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Sep 02, 2018

Whatever You Do

Colossians 3:22-4:1

    Note: Inadvertently, this message was not recorded and no audio is available.

    Labor Day Weekend

    September 2, 2018 ~ Colossians 3:22-4:1

     Introduction

    Are you ready for an outrageous story? It may be new to you or maybe you heard it when I did.

    Back in July, it was reported that a state audit discovered a California Department of Motor Vehicle employee slept at her desk for more than 2,200 hours and still had a job! She was paid over $40,000 for the time she slept!

    She was expected to process 550 documents a day as a data operator; she averaged 200. Much of her work was riddled with errors and had to be redone by coworkers.

    So many questions come to mind. Where were her bosses? How could they let this go? How could she collect her paycheck knowing what she was doing?

              Contrast that story with this one. A person was a district supervisor for a small company. At a company meeting, improvements in that districts sales and performance were highlighted. Following the meeting, the supervisor was approached by the supervisor from another district who asked him to please back off a little bit because he was making the rest of them look bad.

              Or contrast it with this one. A person works in a call center handling inquiries, orders, and other customer needs. The employee is recognized and rewarded by the manager for handling more than 100 calls in a day. After the ceremony is over, the person’s cubicle mate (who has been there for a few years) says if you keep doing that they’ll start expecting it from all of us.

              Would you agree with me that the last two scenarios sound better than the first one?

              With the arrival of Labor Day weekend, we’re going to look at a passage of Scripture this morning that has something to say about work. This message is for anyone with a job or looking for one. It’s for students who have school work to do each day. It’s for those who get paid for the work they do and for those who volunteer in the community and the church.

    Now, let me caution you that this message is presented within a topic rightly regarded as immoral and ungodly.

              Turn with me to the New Testament letter of Colossians, chapter 3. Colossians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul. Most of his New Testament letters were written to churches he started. This one is different. Paul did not start the church in Colossae (in what is today SW Turkey). We don’t know who started, but it was born out of the evangelization efforts of a guy named Epaphras, who was from Colossae. Epaphras told Paul about the church and about some questionable teaching going on there. Paul wrote this letter as a result. The portion we’re going to read falls in a section of the letter where Paul is giving general direction for Christian living.

    Colossians 3:22-4:1 (NIV)

    Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.

    Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

    Before we get to the topic of this message, we need to talk about slavery.

    Slavery was widespread in the Ancient Near East. In the early days of Christianity, it is possible that 50% of people were slaves. Voluntary slavery was a common means of escaping poverty and starvation.[1]

    We don’t find any strong condemnation of slavery in the New Testament. This doesn’t mean it endorses slavery. In fact, what we read in Paul’s writing in Colossians, Ephesians, 1 Timothy, and Philemon is a radical shift in the way unsaved Roman masters would have treated slaves. While the Gospel did not immediately destroy slavery, it did gradually change the relationship between slaves and masters.  While that may sound unacceptable to our 21st-century ears, we need to remember that Christianity was born in times very different from our own.

    Now, it’s important to note that among God’s people kidnapping and forced slavery were never allowed. We find in Deuteronomy 24 that it was a capital offense. Sadly, slavery and kidnapping are still an issue in our world and in our nation. (We’ll hear much more about that in our services on November 18).

    Let’s turn our attention from slavery to work, to our roles as employees, employers, supervisors, managers, students, and volunteers.

    When we look at this passage, we can apply it to three areas of our work lives—(1) our actions, (2) our attitudes, and (2) our approach. Let’s start by looking at our actions.

    It should go without saying that the opening story about the California DMV worker is not an example of how we should act on the job. For those of us who know Christ as savior, Paul was clear and direct in his admonition—do your best work all the time. Don’t save it for when you’re being watched and don’t use it to kiss up to the boss. Do your best work all the time.

    Why is this the principle? Why is this important? The answer is simple—because God is watching and how you do your job or how you treat those under you on the job speaks volumes about your commitment to Christ and your character.

    Here’s our takeaway from Paul’s words: A Christian employee, no matter where they find themselves in the work hierarchy, should be the best and hardest worker because that’s what God expects of us. I love these words from former MLB pitcher Orel Hershiser, “Being a Christian is no excuse for mediocrity…. If anything, Christianity demands a higher standard, more devotion to the task.”[2]

    Listen, we’re being watched even when we’re not being watched. Do you understand what I’m saying? Even when we’re not being watched by someone at work, God sees what we’re doing or what we’re not doing. We need to make it our aim to please Him and we do that by doing our best work all the time. We are working for more than a paycheck. How we do our jobs is a reflection of us and our savior.

    Now, let’s talk about attitude. Work is a necessity because as much as we have wanted to “live on love,” we learned that love doesn’t pay the bills or put food on the table. And once we learned that money doesn’t grow on trees, we learned that we needed to work.

    Some see work as a necessary evil. Some see it as a curse. Some Christians see it as a consequence of sin: Eve ate the family out of house and home and Adam had to go to work to get them on their feet again. That’s not true at all.

    Before Adam and Eve both ate the forbidden fruit, we find these words in Genesis 2:15, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Work preceded the fall. It was part of God’s plan all along. Much of the difficulty of work arises from the fall, but not work itself.

