Your Labour Is Not In Vain In The Lord - Joel Schrock

Good morning. I'd also like to greet you in the

name of Jesus this morning. Thank you for that opening there.

The appreciated the mess, uh the service so far. I

guess we had the two openings, the Sunday School, the songs.

There's some things in the Sunday School lesson that stood

out as as maybe fitting with what's been going through

my mind. It's not exactly, maybe not exact, but some

parallel thoughts, So that was interesting. A little less than

one hundred years ago, there was a young man. He

was born in Portland, actually Portland, Oregon, and I don't

know how old he was, and he said this, but

he was young. I probably could have looked it up.

He said this, he is no fool who gives what

he cannot keep to gain that which she cannot lose.

You've probably heard that before. He is no fool who

gives what he cannot keep to gain that which she

cannot lose. Who said that? Anybody? Have it on the

tip of your tongue, Jim Elliott. So there. I'm sure

there's many people here that know the story, have read

more about this than I have. But there's some things

in a story of Jim Elliott I'd like to highlight

here briefly. He was one of five young missionary men

in Ecuador who landed an airplane to try to meet

members of what the tribes around them knew as the

Aka Indians. It's not the name of their tribe. The

name of their tribe is a lot harder to say.

It's probably why we know them as the Yaka Indians.

They are the wild ones. They were feared. They were

feared by other tribes around them, They were feared by

foreigners who tried in the jungle. They were feared by

each other actually, And there was careful planning and thought

put into how contact would be made with these with

this tribe, and he was convinced that he had been

called to bring the good news of the Gospel to

this small, fragmented, violent tribe in the jung of Ecuador. Now,

as I understand it, they lived in family groups, and

a lot of times their houses were, you know, a

mile or two apart. They weren't really a close knit

they they were they there was a lot of treachery

within them, and they were sometimes just as violent to

each other as they were to outsiders. And yet if

they could pull together against outsiders, they would and they

would be you know what we would consider today, they

would have been an uncontacted tribe. I think that would

be a way we would they would be considered today,

not this tribe anymore. But at the time, Now, these

young men learned some words and phrases of the native

language there, local tribal language, and they flew an airplane

over the jungle and aified some clearing some areas where

people lived, and eventually they begin dropping gifts out of

the airplane. Now they didn't just fly over and throw

gifts out. The pilot, Nate Saint figured out if he

flew in a tight circle, tight enough circle, they could

let a rope down and the rope wouldn't move too far,

and they could let gifts down that way, and eventually

the gifts started being reciprocated. They would drop a gift

and these these people would send a gift back. So

there was hope. Then they started recognizing them, and so

there was a lot of hope that a meeting might

be a friendly meeting. Then there was good reason for

that thinking. So Nate saying, the pilot found a sandbar

out by the river, and I believe they called it

Palm Beach, if I remember right, and this was a

place he could land. Now, as I understand that most

of them lived, it would have taken a couple hours

to walk there, but it was about as close as

they could reasonably get, certainly with an airplane with supplies.

And they took supplies and put together kind of a

I don't know, treehouse cabin something that they could stay

in for a few days. And another thing they had

done as they dropped gifts is they had a loud

speaker in this airplane and they would they would, you know,

throw out the few words and phrases they knew, like

I want to be your friend and that kind of thing,

some positive words like that. So again using the airplane,

after he dropped everybody off and they set things up,

Nate took off and and communicated to these people somehow,

you know, to come out and visit them by the

river there. And the first people that showed up there

was a man and two women. And the man showed

some interest in the airplane, and so Nate took him

up in the airplane and they went flew over the village.

The man, as I understand, it got so excited. He

saw things he knew and people he knew, and he's

yelling at and he about fell out, but he didn't,

and the people on the ground recognized him, and so

a group of men took off for the river. Now

the women that were a long one was a young

woman unmarried, and this man was apparently interested in marrying her,

and the other lady was as long as a chaperone

something like that. And the man and the young lady

took off without much explanation, I think, as a ways

from there from you know, where they lived, and the

missionaries offered them, you know, food and a place to stay.

But they left. But the other women, a little older

woman chaperone, stayed behind and wanted to visit well as

the man and the young woman. The man, by the way,

again much easier to say the nickname than the name.

They called him George, so referred to him as George George.

