You're listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
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pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Amen, told the first service, and I will tell the same to you
in this second service as I stood there singing that song
again, O great God of highest heaven, glorify your name
through me. As Casey spoke of a second ago.
That's a prayer. You do know this when we sing
praise unto. God, we are literally praying
the songs that we sing. And I pray that.
Would be a sincere prayer that we would earnestly seek to bring
God glory into everything we do and everything that we say.
And I can't help but imagine what would happen in homes where
moms and dads began to care more about glorifying God and
schoolwork. Batting averages, touchdowns,
band competitions, and they would teach their children above
all things to glorify God. What would happen in homes?
What would happen in churches when we sincerely pray, Lord be
glorified in everything within this church?
What would be glorified in our lives when we leave the safety
and security of the church as we go out into The Dark World every
single week? Would you be glorified through
me? May that really be our prayer
this morning. If you have your Bibles, if you
would turn to First Timothy chapter 6, First Timothy chapter
6, and we're going to begin here in the 6th chapter of First
Timothy as we have been walking through this pastoral epistle,
learning and discovering what it means to be biblical ministers.
Delete biblical ministry the way that God's Word would prescribe
us to Do we come to a difficult 1st 2 verses.
Here, the reason that they're difficult is because we have a
preconceived idea about this particular subject in our
American minds and in order for us to understand what.
Paul is getting at in these two verses as he begins chapter 6.
We're going to have to take a moment, and I pray that you
would give me this moment. I ask for your grace in that.
To hopefully reprogram you and your understanding regarding the
topic of slavery, right. I told you it's an interesting
thing we come to the topic of slavery, yes, found in the Bible
and teachings on how the slave is supposed to act and react
toward the master. And what does this all mean?
What does this mean to those of us who are here who have a
horrible idea of what slavery is?
Because we know the history of our country and we know that
prior to 163 years ago when black slaves were emancipated
through a work of God. And I do believe that the
understanding that we have are slaves are just this group of
people who against their will, they are held prisoner by people
who mistreat them or harm them and only squeeze life out of
them simply based on prejudice, racism.
We we know that to be true about our country.
But what I want you to understand today is that when we
look into the context of 1st century Roman culture, slavery
was slavery was a completely different thing.
Because I don't want you to read Slave here and in your mind to
go to the slavery that plagued to this country at one time,
because that's horrendous. That's awful.
I want you to transition to the reality.
Of what slavery was in the time that Paul is writing this,
They're in that 1st century Roman culture.
And I want you to understand that it's not so much about
prejudices or race, but slavery in the 1st century.
Roman culture was about social order and social classes.
The slaves in this culture were different than the slaves who
were kept. Here in this country on
plantations to work for stingy men, slavery here was actually a
part of their society. So I want to teach you a little
bit about 1st century slavery. Did you know this?
And in the 1st century, slaves were not a race of people.
We can't say that with our limited understanding in the
United States, can we? Shamefully, no.
And so we must reprogram that to understand this.
There were many different types of people, many different races
who were actually. Slaves in the Roman culture,
again, they weren't necessarily a racial group, but they were a
social class of workers. And yes.
We would have to agree they were a lower social class of workers,
right? As we have classes in our
society, don't we? Right.
There's upper class, there's middle class, and there's lower
class. Whether you want to acknowledge
that or whether you don't, that's the reality of it.
So it was a reality there in the Roman culture of these slaves.
Now what? You don't know, and hopefully.
You'll know today, as we're reprogramming our minds to
understand this text, The Bible never condemns this type of
slavery. Though the Bible would time and
time and time and time again condemn the type of slavery that
you understand and that you learned about in school and that
history says that we committed in this country.
Yes, Scripture would condemn that completely.
But on the flip side, the the. Slavery that we see here.
Paul addresses it. Here in First Timothy, he
addresses it in Colossians chapter 3, He addresses it again
in Ephesians chapter 6. And in no way does he condemn
the slavery of that day. All of that being 1st century
Roman slavery. What you need to know is that in
this time, 20 to 30% of the entire population of some Roman
provinces. Were slaves.
This was a huge working class of people.
In fact, it was so huge that most would agree that if that
slave class. Would have ended.
It would have been the demise of Rome immediately because this
was the working class of people. These were the people who got
things done in that culture. So let's dig into this a little
bit in our intro today. How did people become slaves
right we know historically how they became slaves here how did
they become slaves in the Roman culture well, first by birth
some people were born into. Slavery.
They came from a family who they had always been of the slave
class. Just like in our society, right?
A lot of the times a middle class man has children, his
children know the middle class. They become hard workers, blue
collared people, and they stay in the middle.
Class, sometimes the upper class, they, they, their
children, well, they inherit all of the wealth of their fathers
and they stay in that upper class with that financial
backing and support from generations prior to them.
And so the same goes historically for the 1st century
slaves, some of them they were born their mothers, their
fathers, their grandfathers, their grandmothers, their entire
family. They were of this slave class.
They knew nothing different it. Wasn't like someone herded them
up and barged them up and sent them across the sea against
their will. This is the class of people that
they were born into. Well, also in the Roman culture,
another way that people became slaves.
Very interesting to find out, but it's very obvious was
through. War.
When Rome would conquer someone else, part of the spoils of war
were that these people that they conquered became slaves.
