Tomorrow we will have a day off. The official title for the holiday is Labor Day. I think I’m accurate when I say that most of us think, “Great, a day off from work!” In fact the holiday is supposed to celebrate the work we do and the value of our labor.

When we first meet socially, often one will ask the other, “So, What do you do?” Some answer with a great deal of detail and give a job description. Others sort of blow off the question, shrug and say, “I’m just a mill worker," or "just a housewife.”

The Apostle Paul was a tradesman, a home builder if you will. His official job description was “Tentmaker.” Remember, though, that many in his day lived in tents. The great Evangelist D.L. Moody was shoe salesman. Lydia, the woman who hosted Paul and his traveling companions when they began their ministry to Europe, was a business woman.

You are far more than what you do, and what you do to put food on the table for your family is a noble thing and a high calling. Just the other day, I had some dental work done. For over two hours I sat in the chair while the man with a drill expressed himself on my face. I found myself extremely grateful that he had sacrificed to take years of training (especially on the use of Novocaine!)

Jesus said on a number of occasions that He was about his Father’s business, and that He had work to do. He also said, “The things that I do, even greater things shall you do because I go to the Father.” Paul says in Ephesians that there are works (good deeds) that we were created to do, that were prepared before the foundations of the world. Think about that for a minute. You and I have things that we were literally born to do!

So, this morning I want to preach on the subject, “Some Great Thing.” I picked that title because I think we all have a desire to do some great thing before we die. The rub comes when we try to decide what is great and what is insignificant.

Greatness in the eyes of God is entirely different than greatness in the eyes of men. Jesus’ cousin John, in the eyes of King Herod, was some kind of wild, raving maniac who lived in the desert--a religious nut. Jesus would later say, “of all the children ever born, none is greater than John . . . yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Let’s talk today about the significance of what you do and who you are in the eyes of God, and thanks for what you do.