And this young woman met the group of men coming,

and in that group of men was her brother, and

he was very, very upset that they were out in

the woods without the chaperone, And in order to deflect

from his own wickedness, I guess that George said well,

those white men attacked us and separated us. We took

off and and and that's why we're alone. And it

was then, even though later they admitted they knew that

he George was lying, it was then that they decided

to kill the missionaries. Now, just to give you an

idea of the treachery and the revenge killings, if you

look up all the names of the known people, a

lot of them got killed fairly soon. It was quite

quite a situation there. In fact, one of them later said,

you know, if we'd have continued on, we'd have just

all been killed after a while. But this man, who

the missionary is called George, his first wife got killed

by spearing. I don't know the details of that. Apparently

his second wife he killed himself by drowning. And he

had two wives at the time, and he was a

known troublemaker, and so he was after this other young woman,

first third wife, living wife. And this is why, as

you can imagine, this young woman's brother was so upset.

His name was Nampa, and he was so opposed to this.

He was ready to spear George himself and get rid

of him. But when this all took place, it was

easier instead of taking care of internal issues, it was

easier to unite against these outsiders, and he took place

Nampa to participated, in fact very much so participated in

the attack on the missionaries. Another man who participate paid

it in the attack, probably within a year, killed George

because he had been promised to marry this young woman

and so as the custom was, George's children must be

buried with him, and so there were I believe two.

One of them was killed to be buried with him,

and the mom apparently snuck out with a baby. That

is what these people were coming into. So back to

the men from the village set up an ambush and

got the missionaries separated by women coming from the other

side of the river, and a couple of the men,

Jim Elliott being one, waited out to greet them. The

other three men were on the beat, each on the

sandbar there. As they walked out in the river, Nampa

being one of them, attacked them from behind and speared them,

and they ended up killing all five of the men,

stripping what they could, including out of the airplane, throwing

the bodies in the river. And because of fear of

what the outsiders would do. They apparently burned their own

village and disappeared into the jungle. He is no fool

who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which

he cannot lose. Jim Elliott was twenty eight years old.

He was married and had a small child. Now the

whole operation could have seemed worthless at that point, could

have seemed like their labors were in vain. There were

five young men dead, all in that age group I

think from upper twenties to lower thirties. Maybe there were

five young widows, and there were seven young fatherless children,

and there were no converts to show for it. What

was the point I'd like to read First Corinthians. You

can turn to First Corinthians. I'm going to be reading

a few verses from the Book of First Corinthians. I'm

going to just read one verse out of chapter fifteen,

though Chapter fifteen, verse fifty eight says, Therefore, my beloved brethren,

be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,

for as much as ye know that your labor is

not in vain in the Lord. And that's where I

got the title of the message this morning. Your labor

is not in vain in the Lord. So you know

those five young men, the deaths of those five young men,

it was not the end of the story. Jim Elliott's wife,

as well as Elizabeth, as well as Rachel Saint moved

in with the Aaca Indians within a couple of years

of the massacre. Steve Saint, whose father was killed as

a pilot, spent much of his childhood with the people

that killed his father. As to understand it. He became

an adopted son in the tribe, and he later brought

his own family back to live with them for a time.

Some of the warriors described hearing supernatural voices and seeing

lights from the sky during the attack. Some of them

repentant became Christians. One became a church leader and a missionary,

including to the United States. Come to tell his story.

It is estimated years later that of all that group

of people, up to forty percent of them became Christians.

Revenge killings drastically reduced quickly. The work of these young men,

who never got to see the fruit of their labor

was not in vain. So this morning, I'd like to

think about something that's not maybe terribly popular to think

about sometimes, and that is the works of a Christian

or the labor. We could say, now we know, we

know that salvation is not gained by good works. We

know that we cannot be good enough to get into heaven.

We cannot pay enough to get into heaven. We cannot

bribe our way into heaven. We cannot sacrifice enough. You

cannot fast long enough. You cannot make yourself miserable enough

to gain eternal life. Salvation, which Dan talked about last Sunday,

is a gift. It is free. It is born out

of the mercy and grace that God has bestows on us.

