You're Hired

The title of today's sermon is, You're Hired. You're hired. Have to get used to it being on this side. Think about your first job or your last job. You remember the date you were hired? Remember when they hired you? Most people don't remember a date. Maybe you've been like this guy in New York, New York Times did a story on him. When he died, he died a little while back, and he was 63 years old. His family were fairly wealthy. They left a trust fund for him on the condition that he could receive money to live off of and go to school as long as he was in school. So when he passed away at 63, he was still in school. So from the age of 18 to 63, he went to school. So he never really had a job. Now, I doubt any of you are like that. I don't know that you are. My family was never that wealthy, and hopefully you didn't stay in college for, well, it'll be 40-something years. It's a long time. I guess most of the students thought he was a teacher, I would think, by that time. But I bring that out because whether you realize it or not, you were hired, and your starting date was the date of your baptism. So, hired. It wasn't a national company. It's not an international company, but a universal company you were working for. And if they were to hang out a shingle, this company that we all work for is called God, Inc. God Incorporated. I want to bring this out today because most of us perhaps have not realized just how important this job is and what it details as we look at and tell us what this job that we are supposed to be doing, because it's more than just a job working for God Incorporated. It is a calling. We have nurses here who realize that they took the job not just for the money, but because it was a calling. They wanted to help people. There are doctors who do that, firemen. There are various people who take a job or work because they love the work and they love helping people. Well, guess what? That's what God Inc. is. That's the company that you have signed on to.

If you were to have a business card, the front of the card would look something like this. Tells who you work for. Tells who you are. And that this Miss Davis here, she is a model. She'd like to hear that, wouldn't she? She is a model and she's also a sales representative. But she's not the only one because that's what we all are supposed to be as part of God Inc. Incorporated. Yes, we are to model.

We are to be able to sell people on a way of life because they can see that we can model it. Now, this company also has a mission statement. And we have that on the back of the card. Our mission statement in God Inc. is from Hebrews. And it says that we are to bring many sons and daughters to glory. That's the purpose of God Inc. Are you enthused about your job? Is it a job that you get up in the morning and say, I'm ready to go to work? Or is it one you say, I gotta go to work? As a former employer of people, I've seen both. And you like enthusiasm in people who like to go to work, who like to do it. But not only is this a job or a calling, but you're not called to do just a job. You've been called for a position in this company. A position. I remember hiring a young guy one time, fresh out of college. He comes in with not any experience. He wanted a job. And so I said, well, what do you see yourself doing in this job? He said, well, I don't really want a job. I want a position. And I said, but you don't know anything. You don't know anything relating to this. He said, yes, but I don't just want a job. I want a position. Can you give me a position? I said, yes, I can. I can give you a position here every morning at 659 right in front of me. Then I'll give you the job you need to do. He wasn't too enthused. He didn't last long as I gave him a try for a month or two, but he wasn't enthused. How about you? Are you enthused about this calling, this position? I bring this up because there are requirements, seven requirements of the job. That I would like to go over with you today and see if you can live up to these requirements of the job. When I was hired for this job, they gave me a manual. Jeff has my manual now. I believe. I hope he does. That told you the requirements and the expectations and various things in this manual. So, as you think about this position, you have this calling that is the reason you're here today, or those who are listening, those who are watching.

You don't have to dress all the time like a businessman. You don't have to look like a businesswoman. That's not one of the requirements of the job. Because you're too, like many people, you're kind of on call 24-7. It's not a nine-to-five job. Because you're always going to be representing God, Inc., the head of the company.

It's God. Next in charge is Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ came and lived here on earth for 33 years to model a certain behavior, to model the requirements for the job. Now, does that mean that you can dress any way you want to dress? That you can look like a bum? That you can look like a homeless person? No, not really. Not really because of who you're representing. Does that mean that you'll never wear a suit? I don't wear a suit except on the Sabbath day when I come in, when I come before God, because I represent God.

I represent God, Inc., and I like to look my best when I come and present for them, for the company, because I do sell. I sell you on God's truth. I sell people on the truth, except it doesn't cost anything. It's free. But it's of incredible value. And you, just like me, are part of God, Inc. I used to think, oh well, only the ministers have to do that stuff.

