The Labor in Labor Day
the scripture we’re launching from is Isaiah 66:9…
“I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born," says the Lord. "If I cause you the pain, I will never keep you from giving birth to your new thing," says your God”.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So begins the first line of the Charles Dickens' classic “Tale of Two Cities”. That’s certainly true when you are talking about labor pains, and that same statement could also be said of our world today. Modern medicine has eliminated a vast majority of diseases that just a century or two ago were killing and crippling millions of people. Smallpox, polio, and leprosy are just a few dreaded diseases practically eliminated from the face of the earth. Here in America the life expectancy is the highest in history.
More than 2,000 medical drugs have been discovered since 1900, and 75% of all drugs have been discovered since World War II.
Financially it could be called the best of times. Never has the world seen such opulence, such comfort as it sees today. Ordinary people, who centuries ago would have lived like peasants, now live like kings. There have never been more billionaires nor millionaires in the world as there are today.
Educationally there has been a virtual explosion of knowledge in the last thirty years. Seventy-five percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive today. One super computer can do in a minute what it would have taken thousands of men a year to do. This is the age of information, communication, and transportation. Smart phones can now connect us with the world, and give us access to everything imaginable…
But in other ways it is the worst of times. Aids, the deadliest and the most fearful transmitted disease ever known to man, has cut a path of devastation through this earth many miles wide. While the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. There have never been as many hungry and starving people in the world as there are today. It seems like the more we know the less we learn. And with all the knowledge, there’s less common sense than ever before….And without good examples in leadership…to mentor us, things will not get any better.
A minister was called away unexpectedly by the illness of a close family member. He entrusted his new assistant with filling the pulpit. The Pastor's wife stayed home and when he returned, the Pastor asked his wife what she thought of the young man's sermon. "The poorest I've ever heard," she said. "There was nothing in it, nothing at all. It didn't even make sense. It was very unorganized. I was disappointed." Later that day, the concerned minister met his assistant and asked him, "How'd the Sunday service and the sermon go? Did everthing go OK? "All went very well, sir, absolutely wonderful," he said. "I didn't have time to prepare a new sermon of my own on such short notice, so I got on your computer and pulled up one of your old sermons to preach!!!!
Well, it seems with all our learning, One thing we have learned is to create more and more ways to blow ourselves up. Terrorism is a constant and imminent threat and someone has described the global community as a monkey with a blow torch in a room full of dynamite.
A French Catholic philosopher, has stated that "The end of the Roman Empire was a minor event compared with what we now behold. We are now looking at the liquidation of what is known as the 'modern world.”
A British journalist said, "I have to report the affairs of a world which has lost its faith and is like a fish out of water floundering desperately to find it’s breath”.
A German sociologist has said that, "Civilization is collapsing before our eyes.” Most of society is not sure what the future holds, all we know is, that we’re getting there faster than anyone has ever gotten there before. We are moving faster than we've ever moved before. It’s all peaches and cream….but most folks still haven’t gotten it yet, that the best things in life are not about things!
But this Labor Day, as students of the word of God, and disciples of Christ, we know exactly where we are headed. We are headed for the day of the Lord, we read in Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. v4 And He shall judge among the nations, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks… nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. v5 Come, and let us walk in the light of the LORD”..
The earth is now experiencing it’s labor pains….and while folks may succeed in ignoring this fact for a while…there will come a point where it will no longer be ignored….
A woman cannot get a little bit pregnant….she is either pregnant or she is not….she may try to hide it, but there comes a point where it can no longer be hidden….because she is no longer in charge, the baby has taken charge of when it will come….She can’t say, “it’s not my circus and this is not my monkey”!!!!
In the same way, this earth is beginning to feel the labor pains of an end time deliverance….
Romans 8:19 “For the earnest expectation of the creature waits in anticipation for the manifestation of the sons of God….v22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in birth pains together until now. v23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the fulfillment, which is the redemption of our body”.
This birthing process, the bible says, is experienced by every sincere believer….. We, as well as the entire earth, are feeling the birth pains of the Day of The Lord!!!! It’s that sense in the depth of your being that God is about to come back and seriously take care of business…Whatever the world celebrates as “Labor Day”… we who are included in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ….are experiencing the Labor that is about birthing of the coming kingdom of God into the earth with power and great glory!
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps when we know not what we should pray for as we ought, for the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings (birthing pains) which cannot be uttered.
We need to know who we are, in a world that is floundering in a fog of pleasure, indulgences, fear, addictions, and hopelessness….
And we must respond with clarity, conviction and courage…..
We are the light of the world and We are a city on a hill. (Matt. 5:14).
We are people of the Word (1 Kings 8:56).
We are salt that preserves the rot and decay (Matt. 5:13-16).
We are disciples, witnesses and Christ followers (Matt. 28:16-20).
We are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11).
