Transcript

Well, take your Bibles this morning and let’s go to the book of Psalms, Psalm 134. The book of Psalms. I thought perhaps that we might get through with Amos before the July break but it just wasn’t going to happen and I certainly did not want to rush through the remaining portions of Amos, plus I really have been stirred, genuinely stirred to bring to you some more practical exhortations of body life in these last two Sundays before I take my vacation and study break and you take off from your small groups for a month. You need those down times. I think I’m even going to preach on that next Sunday, but this morning I want to share a message that I’ve done before. Every pastor should have a handful of messages if he’s been in a place 37 years, that he repeats and repeats them because they’re sort of markers, they’re sort of foundation points for the church, and this is a message that speaks to what makes Grace Life special and it’s going to be an exhortation to many of you in one way or the other, some of you need to do better, and many of you need to be affirmed to keep on keeping on. But I’ve entitled this “The Night Shift.”

Psalm 134, beginning in verse 1,

1 Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD, Who serve by night in the house of the LORD! 2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless the LORD. 3 May the LORD bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.

The Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 9:33 that the priests labor in the temple day and night. How many of you have ever worked night shift work? Maybe they call it second shift or third shift? I did that in high school actually when I was old enough. I don’t know how the labor laws work but anyway, I went to work in high school and I worked second shift at Salant & Salant Shirt Factory in Lawrenceburg, TN, an old old factory. I mean, if you could take the wooden beams and the steel structures out of that thing, they’d be priceless today the way people love that industrial look today. I remember the old oil rubbed wooden floors, just big, heavy, bulky wooden floors because there were weighty things or things of much weight that would be rolled up and down them, and I always thought it was curious that we made the same shirt and put 12 different labels on it to 12 different brands or companies. Anyway, I worked the second shift. It didn’t take me long to understand that the second shift guys, the night shift guys didn’t get the credit or the applause or the affirmation that the day shift got.

I remember the time when the company president was going to tour the plant with a politician and what happened was us night shift guys worked our fingers to the bone cleaning and getting out the clutter and organizing and then the dignitaries came through on the day shift and they walked by and shook all the worker’s hands and patted them on the back. They got to be a part of the ceremony, so to speak, but the night shift guys did a whole lot of the work to get ready for it.

Well, that’s not unlike what happened in Israel in the temple. They had night shift priests, maybe they were the younger priests, I don’t know, but basically they worked in the night, kept everything going, kept everything organized, cleaned up and prepared for the day shift priests who would come on and perform the proper ceremonies and rituals for the people. And you know, it’s still that way in God’s work today. There are those in the local church and it’s work that by God’s calling, God’s assignment, they are more day shift workers. That is, what they do is moreso seen than other tasks. If you’re a small group leader, you’re a little bit of a day shift worker, people see your teaching and they’ll often thank you or congratulate you or commend you, give you credit for a good lesson. If you’re a singer maybe in the church, singer in the choir, play an instrument, people see that and appreciate that and give you some affirmation and give you some credit for that. If you’re a pastor, they’ll often affirm you or commend you.

Y’all remember evangelist Junior Hill? That’s not the only thing that happened sometimes, Junior Hill said years and years ago when they first came out with these dirty phone lines, these numbers you could call and people would talk dirty to you and you had to pay them, he said, “You be a Baptist preacher and they’ll talk dirty to you for nothing.” He said, “Don’t cost you a thing.” Well, fortunately I’ve got a loving and good church family and I do get loving affirmation and credit for preaching the word.

Those of us who have day shift jobs, we get that. We get that affirmation and that credit, but equally important in God’s church are the night shift jobs that seldom people see and few people talk about and you don’t get many pats on the back and you don’t get plaques or affirmations, they don’t have special days typically for you.