There's so few of us, and there's so many of you, and you model, like Shirley Davis on the card. You model Him! You model! You represent! And hopefully, people will buy into it and say, I understand that. We all have our times when we struggle and we don't represent the company very well. But hopefully, with the experience you are gaining day after day, month after month, year after year, those are few and far between. It gets a shorter time period. And the job becomes easier. I know, because when I was a salesman for another company before mine, that the more time I spent, they're doing the job.

I became better at the job. I knew a lot more. I didn't have to look at a manual to tell what a certain product was like. Pretty soon, it becomes second nature to where somebody asks you, and you can tell them, without a manual, without anything. Because you know your product. Do we rather know our product? A little different sermon today, I know.

But I want to probably make you think a little outside the box. Make you realize just how important this is. Remember, when I was a salesman, I had a call that I had to make to three vice presidents of Nissan Corporation, Smyrna, Tennessee. And so I had to make this presentation.

So how did I dress? I dressed up because they were men of importance. I wanted to show respect to them. I also had an appointment one time with the assistant to the governor of the state of Tennessee that my representative made for me as I had an issue. And he got me there, so I dressed up because I'm showing to show respect for the office. And that's what we do here on the Sabbath. We hopefully want to show respect for, as we represent, the head of the company.

And it isn't something we should take lightly. But I want to go back and look at the seven requirements of the job. Hopefully, if you are taking notes, you will write these down. We'll have them up here. Seven requirements of this job of working for Guide Inc. as a model and a sales representative. The first requirement is we will have to model salt and light.

Salt and light. Do you? Do you, in your everyday life, model salt and light? Because that's what the Scripture says, doesn't it? Matthew 5, verses 13 through 16. You are the salt of the earth. Do you like modeling? Do you like being salt? Or do we model salt? How do you do that? Well, why did he say we are the salt of the earth? Because we do flavor the earth. We act, look, conduct, and worship different than a lot of people. And we are to model those differences. Because the one thing about salt, if there's too much, it ruins the food, doesn't it?

It ruins the food. And if there's not enough, it makes the food bland. So with us in this world, we have to model salt and have some balance. Have some balance. We don't stand out on the street corner going, Repent! Repent! You sinners! We don't do that. But if somebody asks us why we believe what we believe, why we do what we do, we have enough salt in us to spread that around. And salt does one thing really well, preserves. It preserves food. Brethren, we are called to preserve the Word of God.

We are called to preserve this way of life that was modeled for us almost 2,000 years ago. How do you do? Are you a good model? Scripture says, we are assaulted on the earth, you are the light of the Word. A city set upon a hill cannot be hidden. It says, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify you? No. Your Father, the head of God, Inc. The light is something that is so needed.

It's needed in a lot of places. Why is it needed now? Why is it needed in your area, where you're from, where you walk? Because there's a lot of darkness in this world, isn't there? A lot of darkness. So, God wants us to model light. Just let our light shine. Not put it under a basket. Not just say, well, I'm just going to stay at home. I don't need to meet people. It's better that way for me. He didn't call us to be hermits. He called us to be lights. They shine. Because people really need to see a walking, talking example of what God is asking people to do. Because whether you want to say, well, there's religious people out there, are they the best lights? Go look at what people think of some of those lights. Look at how that's represented. Then you have the other extreme. Do anything you want? Well, yeah. Enjoy life while you have it. We have to be a light. We have to model. And that's not always easy. Getting up and being a model. I dated a girl one time that was Miss Tennessee something, teenage Tennessee, for a couple of times. And the one thing she always had to have her hair just so, she just liked this. And she just, if there was a mirror around, she was always looking. Because she felt like she was a model, even though nobody really remembered her or knew anything about her. She thought it was. That was before you, Mary. I want you to know that.

But she always wanted to be on. Well, we have to be on, but we don't have to act like we're on. It needs to be a part of us, as this light just needs to naturally flow from us. And it can if we live by our manual.