We are children of the cross (Rom. 8:17),
We are the fruit of an empty tomb (John 12:24) We are the recipients and the product of an upper room (Acts 2).
We are the redeemed of the Lord (Ps. 107:2).
We are the sheep of His pasture (Ps. 100:3).
We are forgiven, free and favored.
We are called and the chosen of God (1 Pet. 2:9).
We are warriors who are worshippers (Ps. 144:1).
We are world changers and we are history makers (Mark 16:15).
We are the church of Jesus Christ, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us (Matt. 16:18). Hallelujah!
If the blood moons signal His return, wonderful, if not, we’ll do it His way and in His time…. Because the Blood moon signs don’t command Him, He commands the Blood moons! Count me in, either way!!!! We don’t have to be great bible scholars to know the exact time of Jesus’ return….it will be right on time!!!
Phillips Brooks, A great New England preacher, was known for his poise, quiet manner and states man-ship. One day a friend saw him pacing the floor like a caged lion, frustrated and irritable…. "What's the trouble, Dr. Brooks?" the friend asked him? "The trouble is, he said, that I am in a hurry, "but God isn't"!!!!!
As it was when Noah was born, and his mom hid him among the bulrushes of the river bank…. Exodus 2:3 “When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.” So it will be when the labor pains, intensify and there is a birthing of this Great Day Of The Lord…IT Will Be In Secret!!! It will be a thing, that will be hidden from those who are not looking for Him….Scripture says they will be “unaware”…
1Thessalonians 5:2 “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night”.
The word thief in the Greek is the word “kleptos” which is where we get our word kleptomaniac (the irresistible urge to steal). They can’t help themselves…. Have you ever noticed that thieves have a really bad habit of not telling you when they are going to break into your house. It’s done in secret…..
I remember once we had gone out to eat, and someone got in the house and stole some stuff, and I thought, if only I had known, I would have stayed home…(really) like the thief was going to send a postcard, “Dear whoever, tomorrow I will be at your house at two o'clock, please don’t be home, Love, Kevin the kleptomaniac…(speaking of things being done in secret….)
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything together. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that, the woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or even to ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day she got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, her husband took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two cute little crocheted dolls and $95,000. He asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be married,' she said, ' my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue or stay angry with one another. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.' Her husband was so moved; he had to fight back the tears. Only two Precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two Times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with Happiness. 'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?' 'Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling all the dolls.' (He should be glad she didn’t take all that anger out on him)
The fact is, if we knew the exact date of this Great Day Of The Lord, then we would make sure on that day to be prayed up, read up, dressed up and ready. But the reason why God does not want us to know the exact date is because we are to be ready all the time. That’s why that day is coming secretly as a thief in the night.
Friend, that day is coming suddenly…. It Is Coming Suddenly
1Thessalonians 5:3"For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then suddenly it shall come upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman”.
The Bible says that there is going to be a time of a universal psudo-peace, or false peace, which will be orchestrated by the antichrist, and demons will be on every street corner and back alley, making sure that this world unites behind one world ruler. This world will think that utopia has finally arrived. But Things are not always as they appear….
A one-world government will begin to emerge (we are seeing it now), a one-world currency will be put in place (that’s why most experts feel the American dollar will collapse), the interest on the national debt is increasing at the rate of 2 million dollars every minute……or 160 million while we were sitting in church today! THAT’S JUST THE INTEREST!!!
Everyone will accept the one-world ruler, who can solve our problems… and all who take the mark of the beast will be living high, wide, and handsome for a little while. The world will be caught by surprise because they will not hear God's word or heed God's warning.
The Lord Jesus said the last days would be as the days of Noah. Matthew 24:38 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
What many will see as the sunset and the end of the old world, to the child of God, will be sunrise and the Glorious beginning of a new world.
Noah was giving birth to the Ark for approximately 100 years…and when the flood came, only 8 people were saved, after all the warnings, and all the preaching….. I wonder how much time we will have left, to get folks into the ark of God’s salvation before the labor day pains have ended, and the birthing is done!
I discovered that you can spell “LABOR”, using only vowels…and it’s spelled…like a woman says it as she’s giving birth…..E-I-E-I-O!!!!! And it’s about keeping a kingdom attitude….
I Want the first E, to stand for Encouragement…. By our example, let us encourage folks to follow Christ and put Him first….
The second vowel is “I” which stands for Insightful, we need to be able to give an answer for what we believe, and why we believe it… and how it is relevant in the world they live in….
The third vowel, is another “E”, which stand for Enthusiastic…Let’s get our passion back…stop reacting to everything and everyone and get proactive for the kingdom….build bridges that folks can cross over and get to Jesus. Get your excitement back about God’s promises, your mission and your calling!