Now before you immediately become negative there, Rome
would take care of their governmental slaves and, and
rightfully so, they valued them. You know why?
Because I can take you to places right now where they have
uncovered ruins from this time period.
And you know who built those ruins, those magnanimous
buildings and structures and even the roadways that are
ungovered? You know who built those?
You know who, if we built the entire infrastructure of that
Roman culture, it was those hard working slaves that had been
acquired by the government as the spoils of war.
So war was another way that someone would become a slave.
Another way was this indebtedness a person.
Who owed a great debt to? Someone, especially someone who
had a lot of money and a lot of power, they would then, because
they can't fulfill their debt. Now, how many of you would agree
that if you promise to pay a debt, you owe that debt no
matter what? How many of you would say that
is a biblical principle? And it is.
So what would happen is this person would owe a debt and they
could not pay the debt, they could not make that financial
end meet. So they would go to that person
and they would offer themselves as a servant, as a slave for
that person. And they would trade their
service for that debt. And they would come to an
agreement that yes, in 20 years, if you work for me and you work
hard for these 20 years, at the end of 20 years we will consider
your debt is. Paid and you are now a free man
or free woman again. So sometimes indebtedness LED
people into slavery, but there's also this take on it.
How about abandonment? Did you notice some people were
slaves because they had no other option?
Women would become slaves because they had been abandoned,
perhaps by their husbands, or perhaps they had been widowed,
and they would become a slave and the only other option that
they had other than slavery would be prostitution.
And they would take the moral high ground and they would
become servants for someone else.
They would actually, because they had been abandoned, go into
some type of slavery. Now, in that type of slavery.
That master, they would actually treat them well.
They would not mistreat them, they would not mishandle them.
They were benefiting from their servants.
And of course. It was a percentage of this that
was simply the buying and the selling of slaves.
I don't make any means about that.
There was a slave market and there were buyers, and there
were. Sellers But how that worked was
like this. If I had a good servant, a good
slave, and I came into some kind of financial problem and I had
to liquidate my assets, what I would do is I would sell off my
slaves to go and to serve someone else so that I could
reap that financial benefit. And they, having no choice
because they're in that slave class, would then go and they
would show their loyalty and their service to that new
master. So I want you to see that there
is a significant difference in our understanding of slavery and
the understanding of. Slavery in the 1st century AD
here in Roman culture, what did slaves.
Do right Our idea of slaves is what we have this idea that a
slave goes out into a cotton field and they are whipped with
a leather strap and they are mistreated until all the cotton
is harvested and then they live in deplorable conditions.
And we know this. This went on.
It's true. No one can deny that fact.
But that's not the kind of slavery that we're talking about
here in the Scripture. Here in the scripture, slaves
had important roles. Some of them were household
servants. You know what that means?
They were cooks. They were maids.
They were caretakers, personal attendants.
Wet nurses. That's pretty important when a
mother has a child, isn't it? And they can't breastfeed their
child. You know what they couldn't do
in 1st century round? They couldn't run run down to
Walmart and get some mental milk.
No, so they valued the service of their slaves.
That wet nurse would actually sustain their children so that
they could live very important roles.
Very important duties. Many people don't understand
this as some of them actually served as tutors.
Within the home, some of them were actually educated, right?
We weren't trying in 1st century Rome and like many trying to do
in our country, oppressing them, keeping them from an education
so that all they can ever be as a slave.
Some of these people were already educated and became
slaves and they had certain skill sets and then they would
use those skill sets in the home to tutor and to teach the
children in the home. Because they didn't have public
schools on every corner like we do here.
So these slaves would work as tutors.
They also, as we know, they farmed, they did some ranching,
taking care of cattle and livestock, sheep.
They helped plant and they helped harvest the crops.
And you know what? Sometimes they helped harvest
the crops. Right alongside of the owner of
the field. Who was their master, working
side by side, developing a working and a loving
relationship. Some of them were specially
skilled workers, doctors I already mentioned, teachers and
tutors. Some of them were accountants,
some of them were Craftsman, as I.
Told you when you see those beautiful structures made during
this Roman time period, you see these were carved out of of
rock. Most of the time they were
chiseled. They're beautiful.
We still look at them today and we actually fall and honor that
beauty that they would somehow, in their limited means and that
time, carve. Out I I look at those things if
you've ever visited that part of the world and you see these
structures and the tools that they had to work with you were
really. In awe of how did they
accomplish so much with so little.
And I'll tell you this, they knew what they were.
Doing, they had to be skilled and doing that.
So these were skilled workers. Even the 1st century Rome, I
want you to know this. Most slaves were taken care of.
They were valued. They were valued by their master
as important as having something to offer.
And they weren't there just to mistreat or to harm, to handle
them in some unjust manner. In fact, at this time that
Paula's righteous, it was even looked down upon to mistreat
your slave and anyway and if you were to take the life of one of
your slaves, it would actually cost to you potentially your own
life. They weren't just caged animals.
They were contributors to this society.
They were hard workers, they were skilled workers, and they
were valued by those who they served, even receiving receiving
room and board for their work. And that's not all. 1st century
Roman slaves were paid at times by their owners to do specific
tasks that they would do. And historically, some of them
would raise enough money from the pay that they received.
They would then turn and purchase their own selves out
of. Slavery by the money that they
earn, becoming again free men and free women.