Let's go to the second. The second requirement, to bear fruit. To bear fruit. Hmm. I have our potluck. That looks pretty good, doesn't it? Do you bear fruit? I have an apple here. Like my apple. Looks good. Okay. And it's ready to eat. So this one's ready. Shined up. But I also have a banana. And this is not ready. Now, the tree bears fruit, but one's not ready. Where are we? Are we ready? Or we still need some work. We still need some time. And it's time we recognize, if you come to it, okay, I may still be in the apprentice stage. I still got some work to do before I'm a good modeler, a great sales rep. In Matthew, excuse me, in John 15. John 15, verse 5, Christ said, He who abides in me bears what? Much fruit. So He's saying that we should be bearing. If we abide in Him, if you don't know what abide means, Google it.

But He wants us to bear fruit.

Are we doing that? As a matter of fact, verse 16 says, I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit. That's why He chose us to work for God Inc. Because He knew we should, with His help, bear fruit. What fruit? Doesn't He tell us? Galatians 5, 22, right? Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, long suffering, self-control. That's a tough one. So, are we training? Are we preparing ourselves to bear this fruit? Can people see it? Because if we model it, they're going to see it. Are we one of those people on the road out here when somebody doesn't go quite as fast as we think they should through a light we're on our own. Are we modeling that patience? I have to think about it. Never thought about it until I moved here. Then everybody does it. You don't go through fast enough, then I'm catching myself. Well, what's wrong with this guy? It's kind of like what's the old saying, everybody that goes faster than you as a maniac and everybody goes slower than you as an idiot. We have been called to look like this bear fruit.

Can we do it? Will we continue to do it in our families? Because one thing about our family, they see it. They see it more than anyone else, don't they? About our friends. How about people we work with? How about people we come in casual contact with? This is part of bearing fruit, that part of being on the job. Let's go to another requirement. Requirement number three, worship in spirit and truth.

Do we know what that means? Because John 4 verse 24 said, those who have true worship of God will worship him in spirit and truth. I know a lot of people today that say, well, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual. What's that mean? Well, in today's society, it can mean anything. We have, when we go walk in the mornings, we try to do it three times a week if we can, out on the beach at sunrise, just before sunrise, walking on the beach in Deerfield Beach. And there's this woman there most of the time, and she's got a drum, and she's beating the drum. As the sun is coming up, I've been meaning. I nodded her when I walked by, but I haven't really talked to her. I want to find out what she's doing.

But I would say that she considers herself spiritual. One of these days, I will. Since she's taller and bigger than I am, I'll probably have to have married to have my back, in case she's offended to why I ask. But I'm interested. So what does it mean? True worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth. Well, we're going to need the spirit to worship Him in spirit. He's not going to come down to us and hang out with us and say, well, who are the dolphins playing this week? We'll sit there and have a few beers. That's not what God does. But we have to use His spirit to be led. How do we feed that spirit? It says here, my words are spirit. If we're not feeding ourselves with His words, how are we going to communicate with Him? How do we represent Him? Unless we are spiritual. Unless we can worship Him in spirit. And in truth, there's a lot of people who say they are spiritual, but they don't go by what this book says. They go by what men say. They can worship any day they want, according to things I was reading this week. God wants us to be free to worship anytime, any day, as long or short as we want. Somebody's blowing trumpet already. Does that mean you want me done already? Oh, wasn't you? Oh, I thought it was you. It's bad when you look over your wife, you say, I'm about half done. I want you to be done. Verse of you in spirit and truth. Do you know what truth is? Christ said He was truth. You know what that means? You don't Google it. But we know that this is truth, and what it says is true. And this is how we're to live. But it's interesting that verse because truth, the word truth in the Greek, it's been translated from the Greek, the Greek word was aletheia. And it was translated that way in the Good News Bible, in case you have one. And it said, those who worship God will worship them in spirit and truly. Aletheia means from the bottom of one's heart. So there's multiple meanings here. If you look at the Greek, it can mean truth in what is truth, what is right, different from what is wrong, and it can also mean from the bottom of one's heart, which means you're not just going through the motions, but this relationship with God and when we worship Him actually means something. You actually feel it instead of, well, I need to go and do this. Well, I got to show up at church. I got to make an appearance.

Is that what we do? It's kind of like this guy that used to sell to one of the company I worked for a long time ago. He came in once a week, and we bought hardly anything from him. And so I asked the owner of the company one time, why does he come in here? I need just call. And he said, he just wants to hang out. Well, because his company expected him to be gone all day. And they were going to pay him basically the same, whether he sold anything or he didn't sell. So there was no incentive for him. So he just put in his time. Are we that type of sales representative? Or we just put in our time. We're going and we're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I got to get my 15 minutes in. I don't like reading that. Let me do this.