Mercy because we're not getting the punishment we deserve, and

grace because we receive a gift that we do not

deserve because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. However, a

Christian's works, a Christian's labor, is extremely important to the

Christian walk, I believe. So I'd like to read now

from First Corinthians three. I'd like to read the first

fifteen verses. We'll focus maybe on eleven to thirteen the most,

but some of this is important context. First Corinthians chapter three,

starting in verse one, and I, brethren could not speak

unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even

as unto babes in Christ. I've fed you with milk

and not with meat. For hitherto ye were not able

to bear it. Neither now are ye able. For ye

are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying

and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk

as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul,

and another I am of Apoulus, are ye not carnal?

Who then is Paul? And who is a Poulus? But

ministers by whom ye believed, Even as the Lord gave

to every man. I have planted Apollos watered, but God

gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything,

neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.

Now notice what the rest of verse eight says. And

every man shall receive his own reward according to his

own labor, according to his own labor. Verse nine. For

we are laborers together with God, your God's husbandry, your

God's building, according to the grace of God, which is

given unto me as a wise master builder. I've laid

the foundation, and another buildeth on. But let every man

take heed how he buildeth there upon. Four Here we're

talking about the foundation for other foundation. Can no man

lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. It's

one foundation. Now this is our part. If any man

build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones would hay stubble.

Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day

shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.

And the fire shall try every man's work of what

sort it is. If any man's work abide which he

hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any

man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. Himself

shall be saved. Yet so as by fire. Now, I

know that when we talk about something a subject, we're

making a point about something. We can very easily run

around in a ditch over here over there and miss

some other things. So I'll try not to do that

too much. I'd like to look especially here at eleven

through thirteen. Verse eleven I think shows us for other foundation.

Can no man lay than that is laid, which is

Jesus Christ. So whatever works, whatever labor. Whatever we're busy

doing for the kingdom is not of our own goodness

or power or anything like that. The foundation is Jesus Christ.

No man can lay another godly foundation, another Christian foundation,

than Jesus Christ. That's the foundation. Now, Paul uses two

different analogies here, two different He talks about farming and

carpentry kind of kind of kind of, so we'll use

those two things here. But we as fellow Christians, and

Paul points out things that he did, things that Apaulus did.

We build on this foundation, and you know, the man

that plant seceeds, back to the farming. We'll kind of

go back and forth here, try not to get lost

between the building and the field. But the man that

plants seceeds may never see the harvest. That's possible. The

man that waters may never see the increase of those plants.

That's possible. Neither of what we do know is that

neither one of those men give the increase. They're simply

again genealogies here, but they're simply building on the foundation

of Jesus. It is God that gives the increase, not you,

not me. I think that's a really important thing for

us that's not something that we have to take on

our shoulders. Imagine if the planter argued with that the

water was essentially not necessary, or at least he was

less necessary than him, because you could water all day long,

but if there were no seeds in the ground, nothing

would grow. Right, he could argue that the water could

could argue, well, the person planting the seeds isn't all

that important, because if I wouldn't be out here watering,

everything would just dry up and shrivel away and nothing

would grow. And I'm closer to the harvest than the planter.

We can see the fallacy in both of those. It's

all important, but it's not the increase. This is the

labor of the Christian. Some of what I've been thinking

is encapsulated in a quote that I read by Hodge.

I don't actually know who Hodge, this is his last name.

I presume he says, the faithful, laborious minister or missionary

who labors in obscurity and without a parent fruit will

meet a reward far beyond that of those who, with

less self denialent effort are made the instrument of great results.

The faithful, laborious minister, missionary who labors in obscurity and

without a parent fruit will meet a reward for are

beyond that of those who with less self denial and

effort are made the instruments of great results. I thought

that was an interesting thought. So often it seems we

judge each other by outcomes, by the increase. Let's say, uh,

we can start, you know when when when? When you

look at this example Paul gave and Jesus said, the

fields are are white unto harvest well. The person going

out and doing, you know, harvesting, let's say, it's easy.

It's easy to give that person undo, glory and honor.

I think, you know, and it's easy to forget about

the person planting, the person watering, the person pulling the weeds.

It's easy to judge each other by the outcomes or

the increase, instead of by the work, by the labor

that we're all involved in. Who is a faithful servant?

What does it mean to be a faithful servant? I

believe that a faithful servant is one who gets up

in the morning and does the right thing, not necessarily

knowing what the outcome will be, not knowing what heartaches

might lie ahead, not knowing if the very thing you

are putting your heart and soul into will come back

and break your heart, or in the case of Jim

Elliott and those other men, literally kill him, literally break

his heart. I believe it is the work we work,

the labors we're involved in on the foundation of Jesus Christ,

not the outcomes or the increase that we see, that

matters in the sight of God as it relates to us.

