Why our labor is not in vain
Category: Special Seasons
Key Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bible as we go to First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15. I said I’d miss someone. I sat there thinking I missed the PA workers. Every one of them, all of them is important. And I appreciate all the many workers that make a great day happen. And it is a great day. It really is.
In heaven, someone being saved—hey, that’s what it’s all about right there. And people get in the house of God and living for God and excited for God. That’s what it’s all about. Praise the Lord for it. Just for a little while, I’d like to focus. I believe the Lord will have us focus on this subject: Why our labor is not in vain. Why our labor is not in vain. You’ll know the text when we read it.
We’ll read a couple of verses kind of leading up to it. First Corinthians 15. This whole chapter is a great chapter about the resurrected body. And it’s just a great chapter on that subject. And, of course, the gospel at the beginning of it, but a great, great chapter, a long chapter, but a good one. First Corinthians 15, we’re going to start in verse number 54. Would you please stand if you’re able, in respect to the Word of God. First Corinthians 15, verse number 54 of God’s word.
How many of you are tired tonight? Been a busy day. You’re tired tonight? Oh, not everybody. That’s a good thing. We’ve got some folks not tired. That’s good. But most of us will try to be wise with the time. Verse number 54. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death is sin, and the strength of sin is all.”
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I thought about Ms. Bishop tonight saying, what does it mean Jesus’ resurrection to her? He’s taking the sting out of death. I appreciate that testimony from her. Then that last verse: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast.” Just keep doing what you’re doing for the Lord. Will anything move? Anything change? You just keep going, running the course you’re running, serving the Lord. Unmovable.
All the different philosophies and society changes, but you’re just not going to move. It’s grounded on the Word of God. I’m unmovable. Can’t change you. It’s amazing how somebody just changes with every whim and wind that blows in our day and time. Steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. That’s a pretty tough calling. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
For just a little while, I’m just going to try to be wise with the time. Why is your labor not in vain? We’ll not get it all covered, but just a couple things about why your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Why is our labor not in vain? Number one, because God does not reward you for the results, but for your labor. 1 Corinthians 3, verse number 8, he’s talking about the judgment seat of Christ over there when he gives out rewards. And it says, “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” You don’t get rewarded for results because that’s in God’s hands.
You get rewarded for your labor. We have a missionary; he’s a good missionary, Michael Williams. His dad pastors in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and he loves his dad, but he left the United States to go be a missionary. He went first to Ghana, West Africa. Ghana, West Africa—you just have a bunch of tracts, and you stand on a street corner; I mean, they’re coming. Praise the Lord, they’re hungry, they’re open, they want to hear the gospel. So awesome, awesome mission field. I remember getting the letters when he was there and how God was just blessing and multitudes were getting saved. It was just exciting to hear about that. He was there for several years, just God pouring out His blessings.
Then God called him to Germany. What a difference! God in West Africa, you give a gospel tract, they’re there to listen; they want it. Man, you go to Germany, if you’re on fire, they won’t spit on you. They’re just not interested in it, you know? They might just go ahead and push you off the sidewalk and keep walking if you’re on fire. I mean, for the most part, they’re just not real interested; it’s much, much harder. But God’s promises are still true: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” And they had some fruit, but it was so small in comparison.
Now, wait a second. If he spent the same amount of time in Germany, same amount of prayer, same amount of energy, same amount of work and effort, but he didn’t have near the results—but if he’s putting forth the same labor, according to God’s word, he had the same reward in Germany as he did in Ghana, West Africa. Because God doesn’t bless you for results; He blesses you for your labor.
Hey, there are some people today that they worked mighty hard at inviting and trying to get people. Someone said they had a meal prepared and they were trying to get some guests to come, and their guests didn’t come. So they went home and kicked the dog and the cat and said, “You should have fixed a better meal,” to their wife. No, they didn’t do all that, but they were laboring. Many of you, many of you, you’re laboring to get some people to come, and you say, “Well, Brother Tom Kidd, he had a row and a half back there with it,” you know. Praise the Lord, Tom Kidd did. I rejoice with him, by the way, the great victory. And many of them have been praying for, working over a long time. But if somebody else worked and prayed, hey, listen, you still have rewards because God rewards you for your labor.
“I don’t have the results I want to have.” Hey, God’s in control. He’s the one that brings the increase, not us. God rewards you for your labor. I had a great basketball coach in high school. He influenced us boys for the Lord, a Christian coach, good, good coach. And I remember him saying, “I don’t care about the scoreboard so much,” he said. “I want you to play to your potential.” We thought, well, however the coach gives those speeches, that doesn’t mean anything in the world.
But the honest truth is, we were, I think, 2A. Sometimes we’d play down to a 1A team, and, you know, it’s one of those games where the guys were trying to hot dog and build their stats, and we’re killing them on the scoreboard and all that. And we’d go in at halftime in the locker room, and he said, “You’re a sorry bunch of lazy, selfish guys playing as a team.” He’d scream at us, and we’re like, “Coach, we’re killing them!” He didn’t care.
