WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.880 Reading from Ephesians 6:5-9 Open your Bible again to Ephesians 6. 2 00:00:02.880 --> 00:00:11.420 And we’re going to look again at verses 5 through 9 that we began last week. 3 00:00:11.420 --> 00:00:14.320 Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 5. 4 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:17.980 This is God’s holy and inerrant word. 5 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:28.640 “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and the sincerity of your heart as to Christ. 6 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:36.820 Not by way of eye-service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 00:00:36.820 --> 00:00:40.420 With goodwill render service as to the Lord and not to men. 8 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:50.020 Knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. 9 00:00:50.020 --> 00:01:04.150 And masters, do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there’s no partiality with him.” 10 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:08.420 Opening Prayer Let’s ask the Lord’s blessing on his word. 11 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:17.300 Father, as we approach this passage again today, we thank you for the richness of your instruction to us. 12 00:01:17.300 --> 00:01:22.160 And we ask Father that you help us to gain insight from your word. 13 00:01:22.160 --> 00:01:25.180 Bless us this week, think about this and meditate on it. 14 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:46.200 And thank you, Father, for the life-changing word of God that transforms individuals, changes hearts, moves people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and changes cultures, changes the way people think and behave together. 15 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.280 Father, I just ask for your grace this morning. 16 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.800 Guide us into truth, we pray in Christ’s name. 17 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:52.850 Amen. 18 00:01:52.850 --> 00:02:01.920 The Transformative Power of the Gospel We began this study last week and we applied it mostly last week in its original context. 19 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:09.220 The Apostle is addressing slaves and masters in a system that had slavery. 20 00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:30.060 And so we spent some time talking about the institution of slavery as it was practiced in the first century and the recognition of the sinful nature of that institution, which was that it denied personhood of the individual. 21 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:36.840 People were created in the image of God and that system objectified people. 22 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:43.940 It saw people as objects, as tools to be used, to be manipulated, or to be exploited. 23 00:02:43.940 --> 00:02:52.040 And a slave in the first century could be executed at the whim of their master. 24 00:02:52.040 --> 00:02:59.900 And yet, in this passage, we pointed out last week that Paul doesn’t say slaves rebel against your masters. 25 00:02:59.900 --> 00:03:03.860 He says, slaves be obedient to those who are your masters. 26 00:03:03.860 --> 00:03:10.580 So that raised some questions that we asked last week so that we’d think more deeply about this text. 27 00:03:10.580 --> 00:03:21.880 And one of the things that we pointed out was that this instruction in the Christian culture of the first century was transformative of the culture. 28 00:03:21.880 --> 00:03:26.500 It changed the relationship of master to servant. 29 00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:31.240 It changed the culture in significant ways ultimately. 30 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:36.960 And one of the examples that we pointed to at the end of the sermon last week was Onesimus . 31 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:45.620 And we pointed out that when Tychicus was carrying this letter, the Ephesian letter, he was also carrying the letter to Colossae and a letter to Philemon. 32 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:50.100 And he was bringing back Philemon’s slave, Onesimus . 33 00:03:50.100 --> 00:04:00.080 He was bringing Onesimus back to Philemon, who would either be branded under their law or put to death. 34 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:08.040 But Paul was bringing him back as a new brother in Jesus Christ . 35 00:04:08.040 --> 00:04:21.160 And so what happened is that Philemon receives Onesimus not as a rebellious slave, but as a new brother in Christ. 36 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:23.200 That relationship is changed. 