People do it. They do it all the time. That's why it's important we realize that there are great expectations from God, not just Charles Dickens. It's important. That we do truly worship him from the bottom of our hearts. And that we actually do use the Spirit, his actual power essence, so that we can do a better job of it. The fourth requirement. Keep the commandments. Ow! All of them, not just the ones you feel good about. Keep the commandments. 1 John 5 and verse 3 actually says that this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

That's a pretty big statement. And then John goes on to say that his commandments are not burdensome. They shouldn't be looked at. Oh, they're just 10 can'ts. I can't do this. I can't do that.

Brethren, we have the opportunity to show the world. We don't steal. You know, there's people you know that may not be in a position or may not have a job with God, and you may know them, you may work with them. And there are certain things you know you could trust them with anything. They would not steal. There's some people you can trust they're just not going to flat out lie to you. Why do you know those? Why do you know those people? Maybe there's somebody's name comes flying into your head. Why do you know them? Because it's rare. It's rare today. I don't know about you, but in Deerfield Beach, we have locks on our doors. Maybe you don't have to. Courtney, you don't have to have locks on your door over there, do you? I've been to your house. Yes, you have a lock. Both of us have to because it's not God's world yet. We realize that. And so we, but we should be modeling those commandments for people.

We above all people should be modeling them. And it's one of the requirements of the job. And the first one is the one that's probably why God put it first. Is if you truly, go back to truly, if you truly kept the first one, you wouldn't break any of the other nine. Because if you love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your being, that's why Christ said it so many times and put it in that way. That's the type of representative that God didn't want. And the second one is that we can show that. And in today's world, the tenth is not even considered a commandment. Covet. Of course I want what they have.

It goes to his heart. It's good number five. It's good number five. Preach the word. How are you going to preach the word if you don't know it? Because all of us teach by how we live. Our neighbors see that those are decent people. We work with, you know, they're good people. So we teach a lot, but then occasionally we're called upon, as a sales representative, to preach the word. Preach the gospel. It's amazing that Paul taught Timothy this in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 2. 2 Timothy 4 and verse 2 says, Preach the word. Very strong. There's an exclamation mark. I mean, it's almost an emphatic statement that we should be able to preach the word. That means we know our product. And even if we don't have our product with us, we can tell you all about it. In the way of life. Now, some people said, well, I never want to be a salesman. I don't like being out there like that. So, you signed up a baptism that you would be a model and that you would sell this product that God inc. produces. Does that mean you have to just go out and just preach, preach, preach? Here comes preacher. Here comes preacher. Preacher George. He moved from New York. Now he's down here preaching down here.

No. No. So, when do we preach? What does it say? What does the Scripture say? The Scripture tells us in this same verse. Look it up later. I didn't write them on. I didn't have them written intentionally this way. I want you to go and check me out. Make sure I'm not selling you a bill of goods. They don't really match. And the same verse says, preach the Word in season and what? Out of season. So when is that? All the time. How do you... There's in season and out of season. Up in Tennessee now. I'll be there a few weeks. And it is deer season. When it's deer season, out in the country, you're going to hear boom, boom, boom. These people are hunting deer because it's in season. And those who love to hunt deer and eat deer, like my family, they're going to be hunting. Well, I can imagine if I said that... or the government said you can hunt out of season, they would be hunting all the time. That's what this is telling us. Preach the word in season, without a season. That means you've got to be prepared all the time. You just can't go like, okay, well, it's almost a piece of trumpet. I guess I better... What is a trumpet? In season. We need to be prepared all the time for when the opportunity comes for us to preach the word. So...

Requirement number six. Requirement number six is in John 13, verse 35. 1335. The last 24 hours of Christ living in flesh, He wanted to make sure that we got this as part of what we will be selling. What we will be modeling. Anybody know by this what it means? By this shall what?

By this shall all men know, all women know, all children know, all old people know. By this shall all know that you are my disciples if you have a guppy. One to another. A guppy is godly love, selfless love. Do we model that?