So when we look at 1st century Roman.
Culture. We look at the topic of slaves.
I want us in this lesson to. Do two things.
One, to reprogram our minds from the awful tyranny that pops into
it because of the example of American slavery.
Again, it is wrong. It is detestable.
It was never and could never be approved by scripture.
God would never approve treating people that way.
However, this type of slavery being distinctly different has a
lesson for us all. How many of you are employed by
someone you are not? The boss?
Raise your hand. How many of you are going to
work tomorrow at that place of employment?
Keep your hand up. Now, let me ask you this
question. Are you going to go there
whenever you feel like it or has someone else established?
Has someone else established what time you're going to be
there? It's the latter, of course.
They have established what time you're going to be there.
We call him or her boss. They are superior in our life
and I know that when we use that word superior, it begins to
bother us and and our mindset of thinking that everybody has to
be equal on all planes. No, we are equal as humans.
We are equal in Christ, but in the place of employment we are
not all equal. There is a person who signs your
check. Am I right of?
Course they are a superior unto you.
They tell you when you come to work.
They tell you what you do while you're at work.
They tell you when you can even get off work.
How many of you have ever had to call home and say, honey, I'm
going to be late because my boss is requiring me to do a little
bit of extra work? This and what you do as the
working class of people is more akin to what we see in 1st
century Roman. Slavery than what you have in
your mind in regard to American slavery in the past.
And I say that because today what we have here is not
something that we need to ignore and just say, well, I'm not a
slave. I've never been a slave, so this
doesn't apply to me. You are a slave.
You work for the system, you work for someone, you are in a
social class and you will report to duty tomorrow or you will
lose your job and your livelihood.
So in a sense, this is much like. 1st century Roman slavery
that Paul is addressing here. Now that we know that.
At least if I've done my job, you do.
Let's read this text. Let's read this text
differently, he says in verse one.
We'll be covering the 1st 2 verses today.
He says all who are under. The yoke of slavery should
consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name
and our teaching may not be slandered.
Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for
them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve.
Them even better because those who benefit from their service
are believers and dear to them. These are the things you are to
teach and urge on them. Paul telling Timothy.
Who would teach the church at Ephesus?
Here is what a slave is supposed to do and how they are supposed
to act and react toward their master.
And he does not in any way condemn this type of slavery.
That's how I know that it's different than the slavery that
would have obviously been condemned in this country.
And he gives specific instructions to the believing.
Slaves on how they are to behave, the attitude of their
heart toward those that they work for.
May we gain this lesson from this today.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you today.
We thank you for your word. We thank you that it is true
that it is important, that it does apply to us.
Lord, I pray today as we see the employee and the employer, the
slave and the master relationship, that we would do
our part as those employees and honoring and respecting our
bosses, those who are masters over us socially.
God, I just pray that this would be used to bring you glory and
to bring others to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ as
they see us serving in the way that we should, that all of this
would be pleasing to you and bring you praise.
But I pray for the unbeliever who's here today.
I pray that you would give them faith to believe that you would
open their eyes to see the truth, their need for Christ and
the fact that they are sinners in need of your mercy and your
forgiveness. God, I pray that you being the
God who is faithful to save, that you would save those who
call upon you today in desperation, needing your
forgiveness, knowing that your forgiveness came through Christ.
We'll give you all the glory for it in Jesus name, Amen.
So we walk through these two verses today, and we walk
through these two verses carefully.
Now that we have established that there is a difference in
our definition of slavery and the biblical definition of of
slavery, let's look at this first thing that he begins with,
and this is. This he says all who are under
the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of
full respect. Now I know all of you Christians
here today, give your bosses full respect, right?
That's the quiet in here. I didn't even hear the church
mouse squeaking. He says to give them a full
respect. Paul begins addressing these
people who are in the church who are slaves, and he begins with
the term yoke. He says those who are under the
yoke of slavery. Those of you who are in this
position as slaves, you were bound to a master, you were
bound to a task, you were bound to a service, he says.
But even though you're bound to this master, bound to this task,
bound to this service by this joke, you have no right to do
anything other than to fully. Respect your masters, your
superiors, those who are over you.
Again, I know. We don't like the term superior.
We don't like anyone telling us what to do.
It's just the facts of life. It happens.
You were going to have a boss, you were going to have an
authority. There is someone who is going to
rule or to have charge over you most of your life.
I remember in high school I had a friend shortly after high
school, he said I'm going in the army.
I said, what do you want to do that for?
He said, because I'm sick of my dad telling me what to do.
I said, oh, so you want 100 dads telling you what to do,
screaming at you, never being able to leave, having zero
freedom. You go on and you join the Army.
He did, and he found out it wasn't the escape that he
thought it was because there's always somebody who is a
superior in our lives. We have to recognize that and we
have to respect. Those who are our superiors, you
have to respect those who are your superiors in this life.
Paul gives great insight into this. 1st I have to respect.
Those who are my superiors despite my position socially.
So you have to respect those who are your superiors despite your
position socially. Your social position has nothing
to do with this. In fact, Paul's talking to the
slaves and he's saying to the slave you are to fully respect
your master. Why would he say something like?
This they're yoked to them. They're in partnership with
them, whether they realize it or not.
They're in partnership with them because of God's sovereign hand.