You know, you don’t remember who all the nursery coordinators are in this church but I do. A few of you do that have children perhaps and those people who volunteer to help with children’s program events, and youth program events, those who volunteer just to help with mechanical things around here, engineering things. We have all kind of people, countless ways people serve behind the scenes. That stuff has to happen. Nobody sees it. Nobody gives you credit or nobody gives you affirmation. And by the way, those of us who have more day shift jobs, there has to be a night shift aspect to our work or God’s not going to bless it. I mean, the hours in the study or the hours in the prayer closet that nobody sees, that time that you stopped and shared the Gospel with someone in the mall or on the street corner, at the factory or at the school or in the office. Nobody saw that, nobody commended you for that work for the Lord. Or taking that new believer along with you and spending countless hours with that guy or that lady and just helping them getting started right in their Christian faith. Faithfully returning tithes and offerings. Those are never published. I don’t see them. God sees them but nobody else really does, a couple of people on the accounting committee. Night shift jobs that are very essential. You don’t get a lot of credit for them, seldom seen or recognized but they’re essential in the work of the Lord.

Now, this Psalm, Psalm 134 is what’s called a Psalm of ascent. As a matter of fact, it’s the last Psalm of ascent. It was written by the pilgrims coming back out of captivity back to Jerusalem, and I’ve said this to you many times in exegeting the Old Testament, it’s so hard for us to go back to a Jewish mindset to get where they were coming from. You and I cannot imagine what it meant to be in Babylonian captivity, in pagan darkness, and to be an Orthodox Jew where to meet with God, to be around God’s things and God’s blessings and God’s revelation you had to be in Israel, specifically come to Jerusalem and specifically attend to the temple services and they couldn’t do any of that in Babylon. But finally they’re released. They’re coming back and they’re full of joy and excitement and they’re coming back in the middle of the night and that’s where this Psalm is written and they say, “Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD,” and notice the specifics, “Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!” And they tell them to lift up their hands in verse 2, and bless the Lord. So these pilgrims coming back from captivity exhort the night shift workers in God’s temple to praise the Lord with joy and genuineness in their hearts regardless of whether or not anybody ever gives you credit or applause or appreciation. That’s night shift work. I think what those pilgrims coming in from captivity were saying, “If you’d been where we’d been in black pagan captivity, you’d be thrilled to do this lowly night shift job in God’s temple. If you just came from where we came from.”

Let me give you three thoughts about night shift work in God’s church. 1. It’s essential for new believers. I don’t mean it’s essential for them to do it. That is true, I mean it’s essential for them to see it being done. It’s essential that new believers come into the church and see older more mature believers faithful on God’s night shift – now listen – with joy and praise in their hearts, expecting no praise, credit or applause.

It does a couple of things for them. 1. It shows them the worth of serving the Lord. I remember so well being a new convert at the age of 19 and coming to church for the first time and I don’t care how genuinely converted you are, you still have seasons of doubt. Satan still toys with your mind and your fallen flesh you have to wrestle with. How important it is to see somebody who has been converted in God’s church 20, 30, 40, 50 years but will faithfully serve the Lord even on the night shift with praise and joy in their hearts whether or not they get any credit or applause or appreciation for it.

That’s the first thing these pilgrims see. These pilgrims represent new converts. They’re coming back into Jerusalem for the first time out of pagan captivity and how it encourages them to see, “Yes, yes,” listen when they left Jerusalem it was in ruins. They come back and the wall has been built, the city’s been rebuilt, the temple is there, hallelujah! It’s still worth it to serve the Lord as they see those night shift workers in God’s temple.

You know, those who have known the Lord the longest serve him with gladness. It so encourages the new believer. Let me exhort you, sir, listen: there’s a junior boy watching you in this church. He’s watching you and he’s asking, “Is it worth it? Is it worth it to dedicate your life to the Lord? Does it really work? Does it really last?” Lady, listen to me: there’s a junior girl watching you. You don’t know who they are but they’re watching you. I remember that so well as a brand new convert. I’d go into the church and I knew the men of our city and I would watch those men and I would say, “Are they real? Is this really worth it?” They need to see you faithfully serving the Lord on the night shift.