This is what Christ wants us to do. This is also in season and out of season. We just can't turn low. Yeah, I'm going to be nice this week. Now, next week, I'm not going to be nice. I'm going to be hateful. I'm going to be vindictive. No. By this. So here, the amazing point is that Christ was three and a half years modeling, being a sales representative for God, Inc., showing us all. And he comes to the last night and he brings this final point home. It's so important that he says, by this, shut all men know, because they've already learned this other, but he was making sure they got the point. Here is something really big. I need you to do when I am gone. Agape. Know what it means? Go Google it. You'll find a lot of explanations of the word agape, because it's so big. There's multiple words used. That's part of why we need to know the manual, and we need to know when he's talking about Eros, Filio, Filio, Storge, and agape, the types of love. Because we should have them all. Not just agape. If you have agape, you're typically going to have the other, because it's a godly love. So you're going to love your neighbor, and love your wife, and love your family. How good a model are you?

The people around you could tell. Wouldn't it be interesting if you typed up a survey and gave it to your family and friends? Tell me how I'm doing, except be anonymous, and then write at the bottom what you really think. Would you be afraid of what you would read? You'd be afraid of what the survey might say? We shouldn't be. When it's time to have your evaluation, which I had every year when I was working for a company, yearly evaluation. You know, there were times I worked 14 years for this company. There were times I walked in to the evaluation. I didn't feel too good about it. I was a little nervous because I knew some of my flaws, my faults, and everything else. And they came to what we do every year at Passover as we prepare and look at ourselves. But think about it. Think about our evaluation because there are other times I really felt good when I walked in to be evaluated. We have a boss who is loving, he's kind, he's gentle, but he's also very fair. We can't fool him. We can't fool him and say, well, I was just hanging out with my friends and talking about the Bible when he knows we were. Finally, the last one, the last requirement, the seventh requirement, is also tied to number five, is to live by every word. Live by every word, which means we've got to go back into this thing, too. Why are we always in this manual? Because that's how we know what we're doing. It's proper. I won't steal your message. It makes me want to at this time. But it helps us to look at this and know where we're at in the company. We used to have a sales meeting one time, and the boss would come in and go, we're going to have a sales contest. There were four or five of us at that time. I'm going to have a sales contest this month, and whoever wins gets to keep their job. Thankfully, he didn't do that. But he would always tell us every month how everybody ranked. He would tell us how your sales were, you know, and then what your percentage over profit and so forth like this was. He let us know how we were doing. If we were doing, he showed us, well, we're not doing well. If you're always number four or five, you knew it wasn't going to be a good evaluation. Brethren, here is the list. He's given it to us, and a lot of times you can just open it up, and you can start reading, and you'll kind of get your evaluation, won't you?

Live by every word. It's what Christ had to tell Lucifer, Satan, when he was accordingly tempted. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word. It's from the mouth of God. Do we do it? Hopefully we do. Every day. Hopefully! As I wrap this message up, that we don't get tired. Don't get tired. Haven't I seen that movie before? You know, because sometimes I'll just want to relax, and I'll get on television, because I've lived so many years, and watched so much stuff that a movie will come out. I don't want to see that. I've read that. I've seen that before. I've seen that two or three times. I know how it ends. I don't need to see that. I don't want to waste my time. Hmm, what about us? Do we do this that we've kind of... We know how it ends, and we win, and so we're just like, I'm just going to hold on.

Brother, we have the opportunity to go and model and display, show, and be a representative for God. It is a calling. As a matter of fact, he said many are called, but few are kept. They can't hang in there. They either quit or they get fired. He's called us. Finish the race.

And you might say the benefits in retirement are out of this world. He said, retirement. Well, there's no retirement in this job, is there? Can you imagine the scriptures? This word says that eventually. This plan is going to be burned up, and God's going to bring his kingdom, and everything will be spiritual.

And we won't have to be that model that he needs us to be right now. Will our job change? Probably. But we still get to keep all the things that the head of the company said we will inherit all things. All that he has, we will have. So, God, Inc., whether you realize or not, you're hired if you're baptized. And if you just now realize what a responsibility it is and the company you work for, welcome to the team. We've got some work to do. Let's get fired up. Let's go do it this week. Let's be the model. Let's be the model that God called us to be.