He is letting them know. If God wanted you to be yoked to
something or someone else, that's where you would be yoked.
You have been sovereignly placed into the social position of a
slave. This is where you are.
This is who you are, whether you like it or whether you don't.
Some of you, you're dreading tomorrow morning, you don't like
your job, you don't like your boss, you don't like your
company, all of those things that we constantly complain
about. But can I insert this so that
you can understand this properly?
You are yoked to this because God has sovereignly put you
there. It is the position that He has
given you. You believe Scripture, I believe
Scripture. Ephesians 111 says that he, God
works out everything in conformity with the purpose of
His will. Paul is saying to these slaves,
if you are under the yoke of slavery as a believing slave, I
want you to realize this. There's a bigger picture here.
You were in the position that you were in because.
The Sovereign God has desired that you be in that position.
And the good news for the Christian is this Romans 828,
you know it, but apply it to your life, apply it to your job,
apply it to the boss who you can't stand, it says in Romans
828. And we know that in all things.
God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been
called according to His purpose. You can bet you might be
enduring this yoke that you would rather not have, but you
can bet if you're there, God has in His Providence placed you
there. It is your yoke, and it is a
yoke given to you by God Himself.
What would happen if we as Christians, in regard to work
and the workplace, saw our yoke as our ministry?
How many of you spend more time at work than you do with your
family? How many of you spend more time
at work than you do at church? How many of you spend more time
at work than anything? Fishing, Hunting, the things
that you enjoy you. Spend more time at work than
anywhere else. You are yoked to that job.
You are a slave to that job. And you're a slave to that job
because God has put you there and he's put you there to
minister. And you have to grasp this
concept or you are going to be a miserable person.
He is telling these slaves you are yoked to that master for a
reason. You are yoked to that position,
that job, that service for a reason, and that reason is
higher than any of your reasoning can comprehend.
There is a sovereign purpose and why you are where you are.
So despite your position socially, you have no right to
show any disrespect to your masters, he says.
They're worthy of full respect because when you disrespect
them, you disrespect the sovereign God who put you in
that. Position and I want you to see
that clearly today and we have to respect those who are our
superiors despite our position and displaying full respect for
these superiors. Full respect.
That means we can't half heartedly respect him.
We can't just respect them when they're present then stab them
in the back when they're not if they give them full.
Respect. How do we do that?
He says. All who are under the yoke of
slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect.
How do we fully respect somebody?
Well, we fully respect somebody by our words, how we speak to
them, how we talk to them, right?
Just because your boss talks down to you, and I know that
this happens and I'm not defending your boss, but just
because your boss talks down to you, does that give you a right
as a Christian? Brother or sister to then?
Lash back out and talk to them in the same manner.
Of course it doesn't. We're not to return evil with
evil, but scripture says we're to return evil with good.
And what we have to learn to do. We have to learn to bless even
our bosses with the words that come out of our mouths, how you
speak to them. Colossians 46 says let your
conversation be always full of grace and season with salt.
You can insert this in there even though it doesn't say it in
scripture. Even when talking to your boss
or anyone else that you don't like for that matter, your
conversation should always be full of grace and seasoned with
salt. It shouldn't be abrasive.
It should go down smoothly. It should show the kindness and
the gentleness of the Lord. Ephesians 429.
Says do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,
but only what is helpful for building others up according to
their needs, that it may benefit those who listen, even your
boss. You must show them full respect
by the words that you speak to. Them you speak with kindness,
you speak with gentleness, you speak with the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's important how you speak to
them. Full respect will come out in
your words. Is that not what Jesus said?
From the overflow of the heart, the mouth will speak.
If you have animosity in your heart toward your boss, it's
going to come out of your words, but your heart is in the right
place. Your words are going to be that
that reflect Christ. So how you speak to them, we can
display full respect for our superiors.
By our words, how we speak to them, and.
Here's a tough one for us all. How you speak about them to
others, right? Because some of us know all the
right things to say when our boss is present, right?
You're like that little dog. Y'all remember that cartoon with
that dog? And there was the big bulldog
and the little, I think he was a Chihuahua.
I don't remember. He's a little dog, and he was.
Like, come on, fight. Get a man.
It's like, oh, yeah. And he was all pumping that big
bulldog up all the time. It was ingratiating.
Of course, here's the thing. You can, and I'll borrow this
slang term, kiss up to your boss in front of them.
Is he want that raised? You want that promotion?
You want an easy life? Of course.
What's going on after? He walks out of the room or she.
What's going on with your words when they're not around?
He said, well Kirk, is there really a problem with that
biblically? I don't know.
Let's ask brother James if there's a problem with that
biblically. Chapter 3 of James epistle,
here's what he says. He says with the tongue we
praise our Lord and Father and with it we curse human beings
who have been made in God's likeness.
Has your boss been made in Maggio Day in the likeness of
God? You bet he has as all humans
have been made in that manner. He says out of the same mouth
come praise and cursing. Verse 10 My brothers and
sisters, this should not be so shouldn't happen that way.
Why? Because the other people in the
break room, when you're trashing your boss, they know that you're
a Christian and they see you trashing your boss as soon as he
leaves. You know what they label you
rather quickly? Oh, he's just another one of
those two faced hypocritical Christian.
Pay close attention to this. This is an important lesson for
us all. We're to display full respect
for our superiors by our words, how we speak to them, how we
speak about them, or of them to others, but not only.
