"Work" Ephesians 5:6-9
- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison preached this message on June 18, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
Thank you worship team for leading us today and happy Father’s Day to all of you dads out there. We’re glad to have you here today. If you take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter six, we’re going to be reading verses five through nine. I texted Renee Tompkins. Joe hopefully will come off his respirator today.
He had a heart, liver and kidney transplant which took two days of surgeries Friday and Saturday. So you can understand he’s got a lot long way to go, but they’re doing well at this point. Ephesians, chapter six. I’ll begin reading in verse five. Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ.
Don’t work only while being watched as people pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing God’s will from your heart. Serve with a good attitude as to the Lord and not to people, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord and masters. Treat your slaves the same way without threatening them, because you know that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him. May we pray? Heavenly Father, as we look at your word today, help us to see how it applies to our life, how we can be better examples of your image in this world and reflect the character of Christ, his love and concern for others, that we might best share our testimony of salvation through his death, burial and resurrection.
In his name we pray. Amen. The main thing today I want you to remember, I’m going to be a test at the end, okay? The main thing I want, all work is sacred. Would you say that with me?
All work is sacred. So my work is sacred. But whatever your job is, even if it’s being a homemaker or being a grandmother, your work is important to the Lord and you have the opportunity to represent Jesus Christ wherever you are. At this time in history, most writers estimate that There were approximately 60 million people in the Roman Empire that were slaves. That would be one third of that total population.
And Paul is encouraging those that are slaves and also those as masters on how they are supposed to live. Now we still have slavery in our world today. It’s an awful thing. Hopefully it’s not something that any of us have experienced or our families have. And we have to keep in mind as we’re reading, how Paul is giving instructions to slaves and masters.
How does it apply to us in our working today? You know, Jesus was not the Messiah that everyone expected. He didn’t come the first time to be the conquering king that would overthrow the Roman government. And he didn’t come to give freedom from Rome. Instead he came to give something more important.
He gave free freedom from Satan. He gave freedom from sin. And similarly, Jesus didn’t spend time trying to abolish slavery, but he did come to provide eternal life to everyone, including those who were slaves. Now we look forward to his glorious return one day, because then he will conquer evil. He will abolish slavery.
He will set us all free for eternity. So we don’t see the early Church in this passage attempting to abolish slavery. Instead, they’re trying to do what was most important, to change people’s hearts by leading them to a right relationship with Jesus Christ. Because we know that only changed hearts, not changing the external is going to make real change in the world for the way things are supposed to be. We’re going to go back to Genesis, chapter two, verses four through five.
And the first point today is to see that God ordained that. That we all work. God ordained that we all work from the beginning. I begin reading in verse four. These are the records of the heavens and the earth concerning their creation.
At the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. So part of man’s creation was that he would be a worker, that he would work the ground. He also had other work responsibilities. He was to rule over all of creation. He was to take care of the world that God had given to him.
And he was to do all of this in obedience to God’s command to fulfill God’s purpose for mankind. God ordained from the beginning the that we should all work. Work was a good thing. And it wasn’t until sin entered the world because of Adam and Eve’s choice that then work was cursed. And it was going to become a very difficult thing for men and women and their jobs.
Let’s go over to 2 Thessalonians 3, 6, 15. And we want to see that this isn’t just something that started in the Old Testament. It’s also continued in the New Testament. And here we see that God commands one work in the New Testament. Now we command you.
And he speaks both to men and women here, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not Live according to the tradition received from us. He goes on to explain what this tradition is that they are supposed to participate in. For you yourselves know how you should imitate us. We were not idle among you. We did not eat anyone’s food free of charge.
Instead we labored and toiled, working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you. Now, Paul didn’t mean that it wasn’t okay to go over to someone’s house and let them treat you to a dinner. My son and daughter in law are doing that for me today. I don’t have to work for them. But in general, Paul was saying, we set the example for you.