I think about the ways we work to stimulate a brand new baby. It’s amazing how many things we do to a new baby just to interact with them and play with them and get them to be responsive. I mean, even somebody as dignified as me, I mean, you find yourself going, “Ah! Woo!” I said that because I’m not dignified if you really know me. If you really know me. But we do whatever – listen – we do whatever it takes to encourage them in their development, do we not?

Well, God tells us and what a picture of these pilgrims coming back into God’s city and God’s place and God’s temple where God blesses and where God’s revelation and they look up and say, “Yes, it’s still there! And even the night shift workers are serving. O, bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord who serve by night in the house of the Lord.” How it encouraged them that, yes, it’s worth it to serve the Lord.

Not only that, it shows those new believers the way to serve the Lord. Notice the specificity here: who serve by night in the house of the LORD. Now, the Old Testament Jewish priest had great acclaim in the culture, great notoriety, but now the night shift worker, he just did the night shift work and their commending and praising the Lord for the night shift worker. You know, it’s really – now listen to this – it’s a difficult journey in our sanctification to learn that in God’s work nothing is to be done for self-glorification. Let me say that again: it is a difficult journey in our Christian sanctification to learn that nothing is to be done for self-glorification. Why do you think we constantly emphasize around here the glory of God, being glory of God focused, glory of God centered? Do you know why? First and foremost, Jeff Noblit needs to remember that and, secondly, you need to remember that. But it is a journey, amen? I mean, I believe there are places God gets you to where you’re riding in victory most of the time but it’s a repenting journey to be glory of God focused and not worry about yourself.

You know what happens, old Joe Blow in the church, he gets the credit, he gets the attention. You know, he has done half as much for the Lord than you have. So? God knows about Joe Blow. He’ll deal with him. Amen? Well, Sally…. She gets the attention. She gets the applause. She gets the credit and I know my wife….more than she does. So? These pilgrims said, “You night shift workers ought to serve in the temple with praise and joy in your hearts regardless of whether or not you ever get the credit or the applause.” One of my friend’s moms, his mom’s name was Vera, and I’ve never to this day met a woman as devoted to her family and her home as Vera was. She was old school. A diligent, faithful, pre-dawn riser every day, every day, three meals a day, cooking, cleaning. A brilliant lady. But I asked her one day just watching the way she toiled and served and I loved to eat so I loved to be at her house, I said, “Vera, how did you come upon just with this attitude? You seem joyous and you’re always sweet spirited. You’re never burdened about this.” She said, “I decided as a young lady I would find my joy in life serving others.” I thought how smart that is. If you find joy in serving others, you’re never going to be without joy. Now think about that for a moment. Just a simple thing. She just did her assignment from God as a wife and mother and homemaker and said, “I’m going to serve others and that’s where my joy will come from.”

But you know, I wish I could tell you I started out as a Christian there. Do you remember my story about the Upper Volta Hunger Project? I hadn’t been converted a few months and I was attending First Baptist Church of Lawrenceburg, TN, and the Tennessee Baptist Convention had a campaign that all Baptists in Tennessee would raise money for the hunger need, the starvation need, they had been through a famine in the Upper Volta region of Africa and the plan was everybody get a jar and every evening everybody in the family empty out their change and put it in the jar and after so many weeks, everyone would bring their jars to the church and then that would be added up and sent in and that would be Tennessee Baptist’s gift to the Upper Volta Hunger Project. I was so excited. I was a brand new Christian. I was so fired up about it, I started pulling out change, finding change, digging for change, and I had a pretty good jar full of change and the day came to bring your money to the church and I just knew the church would be blown away with excitement about what I had done for that project. I remember it so well. I figured when I pulled up there would just be people lining the streets. I was so full of pride.

I pulled up in the church parking lot, nobody was there. No trumpet sounded. I got my jar of change and I walked out and I went up the church steps, didn’t see anybody, went in the front door and I think it was maybe one of the deacons who was standing there and I with a big smile on my face had my jar of coins and I said, “I’ve brought my offering for the hunger project. What are we supposed to do with it?” And he said, “Go put it down at the altar,” and he walked off and I said, “Is that it? Is that all you’re gonna say?” I mean, I’m a brand new Christian, can’t you see how devoted I am to Christ? Honest to God, that was where I was but do you know why I remember that? The Spirit of God spoke to me right there that day and said, “You’re not doing this for you, you’re doing this for me.”