By our words, but by our work. Are you working diligently,
showing full respect for your superior?
When your boss expects something, are you doing what
they expect? Are you that person that
somebody just has to ride all the time and breathe down your
neck? Or do you know what expectations
your boss has and you're fulfilling those expectations?
That's the greatest form of respect for your boss, doing
what they expect you to do and then some.
Now you say, well, I don't want to be that kind of worker, but
you don't want to be a biblical Christian worker.
You want to just barely get by. You want to just barely make
ends meet. You want to just live status
quo, but I pray today that this message fall on the ears of
those who truly want to please God by being the Christian
worker that he's called us to be displaying full.
Respect for our superiors, by our words and by our work.
Do you work diligently for the person who puts bread on your
table, shoes on your children's feet, clothes on your back?
Or do you constantly complain, bellyache, moan and groan about
your horrible situation? You're in that situation because
the sovereign God put you in that situation.
You're not going to move from that situation until He
sovereignly sees fit to move you.
So you might as well be content where you are and serve
diligently those who you've been called to serve wholeheartedly.
Ecclesiastes 9, verse 10, it says this.
Whatever your your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,
all of it. Are you working with all of your
might in your job, doing what's expected, even going above and
beyond that which is expected? Christians should never ever,
ever be just bare minimum mediocre people.
Did you hear me? I.
Am in myself since y'all are all so quiet and I know this hits
home. You should never be bare minimum
people. You should never be mediocre.
They ought to see you going to the highest extreme to do a
diligent job. What if Christ would have had a
mediocre attitude and you halfway died for your sin?
You'd be in trouble, wouldn't you were to give that kind of
service? Even to our employee, employer
as an employee and Christian workers should always express
full respect by their words and by their work for those who are
in authority, as their bosses, as their superiors.
Secondly, not. Only should we respect.
Those who are who we, who are our superiors, we should respond
properly. We should respond as we should.
And how do we know how we should respond?
We should respond biblically in this situation.
He says in the second part of B. Of one BI have it labeled there
on the. Screen, it says, so that God's
name and our teaching may not be slandered.
He's going to tell you why you are to fully submit to your
superiors, even though sometimes this goes against every ounce of
your flesh. There is a bigger reason here.
He says so that God's name and our teaching may not be
slandered. What's Paul's teaching here?
Paul's teaching that we have to be careful how we respond and
how we react to our bosses, to those authorities.
In our lives that we are working for, the last thing that we
should ever, ever, ever, ever want in our lives is to respond
to someone in any way that would bring a reproach upon the name
of Christ. Paul's making this very clear to
the believing slave. He's saying this fully.
Honor your master, not just for your sake, but even more so for
the sake of Christ, for the name of our Lord and the name of our.
Savior who offered himself for us.
As Christian workers, we should properly respond to our superior
superiors, understanding that we are those who bear the name of
Christ. We should always act and react
as one bearing God's name. That's what he says here, so
that God's name and our. Teaching may not be slandered.
Christians, remember this when you clock in tomorrow.
Yes, you are representing you and your home, but more than
that, you're representing the Lord Jesus Christ when you clock
in tomorrow. Because if you're a Christian,
obviously everyone should know that it's not something we keep
hidden. And when you clock in, you
should clock in as pertaining to me, Kirk Hall, servant of Jesus
Christ, I bear his name. And that's not something that we
should take lightly. And I'm afraid that in the
workplace, we take that far too lightly.
We cannot forget that we wear the name of Christ everywhere we
go. Everything we do, everything
that we participate in, everything in our lives that we
are involved in, it involves the name of Christ.
In fact, we can go all the way back to Antioch where they were
first called Christians in the book of Acts.
Why? They were little Christ.
They identified the believer with Christ.
Do you notice everything you do? You are identified with Christ
and you don't want to bring slander or reproach upon upon
His name because you don't handle your affairs the way that
you should. In this particular context, you
got to fully respect your boss because you wear the name of
Jesus. You ought to be willing to go
through whatever you have to go, be it suffering persecution.
Death, you ought to be willing to go through all of those
things because you have the privilege of wearing his name.
Surely just being a respectful servant to your boss is not too
much to ask from the One who gave his all his own life for
you and for me, and for all who would trust in him.
Peter knows a little bit about suffering for Christ since
tradition says that he was brutally crucified upside down
because he thought it. Be an insult to Christ to be
crucified right side up, he said.
No, you turn me upside down, I can't be crucified the same as
my Lord. But Peter was willing to.
Suffer. And Peter wrote these words in
his first epistle in chapter 4. He says, however, in verse 16,
if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise.
God that you bear that name. Wow.
You know what? Peter understood the privilege
and the responsibility of varying the name Christian.
We just throw it around flippantly and nonchalantly
these days, don't we? No, that is the very name
Christ, the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
And had he not mercifully and graciously intervened in your
life, you would not bear his name.
And Paul is writing to this group of workers, these slaves,
and he's saying don't forget that when you show disrespect to
that master, when you show disrespect to your boss in our
culture. He's saying this.
You're dragging the name of Christ in the mud.
You're bringing reproach and slander upon the very one who
died a selfless sacrificial death to rescue you from your
greatest enemy called sin and to make you a child of God Most
High. And you were insulting him How?
