Big Idea: Work for the Lord and wait for His reward, and you will work with integrity.
Proverbs 3:7-8
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Ephesians, five. We could pick lots of passages. The apostle Paul spoke about work Ephesians, Colossians, Titus, Timothy, first, Thessalonians, we're going to just focus on this one. It has really relevant principles for us. Ephesians, chapter six, verse five through nine. Bond Servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as Bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does this, he will receive back from the Lord, Whether he is a bond servant or is free. Masters do the same thing to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him. This is the word of the Lord our Father. We come. I come as a pastor with the hearts of my congregation. On my heart, many are grieving the loss of someone who spoke up boldly about biblical truth on college campuses doing what we couldn't do. There is grief. There is heaviness. We come because these kinds of crises threaten to erode the unity of the church, where there is one Lord, one savior, one baptism, we battle with Unity about various topics. And God, I pray that You would help us reunite under Christ, and we come because we need to talk about work. We're all going to work tomorrow. The moms are going to get up and work at mothering. Fathers are going to get up and work at fathering. There are going to be jobs to do, whether they're for a paycheck and a witness or whether they are not, and we pray that You would help us be faithful. Help us know Christ better, proclaim him more clearly. This has been a topic among the dozen or more pastors that I talked to this week, and they are shepherding their congregations as well. I pray for Paul funchess out at Trinity. Pray for Dave Farley up north at Grace, Christian Fellowship. Brett sweet this week. Colin up at Southside Christian we all, all need to shepherd through these issues and help us exalt Christ above all things. And help us exalt Christ as workers in the world. His name. We pray amen. You may be seated by the way, we're going to run long. So if you have kids, as soon as we sing and give our benediction, go get them. Bring bring them out. We can come and talk out in the foyer after let's talk about work. This morning, we want to talk about work. Michael Green's groundbreaking book, evangelism in the early church, said that and documented that the gospel of Jesus Christ spread throughout the Greco Roman world so fast in the first 200 years, despite the massive number of martyrs, because the witnesses of Christians in the workplace was so compelling, it was in the workplace where freedmen and slave heard the hope of the Gospel, were brought to little fellowships in churches and repented and trusted Christ, and for the first time ever, in their human existence, had eternal hope, and a hope like that spreads. Hope like that spreads today. We're talking about integrity in the workplace. Christ's gospel will convert and it will produce Christ likeness in the workplace. It is common in the workplace to steal time, money or goods from the employer. Let's, let's just, let's start out by making you feel guilty. Would you like that? Can I make you feel guilty? Here we go. Have you ever used social media and kept using social media? When you should have been working. Have you ever done that? Oh, all you holy people, we don't do that. Dan, we're Christians. Social media use often steals time and mental space from work. It's common to be asked to do something at work that violates biblical principles. It's common to violate tax laws to keep more money for yourself. It's common to join in sinful behavior in the work culture, like gossip, slander or immorality, it's common for there to be corruption at the institutional level, from banking, big tech, Big Pharma, higher education, churches, those are all common, but there is a better way for Christians. There's a better way for Christians. You could be here in one of three places this morning, very easily. First, you have already compromised and sinned at work. What do I do with the sins that I'm already guilty of at work? You might be here number two, the company's actual work has some sinful elements, and you're trying to make a change. You're trying to be a force for good to the sinful elements of your workplace. How do I do that? Three State and company HR policies are trying to force you to support things the Bible describes as sin, like the LGBTQ agenda gay marriage. How do you deal with those realities at work? Here is a principle that will be guiding in all those situations, work for the Lord and wait for his reward, and you will work with integrity. Work for the Lord, wait for his reward, and you will work with integrity. That Capstone principle will shake itself out in all the parts of your work. I want to highlight this in the book of Ephesians. Every time I come to the book of Ephesians, I preach anything out of it. And you've got all these to do's at the end, they have to be based on certain realities. So just jump back to Ephesians one. And I just want to, want to, want to show you this, and I just want to say this, who's the Lord you're working for? Who's the master that you're working for? Well, Ephesians, one says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. You're working for God the Father. You're working for the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace. Paul Tripp likes to say this sometimes the most important things that we need to hear about a topic don't contain the words of the topic like that doesn't say anything about work, but that changes work. You work for a good master, the best master, God who has become your loving Father through Jesus Christ, who has bled and died for your sin, who has brought you into the family of God and adopted you. You have a good master over all things. When you don't have a good master on earthly things, that changes work. That changes work, you're part of the family of God, you're working for your father, the king, and it's to the purpose of His glorious grace. You have something eternal to look for. When you don't have anything really big to look forward to here on Earth, you have something really big to look forward to in heaven. Verse 11. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance. In Christ, we have obtained an inheritance. There is something ahead for us. Yes, we work to advance God's Kingdom purposes under the creation mandate. Here we do good. We seek to help people flourish, and we do that as Kingdom work here. But there is better Kingdom work to come in the inheritance that we have, and God has already prepared us for good work. Ephesians, 110 or sorry, 210 Ephesians, 210 says this, For we are His work workmanship created in Christ, Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Your work at home at the job site has been hand prepared by your God and Father through Jesus Christ. God, you work for him. John, read in our scripture, reading this morning about trusting in the Lord. Listen to this promise. Those who trust the Lord acknowledge Him in all their ways.