And then we’d go to another team. We’d play up. We’d play 3A. I remember playing a 3A team, and they killed us. I mean, it was like David and Goliath, and we didn’t have a slingshot out there, you know. And we got in the locker room after the end of the game. It was all over. I mean, there was no competition. They just kind of stepped on us and twisted a little bit and just kept walking, you know. We’re like, “Whoa.” And we got in the locker room, the coach said, “Man, I’m proud of you guys. You played to your potential. You didn’t lose it. You stood in there the whole game. You gave it all you got.” He said, “Don’t you hang your head. You hold your head up high. You did a great job.” I still remember that.
God brings the results. I don’t always have control over that. God blesses you and He rewards you for your labor. There’s going to be sometimes—there have been many a day—I’ve tried to accomplish something at the church here, and I feel like I’ve hit my head against the wall, and it never happens. But if God’s led me and we’re trying to do it and we’re laboring for Him, God’s happy with that. He rewards you for your labor.
Number two, we’re going to move on quickly here. Number two, because your work for the Lord is eternal. Now think with me—just think with me. If I’m living just for here and now, that’s my life; I’m living just to have a good time, to eat, drink, and be merry, get that car, get that house, and I’m just living for—think about it—just for good times and a thrill and all that. As I get older, I’m running out of thrills. I don’t have as much to look forward to. Someone told my wife yesterday, one of the ladies, said, “Hey, you know, another 10 years, I’ll be 80,” and we were like, “Wow,” that’s a different way to think of it. Great worker in our church for years and years. But it was all it is, is it’s here and now. The older you get, it’s pretty depressing, pretty empty. This is it. And can I say there are some Christians, for the most part—and I don’t know their hearts—but it seems that they’re spending their life for here and now. That’s temporal.
But if I’m working for the Lord, your labor in the Lord—if I’m doing that, hey, listen, friend, my paycheck doesn’t come down here on earth. There’s heaven to look forward to. The older I get, hey, the more I say, “Woo-hoo, I’m looking forward to going home one day.” That’s where the reward is over there. One of our older gentlemen came this morning. He said, he said, here lately, just—we were talking about a resurrected body—he said, “Man, I’m ready to go meet him.” Now he’s going to live for the Lord until that day comes. And I said, “Brother, you got to be here. You got to see that new building over there one day.” He said, “I will. I will see that.” But friend, you notice for someone that’s living for the Lord, it gets more and more easier if you hold to fulfill that promise that verse would say, “Hey, set your affection on things above.” And it’s not empty. It almost gains more value. We’re living for eternity. This world isn’t my home. I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. It’s eternal. Payday is in heaven.
You know the verse, Romans 8:18: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Second Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” It’s eternal.
I remember as a teenager—I talk about it so often—but I worked at Sampson Metal and Machine. It was a machine shop up front, a metal fabrication shop at the back. And I had the important job of going in there, which is very important in cleaning. That was my job. I was a first-class broom operator, amen. I come in there and sweep that place out. Those machines, those lathes and mills and all that, get all those metal shavings out and all that. That was just my job. And those guys were good at making things dirty, you know. I just—that’s just my job. And I got tired of that after a while. Man, you know, how many metal shavings can you get? You know, how many times can you sweep and clean these floors? And I started working there, and he gave me a magnet. He said, “If it sticks to the magnet, it’s metal. It goes to this bin over here, mild steel. If it’s heavy and it doesn’t stick, it’s stainless steel. It goes into this bin. If it’s light and it doesn’t stick, it’s aluminum. It goes to that bin.” And I just walked around. That’s just my job, cleaning the shop. You know, I got tired of that. Dirty, rotten, stinking guys, they don’t care. I just cleaned it up. They made a mess over there. Now they expect me to come over there and clean it up. You know, take that broom and hit them over the head. Cleaning everywhere, always cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, you know.
I remember that one of the first jobs I got, I thought I was somebody. We did work for Walt Disney World sometimes in Florida, and they had made these big, huge Mickey Mouse ears—like a whole head—of stainless steel. And he said, “All right, here’s the orbital sander, double-action sander, if you will. And he said, ‘I want so many grooves from that orbital sander.’ He said, ‘If anybody climbs on that and they make scratches on it, we’ll never know it. I want you to have little bitty twirls all in that.’” And days, days, I just spent sanding on that crazy Mickey Mouse thing. I mean, I tried to take a sledgehammer to it, you know. And I did all that.
But Friday came around. We got paid every Friday. Man, at the end of the shift, they’d come around, they passed up those checks. And I was a teenager, man. I thought I was somebody, man. Paul Chisgar, they even spelled the last name right. That’s saying something, folks. Man, I’d open that up. Woo! I’m rich! I think it was $3.35 was minimum wage back then. I don’t know. Somewhere on that line back in the dark ages, you know. Man, I got that. I’m not sure, a couple hundred bucks, whatever it was. I thought, “Hey, it’s worth it. I got a good old paycheck right here,” you know. And when you get to heaven one day, you’re going to say, “Woohoo, I got a paycheck.” Hey, payday is in heaven one day, friend, when you’re working for the Lord. This isn’t it.