Because you disrespect your boss so.
I don't like the sound of that. I don't care what you like.
That's what the word of God says.
You're bringing slander upon the name of Christ.
How does? This work, right?
You disrespect your boss. The people at your workplace
know you're a Christian, they say.
I can't believe he calls himself a Christian.
And he talked to the boss that way.
The boss goes home and he's sitting around his table with
his wife and his children. You know what he says, man, that
employee I have down there at the mill, Kirk, I thought he was
a pretty good worker. But today he totally
disrespected me in front of everyone.
He's really not been putting out a whole lot.
He's not doing a very good job. I'm probably going to have to
fire him. And you know what's the saddest
thing about it? Watch us.
You know what he's going to say? He claims to be.
There's that word, a Christian. He wears the name of Christ, he
says. But He knows that you don't
value that by the way that you act.
Let us remember that as believers, we are
representatives of Christ in everything that we do.
Paul calls himself and those who are ministering along with him
and also calling us. By proxy he calls us
ambassadors. Second Corinthians 5 verse 20
says we are therefore Christ ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's
behalf, be reconciled to God. Paul, his whole life was to
preach reconciliation through the gospel, and he's imploring
people to be reconciled. He says in my position is this.
That of ambassador. That was his job.
And he understood. I'm an ambassador of Christ.
I represent Christ everywhere I go.
Do you know what our ambassadors do for our country?
Every country that they're stationed in, you know who they
represent. If, if we have an ambassador who
is in some foreign country, you can pick whatever foreign
country. He's not there to represent that
foreign country. He's there to represent the
United States of America. Is that true?
That's what an ambassador does. And so when you go to work every
day, Please remember this. You were there.
As an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
representing Christ and there are people in your workplace I
can just imagine who need the message of the gospel.
And they need someone who will be an.
Ambassador for Christ, I pray that you would take that very
seriously as they see you responding and interacting with
your bosses, whether that's in front of them or whether that's
behind their back. But they only see Christ in us,
and we understand that. What are those ones bearing
God's name? He says so that God's name watch
this. He doesn't stop, and our
teaching may not be slandered. What is he talking about here?
Well, we should respond as we should as believers, as one
burying God's name, but also as one bringing the gospel.
That's their teaching. That's what Paul's whole life
was about, the teaching of the gospel.
And so he's not talking about some other teaching here.
He's talking about the gospel message.
What would happen tomorrow? If you woke up on Monday
morning, I know you've all been looking forward to it and you
prayed and you said, God, give me the right attitude and your
feet hit the ground. You said, you know what, I'm an
ambassador of Christ today. Therefore, I'm going to give
full respect to my boss. I'm going to serve it to the
capacity that I'm expected to serve and then beyond.
I'm not just going to squeak out a paycheck every week and do the
bare minimum. And in doing So, what I'm going
to do is I'm going to bring the message of the gospel to my
workplace to actually see your yoke as a mission filled for the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, this is crucial that we
understand this because you bring the gospel message
everywhere you go, whether you're actually letting it come
out of your mouth or not, when you profess Christ, that message
is with you. So you being the herald and the
ambassador that you need to be in bringing the gospel, let me
give you a warning. That's why he says it's so
important here for the slaves here in Ephesus that they show
full respect to their master. You can't deliver good news with
bad testimony, and the gospel is good news.
And so don't think that anybody in your workplace who needs to
hear the gospel is going to hear the gospel from you if they see
you disrespecting your boss or disrespecting anybody else for
that matter, not treating you the way that you would want to
be treated. Is that not what the Lord
taught? Of course it is.
You think He has somehow negated that teaching and it doesn't
apply anymore? No, it applies.
It applies even here to the slave and the master
relationship. He says full respect.
Responding as you should is 1 bearing God's name, taking that
very seriously. I wear the name of Christ
everywhere I go, everything I say, everything I do and I have
teaching to bring, I have a message.
That message is the gospel. I care enough about the gospel
and I care enough about the Lord Jesus Christ who's commissioned
me to preach the gospel. I care enough about him to keep
my testimony clean in regard to everything, but especially in
this context, in regard to the respect and the full respect
that I give to my employer. You see, there's a bigger
picture, isn't there? You know, the devil likes to
distract us from the bigger picture and get us to focus on
the menial things. And unfortunately, the place
where you spend the most time and the people that you spend
the most time with your jobs, you've minimized the bringing of
the gospel and the importance of your testimony in doing that
because without you they may not hear the gospel.
You say, well, Kirk, what do you mean?
Romans chapter 10, verse 14 here.
This is by God's design, not Kirk's, he says in verse 14,
talking about the unbeliever. How then can they call on the
one that they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without? Someone preaching to them.
What would happen if you realize that your job and your reason
that you have this job is so that you can preach the gospel
to those who need to hear the message?
We often look at only the negative.
Perhaps this job that you hate working for, this boss that you
despise, is all part of God's plan.
Perhaps that boss needs to hear the gospel.
He's one of God's elect, and how will he know, lest the preacher
tell him? Perhaps one of your fellow
employees is lost and needs to hear the gospel.
God has put you in a miserable place to your flesh so that you
can share that message with him. You said, well, God.
Put you in a miserable place so you could share the measures of
the gospel? I don't know.
Ask Paul as he writes most of his writings from a cold prison
cell. You tell me.