That’s why new believers need to see from older believers the way to serve the Lord and I had dear folks God put in my life who had been faithful in God’s service for many decades. They were never troublemakers. They were never problems. Other people in the church should have done a lot of the things they did, but they stayed faithful on God’s night shift with joy and praise in their hearts and helped me learn better the way you serve the Lord.

Serving on God’s night shift with joy and praise in your heart regardless of whether anybody else gives you appreciation or credit is essential for new believers but II, our text would show us it’s expected of all believers. It’s expected of all believers. These pilgrims coming into Jerusalem saying, “Behold, bless the LORD,” now here it is, “all servants of the LORD.” You remember all the Levitical household, all the men were set aside by God, sanctified to be priests. All of them were to be in this service and so the pilgrims were coming in and said, “Even you Levites who get the night shift duty, bless the LORD. You guys ought to be blessing the LORD. You guys ought to be raising your hands and praising the LORD.” In other words, it’s expected of all of you.

Two thoughts here. 1. It’s just an undeserved privilege. They got to serve the Lord. Serving the Lord is a privilege. We are by nature born children of wrath. We are by nature citizens of a dark kingdom. It is only grace that saves us and purchases us out of that dark kingdom and places us into light, places us out of that bondage and that evil and places us into God’s household. We shouldn’t think about serving in God’s church as some lowly service. It’s not some woeful obligation but it’s a wonderful grace opportunity. That’s what serving the Lord in God’s church is. Cleaning toilets in the house of the Lord is a grand and glorious and sacred privilege for one who deserves to be in hell.

“Bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD.” All of us should have that attitude. Now, not all of us are to do the same things, not all of us are to do the same amounts, but all of us should have the heart attitude of, “Night shift work is fine with me and I don’t care who gets the credit.” I think these pilgrims, again, were saying to these night shift workers in the temple, “If you guys had been where we’ve been for 40 years in captivity in dark Babylon, you’d be thrilled to be doing that night shift work up there in the temple.”

Night shift work is not our duty, night shift work is our delight and, friend, what should it matter if you spend the rest of your life unnoticed on God’s night shift? The devotion of your service can’t touch the hem of the garment of grace he’s clothed you in. He’s given so much to us. It’s just an undeserved privilege. Secondly, it’s an overflow of love. It’s an overflow of love. They say to those night shift workers, “Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD.” That participial phrase there shows ownership or possession. We are of him. We belong to him. In Romans 5:5, the Bible says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. When the Lord saves us, he changes us and there is a new love that he puts in us, a new type of love for a new type of people, a new capacity to love a certain group of people, a new love for the church.

You know, just under common grace, if you love someone you’ll do two things: you will serve them and you will praise them. You want proof of that? Think about your kids or think about your grandkids. You don’t have to work at serving them, you just do it. You don’t have to work at talking about them or praising them, you just do it. And so as we’re converted and the love of God in our hearts is building and maturing, our love for the church which God loves supremely which is God’s precious possession grows also. It’s true in common grace but it’s also true in redeeming grace, that love that propels you on.

Now, you’ve got to be challenged and stirred and exhorted about it but it’s still there and it’s still real.

I remember when one of our babies was little, I’ll never forget Pam was changing a diaper and while changing a diaper, she had tears rolling down her face. I thought, “What’s so great about changing a diaper? What’s so moving about that?” Well, a lot of things can move when you do that, no doubt about it, but I think whichever one it was said something or made an expression they hadn’t done before. That’s because under common grace there’s a love for our children. Well, folks, redeeming grace is even greater than that. There is a love capacity in you for the church that ought to bring you to the place where you can serve on God’s night shift with joy and praise in your hearts, expecting nothing in return.