37 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:28.480 And see that’s what this passage does to the institution of slavery. 38 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:37.780 It takes away the thing that is most objectionable about it, which is the devaluing of life. 39 00:04:37.780 --> 00:04:44.080 You can’t receive the person as a brother in Christ and still stay in that same relationship. 40 00:04:44.080 --> 00:05:09.940 And so one of the interesting things that we mentioned last week was that one of John’s disciples, John had two disciples, Polycarp and Ignatius, and Ignatius in his writings, early writings, mentions the elder of Ephesus, the bishop of Ephesus, whose name was Onesimus . 41 00:05:09.940 --> 00:05:12.940 Almost certainly has to be that same person. 42 00:05:12.940 --> 00:05:22.800 If it wasn’t that person, it was certainly another slave because Onesimus , which means useful , is the name of a slave. 43 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:24.200 Anyway, it’s an interesting thing. 44 00:05:24.200 --> 00:05:26.560 God transforms culture. 45 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:29.820 God’s word is powerful to transform culture. 46 00:05:29.820 --> 00:05:50.900 And this passage, what it’s pointing out is no matter what the relationship of the institution of slavery, the underlying work that the slave was doing was good for the beneficial of mankind, or God’s world, God’s world. 47 00:05:50.900 --> 00:05:58.540 God is blessing his world through work that God himself instituted at creation. 48 00:05:58.540 --> 00:06:11.420 So a godly understanding of the idea of work recognizes that God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. 49 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:13.460 And that’s before there was a fall. 50 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:15.560 So there’s benefit to work. 51 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:17.480 There’s blessing in work. 52 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:30.200 I want us to explore that idea as we apply this to modern work relationships, especially today because that would be the way that we can make valid application from this passage. 53 00:06:30.200 --> 00:06:47.680 And what I’m going to suggest is that a godly understanding of vocation , having a calling from God that you’re gifted for, God has blessed you with, and a work to do, corrects our thinking about the work that he calls us to. 54 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:52.700 Corrects our thinking about work in ways that’s necessary. 55 00:06:52.700 --> 00:07:04.020 First, a godly understanding of vocation teaches us that our work is valuable to God. 56 00:07:04.020 --> 00:07:13.640 I don’t know how it is with you, but in every job that I’ve had, there are times when the work seems to be mundane and pointless. 57 00:07:13.640 --> 00:07:17.860 It’s easy for us to think that our jobs have no meaning. 58 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:27.920 We live in a transient world and in a transient world, change is inevitable and nothing lasts very long. 59 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:32.900 We can start thinking about work that way. 60 00:07:32.900 --> 00:07:40.760 You have a job where you do the same thing every day, especially if you have a job that’s like that. 61 00:07:40.760 --> 00:07:49.340 It’s easy to fall into thinking that it’s so ordinary, so pointless. 62 00:07:49.340 --> 00:07:55.720 You make your bed one day and the next day, it needs to be made again, you know? 63 00:07:55.720 --> 00:07:57.420 And what’s the point? 64 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:04.140 You rake the leaves and the seasons change and pretty soon you’re raking the leaves again. 65 00:08:04.140 --> 00:08:13.000 It’s easy to think that you’re building a sandcastle on the beach where nothing lasts and everything seems to be pointless. 66 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.940 But the truth is, the reality is, is that vocation is valuable to God . 67 00:08:18.940 --> 00:08:24.900 God has work for you to do and he blesses the world through the work that you do. 68 00:08:24.900 --> 00:08:32.840 And part of this is the doctrine of providence , the teaching of God’s providential care for his world. 69 00:08:32.840 --> 00:08:37.980 God is sovereign of his creation and he’s involved in its care. 70 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.880 God keeps his creation existing. 71 00:08:41.880 --> 00:08:49.810 Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. 72 00:08:49.810 --> 00:08:55.170 And he cooperates with the created things in every action. 73 00:08:55.170 --> 00:08:57.820 He directs their distinctive properties. 74 00:08:57.820 --> 00:09:00.380 He causes them to act the way they do. 75 00:09:00.380 --> 00:09:06.400 It’s his part of his purpose, his plan, his creation, it’s his created order. 