From Labour To Reward by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Theme: From Labour to Reward

Scripture consistently connects labour with purpose, diligence with reward. The themes are recurrent: sowing with reaping, stewardship with increase, shortcuts with destruction. The beauty of this theme is that it addresses spiritual growth, work ethic, destiny, character, patience, finances, ministry, parenting, relationships, and even national transformation — all of it contained in one principle.

The way God ordained it, the universe is designed to produce a harvest for everyone who walks, who labours, who plants.

Defining Work

Work is the physical, mental, emotional, or creative effort that someone exerts to achieve a goal — to produce value, to solve problems, to provide services, or to accomplish meaningful outcomes. Work is always channelled towards something. It is not an aimless exercise.

Work can be expressed through employment, business, caregiving, intellectual activity, craftsmanship, leadership, service, administration, innovation, or survival activities. These are all valid arenas of deployment. The lie that full-time ministry is the only real work of God has done tremendous damage. All of these areas are where God can channel your energies.

But whatever you are doing, if there is no vision at the back of your mind, all you will get is frustration, fatigue, weariness, and tiredness.

From a scriptural perspective, work is the God-given responsibility of applying one's gifts, strength, time, skill, and obedience toward fulfilling purpose — serving others, cultivating life, and producing fruit that brings glory to God and benefit to humanity. With God, it is less about material gain or societal recognition and more about two things: service and obedience.

If service is not the motive, wrong motives will prevent the reward from coming.

Work Is Different from Toil

• Work is purposeful, productive, dignified, meaningful, and potentially fulfilling.

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• Toil is burdensome, exhausting, frustrating, and fruitless.

Before the fall, Adam walked in the garden in fulfilment. After the fall, work became resisted, exhausting, and frustrating — because God said the ground was now cursed for Adam's sake. The garden was prepared before Adam showed up. All he had to do was tend it. After the fall, he had to toil to eat from the same ground that was once a joy to work in.

But work itself was not the curse. Work was part of creation. Toil was part of the curse. Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to dress it and keep it." Adam was not merely placed in the garden to enjoy it — he was assigned to cultivate it. The first thing God said to man after making him was: work.

God Himself Is a Worker

Repeatedly in Genesis chapter 1: "And God made... and God made..." To make anything means you are working. Jesus said in John 5:17: "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

The kingdom of God is not anti-work. God creates, God builds, God plants, God restores. These are all functions of work. We resemble God when we build. We resemble God when we create. We resemble God when we cultivate. We resemble God when we serve.

Productivity can be worship. It is not only when you sing a song or lift your hands. Meaningful labour offered unto God is an act of worship.

Work Brings Dignity

A man without work often loses structure. A man without purpose loses direction. When you are doing something and you can see the effect of it, it gives you a sense of right. It makes you believe you have the right to operate in this space.

A woman whose husband's business had completely stopped — for months he could not pay bills or provide for the household. He withdrew. He was not comfortable at home. He felt reduced. Labour brings dignity and purpose. When the pressure of provision is removed from a man who was designed to provide, something in him shrinks.

Long-term unemployment has been associated with increased anxiety, substance abuse, and hopelessness. In a rehabilitation context: when patients come and have no work to return to, no plan, no engagement — they are already failing before they leave. Boredom is one of the biggest triggers for relapse. The addiction was a coping mechanism, and without meaningful labour to replace it, the frustration drives them right back.

A young man came to the rehab at thirty years old — no schooling, years of addiction, hadn't cared for himself in weeks. When asked what he wanted to do, he said he had learned to be a plumber. The family set him up. Today his shop is thriving, he has contracts, and he comes back to the rehab just to show the staff how he is doing. He is so excited to see his life meaningful.

Another came four times before he stabilized. When he finally did, his mother called to say: for the first time, my son gave me money — money he earned from meaningful labour.

Responsibility Breeds Maturity

Children should be given chores from an early age — not to keep the house clean, but to teach them the value of responsibility. Anyone immature in a public office was not taught responsibility. That is why they can be immature holding positions that should be held in trust.

Genesis 2:15: a person without responsibility often loses direction, loses discipline, loses confidence, loses identity.

The Danger of Shortcuts

• Saul offered sacrifice unlawfully because he could not wait. Impatience cost him the kingdom.
• Gehazi pursued dishonest gain. He received money temporarily but leprosy permanently — and that leprosy followed his descendants. The children had committed no sin, but they appeared on the earth already carrying the curse of a shortcut. Be careful of what you do, because generational consequences are real.
• Judas chose quick profit over eternal purpose. He had the opportunity to walk and work with the King of Kings — and traded it away for greed.