I think God has a plan that's bigger than any of ours and we
need to see it. That's the truth.
We need to try to see the big pictures much as we can.
I need to fully respect my superior to show a Christian
attitude in the workplace because there's greater things
to say. The bringing of the gospel.
I want to make this crystal clear to all of you.
You know why all of you still have air in your lungs and blood
pumping through your heart? It's not so that you can succeed
in life. It's not so that you can have
the American Dream. It's not that so that you can be
rich or establish your goals. It's so that you can bring the
message. Of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. See the seriousness of that?
That is the whole reason that you have a job.
You said, wait, wait a second, Kirk, I have a job so that I can
make money. No, you get to make money.
That's a bonus. Just as we saw last week, the
person who who their whole life is the gospel should receive
income from the gospel. Your life is the gospel, and as
you go to your job and you receive income, you should
preach the gospel. Bring it to.
Them why? How will they know that's the
preacher? Tell them, oh I know it's hard
for the American church because you guys think I'm the only
preacher in the room. Wrong answer if Christ has saved
you, he saved you so that you can preach the gospel to others,
those who are hopeless, those who are helpless, those who are
enslaved that are sent that they may be set free through the
gospel message, sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
So as Christians, we ought to respond to our superiors
according to God's word. Respond as we should,
remembering that we. Bear the name of Christ that's
not by. Accident.
That's a privilege. I wish we would understand that
we must bring the gospel message.
That's our duty. That's why we exist.
And if you say that's not why I exist, you don't yet know.
Biblical. Christianity.
And herein lies the problem. Oh, I pray that we would wake up
tomorrow and go to work and say who needs to hear the gospel?
Who needs to hear the gospel? Let them hear it through me.
Let them see the gospel in action through how I respect my
boss and how I treat others. Thirdly, in this lesson that you
all thought didn't apply to you, oh how things have changed,
haven't they? The third thing is this refused
to take advantage of anyone. This could be your attitude in
the workplace. Refused to take advantage of
anyone. Paul talks about specifics here.
He says this which is. Kind of interesting because if
you're not familiar with this passage, you really don't see it
coming, but it comes. He says those who have believing
masters are not to show less respect for them because they
are brothers. What Paul is saying is this,
Don't think that you're going to somehow get special treatment
because your boss is a believer. I know none of you would ever do
that, but I'm going to show you how that works in a minute.
Instead, they are to serve them even better or all the more with
more intensity because those who benefit from their service are
believers and dear to them. He says you should have a
greater love for your boss who is a believer, right?
Because how lost? How is the lost world going to
identify as our love for one another?
Your lost Co worker ought to see the bond of love that you have,
but you ought not to use that bond of love which is in Christ
for special treatment or privileges.
It's important that you understand that because that can
come against you and I'll show you how in a moment.
This is because those who benefit.
From the service are believers and dear to them.
These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
He is telling Paul telling Timothy this is what you are to
teach the believing slaves there in the church at Ephesus.
Yes, Did you know that they even got to go to church with them.
I told you they're a part of society.
They're brothers and sisters in Christ.
Well, Paul wants them to understand that when we must
refuse to take advantage of anyone, especially in regard to
this those believing. Masters, those believing
superiors, those believing bosses.
However your culture wants to define it.
Never expecting special treatment, you said.
Would anyone really do that? Yes, they would.
People would use their position as a believer for special
treatment. Let me show you how that works.
I see it all the time. Hey Pastor, my car's broke down.
Do you know of a mechanic in the church?
No, I know that sometimes people are wanting.
To use a mechanic in the church because he is a believer, but
sometimes they're wanting to use a believer so that they can get
an enormous discount. Because they want special
treatment. You know what?
What should be the way that we do things as believers?
We should ask, is that mechanic that you already knew was in the
church. You just wanted me to help you
out in getting a deal. We should go to him and say,
hey, my transmission is out. What is the cost of a new
transmission and you're going rate for your labor.
Please will you give me a quote on that?
Don't ask for any special favor. And if that believer, that
brother, that sister in Christ wants to give you a love
offering, you let them do that on their own.
But what Paul was afraid of of was going to happen here in the
church in Ephesus. He thought, you know, there's
going to be that slave who says I'm a believer and my master's a
believer and. They're going to misquote
Scripture like this. You know, in Christ there's
neither slave nor freedom, nor male, nor female, nor Jew, nor
Gentile. That's not what that's saying.
You do know that, right? That's talking about our
position in Christ. That's not talking about our
position in the workplace. That'd be like saying there's no
more women or men in the workplace.
Now. We wonder sometimes these days.
That's not what he's saying at all.
He's thinking about, he's talking about our position in
Christ, our position at work. We have superiors, we have
bosses. Some of us are employees, some
of us are employer employers. We've already established that
fact. But what he's saying is this.
Never. Expect special treatment just
because you're a believer, right?
You think that you ought to get the raise.
And that boss you have who's professing Christian gave the
raise to someone else. And I'm a Christian and they're
not even a Christian. Not that any of you would ever
say anything like that, but some of you would say things like
that or to use Christ to butter your boss up so that you could
get that promotion or you could get that raise right to.
Only use Christ and your Christian convictions to try to
sway your boss one way or the other.
Paul says That would be wrong. Or you could say this.