Lloyd Rogers will be buried in a couple of three days. I’ve never seen a time when Lloyd served here at Grace Life expecting something out of it. That’s my memory of Lloyd. That’s the way I want to end and that should be the way that you want to end.

Well, III. We serve on God’s night shift with joy and praise in our hearts expecting nothing in return because it’s exalted in God’s eyes. It’s exalted in God’s eyes. Notice what these pilgrims say in verse 1, “Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD, Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!” And they’re even telling them, “You guys ought to be excited about it. You ought to have joy about it. Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless the LORD.” And then they say something interesting in verse 3, “May the LORD bless you from Zion.” I think the point is men may not be seeing this, people may not think anything special with you when people bring their offerings and their sacrifice to the priest and when people receive the ministries of the priest, it’s always in the daytime, not the night shift. Men are not seeing this but God sees it.

“May the LORD bless you.” Listen to me, saint of God, can you tell me this morning that you can walk out of this church and live your life devoted to service in God’s church and have your flesh rise up and say, “Yea, but…..” And you say, “That’s alright, though, I’m doing it for the Lord. He sees it.” It doesn’t matter if she or he got acclaim for something and I did more. It doesn’t matter.

“May the LORD bless you.” Men may not esteem the night shift workers but God does. This world doesn’t esteem the night shift workers but God does.

Then he says to them, “May the LORD bless you from Zion,” interesting phrase, very last phrase, verse 3, “He who made heaven and earth.” The pilgrims are saying, “Do you realize you get to serve the God who made heaven and earth?” I think that meant a lot to these pilgrims because they had been only around the false pagan gods of the Babylonian kingdom and you guys have been in Jerusalem getting to serve the true God. You ought to be grateful he’s saying.

I meditated on that years ago and came up with five quick thoughts about serving this God of heaven and earth, that’s the way they called him, he is the Lord of heaven and earth. Five things about knowing him and meditating on him that reinforces this great truth of faithful service on the night shift with joy and praise in your hearts, not expecting anything in return. 1. He sees all and judges our management. He sees it. You see, whatever job you have in God’s church, you’ve got to see that as God’s assignment, then he’s going to judge you for the management of the assignment. That’s all that matters is him. You say, “Yeah, yeah, but Brother David told me….” Look, if God’s not bigger than Brother David, you need to quit church. “Yeah, but Brother Tom gave me…” No, it’s not about Brother Tom. Brother Tom was God’s instrument. “Brother Jeff told me….” No, it’s not about Brother Jeff. If God’s not behind this, let’s quit the whole thing. When I submitted to Dr. Bob Pittman as my former pastor, I submitted faithfully because I was convinced God was leading me through him. And by the way, God’s honored that commitment.

God sees it all and he judges the management of it. 1 Samuel 16:17 tells us, reminds us that man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. Church member, don’t fret yourself about some fleshly soul who is always trying to get the big acclaim or to be the big noise in the event. Don’t fret yourself about that. God sees it. He knows what the assignments are. He’ll judge the management of what he gave you. Proverbs 5:21 reminds us, “For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his ways.”

I’ll never forget Junior Hill telling us about a pastor who was in his study and the pastor is just sitting there studying one morning and bursting through the door came this bundle of energy. It was his first grade boy and he had gotten his first report card. I don’t know what you get on report cards these days, they changed them through the years. You used to get A’s and you got S’s and you got different things but he got all A’s and he ran in there, “Daddy! Daddy, my first report card! Daddy, I got all A’s! Look at it, daddy!” And he jumped up in his daddy’s lap and that preacher hugged him and kissed him and said, “Son, you’ve done so well! I’m so proud of you, baby, you’ve done so well!” He wiggled away and ran out to run and find mom and show her. He put his head down, he began to study a little bit more and he had all but forgotten that sitting at his feet was his 21 year old mentally retarded boy and that little 21 year old boy had been in a special class for months learning how to tie his shoe and he felt him fumbling at his feet and he looked down and that boy looked up at his daddy and said, “Daddy, I tied your shoe. I tied your shoe.” And that daddy reached down and got that big old boy and put him in his arms and wrapped his arms around him and kissed him on the cheek and said, “Son, you’ve done so well with what God gave you! You’ve done so well, I’m so proud of you! Baby, you’ve done so well!” and kissed him and hugged him and held him.

