Sermon Tone Analysis

*Our Blue-Collar God (A Passion for Work)*

*May 29, 2005*

* *

*Scripture Reading:* Isaiah 44:9-22

 

“9 ¶  All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless.

Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.

10  Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing?

11  He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men.

Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

12  The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.

He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.

13  The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses.

He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

14  He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak.

He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.

15  It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

16  Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.

He also warms himself and says, "Ah!

I am warm; I see the fire."

17  From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.

He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." 18  They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

19  No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?

Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" 20  He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?" 21 ¶  "Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.

I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.

22  I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.

Return to */me/*, for I have redeemed you."”

(Isa 44:9-22 NivUS)

 

*Introduction:*

 

How pitiful are those who follow after idols – gods who cannot see or hear or know – non-working models that men worship in vain from their own darkened understanding.

They are like the gods they worship.

They fashion gods like themselves.

What they have is not God at all.

But we have a God who sees, who hears, who understands all things, who worked to create us, and works to redeem us.

He is truly God.

Since he is truly God, and all that God is, let us not make him less than the God he is.

Let us not make him out to be less than omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient – like a block of wood or a cast of metal.

Our God is not a non-working model.

He is a working God.

He is a Blue-Collar God, if you will.

He is involved with his creation.

He is willing to lay hands on us and labor over us.

We are the ones that have been carved and cast.

In his grace he has breathed life in this dust and clay he holds in his hands.

But he has not born his child and then turned him loose on the streets of the city to raise and fend for himself.

Indeed, we are to work with him as he works in us.

“12 ¶  Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13  for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

(Php 2:12-13 NivUS)

 

But sometimes we like to tempt fate by leaving him out of the equation.

When we temporarily abandon the partnership, we get in trouble.

Watch this short video on “Letting Dad Be Dad”.

Consider the father figure in the video to be God the Father and the children to be we ourselves.

/ILLUS.: Sermon Illustrators, Vol. 1, No. 4, “Letting Dad Be Dad”/

 

Even though we are to work with God, we must not forget that he is in control as our prime mover and enabler – the One who sets up the opportunities to grow in learning and usefulness and viability – the One who owns the pickup and the kitchen sink even though we are told to work in the back yard for now.

We must respond to his will and instruction.

But even as we are often tempted by independence to go it alone, we can also forget that he is there at all, lovingly wooing our dependence upon him.

We become spiritually isolated in our circumstances.

It is then that we can become easily discouraged.

We must not forget that we have a Blue-Collar God who loves us as his children, cares for us, and will never forsake us.

As Moses told Joshua ---

 

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."”

(De 31:8 NivUS)

 

Today, I want us to be reminded of the nature of our Blue-Collar God and therefore encouraged about his continuing work in us as we respond to his work in us.

The first verse of the Bible tells us, “In the beginning God /created/ ---.”

Then it goes on to tell us about all the initial works of God, even up through verse 27, “So God /created man/ ---.”

Then as we finish chapter one and begin chapter two it says, “God saw all that he had /made/ --- ~/ Thus the heavens and the earth were /completed/ --- ~/ By the seventh day God had /finished the work/ he had been doing; so on the seventh day he /rested from all his work/.”

(We continue to celebrate that rest today, even as he has commanded in the Ten Commandments, to keep it holy and rest ourselves.)

This is replayed in the Gospel of John by Jesus in the NT ---

 

“1 ¶  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  He was with God in the beginning.

3  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4  In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 ¶  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

(Joh 1:1-5 NivUS)

 

And after Jesus had burned brightly in his earthly ministry he prayed:

 

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” (Joh 17:4 NivUS)

 

And then he went to the cross and said:

 

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished."

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

(Joh 19:30 NivUS)

 

And so Jesus rested in the grave on that same Sabbath, resting from his spiritual work of redeeming mankind, but rose again from the grave on a Sunday, the third day.

And so then we celebrate a new Sabbath on Sunday, resurrection day, the day after the old Jewish Sabbath.

This becomes for us a new day of rest - a rest /in/ the grace of God in victory over sin and a rest /from/ death – for the rest of your eternal life by faith in him.

After Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father.

“After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.” (Mr 16:19 NivUS)

 

Now, I don’t know what kind of a view you have of God when you are sorely tempted and tried.

If you just take this particular knowledge of God from his Word you might think that God the Father and even his only Son, Jesus, have completed their work and the rest is now left up to us – that all that remains for them to do is rest.

They are in heaven resting and we are on earth laboring.

It is true, of course, that our Triune God has made provision now for sin in the death of Jesus, but you might be tempted to think we alone are left to deal with the results and pick up the mess.

Perhaps you think they are now somewhat detached, that the work of God will now somehow work itself out in us without their involvement – after all, they did complete their work and now reside who knows how far away.

You must admit that sometimes, under stress, you feel abandoned by God, that he doesn’t seem to be there, or that he somehow just doesn’t seem to care what you are going through.

You believe his plan - that it will all work out in the end - but you are certainly having trouble working it out now in the midst of the chaos in which you live.

In these times we need to re-evaluate our view of God so that we don’t fall further into whatever is besetting us.

You see, our God and his Christ, even though they worked and rested, have not abandoned the works of their hands.

God created and then rested, but he only rested from his act of creation.

He has not rested from caring for it.

Christ redeemed and rested, but he only rested from his act of redemption.

He has not rested from the continual process of sanctifying all that he has redeemed.

God is actively involved in his creation.

After all, as I mentioned earlier, you don’t have a child and then expect that child to raise itself, do you?

You don’t build a boat and then never sail it.