76 00:09:06.400 --> 00:09:17.880 Now, what I want to call your attention to is the root idea of that very word providence that we use to describe this, which means provide . 77 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:21.370 God provides for his creation. 78 00:09:21.370 --> 00:09:29.880 He provides for his creation usually, almost always, through ordinary means. 79 00:09:29.880 --> 00:09:37.340 And part of those means is the work we do, it’s the vocations that we’re called to. 80 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:50.540 During the there was a period, we went to some detail last week, so I won’t repeat it, but in church history, there’s a period where the gospel itself was virtually lost. 81 00:09:50.540 --> 00:09:54.460 It wasn’t totally lost, but for most people it was lost. 82 00:09:54.460 --> 00:10:01.240 And along with that was the idea of work relationships. 83 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:19.200 During the period of the Reformation, when the gospel began to be widely proclaimed, the biblical doctrine of vocation was also proclaimed as people started going to the word of God itself and teaching what it said. 84 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:22.760 And so Martin Luther was one of the chief exponents of that truth. 85 00:10:22.760 --> 00:10:31.900 And he communicated it, and the Puritans also received that teaching, and they took it to heart. 86 00:10:31.900 --> 00:10:40.020 And so you have what’s called the Puritan work ethic , which was transformative to our nation. 87 00:10:40.020 --> 00:10:48.280 In its early days, we were blessed in great ways because people valued work, they valued pretty much any kind of work. 88 00:10:48.280 --> 00:10:54.740 It was something that they saw as God-given and necessary and a blessing to people. 89 00:10:54.740 --> 00:10:57.740 That’s not the way that’s perceived today or taught. 90 00:10:57.740 --> 00:11:03.840 It hasn’t been for a long time. 91 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:15.720 Years and years ago, about 100 years ago or so, I was at Virginia Western, some of my early college, took some classes at Virginia Western. 92 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:18.840 And I took a government class. 93 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:30.080 And the government class was taught by a man who was a social democrat, which don’t confuse that with the Democratic party overall. 94 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:36.560 Basically he believed, and they believe in the tenets of communism. 95 00:11:36.560 --> 00:11:51.280 The difference between them and regular communists is that they believe that communism should be come about in a nation through the process of normal political action. 96 00:11:51.280 --> 00:12:01.260 So he would run for Congress every four years and he would get about three votes every four years, but he would keep running. 97 00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:07.140 He ran with the party, he’d run as an independent, but he ran each time. 98 00:12:07.140 --> 00:12:09.660 And he had this to say about the Puritans. 99 00:12:09.660 --> 00:12:12.800 He didn’t hold the Puritans in high esteem. 100 00:12:12.800 --> 00:12:16.500 And he especially didn’t hold their work ethic in high esteem. 101 00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:18.100 He says, “Why do we have that?” 102 00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:26.200 He said, “It’s because they believed that God chose certain people and he rejected certain people. 103 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:35.380 And the way that you know that you’re accepted by God is because you’re wealthy.” 104 00:12:35.380 --> 00:12:38.670 And that’s why the Puritan work ethic came about. 105 00:12:38.670 --> 00:12:44.320 You know, if you worked hard, you could prove God loves you. 106 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:51.380 Obviously, as I listened to that and a lot of other things that he said, I knew immediately that it’s ridiculous. 107 00:12:51.380 --> 00:13:01.040 And if you read the Puritans, which I hadn’t done much of at that time, but certainly have since, you find out that that’s not it at all, not at all. 108 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:08.740 What they believed is that none of us are saved by works we do. 109 00:13:08.740 --> 00:13:15.360 And yet the works that God calls us to has great value to God. 110 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:21.820 And it’s true for Christians and it’s true for people who are not Christians as well. 111 00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:28.920 The work that God does through his providential care is a blessing to people. 