If Jim Elliott would have been judged when he died

or I don't know if judged is the right word.

This is not strictly about salvation, but when he died,

on the number of the Aca Indians that were currently

saved as a result of his efforts, you know what

would have that look like. I believe that whatever his flaws, like,

if you look at the whole program, what happened. Those

men did some things we wouldn't have agreed with, probably,

But I believe that Jim Elliott and those other men

were judged based on the work that they did on

the foundation of Jesus Christ. And in this case, the

fruit of the labor was realized over the following decades.

I believe it's still being realized today. But What if

none of those people ever came to Christ. What if

none of those Aca Indians would have would have become Christians.

Would have the sacrifice been any less, would have the

love and work been diminished? We've probably all heard of missionaries, pastors,

different people who are discouraged, kind of like that quote

I read, because it doesn't seem that there's any fruit

to their labor. You might be teacher or a parent,

a mentor who seems to be getting nowhere, and we

worry about the fruit of our labor. I believe we

see in one Corinthians three that it is the work,

it is the labor that we should be concerned about. Now, obviously,

we care very deeply, and we should care very deeply

about the results of our labors, especially you think of

a parent or teacher, those sorts of you know, pastors.

We should care very deeply about the results of our labors.

But I'd challenge us to stop and reflect two questions. One,

are we building on the foundation of Jesus Christ? If not,

then that would be a start. If we are, what

a second question, what are we building with? Are we

building with gold, silver and precious stones or are we

building with wood? Hay and stubble. Are we building with

materials that will last or that will blow away, burn

up and never make it into eternity. We may not

be able to give the increase, That's God's job, but

we can build on the right foundation with the right

building materials. So I'm not going to do a deep

dive into all these building materials. But building with gold, silver,

and precious stones. I think the precious stones are probably

not necessarily like gems and that sort of thing, as

much as as as beautiful, strong, lasting, durable stone like marble,

maybe granite, those sorts of things. But if you look

at gold, and I believe gold was in the SA

if I remember it, gold has some really interesting and

amazing characteristics. An ounce okay, so I think an ounce

an ounce isn't very much. An ounce of gold could

be hammered flat into a square nearly one hundred feet

by one hundred feet okay, thin, so thin you can

see right through it. And they've used that in you know,

some I think visors for spacesuits, and some of that

gold doesn't rust a corode. So you talk about durable,

you talk about something that will last, something something that

will last generations, you find artifacts made out of pure gold,

they're in pretty good shape unless they've been chopped up

or something. Gold is extremely dense. If you took a

cube of gold, you know, fourteen or fifteen inch cube,

what do weigh roughly a ten? Really really dense. Now,

as I understand it, ancient goldsmiths would purify gold by

making a fire hotter and hotter, and they're looking at

this molten gold, and when they could see their reflection

in that gold, the impurities that they knew it was,

it was it was pure. Now not so much as

a as a as a as a building material. But

I think that just on a side note, I think

that's a beautiful picture of us being refined. Can do

we reflect the face of Jesus? That's something for us

to think about. But building with gold, silver and precious stones,

I think is building if we think about what will

last into eternity, what's important, what is good, what is pure,

what is right, what is real and authentic? What will

hold up under pressure? These things gold, silver and precious

stones hold up under pressure. M M. I believe that

building with silver, gold, precious stones means living in truth.

We can also build with wood hay and stubble. Now

we do build a lot with wood these days, wood

frame houses and so forth. It's not just wood, but

that that's uh, you know, for years, I mean all

the ancient buildings you go around to look at in

the world, they're not stick buildings, you know, those aren't.

Those aren't that's not what lasts for thousands of years.

I remember when John Smookers were trying to build uh,

wood framed house and pulling, which is just like unheard of.

Everything's block and whatever. You could buy lumber, but it

was it was like it was rough rough song. A

two by four was really a two by four. So

those of you that have dealt with two by fours

know they're not two by four. These were You got

all the wood you paid for, uh, and it was

just a really interesting project and process. Much of the

world is not built with wood for for some good reason. Hey,

stubble even you know, all these things have uses in life,

even the stubble, even the dead leftovers buy product in

a field has some use in this life. You know,

you can bail it up and use it for bedding

for cows or whatever. But what stubble is not is

a good building material. Okay, hey is not a good

building material. You're not going to build something that lasts

out of that. They have their place. I think we

could view woodhey and stubble maybe as human wisdom, human attractions,

things like that. They have their place, but they're not

building material that will last, you know, generations and into eternity.