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Proverbs three eight says it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. I mean, there is a good consequence, a good outcome for your soul and body when you work for the Lord. Don't ignore the eternal consequences at Judgment Day. If your work is a form of self worship, hold on to the eternal consequences when it is, because it will be rewarded. So think of it this way. If you're bringing up Charlie Kirk and then sharing the gospel, I hope your witness has had, has greater depth and power because of how you've been working, how you've been working. So we're gonna break this down into two headings. Break this down into two headings. We're gonna talk about our work unto the Lord. We're gonna talk about our management unto the Lord. We're gonna talk to workers and we're gonna talk to bosses. Two parts. Part One, work unto the Lord, work unto the Lord. Says, Bond servants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. This is Ephesians 65 It is the word bond servant. Is the Greek word doulos. It's under translated in the ESV. It is properly translated in the legacy and the New American Standard. It means slave. That's what it meant. Yes, there was some slavery in the Greco Roman world that was not a result of kidnapping, and it was not based on race, like kidnap or chattel slavery is directly condemned in the Bible in First Timothy 110 but slaves were a massive reality in the Greco Roman world, they had no status apart from their master status, few, if any, legal rights. Now think about what this means for your work. You're never going to get out of it, and very often, their masters were unreasonable and cruel people because they were unbelievers. They were unbelievers. Imagine having to live under slavery, where you could never get out from under it, I had one of my team this week that I had recruited reminded me of this, this attitude in our contemporary culture, many young workers will never be able to own a home because of the massively inflated prices of houses, like what you have to earn today to be able to buy a house is very difficult. On top of that, they leave the university system with debt they may never be able to pay off. So just imagine this. You can never buy a house, and you can never pay off your debt. What do you feel like at work a slave, you feel like a slave. So you might not have a lot of motivation to do a really good job at work, because there's no external motivator. You can't pursue the American dream. I So Paul's words are very poignant. Slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. You are to treat your boss as you would treat Christ, and that's with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. That's a profound thing. So notice this, there are these ideas to respect your employer. Please the Lord in all your work, serve the Lord in all your work. It's an offering to Him, and then wait for His return. These are these sub points that are in this section, and it's really relevant. If your boss is sinful, flawed, inept, even ungodly toward you, you must still treat him as an image bearer of God, because Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega and everything in between. He's sovereign over all things. He put your boss in the role that he or she has. Do you respect her? Do you respect him? And many of you have or had degrading, insulting and unjust bosses. So Paul is calling for something that's hard, that's supernatural, and he he helps us understand and change our work if you can respect your employer. Here's what's going to happen. It will change how you talk. It will change your face. It will change whether you work for the best of the boss or the best of the workplace. And here. Here's what you want to be able to do the start of the day, at the end of the day, I respect my boss, because Christ put him there. He may not be particularly she may not be particularly respectable, but made in the image of God, put in place by the Sovereign Lord. We leave with respect, and you can leave with a clean conscience. Respect your employer, please the Lord in all your work. Please the Lord in all your work. Notice this not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but as Bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. This is 66 eye service is the idea of saving your best work for the time when the boss is watching. It is I grew up in the family hardware store, so by my teen years, I'm working retail, and my dad was intense is an understatement. Ruthless is an overstatement somewhere in between. When he was in the hardware store, we were on it. When he was out of the hardware store, we were telling jokes. We were having fun. No fun, just work. You know, there's something not quite right about our attitude that's so common. So you have to recognize that you're wanting to work for the Lord when the boss is not there. In short, you're shorting the boss and the workplace for your best efforts when he's not looking and you want to give your best efforts. Eye service, honestly, is a kind of stealing. I remember learning how to use these lessons. If you've