Blessing of the Businesses, 2003

Pastor Joe Fuiten, January 12, 2002

The Scripture Reading today is only one verse but it packs a punch. It speaks of God’s ability to turn things around.

Scripture Reading: Deut 23:5

“However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.” (NIV)

We have experienced this at the church level. God is helping us more than you can imagine. He is turning the curse into a blessing and we thank God for it.

The blessing of the Businesses is an annual service for us. When I started doing this a few years ago, the environment was quite different. Everybody was a genius in the stock market because everybody’s stock was going up. We had not had a local downturn in twenty years. By local I mean this particular portion of Puget Sound. We are between Boeing and Microsoft and we had felt the long term “ups” of those companies. Now we are feeling their pain. The economy was rising. I preached to the prosperity of that time.

Things are quite different now. We face a war with higher fuel prices. The economy is struggling with the highest rates of unemployment in the country. Seattle has more people leaving than coming for the first time in about three decades. Governments at every level are in the red. There is a budget crunch from top to bottom.

According to USA Today,[1] article on December 16^th, general church giving is down 12% around the country. Willow Creek laid off 30 people. The big gifts have all but dried up around the country. August, September and October were like that for us. However, I am happy to tell you that November and December were successively, record months for Cedar Park. I believe that God has turned the curse into a blessing for us and we thank him for it. In the last six months we have had three thin months and three fat months so I am anxious to see into which camp the month of January falls. In the midst of the difficulties, good things continue to happen. .

I was surprised to read one newspaper’s commentary on the news not long ago. Within a week we read it the paper that Washington had the lowest rate of church attendance in the nation, along with Oregon. (I question those figures, by the way). A few days later we read that Washington had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. An editor wondered in print if there might not be a relationship between the two. Wow. When you read something like that in the Seattle papers, you know there is a God in heaven.

In the good times, I preached to the prosperity. In these difficult times, I intend to preach to them as well. I believe God has a message in both environments.

God has more than one way of blessing his people. Sometimes he blesses his people at the same time as he blesses those who are not his. There are a couple of notable examples.

First among those would be the blessing of Egypt for the sake of the people of Jacob. God allowed Joseph to interpret the dream of the Pharaoh of the seven full years followed by seven lean years. Because they had been warned, Egypt took steps to conserve when they had excess so they could survive when they had less. Because Egypt had plenty, Jacob and his other sons were able to come to Egypt, and through the good graces of Joseph, weather the famine. That was the first Israeli visit to Egypt. The second one was similar.

In Acts 13:17 Paul notes that in Egypt, prior to the Exodus, God “made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country…” Even though they were in a foreign country, and eventually were made slaves, God still prospered them. God not only led them out of Egypt with great power, he also gave them great wealth. In both cases God blessed Israel in times of difficulty.

God did the same thing for the Israelis in the midst of the Babylonian Captivity. In Jeremiah 29:7 God said, “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." He planned to do it after Babylon as well. In verse 11it reads, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The message of blessing and prosperity was given to Israel while they were in captivity in Babylon. It is not different for us now. The condition of the economy is not what determines blessing. The state of war or peace does not determine the outcome. God determines what happens. We do not want to disconnect from these clear influences and be oblivious to them, but still God is the one who decides. Tonight I will give the other side of the story but for now I want to emphasize what God does.

There is also the example of Jacob in the house of his father-in-law, Laban. Even though Laban changed his wages ten times with the intent to cheat him, God watched over Jacob and blessed him. Jacob’s flocks increased while Laban’s did poorly. The story is clearly one that fits these times. It is possible to prosper in situations where it would seem impossible. This is what we are praying for.

Our son Zachary was one of only two employees of Willows Run to get a raise this year. His boss commended him for his good work. The things that earned him that distinction seem rather basic. His boss was pleased with Zack that he came to work on time, didn’t take bogus sick days, and wasn’t a slacker.

Cedar Park is an employer. We have about 220 regular employees. Very quickly we get up to speed on employee issues. If we are going to pray for the blessings of the businesses, it seems like a good time to remind ourselves of what is expected at a very basic level.

1. Being on time all the time.

2. Not taking sick days on either end of other days off.

3. Not stealing from the company either in goods or time.

4. Arriving with a positive attitude and a willingness to work—I have to commend our maintenance department. They get the worst of jobs but show amazingly good attitudes as they do the work that nobody notices when it is done right. Without them, we would quickly be in trouble.

5. Have the best interests of the company in mind, just as you would if it was yours.

6. Do your work and do it well. Make yourself so valuable that the company would not even think about trying to be in business without you.

If those six are the basics, here are the next four levels.

1. Be thankful for your job. It is how to take care of your family and one of the ways you serve God.

2. Look forward to working as much as to vacation. I highly Recommend Enthusiasm makes the difference by Norman Vincent Peale. Shakespeare said it well: “If every day were a holiday, to play would be as tedious as work.”

3. Do your best to move up in your work. Three things are at stake: Your happiness, your tithes, and your taxes. These impact God’s three most important institutions in the world: The family, the church, and the state.

4. Do your work for God’s glory. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24.

The blessings of prosperity are likely to come through very ordinary means. Not suddenly through a check in the mail, or winning the lottery, or making an investment that returns a huge percentage or even multiples of the initial investment. The more you believe in miracles the more susceptible you are to financial schemes. Even though we are praying for blessing, you should anticipate that God will work through you in usual ways, not outside you in headline grabbing ways.

(Have each person hand a few of their business cards to people around them so they can pray.) “Lift up the cards before the Lord and pray along with me.”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, today we lift up the businesses of this church and community and pray for your blessing upon them. May each one of them do well this year, not only for themselves, but also for the greater good.

We pray that each person who is looking for work will find it; that each worker will rise in their employment; and each business represented here will flourish.

We pray for business leaders to make good decisions, hearing only the accurate advice. Close their ears to people that might lead them down the wrong path. Open their hearts to the wisdom of God in the many competing decisions that must be made.

We pray for business leaders to live by the golden rule. Give them good ideas that will bless and help others, the kind of ideas that will also earn for them and their employees a good living. Use the resources that they generate to bless your work, both here and in missions.

For those businesses that are struggling, we pray for wisdom and understanding to turn them around. Help them to see what is happening and to make the necessary changes. Give them clear focus.

Bless this country with good leaders who will not hinder, but help things to go well. Bless each enterprise; whether academic, social, governmental, sales, services or manufacturing, that in each pursuit your blessing will flow and you will be glorified.

In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

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[1] Article by Cathy Lynn Grossman at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2002-12-16-church-usat_x.htm