Your job may not seem like much but let me tell you it’s God’s assignment and it’s special to God. It’s exalted in his eyes. You faithfully do the management of what God gave you to do. “Well, I’ve only greeted at the doors. I’ve only helped with the nursery.” I’m telling you, it’s exalted in God’s eyes. Be faithful on the night shift. You serve the God of heaven and earth. Not only does he see all things and judge our management, number 2: he will bring down those who exalt themselves. If you’ve been here very long, you’ve got a very good memory at all, you’ve watched that happen. None of us are without the humblings of God if he’s going to use us but those who persist in pride of pushing themselves instead of him, he will eventually remove them completely.

Proverbs 15:25 reminds us that God will destroy the house of the proud. God will destroy the house of the proud. Sir, whatever you do, don’t build your kingdom in God’s church. Whatever you do, don’t build your kingdom in God’s church. God will bring it down. Ask Jimmy Swaggert. Ask Jim Baker.

Saul did not obey God. Saul had his own way of doing things. Saul didn’t kill all the Amalekites like God said. Saul kept back some of the spoils of the war and then Saul, the Bible says, built a monument to himself. Wait a minute, God wanted the Amalekites destroyed, Saul got the job done. He didn’t follow every jot and tittle God said but Saul did a good job. No, he didn’t. He didn’t do what God said. He was building his own, he was doing it his way and built a monument to himself and that very moment God declared, “I’m taking the kingdom away from him,” and God declared later, “I’m giving it to David.” God will bring down those who exalt themselves.

3. If he keeps you on the night shift, his grace is sufficient. You might say, “Well, man, I’ve worked on the night shift for years. When am I going to get that day shift job?” You may never get it. That may not be God’s assignment. I don’t know. You might put in an application for it but that might be where God has you and if it is, his grace is sufficient.

The Apostle Paul appealed to the Lord three times that God would remove that thorn of the flesh from Paul and I believe the thorn in the flesh was most likely a person. There’s reasons I believe that in the text but Paul was saying, “This person just keeps afflicting me and he’s just a pain and he’s just a troublemaker and he slanders and tries to ruin me everywhere I go.” And God said, “No, Paul. I’ll tell you what, I’m going to keep you right there. It keeps you from exalting yourself and my grace will be sufficient.” And if God keeps you on the night shift, you need to keep serving with joy and praise in your heart, not expecting anything in return because God’s grace will be sufficient for you.

I’m telling you these stories and they’re special stories in my life because they’re true stories. When I first started preaching and most of you know my story, I didn’t know the Old Testament from the New Testament. God had mercy and grace on those early churches I preached to. I mean, it wasn’t good but I think they just came to watch the show, to be honest. But there was a little church called Meadowview Baptist Church in Lawrenceburg, TN, still there, some sweet, dear, godly people there. And Meadowview is literally on the wrong side of the tracks. It literally is on the wrong side of the tracks. There’s a lot of special government housing over there, mostly quite poor people. And they let me preach all the time that first year after I was converted. I just preached all the time there.