ever worked retail, there's a part of your job where you often need to face the shelves. I don't mean like here shelf I'm facing you. I mean, it's full of product, and you're trying to look at make it look neat, orderly and full. So you bring all the cereal boxes up front, so it looks like there's lots of cereal boxes, like people have to face shelves. It's a monotonous job that you have to do. We had to do it all the time. I remember paint facing the paint shelves. Lord, I hate this. This is so boring, but I'm doing it for you like you got to think of all your work like that. You're serving the Lord the not as people pleasers, refers to those people who are seeking only their welfare, not the welfare of the employer, the workplace or the customer a people pleaser is looking to be noticed, to be promoted. Wanting promotions is not wrong. I'm not saying that, but if that's the only thing that you're doing, that's a people pleasing mindset. It's a form of flattery. It's a form of flattery. And being a registered people pleaser on the people pleaser a holics channel, I resound with this I want to do. I just want everybody to love me all the time, and they shouldn't people pleasers. So those are the two things you're seeking to please the Lord. Third thing you notice here is serving the Lord. It's a variation of it. Notice he says in verse seven, rendering service with good will as to the Lord, not to man. So you have to look at your work as rendering service is a little bit like the idea of offering sacrifice or offering worship. Service to the Lord is an act of worship, and it just reiterates what Brian and I have talked about the last couple of weeks, that all legitimate work is Kingdom work, because it advances the creation mandate God's universal, gracious rule in exercising dominion and subduing the earth, all work is Kingdom work, as long as it's legal, legitimate work, and all work is also preparing us for A Life in the new heavens and the new earth. It's doing all of that and all work is to be worship. But notice what is included in all of the section and all the section. Notice how much emphasis is on the internal verse six, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. Verse Five, Verse six, but as Bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Verse seven, rendering service with a good will, knowing that whatever anyone does this, he will receive back from the Lord. Notice that it's all a matter of the heart, giving service with good will from the heart. It's a heart attitude, probably Paul's number one takeaway, practical takeaway, is attitude adjustment. Am I doing this for the Lord? Or am I doing this just to be noticed, just to get it done, just to get a check?
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Let's use some synonyms. What would it look like to give service with a good will? Cheerful, worshipful, thankful, not grudging, not reluctant, not argumentative, energetic, enthusiastic, all of those things would be how you work and display Christ, students, kids, these two eye service and good will toward the Lord might be the hardest thing for you when mom or dad give you chores, or your teacher gives you homework, or mom and dad the teacher give you homework. I mean, when I when I was a kid, mom would yell, come take out the garbage. And I'd be like, I want to, I want to finish Hogan's Heroes. I want to finish, you know, name your favorite sitcom from the 60s that I was watching in the in the 80s, you could say, but I'm, I just want to get to this next level. You know, you're punching your buttons and smashing them. Can I just get to the next level? No, no, it's time to quit that. Oh, Mom, let's talk about social media again. Social media and texting takes advantage of your desire for the new, for affirmation, for drama. So instead of working or paying attention to the real people right in front of you, you're online, literally, you're online mentally. So I bet you have put off your homework. At some point, you have put off your real work. At some point because you just had to know what Jenny said about Jenny and what Jenny says about me. I just had to know you. It, and you've shorted your homework, or you've shorted your real work, the only thing that is going to give you the right to do's like we're reading the anxious generation by a sociologist, and his gospel is put away your phones. Basically. That's his gospel take the phones away from your kids. That's his gospel message. Look, then they're just going to go take their sinful self somewhere else. Might be good to do that. But before you make a I love Jesus, so I'm going to do blank with my social media to show him I love him. Before you can fill in the I'm going to do X, you've got to say, I love Jesus. That's got to drive you. Your motivation from the heart to honor the Lord is going to be what helps you take disciplined, self controlled, sober minded, godly decisions with what you do, you
