Thursday, December 29, 2016
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As our kids were growing up, Saturday was always chore day at the Hutchcraft house. It was the day we got our leaves raked and bagged, rooms got cleaned – or hosed out like a monkey cage as the case may be. It was the day the garage got dug out, the dirty clothes got clean, broken things got fixed. It wasn't that kids jumped out of bed on Saturday morning said, "What do you have for me to do today, Dad?" No, Saturday mornings often involved some delicate labor negotiations, especially when it came to someone getting a job that meant more time and more dirty work than some of the others. That child might say, "I don't want to do Job A. I want Job B." To which I would reply, "I pay the allowances and the bonuses around here." (See, usually there was extra pay for extra work). So I would tell them, "Don't forget lesson #1 of working – you don't pick your jobs. The person who pays you decides the jobs you'll do."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have AWORD WITH YOU today about "The Jobs We Don't Want To Do."
Now our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 10, where Simon Peter is being assigned by His boss to do an unpleasant chore. Peter has been preaching Christ to Jewish audiences who knew the Scriptures and respected God's laws. Now, God wants Peter to reach out and go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman military leader, to reach out to this Gentile. Now Peter's lifelong feeling about Gentiles could be summed up in one word, "Yuck!" They didn't know the Bible, they ate what the Jewish law called unclean foods, they lived outside God's laws. And God sends Peter a vision to prepare him for this job he is not going to want to do. It's a vision of a sheet with animals that Peter, as a Jew, considers unclean to eat.
Acts 10 beginning at verse 12, "Then a voice told him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat. 'Surely not, Lord!' Peter replied. 'I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.' The voice spoke to him a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven." Well, immediately Peter finds at his door men who have come to invite him to the house of Cornelius, that Gentile. The Bible says, "Peter said to the men, 'I'm the one you're looking for.' Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests." And the next day he's off to meet Cornelius.
God gave Peter a job he really didn't want to do. Peter knew who the Boss was, and that the One who pays you decides the job you'll do. Peter obeyed, and it led to some amazing results. Now maybe God has given you an unpleasant chore, and you're balking, just like my kids on Saturday morning.
It could be God is leading you to befriend a person who is not very attractive, who might be pretty demanding. Or the assignment might be to share Christ with someone who isn't much fun to be around, or is hard to talk to, or to minister to a group of people that you find irritating or even repulsive, or possibly to work closely with someone who is definitely not your type. Whatever the job you don't feel like doing, would you tell the Lord your reservations like Peter did? Then go ahead and do it anyway – like Peter did. And like Peter, you'll get some important results probably in what it will do for them and how it will grow you.
I'm really glad that Jesus doesn't just hang around with people who are His type. You and I wouldn't stand a chance. No, He will reward you generously for doing the unpleasant chores, the ones that will stretch you. So if your Lord is giving you a job you don't want to do, will you trust His judgment over yours? Then start on it today without delay. It's an assignment Jesus has been preparing for you long before today. Believe me, what the Boss says to do will pay off.