When the purifying fire tests these works, they'll disappear, no

eternal value. Tewod Corinthians five, verse ten says for we

must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that

everyone may receive the things done in his body according

that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Half done. So like our work, right, our works, our labor,

things we're doing again, I believe we will be judged

on what we have done, not on not necessarily on

the results of what we have done. Now. Obviously, if

we get on the wrong foundation, if we build with

the wrong materials, we won't get the right results. But

what I would like this message to be is an

encouragement for all of us to do the right thing,

to build on the right foundation, to use the right

building materials, what will last, what has value, and let

God bring the increase I think so often we take

on our shoulders things that are not meant for us

to take. I'd like to look now Ezekiel thirty three.

Going to read the first nine verses of Ezekiel thirty

three and turn that if you like. Ezekiel thirty three,

starting with verse one again, the word of the Lord

came unto me, saying, son of man, speak to the

children of thy people, and saying to them, when I

bring the sword upon a land, if the people of

the land take a man of their coasts and set

him for their watchman. If when he seeth the sword

come upon the land, and he blow the trumpet and

warn the people. And whosoever heareth the sound of the

trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and

take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning,

his blood shall be upon him. The he that taketh

warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see

the sword, come and blow not the trumpet, and the

people are be not warned. If the sword come and

take any person from among them, he is taken away

in his iniquity, But his blood will I require at

the watchman man's hand. So thou, o son of Man,

I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.

Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and

warn them from me. When I send to the wicked,

O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou dost

not speak to warn the wicked from his way, That

wicked man shall die in his iniquity. But his blood

will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn

the wicked of his way and to turn from it,

if he do not turn from his way, he shall

die in his iniquity. But thou hast delivered thy soul.

Now you could have a whole message on that passage.

Not going to do that. We're almost twelve o'clock, but

you know, we could look at this watchman. We could

discuss how watchman should promote truth. We could say it.

We could talk about how the watchmen should not just

look for errors in everything though. We could talk about

how a watchman that cries wolf too often won't be

taken seriously. We could talk about a watchman that is complacent,

falls asleep, and never sees the dangers approaching. There's all

sorts of things that could talk about here, but I'd

like to notice here is something that must have been

some comfort to Ezekiel himself, who I believe few listen

to in the grand scheme of things, If a watchman

does his job and declares truth in the face of

impending danger, his works, his labor has justified him. The

longed for outcome of a watchman's warning is that the

entire city will rally and push out the danger that's coming.

That is what we hope for. But if no one

listened to the watchman, if he did his job with

honesty and sincerity, he is justified. He could do no more. However,

if the watchman does not do his job, if he

does not enter into his labor in the right way

with the right attitude, if he does not warn his

fellow city members, if he falls asleep, he gets complacent.

The responsibility is on the watchman. I'd like to leave

us with a couple old Testament verses that came to

mind as I thought of what is our responsibility? What

does the Lord want from us? You know, we cannot

be lazy and pass off responsibility that is ours that's

not what I'm saying. But we also cannot take the

burden of everyone in the entire world. I want to

say that carefully. We can be burdened for everyone in

the entire world, but we cannot make decisions for everyone

in the entire world. For example, only God can take

the world's burden and in its entirety, on his shoulders,

and He has done that. Again. As much as we

long for the desired results, we could say, I believe

we see from the Bible the importance of our responsibility

in doing what's right as we live life. Ecclesiastes twelve,

verse thirteen says, let us hear the conclusion of the

whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this

is the whole duty of man. There's a lot in that.

There's a lot in Fear God and keep his commandments.

And Micah six, For he hath showed thee, O man,

what is good? And what doth the Lord require of

thee But to do justly and to love mercy, and

to walk humbly with Thy God. Fear God, keep his commandments.

Do justly, love mercy, and those two things and seem

like they're opposed to each other. They're not. Do justly,

love mercy, walk humbly with God. Those are things at last.

Build with gold, silver and precious stones. With material it

has eternal value. Build on the foundation of Jesus Christ

and trust God with the increase. God bless you. Let's

have a song.