up in the creation narrative. When Adam is put into the Garden of Eden the work of tending to the Garden was described an act of worshipping and glorifying God. The Hebrew word used in this context is Avad. Avodah is used in the Scriptures as God’s word to mean ‘work understood and undertaken in a spirit that Glorifies God’.
TGIANW
So – TGIANW. As you leave for work tomorrow – or after the Labour Day holiday, or as you’re thinking about how the world starts back up again in earnest as the summer draws to a close – consider this perspective: Thank you, God for another work week! Because in this new week, each of us is given the opportunity to worship our God in our work – work that truly does matter to Him, and work through which he has chosen to use you to move His eternal plan forward.
Let’s pray?
Prayer
God of the rough-worn hands, as we honour workers this day,
let us not forget those whose work is without honour:
those homemakers who watch over children and homes but are not recognized as workers because they are not paid;
those who are forced out of jobs by corporate changes,
those forced into early retirement,
those who are denied employment because of their age;
those who live far from home, struggling to save a bit of money to send to their loved ones;
those who must work illegally in order to survive; and
those who lose jobs because employers use undocumented labor.Christ of the aching back, you worked the rough wood, you walked the long and dusty roads, you know the bitter thirst of the poor. Let our thirst become a passion for justice. Help us to work toward transformation of economic policies that allow only a few nations to hoard the world’s wealth, policies that pay women as only half a person or less, policies that do not recognize the worth of labor exactly without pay
Spirit of creative power, move among us this day. Heal the wounds we carry because of jobs we hate but must do, jobs we want but cannot have. Heal all those who labor to survive. Renew in us our sense of vocation. Help us discern your Presence in even the lowliest tasks we face. Amen
(Chalice Worship, Colbert Cartwright & O.I. Harrison, eds, Chalice Press, 1997, p. 176)
Communion
One: Creator of the harvest- We lift our voices in praise!
Many: Creator of the table – In you we find our peace.
One: In gratitude we gather to share this meal.
Many: With thanksgiving, we gather to share our love for neighbour.
One: As the sun sets earlier, the days become cooler, and the crops near harvest, we celebrate the plenitude of the harvest that is available to us. We extend this table through the work of our hands and the missions of this church.
As we celebrate this sacrament, may we remember the labourers in the fields:
- The harvesters of the wheat and grapes.
- The transporters of their yields.
- Those who transform wheat into bread and grapes into juice.
Bless their hands and feet as they labor at farms and gardens, in trucks and warehouses. We give thanks for the ones who prepare the table here today. May their gifts of preparation and hospitality inspire us to extend hospitality to the strangers among us.
After labouring on the streets of Jerusalem, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God Jesus clutched bread in his hands. He blessed the food, gave thanks, and heart-fully expressed to his friends that this was the bread of life. “As you eat this bread, remember me.”
After supper, Jesus grasped the cup filled with the gifts of the vine. In his blessing, he reminded them “whenever you drink of this cup, remember me.”
Spirit of wisdom and of wonder, wind around these elements today. May they stir us from stagnation into actively loving God, our neighbours, and ourselves. May our participation at this table transform us into the people God is calling us to be.
With gratitude, we gather at this table. As we take a piece of bread, let us experience the love of God as seen in Jesus the Christ.
As we take the bread into the cup, let us remember the grace that pours from God.
Song
Take My Life
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord, to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise
Let them flow in ceaseless praise
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee
Swift and beautiful for Thee
Take my voice and let me sing
Always only for my King
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee
Filled with messages from Thee
Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine
Take my heart it is Thy own
It shall be Thy royal throne
It shall be Thy royal throne
Take my love my Lord I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store
Take myself and I will be
Ever only all for Thee
Ever only all for Thee
Benediction
God is always with you, even when times get difficult, and the way is not clear, God is truly by your side. Rest in God’s strength and love. Serve God with joy. Go in peace. AMEN.