    Work is a God-ordained responsibility of life. In blunt words, Paul affirmed the centrality of work’s place in life in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 3. We’ll quickly read verse 6-13:

    In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

    We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

    Because work is a God-ordained responsibility, we will do well to check our attitude toward it. Our attitudes set the tone for our lives. Where do we begin with setting our attitude toward work? Though we don’t read it in this passage from Colossians, I think our attitude must begin with thankfulness.

    • We can thank God for the ability to work.
    • We can thank him for a job.
    • We can thank him for the ability to provide for ourselves or our families.
    • Even if it’s not the job you want, thank God you have it as you continue looking or preparing for another.
    • Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that God’s people are to give thanks in all circumstances.

    For premarital counseling, I use the book, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. The authors, Les and Leslie Parrott, open one of the chapters recalling a flight in a small, three-seat plane. As the landing approached, the pilot told them that the most important thing about landing is the attitude of the plane. One of them said, “You mean altitude, don’t you?” “No, the pilot explained. The attitude has to do with the nose of the plane. If the attitude is too high, the plane will come down with a severe bounce. And if the attitude is too low, the plane may go out of control because of the excessive landing speed. The trick is to get the attitude right in spite of atmospheric conditions.”[3]

    We don’t live in a perfect world and we can’t always choose the atmosphere or circumstances around us, but we can choose our attitude. We can choose to be thankful.

    Our attitude should also include pride. I don’t mean pride as in arrogance. I mean satisfaction in doing our best work all the time. Getting to the end of the day knowing and resting in the fact that we did our job the right way. This doesn’t mean that we were perfect or that there were no problems. It means that we honestly tried our best and learned from our mistakes.

    Finally, I want to talk about how we approach our jobs. Face it, we spend a significant amount of time at work. So much so, that we need to approach our jobs as a mission field, not just a means of making money. We can make a difference while making money!

    Spiritually speaking, a mission field is a place where the vast majority of people do not know Christ as Savior and a missionary’s job is to take the message of salvation to those people. (That’s one of the things I do when I show up to the office each day. )

    Spiritually, many of our coworkers are lost. Who is trying to reach them? I’m not advocating that we become Bible-thumping blowhards who are quick to lay down God’s law, quick to pass judgment, and slow to offer grace. Folks like that are usually jerks, not witnesses.

    I’m suggesting we begin praying for our coworkers and ask God to open doors of opportunity for us. I’m suggesting we get to know them, befriend them, listen to them and speak up when the opportunity arises.

    Each day we show up to work, each person there is one day closer to eternity. They are one day closer to standing before God and giving an account of their lives. The accounting will not be a weighing of deeds so that if the good ones outweigh bad ones then a person is in God’s good graces. Deeds have nothing to do with it. Whether or not someone is a good person has nothing to do with it. The only claim anyone can make in God’s presence is that they know Christ as Savior.

    Folks, our walk with God is not first and foremost about our personal moral perfection. Our walk with God is about making him known, pointing people in his direction. Are we doing that?

    I expect some pushback here. Some will say, “but Rob, I’m not allowed to talk about my faith at work. How do you expect me to be a witness?” Start with how you do your job and how you treat people. Focus on how you handle adversity, interruptions, and complications. Do you constantly complain? Do you talk down to others? Do you talk about people behind their backs? Do you take responsibility for your actions in failure as well as success?

    After paying attention to those things, we need to act on the words of the Apostle Peter: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, (1 Peter 3:15, NIV). What should we do? How can we do this?

    • We need to anticipate questions and arguments and objections.
    • After anticipating them, we need to prepare and rehearse to our answers. We’re already skilled at this.

    Raise your hand if you’ve ever anticipated an encounter with thoughts like, “If he says one more word about it, I’m going to tell him exactly what he can do!” Or, “If she does that again, I’m gonna let her know exactly what I think!”

    Now, raise your hand if most of those scenarios you rehearsed and prepared for never played out in real life.

    What if, instead of such mind games, we anticipated questions about life and faith, objections about the Bible and doctrines, and arguments against the existence of God? What if we not only anticipated them but prepared to respond and rehearsed our responses? And what if we asked God to bring people to us who have those kinds of questions, arguments, and objections? How might He be able to use us as missionaries on the job?

    Work is a necessary and meaningful part of life. To borrow a phrase from my wife, it builds character. It’s not just what we do between our days off and vacations. Our work and work environment shape us. It’s time we ask God to help us shape them.

    This week, I want you to spend some time thinking about your work.

    • Are you doing your best work all the time? If not, why? What must change so that you will do so?
    • What attitude do you take to work with you each day? How does it affect your performance? How does it affect the people around you?
    • How do you approach your job? Is it a necessary evil? A curse? Is it part of God’s plan for your life? Is it about more than just money? Is it a mission field where you can invest yourself spiritually as well as mentally and physically?

    [1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Slave, Slavery. In Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, pp. 1971-72). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

    [2] Orel Hershiser, quoted in NIV Men’s Devotional Journal from the NIV Men’s Devotional Bible 1, (Zondervan: Grand Rapids: 2003), p. 56.

    [3] Les and Leslie Parrott, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2015), pp. 67-68.

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