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should be able to say, I love Jesus so much. I want to be faithful. I want to be faithful. I know how much he loves me. I love him. I want to be faithful. So here's the things I need to do. I to please the Lord. Now, there is a limit in this. We need to talk about one other really important thing. If your employer asks you to sin on the job. Acts 419, through 21, or 514, are going to say something like this, we must obey God rather than men. There will be times when your employer asks for work above the contract that impedes with your obligations to your family or worship. So you're gonna have to have a hard conversation with a boss or find different work, if possible. You might have something that they employ your employer is asking you to do that would be sin for you, and you're gonna have to figure out how to navigate figure out how to navigate that, but you navigate it by remembering Jesus is Lord. His word is my rule, and I can trust him to provide if it doesn't go well for me. I just want to remind you, the slave in the slave in the ancient world didn't have that option. I'm not going to obey you master. Well then I'm going to beat you. Would have been what you received. If your boss requires you to endorse the LGBTQ agenda or gay marriage, you're going to have to. Reviews. I know some of you might have this question, as we're working through this, I thought Jesus told us we were making disciples. I mean, it's in our church's mission statement, loving community, making disciples of Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you, worker, don't forget that your example at work, your excellence at work, your ethics at work. Is making disciples. It is doing it. They become the means to display the transformation that has happened in your life through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you have children, your example and excellence in work is going to disciple your children. You are making disciples, so that tomorrow, when you say, Did you see the memorial service, you have a basis of integrity. You're becoming Christ like that allows the validity of your testimony. It's crucial. It's going to open doors if your heart is in the right place at work. The fourth thing in that section is wait for the Lord's return. Wait for the Lord's return. It says this, knowing whatever good anyone does this, you will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or is free, whether he'll ever get his freedom here, whether he has his freedom here, or whether his freedom won't come until Heaven, there is going to be a good reward. Our lives and our work are preparations and a foretaste for the future. Jesus will return to judge and reclaim the earth. The believers will be rewarded for their jobs on Earth, and they'll be given a place to work in the kingdom in resurrected bodies. There is this great hope. So even if you're not paid well recognized, even if you're mistreated at work, you will be rewarded by your master, and that reward won't last as long as a bonus lasts. It won't last as long as your employment or up to your retirement. It will last forever. I'm gonna give an illustration that sort of in my life, in my world, that sort of gives an echo of this. And I bet you have something like this in your life. In 2001 went to seminary with Linda and the kids. I was a resident pastor in children's ministry at Grace Community Church, because I had experience writing curriculum, I was given the task of creating a curriculum that the whole church could use, and knowing Grace Community Church where I worked, they were going to want the world to use it so we started something, and we called it generations of grace. It's a curriculum three years through the Bible, and it highlights the major biblical narrative. Because I was there for a couple years, we got it started. We I was on year two of writing it. It went three years, handed it off to others, and it's gone through multiple iterations. But I still, when I go to shepherds conference, I still see it on the bookshelves. I mean, the guy that we recruited to write, to do the art, his work is still there. The stories are still there. It's probably in every state in the country and 100 countries around the world, or every every state in our country, 100 countries around the world, at least. And I only play a little part of that, but, but it's still there. I think when you get in front of Jesus and everything is evaluated. There will be like embossed in gold the remnant of your work, Roger your work in South America, when you cross into glory, you will see an impact. Isn't that good news when you didn't respond to your jerk boss in ungodliness that will be embossed in gold, that will be seen for eternity, and you're going to look back and say, Jesus, by Your grace, I got to be part of that. So if you don't see it, now, you will see it. Then you will see it. Then,
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with that, we can handle the difficulty at work. So we look to work. We work to the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, our labor is not in vain. Part. One, work to the Lord. Work unto the Lord. Part two, manage unto the Lord. It's got words for managers, workers, in this case, masters, who literally owned slaves in many cases or were bosses.