112 00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:36.860 And so that makes the work we do, even the work that we consider most menial, to be valuable to God. 113 00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:45.420 So God cares for us through ordinary means and usually through the gift of vocation . 114 00:13:45.420 --> 00:13:49.840 And that should help our thinking in a lot of areas when we realize that. 115 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:55.140 And especially in terms of just general gratitude to God for the blessings he gives. 116 00:13:55.140 --> 00:13:57.500 When we get sick, we pray for healing. 117 00:13:57.500 --> 00:14:01.340 And God can heal through miraculous means. 118 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:04.100 But he usually doesn’t. 119 00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:16.660 God provides for us and brings answer to our prayer usually when we’re sick through physicians and nurses and radiologists and medical technicians. 120 00:14:16.660 --> 00:14:22.140 A few years ago, a couple of years ago, I was sick. 121 00:14:22.140 --> 00:14:24.100 I had an internal hemorrhage. 122 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:29.120 And at the house, I passed out. 123 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.220 My wife found me. 124 00:14:31.220 --> 00:14:37.880 She called 911 and she woke me up just as the EMTs arrived. 125 00:14:37.880 --> 00:14:43.240 And the EMT took my blood pressure and it was 30 over zero. 126 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:51.120 And they gave me an IV and I began to get a little better. 127 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:55.960 I was in shock, so I was shaking violently all the way to the hospital. 128 00:14:55.960 --> 00:15:02.940 But we had a conversation and he told me that he said, “The first time I took your blood pressure, it was 30 over zero.” 129 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:07.500 And I said, “Well, if I survive this, I want you to know I really thank you.” 130 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:15.520 And then I corrected myself and said, “Whether I survive this or not, I really thank you.” 131 00:15:15.520 --> 00:15:18.460 Because God brings blessing to people. 132 00:15:18.460 --> 00:15:21.340 And he does it through ordinary means. 133 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:25.120 And one of the ways he does it is through the work that he gives us to do. 134 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:28.940 So the work that he gives us is valuable. 135 00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:33.660 There is dignity in honest work . 136 00:15:33.660 --> 00:15:37.600 And we should take pride in a job well done. 137 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:42.240 Not pride in ourselves, but pride in a job well done. 138 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:43.860 We should do things well. 139 00:15:43.860 --> 00:15:47.120 There’s dignity in the work. 140 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:55.500 Secondly, a biblical understanding of vocation helps us to identify with our work correctly. 141 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:59.320 And that’s really helpful. 142 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:07.780 It’s easy for us to make an idol out of the job or to make an idol out of the people that we serve. 143 00:16:07.780 --> 00:16:17.180 But here it’s very clear that it’s the Lord that we serve, and it’s the Lord who owns us. 144 00:16:17.180 --> 00:16:22.120 It’s easy for us to be owned by our work. 145 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:28.140 If you make an idol out of your job, you’re going to have tendencies like perfectionism, it would be one. 146 00:16:28.140 --> 00:16:33.920 And perfectionism means that you’re not able to do the job right. 147 00:16:33.920 --> 00:17:05.080 When I was a child in grade school, I didn’t do well with anything because I believed that the product that I produced, whether it was a little drawing or a paper that I would turn in or anything, that if it wasn’t good, that meant that I wasn’t good. 148 00:17:05.080 --> 00:17:07.880 I identified with the work. 149 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:10.360 People do that all the time with their work. 150 00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:15.680 People identify with their work in a one-to-one way. 151 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:20.900 And so if the work doesn’t go well, they don’t do well. 152 00:17:20.900 --> 00:17:31.520 They don’t, you know, they take it personally every aspect of it. 153 00:17:31.520 --> 00:17:33.400 But look at this passage. 154 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:34.120 Look what it says. 155 00:17:34.120 --> 00:17:35.320 Look at verse 5. 