You know what? My boss is a Christian and so I
know I don't have any more days off.
But I know he's a good man and he's going to do the right thing
and I'm going to call him and tell him I really need a day
off. Don't put that pressure on your
believing boss. If you have no more vacation,
guess what? You have no more vacation.
Don't look for special treatment.
Why? Because what's going to happen
when you get that eighth day of vacation and your company only
gives out seven simply because your boss is a Christian?
You know what the unbelievers at your workplace are going to say?
These Christians, they all think that they get special.
Privileges. And sadly, sometimes we do think
that, don't we? No, never expect special
treatment. It's because you serve a
believer. Never use your position as a
Christian for any kind of leverage in the workplace,
please, because you're going to do more harm than good.
You see how that works? You see how it would work in the
slave master scenario that Paul is presenting?
You see how it works in the employee employer scenario that
I presented? But I displayed this.
I don't have to work as hard because my boss is a Christian.
So he just slides and he just coast.
And all the other slaves who were working extra hard, they
despised him because he thinks that he somehow gets some kind
of special treatment. You know what they label him?
Lazy Christian because they're going to throw that name in
there. Why?
Because you bear that name. Lazy Christian who's just taking
advantage of the situation. Be careful not to do that.
I hope that it doesn't happen in any of your lives, but I'm
afraid that if we were all honest that some of us would
have to admit that it does or that it has.
So never expecting special treatment.
Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for
them because they are brothers, instead they are to serve them
even better. What is he saying now?
Now you need to go to the next step and always be exerting
yourself diligently. You should be working so that
you are tired at the end of the day.
When you go home at the end of the day from your job, you want
to be so tired that all you want to do is eat and go to sleep and
there is nothing wrong with that, it will keep you.
Out of a lot of trouble. If you're not tired at the end
of the day, can I just give you a dad talk real quick?
If you're not tired at the end of the day, you didn't work hard
enough, work harder, especially if you're working for a
believer, right? Show them that I'm going to go
to the extent to serve you as Christ went to the extent to
serve us to the full extent with full respect and full honor.
I'm going to do that because I owe that to you as another
believer. I'm going to serve you even more
than I would serve an unbelieving master.
I'm going to serve you diligently.
I'm going to work harder. I'm going to prove it to you.
Why? Because God's Word commands me
to do so. As we read in our scripture
reading in Colossians 317, whatever you do, whether in Word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God the Father through him. Do everything for Christ,
everything, word or deed. Colossians chapter 3 where Paul
gives more teaching about slaves and masters.
He says this 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. What concept?
He goes on. He says whatever you do.
Work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for
human masters. Many times people pull that out
of context and don't really get the true meaning of that, do
they? He sang to the slave who works
for the master. Do it with diligence, Work hard,
exert yourself as if you are doing this unto the Lord.
And when you do that, you are literally revering the Lord in
how you work. He says in verse 24, since you
know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a
reward, it is the Lord Christ you were serving.
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and
there is no favoritism. You know what he's saying,
you're going to be a lazy worker, you're going to dishonor
your superiors. There's going to be consequence.
But if you work hard and if you truly do exert yourself
diligently for those God has called you to work for, there
will be a reward from God for your diligent service.
Ephesians 6 he covers the same topic and he says it's obey them
not only to win their favor talking about the slaves.
To the master. When their eye is on you, he
says. But as slaves of Christ, doing
the will of God from your heart over all.
The people who want to just say that slavery in any form is
wrong. He just referred to us as slaves
of Christ. We ought to be Those do lots of
slaves. For Christ and enslaving for
others who had to do it for the glory of Christ because at the
end of the day, we're slaves of Christ.
Verse 7, he says serve wholeheartedly as if you were
serving the Lord, not people. Wow, what if the church got that
with Monday morning coming, you wake up in the morning, you pray
to God for strength. You put your boots on, you walk
out the door and you say I have a purpose and my purpose is not
a paycheck. Lord, thank you for your grace
and giving me a paycheck on payday every week.
The Lord, I'm working for you. May I work for you.
May I be diligent for You as I am diligently working for
others, and it is bringing glory and honor to your name.
May I represent you and Your name well.
May I bring the gospel message to a lost and hurting in a dying
environment of sinners. May I wholeheartedly do
everything as if I'm serving You, Lord, not anyone else I
know in America. What do we say?
Oh, I'm working hard for my family.
Stop work hard for the Lord and your family will benefit
tremendously. I'm working for my boss will
stop work hard for the Lord, and your boss will be pleased.
See that we have been placed in this position, this yoke, as
Paul called it, for reason. See that reason clearly, respect
those who are your superiors, respond as you should
biblically, and refuse to take advantage of anyone, especially
another Christian, especially if it is your boss.
Don't look for special treatment because others will hate you for
that and you'll suffer the consequences.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you that your word is
true. We thank you that in.
Every verse that we read, there is a lesson when properly put in
its context. God, I pray as we have attempted
to put this in its proper context today for us, but I pray
that we have a greater understanding of our
responsibility, what our attitudes ought to be as
Christian workers in this world. But I pray that we would
represent you well and all that we do and all that we say, how
we work, the effort that we give.
May it be for you and for your glory and for your honor alone.
May it be used to bring the gospel to others, to shine the
light of Jesus Christ in this dark and sinful world.
We pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
You've been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
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teaching from God's Word.