I look at Brother Dylan; he’s been serving the Lord all these years. Payday is coming one day, amen. He’s going to get in heaven. The Lord’s going to say, “Hey, well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He’s going to have a paycheck awaiting. You’re going to have your name on it, Brother Dylan. Our labor is not in vain because it’s eternal, not temporal. It’s not in vain because He rewards us for our labor, not for our results. Then number three: because He sees it all. Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” He sees it all.
I tried to just sit down on Thursday afternoon and make a list of all the different workers I missed already. And I guarantee I missed a whole lot of things you did for the Lord that I never knew about. I never knew about it. But God knows about it. Those phone calls you made and those prayers you said and some of the meals and the cards and the texts and all the rest that you did, nobody might not ever know about it down here, but God sees every single one of those details. Gas station passing out tracts, trying to be a good testimony for work when they give you a hard time—God sees all of it. His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He sees it all. There’s not one thing you’ve ever done for the Lord that He didn’t see and know about it. Every prayer you might have said without even opening your mouth in your heart, you whispered—God knew about that. He knows about it all. Doesn’t miss one little bitty thing. Sometimes, well, nobody knows about it. God knows about every single thing you ever have or ever will do for Him. He knows about it.
Here’s a wonderful thing. I’m talking about Sampson Metal and Machine. I was just a teenager, but Mr. Sampson was very good to me. I’m very thankful for it. He was very influential in my life, but he—I remember him coming to me one time. I said, “Look, we’ve got some higher-ups coming.” I don’t know where it was—we had phosphate mines or Disney World, whatever—coming there. One of those people were coming in, some higher-ups, and he said, “I need things clean around there.” He said, “I know you work a bus route Saturday. He said, ‘After the bus route, would you come in and clean?’” He asked me who was coming on Saturday. I said, “Well, after the bus ride.” And he said, “Sure.” So I came in Saturday, and I cleaned the back shop up. And it is a factory; I don’t know how big. And this is the thing: It’s been over 30 years ago. And I remember Mr. Sampson came in that Saturday afternoon, I believe it was. And he went out in the back shop where I’d been cleaning. And I still remember this over 30 years ago. And he looked at me and he said, “Paul, you did a good job.” And he said—and I still remember it—I paid him money to say this, that’s why I still remember. But he said, “You’re an exceptional young man.” I spent 30-something years ago, I still remember it. This is what I’m saying. This is what I’m saying. One day you’ll stand before the Lord. He’ll say, “Hey, well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He’ll give you your reward for your labor.
I sang it this afternoon. I wanted to show you. I appreciate you getting involved in the day. It was just a super day. And I wanted to show you. And I just pray, Lord, would you happen to do that? But I felt like the Lord said, “Hey, one day we’ll stand before me, and He’ll say, ‘I remember that Easter, how hard you worked.’” And He’ll say, if you will, “Now you’re an exceptional young man.” He sees it all. Just to have the Lord, if you will, put His hand on you and say, “Hey, son, I’m proud of you. Daughter, I’m proud of you.” That’s what we’re working for. And give you those crowns. I believe we’ll put them back at His feet. I believe we’ll wear them when He comes back. We talked about that not too long ago. He sees it all. Every little thing in your home things nobody ever know about it. He sees it all. In all those things, He’ll say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Not in vain. You’re working for the Lord. He sees it all.
One last saying: Number one, we said, God rewards you for your labor, not your results. Number two, your work for the Lord is eternal, not temporal. Number three, because He sees it all. Number four, and here it is, number four, and we’re done. We’re going to go home, amen. Here’s the last thing right here. Here’s the last thing: Because you never know what the Lord will do with your labor. You never know.
Just five loaves and two small fishes, but it fed thousands. Just the widow’s two mites—Jesus said she did more than all those rich people over there. You just never know what God will do. Despise not the day of small things, Scripture says. Gideon’s 300 up against the thousands. Little shepherd boy against Goliath. You never know what God will do.
I can read a little story, a true story, and we’re done for the night. When Robert Moffat, great, great missionary, Scottish missionary to South Africa, came back to recruit helpers in his homeland, Scotland, he was greeted by the fury of a cold British winter. Arriving at the church where he was to speak, he noted that only a small crowd had braved the elements to hear his appeal. What disturbed him even more was that there were only ladies in attendance that night. And he had chosen his text as Proverbs 8:4: “Unto you, O men, I call.”
In his consternation, he almost failed to notice one small boy in the loft who had come to work the bellows of the organ. You know, back in the day they had those big organs, and they had to have someone pump the bellows. Dr. Moffat felt hopeless as he gave the message, realizing that few women could be expected to undergo the rigorous experience they would face in the undeveloped jungles of the continent where he labored. But God works in mysterious ways to carry out His wise purposes. Although no one volunteered, the young fellow assisting the organist was thrilled by the challenge. Deciding that he would follow in the footsteps of this pioneer missionary, he went on to school, obtained a degree in medicine, and then spent the rest of his life ministering to the unreached tribes in Africa. His name—one of the greatest missionaries there ever has been—his name is David Livingstone. You never know what God will do with your labor.
Original File: Why our labor is not in vain - Easter Sunday PM - Pastor Paul Chisgar 442021