156 00:17:35.320 --> 00:17:41.290 It says, ‘Slaves, be obedient,’ and look how the verse ends, ‘ to Christ .’ 157 00:17:41.290 --> 00:17:44.040 You be obedient as to Christ . 158 00:17:44.040 --> 00:17:50.360 The next verse, verse 6, ‘not man pleasers but as slaves of Christ.’ 159 00:17:50.360 --> 00:17:55.440 Verse 7, ‘render service as to the Lord .’ 160 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:58.920 And in verse 9, ‘masters, you too. 161 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.980 You remember your masters in heaven.’ 162 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.960 We belong to the Lord. 163 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:11.660 All of us belong to the Lord, but believers in particular are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, purchased. 164 00:18:11.660 --> 00:18:14.760 And we absolutely belong to him. 165 00:18:14.760 --> 00:18:16.640 He is our identity . 166 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:20.540 Our identity is wrapped up in the person of Christ. 167 00:18:20.540 --> 00:18:26.680 As you read through this book of Ephesians, over and over and over again, you find in Christ . 168 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:28.180 You have that phrase. 169 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:29.940 You have in him . 170 00:18:29.940 --> 00:18:35.900 And it’s repeated again and again to remind us that our identity is in the Lord. 171 00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:41.740 We as believers have an identity that’s wrapped up in Jesus Christ. 172 00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:46.000 Our life is hid with Christ in him. 173 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:51.440 And so that gives us some freedom here. 174 00:18:51.440 --> 00:19:01.640 If you’re owned by your job and you completely identify with your work, then the kinds of deep spiritual problems you have are devastating. 175 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:06.620 I Googled the phrase ‘fired worker’. 176 00:19:06.620 --> 00:19:14.040 And what it suggested immediately was ‘fired worker shooting’. 177 00:19:14.040 --> 00:19:15.640 So I went with that. 178 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:17.400 ‘Fired worker shooting’. 179 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:21.380 And so, what do you get when you Google that right now? 180 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:31.790 And you get ‘a fired worker at a popular Florida mall is on the run after authorities say he shot and killed a store manager and had a list of other co-workers.’ 181 00:19:31.790 --> 00:19:41.060 ‘In Aurora, Illinois, a man fired from his job has shot and killed five people and injured several police officers at his workplace.’ 182 00:19:41.060 --> 00:19:42.160 And it goes on and on. 183 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:43.020 There’s more of those. 184 00:19:43.020 --> 00:19:46.740 And this is in the last month. 185 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:48.120 And what’s the nature of that? 186 00:19:48.120 --> 00:19:57.960 You have people who so identify with their job, when that job is threatened, they themselves, their person is threatened. 187 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:03.060 And that’s devastating. 188 00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:11.500 Google has a page on postal shootings, just with the post office. 189 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:32.060 And the story repeats itself over and over through the decades where a person’s job is threatened or there’s a conflict like that and he resorts to violence and suicide usually. 190 00:20:32.060 --> 00:20:35.560 And that’s where that phrase going postal comes from. 191 00:20:35.560 --> 00:20:45.700 The problem there, the underlying problem is an idol that we have set up where our identity is wrapped up in the work that we do. 192 00:20:45.700 --> 00:20:48.560 But a true Christian is protection against that. 193 00:20:48.560 --> 00:20:50.640 We’re not owned by our job. 194 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:55.860 We belong to the Lord. 195 00:20:55.860 --> 00:21:03.180 Our identity has to be in Christ and not our vocation. 196 00:21:03.180 --> 00:21:13.300 Martin Lloyd Jones was a wonderful physician and preacher during the 20th century. 197 00:21:13.300 --> 00:21:15.360 And in his biography by I. 198 00:21:15.360 --> 00:21:16.000 N. 199 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:28.680 Murray, that’s called The Fight of Faith , he records Martin Lloyd Jones talking to a group of physicians. 200 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:31.960 It applies certainly to doctors, but to all of us. 201 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:51.070 And he said, “Somewhere in Pembrokeshire,” Martin Lloyd Jones was Welsh, “a tombstone is said to bear the inscription: ‘ John Jones, born a man, died a grocer. 