We weren’t freeloaders when we came and presented the Gospel. He continued to make tents and support himself. So he set this example on how they were supposed to live, that they were all to be workers and not idle. We go on to read in verse 10 where it says, in fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you. So they set the example.
But then they also said, this is what God commands. If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat. For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy, but they are busybodies. I like the way that that’s worded there.
They’re not busy. And when you’re not busy, you have the temptation to become a busybody. Therefore, now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to provide for themselves. Now there’s a small key up there in verse 10. It says, if anyone isn’t willing to work, we all know there are circumstances in different people’s lives where they are willing to work.
They want to work, but for some reason, whether it’s physical or whatever else is going on in their life, they’re not willing to work as God commanded them to. So Paul is saying, you should be willing to work, and if work is available, you. He’s exhorting them that they should quietly work and provide for themselves. So Paul set the example. Paul taught them and he commanded them that this is what God wants them to do.
If we go on and read in verse 14, we see how serious he was about this. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person. Don’t associate with him so that he may be ashamed. You don’t consider him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. So Paul was saying with the instruction in the letter up to this point, including the fact that People are to be willing to work to support themselves and do that.
He’s saying, don’t associate with them so that they can be ashamed. Paul took this seriously and so should we. We are to treat those that are in the church that just are lazy and they refuse to work as outsiders. Now he’s saying, don’t treat them as an enemy here. But there should be this separation.
If anybody is regularly involved in sin, including this idleness and laziness here, we shouldn’t let them be our best buds. They shouldn’t be the people that we spend lots of time with. Because when you have someone in the church that’s living in any type of sin, if you’re speaking lots of time with them and you look like you’re very close friends, it gives the appearance that you condone their lifestyle. So there has to be a certain amount of separation so that really you’re trying to help them understand. If your relationship isn’t right with the Lord, it shouldn’t be right with me either.
And my prayer is that you will come back to both of those relationships. They’re not enemies, but they’re not supposed to be our closest associates. Let’s go to 1 Timothy 1:9, 11. Again, God commands that we all work. And we want to see here what it means for those that are slave traders.
Because once again, I want to emphasize slavery is an evil thing. And even though the church wasn’t actively trying to do away with slavery, they were still saying that it was wrong and. And the more important thing was to change their hearts. So what we see here is a list of people that they have sins that are an abomination to the Lord. And as we read through right in the middle, you will see those that are involved in trading slaves.
We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and the irreverent. See the list here. People that are lawless, people that are rebellious, they’re ungodly, they’re sinful, unholy and irreverent. You don’t want to be in this list. And who is among them?
For those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and males who have sex with males, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the Gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God which was entrusted to me. The New Testament Church did not work to abolish slavery. At the time, as far as we know, they were more concerned about changing hearts because we know that external change is not lasting. If people don’t have a change in their heart towards these things, there really isn’t a change in society. In the Old Testament, too, there was a different form of slavery.
And there were people that sold themselves into slavery because they had a debt to pay, but it was more like an indentured servant. There was a certain amount of time that they knew at the end of five years, at the end of six or seven, that they were going to be set free from that. So there was a type of slavery that people agreed to. We also find in the book of Philemon that Paul is writing to a friend and he’s asking him to treat a friend, a man named Onesimus, as a brother. And he’s saying, to do this with Onesimus, who was your slave.
But instead, Paul is pushing forward the godliness in the fact that slavery is wrong and we need to be moving away from that. God ordained that we all work. God commands that we all work. And now we want to go back to today’s passage to see where God instructs us how to work. God instructs us how to work.
And it’s very straightforward. It’s easy to understand. We’re merely going to be pointing these things out today. Going back to the verses, it says, slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ. Don’t work only while being watched as people pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing God’s will from your heart.
And this is where we can find the way that we are supposed to be as workers and to be as bosses or supervisors. And I want you to look here for the repetitiveness in what Paul is saying. The first thing is, he says that you need to work with a sincere heart. Don’t just be an external worker. You want to work with your heart in what you’re doing.