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He says, Masters do the same thing to them. This is verse nine, same thing. It's interesting phrase. Let's think about in our terms. Many of you are business owners, many of you are bosses, many of you are managers. All of us are consumers of services and products, services and goods. So in that sense, all you're buying is a form of short employment. So think of everything from the hardware store employee, my world, my old world, to the server at the restaurant, or your six direct reports in your company. You need that interaction, that management unto the Lord. The department or business you manage is God's department. The people and resources under your management are the garden that you are to cultivate. You're to lead, manage, hire fire under the management of Christ, I think of showing up at a master barista like anacopli. I called her out first hour, I'm gonna call her out second hour. I'm gonna go buy a latte from ANA Copley, and she is gonna give me the best latte in the city. It's going to have beautiful foam art. I'm going to enjoy it. Did you know your barista needs to be treated with the same respect that you would expect as you were a worker? The same. Treat them the same. I mean, isn't that going to change how you change treat the server? Mostly because we're consumers, we we say we have rights. I'm a consumer. I have rights, and if you don't fulfill my rights, I get the right to be mad, and I get the right to say whatever I want to say, I get to get on the line with the computer or the or eventually, you get an actual person on a help desk, and you need to treat the person at the help desk with respect and kindness and fairness, because you're a temporary boss in that situation, the buyer of a product or of a service. So notice this, you want to manage point one as if Jesus worked for you. Do the same. It's respect. Think of the shows like Undercover Boss. Under her boss, the CEO shows up at work acts like he doesn't know anything, or she acts like she doesn't know anything, and she works her way through the day, and at the end of the day, she is found to be the boss, and everybody goes, Oh no, I'm going to be fired. Now. No, it doesn't usually happen like that. Masters do the same to them. What's the same offer respect and dignity as an offering to the Lord Jesus Christ. You are helping them work for God's glory. You are helping them do all of those things. The barista, the server, the retail associate, your your direct reports. You are helping all of them work for God's glory. So he says, stop your threatening. What would a slave owner do to a slave like what was basically their only motivation? Like, no more pain. So pain is going to be the motivation. That's not what Christians do. We're to use dignity, respect, extra attention and training to motivate, we're actually to equip and to supply people so that they work to their greatest potential. If the worker is not doing what is required, then correct or even fire. But with fairness, with fairness, I remember a really important lesson many years ago in management from an old college friend. He was a Muslim who understood common grace sometimes better than I did. He understood an important biblical principle. He worked for General Electric overseeing an IT department that worked with jet engines. Pretty important kind of job. I was telling him about an employee who worked for me that wasn't doing well, wasn't performing up to standards, and the employee might have to be let go. And he said something that I should have learned years before, that he should it should never be a surprise to an employee. They are fired for under performance, you should have a long trail of communication about your expectations and steps you took to help them succeed. That's right. That's right, because what you want from an employee is for them to do their work, even at the level of common grace, in a way that images God better. Colossians. 41 says it this way, Masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly. Treat your bond servants justly and fairly. As we look at the last one, I would summarize this. What else do you do as managing unto the Lord, keeping a humble heart. Colossians 41 says, knowing that you also have a master in heaven, and he will judge without partiality. Both of you stand before God. Both will be judged with fairness. If you are a manager, a boss, an owner or a buyer of goods and services, you need to employ. You need to approach your employees or servers in a way that helps them succeed in their work. And you need to remember if you treat them unjustly, God will hold you accountable. God will hold you accountable. So let's ask these questions to apply these at the end. First, what do I do if I've failed in these areas, if I've been an unfaithful servant? What if I've worked for My glory, my money, or not been a help to my co workers? Let's just start. Start with repentance. Remember, sin is the easiest problem in the world to deal with, because Jesus bought forgiveness for it. So you can seek Him for repentance and forgiveness, if it's adding it attitude, no change your attitude, and when you start seeing the change in your attitude, you could share with co workers how you found conviction and forgiveness in Christ. Remember, the gospel makes saved people, it makes saved people, saved people, slowly and surely become like Jesus in time. Are you growing if it's a compliance issue, if you've been breaking the rules or the company or the state or the federal government rules, you should change your practices for compliance. If it's a sin of stealing, embezzling, you might need to come forward and accept the consequences. If you cheated in your class, if you AI did your homework, AI did your homework, you should go to the teacher or department head and confess and confess and accept the consequences. You may get enough in the class, you may get enough on assignment. You might get kicked out of school. But your road is not over. Your road's not over, matter of fact, it's just getting started because now you have learned something important. You can honor the Lord at the next school, the next class, the next assignment, and now your testimony is more valid because you are seeking to come under a good God and King.
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Michael Green's book, evangelism in the early church, noted one other thing about the workers, why the gospel spread so widely, and why it was so frustrating to their bosses working for the nobility. Here you have two young men discussing the atonement, mucking out the horse stable, and they are talking about the logos in the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh, which are highly philosophical topics. And the Lord of the estate trained in Aristotelian philosophy, who taught that slaves were worthless and mindless, comes and he says, How dare these boys, these uneducated boys, speak of such high and lofty things they were speaking. The truth of Christ. And while the upper classes were often frustrated by the change in behavior of their slaves and their workers, many were led to Christ being pastored by their slave change the way the world. The hope that we have in the Gospel changes our workplace and our eternity. Integrity, integrity. Pray is the evidence that you have been changed by the gospel of Christ. Let's pray, Father, thank You for a good word here today. Help us be faithful as workers. We have all sinned in some manner or not. We could ask the question, if we spent too much time on social media, we could ask the question if we've eaten too much, and the answer would be yes. So we ask that You would help us pursue Christ, likeness and good service. We pray that the testimony would be compelling, that it would provide opportunity to speak up about Christ. Help us do good work to honor you Christ's name.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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