The next letter is the second “I” which is about Initiative… Stop following and be a leader, initiate prayer, initiate the conversation around to Jesus, initiate getting the family ready and out the door to church…Lead, follow, or get out of the way, but get busy somewhere in something!
Now we come to the “O”, which is about Optimistic…In a negative, complaining world, where bad-mouthing is the order of the day, be the voice which points to the positive, be the light in darkness, be a voice of hope, a shadow of a rock in a weary land, a place of refreshing, and a cheerful face in the midst of all the craziness… Be one of those who light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.
We may be birthing a new kingdom order into the earth, and we may feel some labor pains here and there, but let’s not let our faces appear as though our Christian faith is the most painful thing since migraines!
James 1:2 “My brethren, count it all joy when you experience various trials and temptations v3 “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith is working patience. v4 But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing”.
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned in God's word at least 380 times. One out of every twenty-five verses in the Bible points with eager fingers to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom in earth as it is in heaven.
Listen, You can take away the newspaper, the television, the smart phones, and lock the child of God away in a dungeon with nothing but a Bible a candle and the Holy Spirit, and twenty years later, when he comes out, he will know more about what's going on in the world than all the newscasters, the politicians in Washington, the brass at the Pentagon , the CIA and the FBI, all put together."
I John 3:2 "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. v3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Winston Churchill was speaking to the House of Commons, and he gave this advice: He said, "We must always be ready in our average moments to meet anything that any possible enemy could hurl against us, at his select, chosen moment”…. We need to keep the breastplate of faith and love on, and have the helmet which is the covering of the mind of Christ… upon our heads. The helmet to protect the head, and the breastplate to protect the heart.
When a jet plane is coming in from a certain city, the airport controller knows all the details of the flight pattern. He knows exactly where it will be at various stages in the flight. He knows when it departed; he knows when it will arrive, but he doesn’t get all excited about it, because it is all known to him.
On the other hand, if a young lady is waiting for that plane to land because her fiance is on the plane, she doesn't know all the details of the flight. She only knows the approximate time of arrival with all the variables. But she is full of joy at the prospect of the coming of that plane. And her heart is leaping for joy, at the first appearance of his form, coming toward her at the gate! ARE YOU EXCITED TO SEE HIM!!!!?
John the Revelator says in Revelation 1:17 “And when I saw Him, I fell at his feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me? saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: v18 I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the keys of hell and of death”. Oh, we will know Him!!!!
He is Lord Almighty, Omnipotent King, Lion of Judah, Rock of Ages, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Provider, Protector, Ruling Lord and Reigning King of all the universe. He is Friend, Helper, Guardian and God. He is the First and Last, the Beginning and the End. He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all He keeps. The Architect of the universe and the Manager of all time. He always was, always is, and always will be: He is Unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone. He was bruised and brought healing. He was pierced and vanquished pain. He was persecuted and brought freedom. He was dead and brought life. He is risen and brings power. He reigns and brings Peace.
The world can’t understand him, the armies can’t defeat Him, the schools can’t explain Him, and the leaders can’t ignore Him. Herod couldn’t kill Him, the Pharisees couldn’t confuse Him, the people couldn’t hold Him! Nero couldn’t crush Him. Hitler couldn’t silence Him, the New Age can’t replace Him and the liberal media can’t explain Him away! He is light, love, and longevity, and Lord. He is goodness, kindness and gentleness. He is Holy, Righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.
His ways are right, His word is eternal, His will is unchanging, and His mind is on me! His is my redeemer, He is my savior, He is my guide, He is my peace, He is my Joy, He is my comfort, He is my Lord and He rules my life. I serve Him because His bond is love, His burden is light, and His goal for me is abundant life.
I follow Him because He is the wisdom of the wise, the power of the powerful, the ancient of days, the ruler of rulers, the leader of leaders, the overseer of the overcomers, and the sovereign Lord of all that was, and is and is to come. And if that seems impressive to you, try this for size. His goal is a relationship with ME! He will never leave me, forsake me, mislead me, forget me, overlook me, and never cancel my appointment in His appointment book!
When I fall, He lifts me up. When I fail, He forgives me. When I am weak, He is strong. When I am lost, He is The Way. When I am afraid, He is my courage. When I stumble, He steadies me. When I am hurt, He heals me. When I am broken, He mends me. When I am blind, He leads me. When I am hungry, He feeds me. When I face trials, He is with me. When I face persecution, He fights for me. When I face problems, He comforts me. When I face loss, He provides for me. When I face Death, He carries me Home!
He is everything for everyone, everywhere, every time, and in every way. He is God, He is faithful, I am His, and He is mine. My Lord in heaven can whip the God of this world, so, if you’re wondering why I feel so secure, understand this: He said it, and that settles it. God is in control, I am on His side, and He’s coming back and He’s coming soon!!! Hallelujah!!!!
It’s time to give birth to a new thing!!!!