They just kept having me back and I remember one Sunday after I preached, I mean, I’m not converted about a year by this time and we were eating lunch in their fellowship hall and there were two sisters, two senior, adult, widowed sisters and they said, “Brother Jeff, we’d like to tell you how we got this fellowship hall.” I said, “I’d love to hear how you got your fellowship hall.” They said, “Well, for years we didn’t have one and when we had fellowship meals we had to split up in the Sunday school classrooms and eat our fellowship meals and some of us ladies kept going to the deacons and said, ‘We’ve got some money. Let’s build a fellowship hall. We need a hall.’ They said, ‘No.'” You know, hold onto that money. They wouldn’t loosen up, you know, got to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. And those ladies said, “No, but we need to build a fellowship hall.” And finally those deacons relented and said, “Okay, ladies, if you can raise $25,000 we’ll build a fellowship hall.” Now, back in those days that was a lot of money. Those ladies, I mean, they’re on a fixed income, they had nothing. They said, “But we noticed that year the apple trees in the church yard were loaded with apples so we started picking those apples and we started cutting those apples and we dried those apples and we cooked down those apples and we made homemade fried apple pies, bunches of them, and we went down to Walmart and asked the store manager could we set up a table outside of Walmart and sell fried apple pies because we’re raising money to build a fellowship hall at our church.” And those two widowed sisters picked those apples, cut those apples, dried those apples, cooked down those apples, made those fried apple pies, set up a table in the Walmart parking lot and sold fried apple pies and made $750 dollars to give to the fellowship hall fund and it inspired the rest of the church and they raised the money and built the thing. I thought to myself, “Bless God, you can have the bankers, you can have engineers, you can have the doctors and the lawyers, you can have the big businessmen, give me two widowed ladies who know how to make fried apple pies and we’ll build a church for the glory of God.”

That was their job. They weren’t teachers or leaders or preachers but they could do that and they were filled with joy and praise in their heart that they got to be a part of that and in all honesty, probably got some old stingy moss-backed deacons off that bank account. If God wants you in the task that hardly no one sees, he’ll give you grace to sustain you all the way to the end.

4. If he desires for you a public role, you can’t miss it. If his desire for you is a public role in the church, you won’t miss it. You be faithful on God’s night shift, you won’t miss it.

Think about Joseph. Joseph sees a dream that he’s going to rule over his brothers, he shouldn’t have told them, he tells them. They get jealous. He was born late. Jacob loved him the most. They hate that about Joseph so they mock Joseph’s death, they throw him in a cistern, an old well, and then decide, “Well, let’s just sell him to some Ishmaelite gypsies.” So he’s sold to these gypsies. He ends up in Egypt. He ends up serving in Potiphar’s house. He’s blackmailed and accused of wrongdoing. He didn’t do it. He’s falsely accused. He ends up in the bottom of an Egyptian dungeon. There is nowhere further from any hope in humanity as being an exiled Jew in the dungeon in Egypt but the indications are he kept a good spirit about it. He knew God had a purpose. He was faithful to his Lord in that of all night shift places, an Egyptian dungeon, and finally he gets to interpret a dream and it’s a blessing to the Pharaoh and he’s exalted to the right hand of the Pharaoh. He becomes in effect the mightiest man in the world. He would not have gotten there if he wasn’t faithful on the night shift first.

You don’t know how many young preachers come across my life, some through the church, some just I counsel with, I talk to them and talk to them and talk to them. They want the fast track to a big church and exciting ministry and there ain’t no fast track there. Do you know why? Because God just takes a long time to get a man to where he can handle a ministry.

Daniel the same way. Daniel had the night shift jobs in Babylon and finally God ministers through Daniel and Darius the king is so impressed that Daniel’s wisdom and the way he handled things that Darius exalts Daniel and even says Daniel’s religion has to be worshiped throughout all of his whole kingdom. Great prominence was brought to Daniel. If God wants you to have a public and prominent role, you can’t miss it.

Thirty eight or so years ago, I moved to north Alabama and roomed with some boys who said now that you’re a Christian, you need some college roommates and I did so I transferred from Middle Tennessee down here and we were looking for a church and we pulled up in a gravel parking lot on this location. There was one little, ugly, yellow, metal building and we walk inside and there’s a square room. They’re having worship services in over there. It’s my third chapel I’m on, by the way. That was the first one back then 38 years ago. I walked in and sat on the back pew and the preacher said, “We’re going to have a work day Tuesday night. We’re building Sunday school classrooms on each end of this building.” And so me and my college buddy, Jonathan, thought we’re going to show up and work. Tuesday night we walk in the door, had our work clothes on and Bob Pittman, the pastor, was standing there and he looked at us. He thought we worked for a contractor or something. He goes, “Who do y’all work for?” I said, “We work for the Lord.” He said, “Good.” He said, “Do you see those double thick 12 foot boards of sheet rock? Carry those upstairs.” Have you ever carried sheet rock? We carried every piece of sheet rock on that end of that building. Jonathan Edwards and I carried those up the stairs so the men could nail them up on the walls. It had to be double thick for fire safety.