And I think we all understand what it means to have your heart involved in something. You have people that you interact with, and your heart’s just not in it. You know, you’re buying an ice cream cone or you’re going out to eat, your heart isn’t so involved with that person. But on the other hand, we have friends, we have family, and when we interact with them, our heart is in that. It’s the same way with our work.
It’s not supposed to just be perfunctory. We’re supposed to put our heart into that Sincerely. The second thing he tells us is as if Christ were your boss. So he says, whatever your job is, think, well, if Jesus were here today and I was working for him, how would I behave? How would it be different?
What would my work ethic be like? That’s what Paul’s saying, as if Christ were your boss. Then he says, don’t work only while being watched. People pleasers. I put this down as work with diligence.
Be careful and be persistent about what you do. We’ve probably all worked with people. When somebody steps out of the room, we just have the idea, well, they’re probably drinking coffee or they’re stopping for a cigarette because they don’t do any work unless somebody’s in the room watching over them. Paul’s saying, we’re not supposed to be that way as believers. We’re supposed to work with diligence, not to please people.
But again, we’re supposed to be doing this as if Jesus Christ is there with us. And diligence means that you do your work carefully, but it also means that you continue in it persistently. And now we come to the first repetition. First he said, as if Christ were your boss. But now he says, as if Christ is your.
Your boss. Okay, as if he were. Now it’s even stronger what he’s saying, Christ is your boss in whatever job you’re working in. Remember I said from the beginning, all work is sacred. God has given us all jobs.
Every job is equally important in this world because in every job that anybody has, we reflect the image of God so that people understand him better. And wherever we work, we are to be a witness for Jesus Christ by living out his example in the world as if Christ were your boss. Now, as if Christ is your boss. And then we have another repetition here. He says, doing God’s will from your heart.
Remember, we started out with a sincere heart. Now Paul’s emphasizing with a heart that is being obedient to God. You know, if people know that you’re a Christian at work, you might not ever have a chance to share your testimony and to sit down and share verses with them. But the very fact that you’re there and you’ve associated your name with the name of Christ, those people are watching you, and they’re watching you to see if you live like what they think a Christian is supposed to live like. But what they’re also doing is they’re looking for some crack in you to say you’re not acting like a Christian.
There, you just said this. You did that I’ve seen how you’re not working hard. They’re more interested in finding some way to discredit Jesus Christ and your testimony for Him. That’s why it’s so important that we work as if we’re working for the Lord. Because ultimately that’s who we are working for.
Let’s go on to verse seven. We find here he says, serve with a good attitude as to the Lord and not to people, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord. We all know what it means to work with a good attitude. We enjoy working with people that have good attitudes. And that’s the way we’re supposed to work, no matter how difficult the circumstances are.
Because again, it’s reflecting a strength in us that we have because our faith in Jesus Christ. Next thing, it’s, as to the Lord. Whenever we find this repetition in Scripture, as if the Lord were your boss, as if the Lord is your boss now, he’s saying, as to the Lord, whatever your work is that you’re doing, you’re supposed to be doing that for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we find this throughout Scripture, that scripture and the languages doesn’t have a good, better or best. They repeat things.
And when you get to the point where in one passage it says the same thing three times, that’s the ultimate way to emphasize that serve with a good attitude, serve as to the Lord. And the third thing here is for eternal reward. Verse 8 says, Knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, whether you’re a slave or you’re a person working on your own, that person, if he does good, will receive this back from the Lord. You might not get a good raise here in this world. You might not get a good promotion.
You might not get extra perks at your work. But if you’re doing your work the way God asks you to, he’s going to reward you in heaven. One day and a week’s worth of vacation or an extra hundred bucks a week here is not going to be anything worth in comparison to the worth that God is going to give you in his reward throughout eternity. Because we are asked to work for God. God tells us, now, I am going to reward you when you do work for me.
