Dharius Daniels - Warfare In The Workplace

I want to talk about this topic in our time together today: warfare in the workplace. Warfare in the workplace. This is our 11:30 crowd, the fourth Sunday service of the day. You come rested, refused, enthusiastic, excited, expected, and anticipating God to do something unusual, extraordinary, special, significant, even supernatural in your life. You are the hungry crowd, the ready crowd, the «I didn’t come to play games» crowd. Because that is the context of this specific part of our church, I can push past preaching preliminaries and get right to the primary point I want to make in this passage today. Here it is for my note-takers: your place of employment may be your place of deployment. Your place of employment just might be your place of deployment. Pastor, tell me what that means and what you are attempting to say. I’m saying that maybe your placement at your place of employment is purposeful. I don’t know how long you’ve been there or how long you may be there, but while you are there, maybe God has an intention for you to make an impact because perhaps your place of employment is actually a place of deployment. Maybe, like a soldier, God has stationed you there. Some people are like, «I hope not for long, Pastor. That’s what I hope.» But maybe He has stationed you there strategically, deliberately, intentionally for a reason you have yet to understand. Just because we don’t know the reason doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason. I’m simply trying to suggest that your place of employment just might be your place of deployment. I’m not saying, family, that your job is your purpose; I’m saying there is purpose in your job. Did you hear what I just said? I’m not saying your job is your purpose; I’m saying there is purpose in your job. God is not just at work on Sunday; He is also at work on Monday. I’m saying that when we come together on Sunday, we gather as the church, but when we leave on Monday, we scatter as the church. We were the church before we got here, and we will be the church when we leave. The work of the church is not relegated to Sunday; it transpires on Monday. As a matter of fact, some of us already have a revelation because of the kind of environment you have to navigate through on Monday. You’ve got to get here—let me find the side that’s ready to hear. Some of you are saying, «I’ve got to get here on Monday so I can get refueled, refocused, bandaged up, instructed, encouraged, and directed to deal with the dynamics I have to face on Monday.» Somebody say amen to that! Oh yes, I’m not saying that your job is your purpose; I’m saying there is purpose in your job. I’m saying that God is at work through your work. There’s something called the doctrine of vocation that suggests that most of our work can be used as God’s work. God is at work through the work of people. There is a prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer, situated in the New Testament. There’s a part of that prayer that says, «Give us this day our daily bread.» Well, the theologian Martin Luther—not Martin Luther King, but a theologian who lived centuries before named Martin Luther—said that one of the ways God answers that prayer for daily bread is through the farmer who plants the seed in the field, through the workers that harvest the grain, through the baker who turns the grain into bread, through the transportation company that transports it to the store, through the store that houses it, stocks it, and sells it, and through the clerk or cashier who facilitates the medium of exchange. God is at work through your work. He doesn’t just use people on Sunday; He uses people on Monday. He uses doctors, lawyers, police officers, and beauticians. Some of all the sisters should have said amen right there! Come on! I want, I want, I want the sisters—next time your beautician slays your hair, I want you to get up out of the chair, look in the mirror, and say, «God used you today!» I promise you—God is at work through work. I remember several years ago my mother was diagnosed with this illness called pulmonary hypertension. We were going from doctor to doctor, and some of the doctors in Mississippi basically told my father that all they could do was make her comfortable; it was a condition that was irreversible. My wife and I were having a conversation with one of the doctors who attends our West Hampton campus. When the doctor heard what the other doctor had said, that doctor said, «Well, let me call a doctor friend of mine.» So she called a doctor in Philadelphia. The doctor in Philadelphia agreed to see my mother based on the call from the doctor at the church. We flew my mother from Mississippi to Philadelphia to see this doctor. This doctor looks at her and says, «I treat patients with this kind of condition all the time. When I’m through with you, you’re not only going to be walking; you’re going to be walking on a treadmill.» You can’t tell me God did not use that doctor. That doctor gave my mother back to me. Did you hear what I just said? God is at work through work. Those words gave me hope; they gave my mother a reason to fight. Her conversation changed; her disposition changed. Faith was restored and resurrected.