That was my first job at Grace Life Church of the Shoals. That was my first job. Nobody knew me. Thought I was a contractor. It didn’t matter. If God wants you exalted, he’ll see to it that it’s done. Now, I don’t mean that I’m today exalted, I mean in a public role in the church. Had not the faintest thought or dream to ever pastor this church but God knew. God knows what he’s doing.

Number 5 about this God of heaven and earth: he exalts the humble. He exalts the humble. Proverbs 29:23, “A humble spirit will obtain honor.” A humble spirit will obtain honor. The pilgrims are coming back from captivity and we can only try to think of what it meant to an Orthodox Jew of that day to leave the darkness of Babylonian captivity and come back to God’s city and God’s temple and see the night shift workers faithfully serving in the temple. And he says, “You night shift workers, praise the Lord for your work. Praise the Lord you get to do it on the night shift. You ought to have been where we’ve been.” So they’re exalting those workers because that’s a preview of what God’s going to do. That’s a preview. That’s a prophetic type of what God’s going to do.

I told you about Meadowview Baptist Church and how those dear saints of God let me preach there a lot that first year after I was converted, well, they actually asked me back. It might have been 15 or 18 years later they asked me back to come preach a meeting and I go preach a meeting and I think it was like Monday night in the meeting, a grandmother came up to me and I vaguely remembered her. I learned later her name is Thelma L. They called her Miss Thelma. Miss Thelma said, “Brother Jeff, can I take you to supper after church tomorrow night? I’d like to talk to you.” And I said kind of tongue-in-cheek, “Well, ma’am, I don’t go out with ladies to eat. Maybe some more folks could go with us.” She said, “Well, sure, but I want to buy your supper.” And I knew this lady like the other single, adult, widow ladies in the church, she was on a fixed income. I should have been buying her supper but she wanted to do that so I let her do that and we went to Shoney’s on Highway 43 just down from where Walmart is today, and we’re sitting there in Shoney’s and she said, “Brother Jeff, I want to tell you something. You know, years ago when you first came and preached for us at Meadowview Baptist Church?” I said, “Yes, ma’am, I do. Y’all were so kind and encouraging to me.” She said, “Brother Jeff, I don’t have the gift of preaching. I’m not called to preach, obviously, and I don’t have the gift of teaching, I’m not a teacher. I don’t have the spiritual gift of leadership or administration. I’m not over anything or in charge of anything but,” she said, “do you know what? I can pray. For whatever reason, I have trouble sleeping. I’m always up way before the sun comes up.” I’m sorry. “And for all these years since I heard you preach the first time, I knew God had his hand on you and I’ve been pleading for you before the sun comes up every morning for all those years that God would keep you and protect you and use you greatly for his glory.”

That’s night shift work. And I think of all these years when temptation would come and I’d be, “Lord,” but God wouldn’t let me cross the line and God knows the times you want to quit. “Just quit, it’s not worth it. Just quit.” And God wouldn’t let you quit. Do you know why? Because Thelma L. was on her knees praying for me. I always end the sermon this way because I just believe it’s true because he said he’s going to exalt the humble. I’ll walk into heaven one day and maybe the Lord will say, “Jeff, I’m glad you’re home,” and I’ll say, “Lord, I’m glad just to be here.” “Take your seat back there on the back.” “Yes, Lord.” Thelma L. will walk in and say, “Thelma, would you come down here and sit right on the front by me because you were the key to that preacher’s success and faithfulness for all those years. You were the night shift worker.” He will exalt the humble. There is no doubt in my mind that God works that way. God works that way.