Faith Must Work(From our 9-29-24 Worship)

West Side Church of Christ - Elkton Ky

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/oY_Tz1kPLH4

Transcript:
When I say the phrase the American dream, what comes to your mind? Probably some rags to riches story where a person is able to maybe in one generation completely changed not only their life, but maybe their entire family tree. And you think about that. How do you How do you achieve the American dream for a California born man named Richard Montanez.

The way that he achieved the American dream was maybe a little out of the, out of the ordinary. His was achieved with Flamin Hot Cheetos.

Now, Mr. Montanez was working in a Frito Lay factory in 1992 when Flamin Hot Cheetos were first introduced. They were introduced into a test market, they went wild, and then all of a sudden they lost them nationally. and then, uh, all over the world. But the interesting thing is, is when, when he developed this new flavor, he was not a product engineer.

He was not a scientist or a chemist. He was a janitor. And you say, How did the janitor develop flaming hot cheetos? Well, it's a long story, but the crux of it is, is that One day, the president of Frito Lay made a video to show internally the company. He was trying to boost morale. And one of the things he said in that video is, is, I want everybody in the company to act like an owner of the company.

Well, for most people, that message went in one ear and out the other. They didn't pay much attention to it. But it meant something to Mr. Martinez. So, a few days later, he was at work and Besides his regular duties, the other thing that he did was if something happened on one of the lines and the line stopped when they had to fix the machine, generally what had to happen was they had to empty out the entire line to clean it and reset it and started again.

So Mr Martinez was at work one day and a machine broke down at the very end of the line, the machine that put the powder on the cheetos, you know, let's sticks to your fingers. So there was this whole section of Cheetos that were fully cooked, but they hadn't. They didn't have powder on them yet. So, Mr.

Martinez, I'm not being an owner. Instead of just taking those and gathering up and throwing them away, he gathered up and took him home. And when he took him home, he decided that I wonder if I could develop something else to put on the outside of this. that would be, you know, be better than a normal Cheeto.

So he pulled on some other, uh, typical Hispanic, uh, treats of the day, and he created his own recipe. He dusted those Cheetos that he took home, and he started passing them out to friends and neighbors, and everybody loved them. You see, there was something, something about his recipe that spoke to the Hispanic market especially.

It would And they kept encouraging. You got to go. You got to go take this to work. You got to tell him about this. You know, it'd be such a wonderful thing. But he's he's a janitor. Well, eventually they encourage him enough and he does something pretty brave. Mr. Martinez goes to work. He gets through the company phone book and he looks up the number for the CEO's office.

And a janitor in a Frito Lay company. Calls the CEO's office and it may be a slight miracle that the secretary didn't laugh in his face and hang up the phone. But within just a few minutes, Mr Martinez was on the phone talking to the CEO of Frito Lay and he told him about his idea. He said, Well, I'll be there in two weeks.

I want you to make a presentation. You see, when we think about how you achieve the American dream, It's kind of funny to say, well, his was achieved by Flamin Hot Cheetos, but that's not really how it was achieved. It was achieved by what? By hard work. And work that went above and beyond just normally sweeping the floors, isn't it?

Not only did he have to work to develop this new flavor, but when the CEO of Frito Lay looked at him and said, Okay, in two weeks you can make a presentation in front of the entire board for Frito Lay. Mr. Martinez was a man who had dropped out of school, not even high school, dropped out of school very early to help support his family working in the, in the fields as migrant workers.

So, you know, the whole public speaking and marketing and all those skills were not exactly something he had in his back pocket. For two weeks he went into a mad dash to develop those skills. He even had to go out and buy a suit and tie, and he didn't have time to figure out how to tie the tie, so his neighbor had to tie it that morning and put it on him.

And of course, he made that presentation and the rest, he says, history. Think about hard work. It's maybe not a message that's so popular today. And yes, it is the key to the American dream, but it's also, when you think about it, it also has to do, a lot to do with, with a Christian in a spiritual walk. The Bible has a lot to say about work.

Gotcha. Bible's going into Philippians chapter two, all here in the book of Philippians, this book that, that mentions joy, 13, 14 times a man setting in prison, writing them, telling them to be joyful, to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Look at what he tells them in chapter two, beginning verse 12.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Paul here is having a much larger conversation, and he's basically trying to encourage them in spite of everything that's going on around you.

Don't give up and don't quit. That was a message they needed in their day. And I'm gonna tell you, it's a message that we need in our day as well. But do you notice the action words here? Work out your own salvation. God works in you to work his own good pleasure as you've always obeyed. You get the idea that that work is required.

Work is required to be a Christian. I could put up here. Ephesians to 10. We're here's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them. I mean, the Bible goes on and on about work, but this morning in the little bit of time that we have together, I want to take this concept of work and I want to link it to something else.

Maybe you not thought of it. These two things in relation to each other. But I'm hoping that the things that we learned today can help us to be better. for our God. So that being said, I want to link work to something else. Okay. And this other concept that I want to link it to is found in Galatians chapter five.

We're gonna be flipping around several places today. So I apologize. Get your get your fingers ready. But, uh, Paul here in the middle of chapter five, he's talking to a church full of people. who are for whatever reason are very tempted to leave New Testament Christianity, and they're tempted to go back to the old law.

Like, this just doesn't seem to be working out for us. We're just gonna go back to what we know. And Paul is trying very much, very adamantly, to discourage them from that. Look at what it says, beginning verse four. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You've fallen away from grace.

We're through ...