202 00:21:51.070 --> 00:22:01.540 ’ There are many whom I’ve had the privilege of meeting whose tombstone might well bear the grim epitaph: ‘ Born a man, died a doctor. 203 00:22:01.540 --> 00:22:09.980 ’ The greatest danger which confronts the medical man is that he may become lost in his profession.” 204 00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:17.540 Well, Lloyd Jones was called to that profession, but he gave it up for a calling as a minister. 205 00:22:17.540 --> 00:22:25.120 He didn’t sacrifice his calling and vocation as a father to his family for the work. 206 00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:32.460 There was a balance there and the balance came about because he wasn’t owned by the jobs. 207 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.980 He was owned by the Lord Christ. 208 00:22:35.980 --> 00:22:38.040 So that should be true of us. 209 00:22:38.040 --> 00:22:42.360 We were born a man, we’re born a woman. 210 00:22:42.360 --> 00:22:46.960 But we should die as a precious child of God. 211 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:55.740 And that gives us balance that we need when we’re thinking about our relationship with our work. 212 00:22:55.740 --> 00:23:02.300 A Christian understanding of vocation protects us from sinful temptations in our work. 213 00:23:02.300 --> 00:23:07.740 Every job that you have has its own unique temptations. 214 00:23:07.740 --> 00:23:16.700 Masters, verse 9 says, ‘do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven. 215 00:23:16.700 --> 00:23:19.240 And there’s no partiality with him.’ 216 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:22.500 No partiality with Christ. 217 00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:29.720 Masters in the first century and bosses today, one of the temptations they have is to abuse the authority that God’s given. 218 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:45.020 And if you abuse God’s authority, the Apostle reminds them and us that they have a boss in heaven to whom they’re accountable. 219 00:23:45.020 --> 00:23:47.900 Masters in the first century used threatenings. 220 00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:57.660 No doubt they used physical violence as well, the threat of violence to try to control their slaves. 221 00:23:57.660 --> 00:24:02.760 But Paul says, their master and yours is in heaven. 222 00:24:02.760 --> 00:24:08.540 And what that does immediately is it puts them in the same class. 223 00:24:08.540 --> 00:24:09.960 You’re both servants. 224 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:12.420 You’re not above them. 225 00:24:12.420 --> 00:24:16.420 The temptation there is I’ve got a better job than he has. 226 00:24:16.420 --> 00:24:20.500 And that means that I’m more important than this person is. 227 00:24:20.500 --> 00:24:27.540 And so my rights and responsibilities exceeds the rights of this person. 228 00:24:27.540 --> 00:24:30.120 And that’s the way we can think in a job. 229 00:24:30.120 --> 00:24:33.560 That’s the temptation of any leadership job. 230 00:24:33.560 --> 00:24:36.720 And it is absolutely flawed thinking. 231 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.800 We’re all servants of Christ. 232 00:24:38.800 --> 00:24:47.040 If we’re Christians, especially, we are all servants of Christ. 233 00:24:47.040 --> 00:24:58.480 I was reading a section of Wingren’s commentary on Luther’s doctrine of vocation. 234 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:16.220 And he says, you know, when any but one, if he’s an emperor or a craftsman, turns to God in faith, especially in prayer, he’s without the outer support which is his station , his position in society, gives in relation to others. 235 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:18.860 You could be a king, you could be a shoemaker. 236 00:25:18.860 --> 00:25:25.000 But when you come before the Lord, it’s really just you and the Lord. 237 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.460 The Lord judges us all one day. 238 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:43.630 And we are all sinners in his sight whose works do not measure up to earn our salvation in any way, who are recipients of his grace, and therefore equal. 239 00:25:43.630 --> 00:25:51.020 And so we can be tempted in various ways. 240 00:25:51.020 --> 00:25:52.800 Jobs can become about the money. 241 00:25:52.800 --> 00:25:59.540 And you can start spending your life in order to making all your decisions in your work. 242 00:25:59.540 --> 00:26:06.940 Instead of bringing the fact that your identity is in Christ and you as a Christian, that should shape your work. 243 00:26:06.940 --> 00:26:12.560 You can be swayed simply by the money or the practical nature of work. 244 00:26:12.560 --> 00:26:17.970 And so you would do anything to comply as long as you receive the money. 