The shortest way home is not always the quickest. The rocky shortcut broke the eggs. Appetite — the desire for immediate gratification — has traded many a destiny.

There is a fraud culture in Nigeria being celebrated: four-wheel drives given to parents, parents not asking where the money came from. Fraudsters do not work — they exploit. Even though their activity requires planning, strategy, and sustained effort, there is no meaningful outcome, no service, no contribution. It is destructive. It is exploitative. It cannot be called work.

But a twenty-one-year-old girl who discovered a gift for online trading and turned $200 into $100,000 — that is work. She found her gift, latched into it, and deployed it. That is what it looks like when purpose meets diligence.

Exhausting Labour Means Misalignment

Exhausting, fruitless labour is the experience of someone functioning outside their divine design. A fish will struggle on land. An eagle will struggle in water.

Misalignment does not remove effort. But it increases unnecessary frustration and reduces fruitfulness. Many people are exhausted not because labour is evil but because they are labouring outside their gifting, outside their calling, outside their grace, outside their temperament.

This is why working in the maintenance department of a refinery as an electrical engineer — when you are designed to be a preacher — is toil. Every day was uncomfortable. There was no joy. It was just a job. And when there is no purpose behind the effort, what you produce is frustration.

Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Purpose is not accidental. God prepared the work you are supposed to do while he was crafting you in your mother's womb. Your gifts, your capacities, your inclinations — all of it was calibrated for a specific contribution.

Bezalel: When God Anoints Craftsmen

Exodus 31:1-5. Bezalel was specifically gifted for craftsmanship. God anointed not only prophets and kings but craftsmen. Do not look down on what you carry. The skill in your hands, the creativity in your mind, the vocation you carry — it has the power to change the world if you deploy it under God's blessing.

A car battery technician who made $375 from one client in two days. If ten people call him in a day at $75 each — $750. In five days, $3,750. A regular salary of $1,500-$2,000 requires a full month. Do not trivialize what you carry. God can make your name known in rooms you have no business being in, because you are diligent.

Romans 12:4-8: God has given different gifts, different graces, different functions. Not everyone is called to the same expression of labour.

Labour Is Often a Seed in Secret

The story of Mordecai. He saved the king's life by reporting an assassination plot, and no one rewarded him. One night, the king could not sleep. He had the chronicles read to him. The question came: is there anyone who has done something for the king that was not rewarded? God took the king's sleep, directed his thoughts, and brought the hidden faithfulness of Mordecai back into the light.

Your name will be mentioned in strange places. You will not even be there. Sergeant York — a converted criminal who became a war hero, singlehandedly capturing 130 Germans. He only wanted to go home and marry the woman he loved. But the general whose portrait was being painted kept talking about York. The painter went after him. The biggest magazine at the time said they would not interview anyone except Sergeant York. He received the Medal of Honor. God can make them call your name in rooms you had no access to, because you were diligent in service.

For thirty-five years, the ministry was being built. Then last year, people suddenly started seeing the videos online. They said she just showed up out of nowhere. Some of those messages are fourteen years old. Labour in secret. Reward in public.

Isaiah 48:17: "I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go." Profitability, guidance, and the way you should go — they are connected. Stay connected to God so he will show you the way to go, and then you will profit.

The Rehab That Was Empty — Then Full

A few months ago, the rehabilitation centre had only two patients. The bills were not being paid. In a prayer meeting, the request was made: we need at least ten patients every month. Nothing happened the next month. Then a few more. Then the decision was made to invest — take staff to South Africa to see the inspiring centre there, fund the trip for six people across multiple countries, trust God for the finances.

Today the rehab is completely full. There is a waiting list.

Do not give up when the going is tough. It is process happening. If you stay with the Lord, he will lead you in the way you should go and teach you how to profit.

May God deliver you from wasted labour. May you discover your grace. May you discover your niche, your assignment, your divine design. May your labour become fruitful and more effort produce reward. May your work align with heaven's purpose for your life in the name of Jesus.

Father, thank you. Your design for us is work — but not aimless work, not careless work. You crafted Bezalel, made him a craftsman, and put grace upon him to make things. Lord, help us to walk in the graces you have placed upon our lives. Whatever we are doing now, let your mercy lead us into the place of our flourishing. Let the lines fall unto us in pleasant places. Let the visions we have for our future — our present, our old age — be handled before our eyes. We will testify of your goodness. In Jesus name, amen.