God instructs us how to work. We’ve looked at workers. Now let’s see what he has to say here to those that are bosses, those that are masters, those that are supervisors over us. We go to verse nine. And masters treat your slaves the same way without threatening them because you know that both their master and yours is in heaven.
And there is no favoritism with him. The first thing that we learn here for supervisors is that we’re supposed to treat those that are under us the same way. That means without discrimination. Bosses and supervisors should treat everybody fairly. They should be there looking for everybody’s best.
They’re looking for ways to help people to grow and to be promoted, work and lead those under you without discrimination. But then he says, without threatening them. A Christian boss isn’t going to be a boss that threatens and bullies his employees. He’s going to be one that loves them and cares for them and acts just as Jesus Christ were if he were with them. Because, you know, Paul says that both their master and yours is in heaven.
Ultimately, we all have to recognize that, whether we’re supervisors or whether we’re workers, that we ultimately work for who we’re all working for God. We’re all under him in what we’re doing. And when we realize that, then we come back to this idea of favoritism. Because God shows no favoritism. God does not prefer bosses or supervisors over workers.
He doesn’t think that the your boss at work is any better than you. And in God’s eyes, everybody works for him and he doesn’t show any favoritism. There’s a verse that we hear often quoted from First Corinthians 10:31. It says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. So if you got up this morning, you had a bagel for breakfast, you were supposed to eat that.
For whose glory? For God’s glory. And if you had a cup of coffee or a cup of water, you were supposed to, what? Have that for God’s glory. I mean, what he’s saying here, these menial things that we just take for granted, that we don’t seem are very important in comparison to everything else we do.
Our work and our relationships, certainly they’re more important than a bagel and a cup of coffee. If we have to eat to glorify God, our work needs to be glorifying God also. Here’s your test. The main thing. All work is sacred.
All work is appointed. All work gives us a chance to reflect God’s image in the world. And all work gives us a chance to live out Christ in the world that we might have a chance to. To share the gospel. We’re all called to work.
And in your work, you can either choose to glorify God or not. And if you’re not glorifying God, you’re either glorifying yourself or you’re glorifying someone else. And whatever reward I can give myself, whatever reward another person can give me in this world, there’s nothing in that that can compare to if I work for the Lord and wait for the reward that he has for me. Not only do we glorify God, but our work is there so that we can be a testimony of Jesus Christ. And if you don’t live out these commands, you’re going to fail in representing Christ to the world in a way that draws people toward Him.
God has you in your particular job to glorify him and to share your testimony of Christ work in your life. So in the conclusion today, we need to examine ourselves. Are we working as if we’re working to the Lord? Are we adequately glorifying the Lord? And if we’re not, we need to work on those things that we can work on.
We need to ask God by the power of His Spirit, to help us to do the things that are very difficult for us, even in the most difficult of circumstances, like me working with my boss. He’s very hard on me, and sometimes I have a rough time with him. Do y’ all get that? Nobody got that in early service. Hunter doesn’t even get it.
Hunter, who is my boss? I am, though. That’s why I’m hard to work with. All right, bad joke telling. I’m sorry about that.
We’re going to move into a time of communion today, and we invite all of you to participate with us. But Paul instructs us that we are to examine our hearts very carefully to make sure that we are in a right relationship with the Lord. First off, that means that we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was buried, and he rose from the dead. And he did that as a sacrifice for our sins.
Because of our sins, we can’t have a right relationship with the Lord. Therefore, Jesus paid the price so that our sin could be covered, so that it could be removed and washed away. But we also need to come to a point that we’ve now publicly told others. Jesus is the Lord of my life. And Paul is very careful also about saying we need to examine ourselves to make sure there is no sin in our hearts.
So while we have this time of music today, just remain seated. You may want to sing to prepare your heart, but you may need to just spend some time in prayer. Ask God to show you any known sin that you need to confess best before him. So when we come to the table today that we are all right with the Lord. Kelly Jo, would you lead us?