245 00:26:17.970 --> 00:26:21.360 Those are temptations I’ve had over the years. 246 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:28.320 God’s blessed me so that I don’t think I’ve compromised on anything like that. 247 00:26:28.320 --> 00:26:43.680 But I’ve had temptations where I worked with an advertising executive who said, “I have this opportunity to get this with this organization and it’s going to mean a lot of money for us. 248 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:45.800 Do you want to do that?” 249 00:26:45.800 --> 00:26:47.020 That kind of thing. 250 00:26:47.020 --> 00:26:52.120 And the organization is nothing that I’d be able to support. 251 00:26:52.120 --> 00:27:09.700 And so usually when that happened, I would take his paperwork home, even though I knew immediately that it wasn’t anything I was going to do, so that I could think about how I was going to phrase it next day when I told him, “I’m not going to do this.” 252 00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:12.160 It’s not about money. 253 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:18.420 Money is important, but our work isn’t about money. 254 00:27:18.420 --> 00:27:30.720 To be faithful in the work, and if you’re working for a business and the business is to make a profit, part of your job should be to see that the company makes a profit. 255 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:35.400 But the profit isn’t the whole purpose of your work, it’s only one little aspect of it. 256 00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:37.640 It’s not even the main purpose. 257 00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.220 It’s just the necessary thing. 258 00:27:41.220 --> 00:28:00.360 I think it was De Pree who wrote, “Money is like the air we breathe. 259 00:28:00.360 --> 00:28:06.900 You breathe the air in order to live, but who would live just to breathe the air?” 260 00:28:06.900 --> 00:28:10.000 It’s necessary, but what’s the point of it? 261 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:17.980 And so how do you take your Christianity and use it to impact and shape the kind of work that you’re doing? 262 00:28:17.980 --> 00:28:21.300 What is it that God has? 263 00:28:21.300 --> 00:28:31.240 It’s not about the money, it is not about any of those things, it is about bringing blessing to people. 264 00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:36.220 The work that you do produces a product, some good thing. 265 00:28:36.220 --> 00:28:37.580 It produces a service. 266 00:28:37.580 --> 00:28:42.280 And that product or service brings blessing to people. 267 00:28:42.280 --> 00:28:43.820 And there’s value in that. 268 00:28:43.820 --> 00:28:59.800 If you are a janitor, and your work blesses people, then you are the very fingers and hands of God at work to bring the blessing providentially to his people. 269 00:28:59.800 --> 00:29:01.820 We need to keep that in mind. 270 00:29:01.820 --> 00:29:09.880 But as Christians in the workplace, we’re to be salt and light in that. 271 00:29:09.880 --> 00:29:19.580 More and more in our society, workplace becomes devoid of any godly values. 272 00:29:19.580 --> 00:29:27.700 And so we need to make an impact in those areas for the Lord and in whatever work he calls us and gifts us for. 273 00:29:27.700 --> 00:29:39.820 One of Tim Keller’s books, he tells a story about this lady who visited his church. 274 00:29:39.820 --> 00:29:41.860 He’d seen that she’d come once or twice. 275 00:29:41.860 --> 00:29:50.300 And about the third or fourth time that she came, he came up to her and said, “How did you even find out about Redeemer?” 276 00:29:50.300 --> 00:29:51.860 And she says, “Well, there’s a story.” 277 00:29:51.860 --> 00:29:56.040 She worked for one of the major television networks. 278 00:29:56.040 --> 00:30:00.680 And she’d gotten a pretty good job. 279 00:30:00.680 --> 00:30:03.160 And she’d been promoted. 280 00:30:03.160 --> 00:30:09.380 Not long after she got that job, she made a really stupid mistake. 281 00:30:09.380 --> 00:30:16.160 It was extremely bad and she was pretty certain she was going to lose her job. 282 00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:30.700 But her boss went to his boss and he said, “You know, I should bear the blame for that because I really didn’t train her well.” 283 00:30:30.700 --> 00:30:35.930 And that may have been some truth to that, but he took an incredible hit. 284 00:30:35.930 --> 00:30:39.440 And he was well thought of by the company. 285 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:46.540 And so they didn’t fire him, but, as they say, he lost a great deal of social capital. 286 00:30:46.540 --> 00:30:49.860 And so he went back to her and said, “You didn’t lose your job. 287 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:50.720 Don’t worry about it. 288 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:53.160 But let’s see how we can keep this from happening again.” 289 00:30:53.160 --> 00:30:57.300 And she said, “I can’t believe you did that for me.” 290 00:30:57.300 --> 00:31:01.740 And he said, “Don’t think about it.” 291 00:31:01.740 --> 00:31:05.700 And she said, “Why did you do that for me?” 292 00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:44.880 And he said, “Well, since you’re pushing me, I’ll say this. 293 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:45.960 I’m a Christian. 294 00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:50.340 And I’ve based my life on Christ and what he’s done for me. 295 00:31:50.340 --> 00:31:52.400 He took the blame for me. 296 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:54.460 That’s why I’m saved. 297 00:31:54.460 --> 00:32:05.820 I did something wrong and Jesus instead of just writing me off, went to the cross and he bore the blame because of that, I tried to apply that to my life. 298 00:32:05.820 --> 00:32:11.020 And I try to bear more pain than I inflict in all my work dealings.” 299 00:32:11.020 --> 00:32:17.200 She looked at him and said, “Where do you go to church?” 300 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:25.180 See, a godly view of vocation changes a lot of things. 301 00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:35.780 It changes our approach to the work, but it also changes people through us as we live out Christ in the callings that he gives us to. 302 00:32:35.780 --> 00:32:39.400 And it gives us hope. 303 00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:54.480 It’s worth a whole sermon, but the passage says, ‘knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord,’ this passage says. 304 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:56.740 Think about that. 305 00:32:56.740 --> 00:33:04.790 God uses us, gives you gifts, puts you into a workplace where you can be used of the Lord. 306 00:33:04.790 --> 00:33:09.860 That thing that you produce brings benefit to who knows how many people? 307 00:33:09.860 --> 00:33:14.340 How many people’s prayers are answered because of the work you do? 308 00:33:14.340 --> 00:33:23.170 You do that work faithfully in faith to the Lord, and it bears fruit now and it bears fruit forever. 309 00:33:23.170 --> 00:33:27.180 And it bears fruit because God values it . 310 00:33:27.180 --> 00:33:39.580 If you’re a janitor and nobody else in the world thinks that anything that you do is worthwhile, but God thinks it’s worthwhile, then it’s worthwhile. 311 00:33:39.580 --> 00:33:43.760 He’s the one that sets the value for all things. 312 00:33:43.760 --> 00:33:47.980 If God thinks you’re beautiful, then you’re beautiful. 313 00:33:47.980 --> 00:33:54.500 And we’re beautiful in Jesus Christ through the work he’s done for us. 314 00:33:54.500 --> 00:33:59.600 And he gives us and enables us and calls us to work, to do things. 315 00:33:59.600 --> 00:34:04.140 Do things as Christians and do things in the workplace. 316 00:34:04.140 --> 00:34:07.980 And he changes the world and blesses it. 317 00:34:07.980 --> 00:34:11.190 There’s eternal value in the work we do. 318 00:34:11.190 --> 00:34:13.660 Closing Prayer Let’s pray. 319 00:34:13.660 --> 00:34:27.220 Father, we’re grateful to you for the way you have graced us to let us be a blessing to people and gifting us and giving us work to do. 320 00:34:27.220 --> 00:34:37.800 Help us to keep this in balance, recognizing that as the hymn says, ‘There’s nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.’ 321 00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:45.260 There’s nothing that I can do to work in work or in anyway to earn or merit my salvation. 322 00:34:45.260 --> 00:34:48.420 There’s nothing that we can do in that regard. 323 00:34:48.420 --> 00:35:07.620 And yet when we come in faith to receive Christ’s work for us, we are freed up to work in various ways, in work that has true meaning and significance and value before you, now and for eternity. 324 00:35:07.620 --> 00:35:11.340 Bless us, Father, as we pursue these things. 325 00:35:11.340 --> 00:35:13.400 Thank you, Father, for your gifts. 326 00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:17.280 The gifts of the spirit and the natural gifts you’ve given us. 327 00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:22.240 Thank you for the way that you’ve blessed the people here today. 328 00:35:22.240 --> 00:35:31.440 Use them in great ways to provide for your creation and to magnify your name. 329 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:33.320 We pray in Jesus’ name. 330 00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:35.320 Amen.