Wholehearted Service (Part 1 of 2)

From the time we enter into adulthood.

Most of us spend our days working either for an employer or sometimes as an employer today on Truth for Life. Alastair begged talks about how our Christian faith should transform our view of work how it should give us a purpose in our day-to-day responsibilities were continuing our study in the book of Ephesians, but Alastair begins today with a brief look at Colossians Colossians 3, and then from verse 22 slaves, obey and everything.

Those who are your earthly masters not by way of I services people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not from man knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as you reward you are serving the Lord Christ for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he is done and there is no partiality masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven, so that brief prayer together. Father, thank you that of all the places we might be tonight you've gathered is here and what a wonder it is that your grace I came in shone into our hearts for some of us when we were small and for others along the way. Some rescued out of chaos and others of us saved from that potential care's and every day and all day. It is your saving and keeping power that guards and guides and sustains us in so that when we turn to the Bible we want, not simply to receive instruction, that we can understand and practical ideas that we can apply what we do and honestly want to meet with you, the living God. We want to have a life-changing encounter with you and to this end, we seek to as we turn to the Bible now and we pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, as you can tell from the reference before you. We are looking now again for the third time at Paul's instruction that he gives to slaves and to their masters and we have said on each occasion that the particulars of this instruction fear directed to the believers in the Colossae Valley that has particular elements to it. Most obviously, the real distinction between the reality of a slavery that held these individuals in bondage and our circumstances tonight, which I think I can safely say no is nothing of that kind of enslavement and so we want to make sure that we understand that he wrote this to Ephesus he didn't write it to 21st-century Cleveland. However, when we understand the historical context in which the Scriptures are set, then we may safely and rightly apply the principles that are contained in the Bible to our circumstances. And so it is that we seek to apply them in our everyday life and in the marketplace, particularly of public relations and employment and the role of those who act in terms of the labor force, and those who would be in the position of guiding that labor force. We are not enslaved, but we do sell ourselves into a measure of bondage when we accept the contract and when we sign up for employment. I was talking with somebody other day about a job for, for whom I one of their family members had applied and I think received and I was asking about how it works and I was informed that there are 312 hour shifts and those 312 hour shifts are then indication of full time contract is quite remarkable 36 hours can be full-time, but nevertheless there is. And so that individual in signing up has essentially sold 36 hours of their lives to their employer and the employer has a responsibility to frame what those hours will mean and the employee has a responsibility to live there Christian life within that context. Now it is in light of that, that we were considering Paul's very clear directive and he makes his statements in a way that would be hard for us to misunderstand. It is observable that he spends more time addressing slaves than he does addressing masters at this may actually be because of the social makeup of the church to which he is writing what I mean by that is that there were probably far more people in the congregation for whom the designation slaves fitted than that of masters that would be my think, in accord with his address to the Corinthians, when he says to them, consider your calling, brethren, not many of you were mighty, not many of you were powerful. In other words, he says most of you have come from fairly ordinary circumstances most of you if you like, in common parlance would be part of the everyday workforce. It also is in keeping with what you discover when Peter writes in a similar way. In his letter and in first Peter two. You can check that and in that as he gives directives along similar lines. He never ever addresses the masters he only gives instruction for the servants and directs them as to how they might live. As the servants of God, the possibility being that those who are on the receiving end of his letter are not in the ruling class or in the position of masters of slaves, a tall, now that is conjecture.

Of course it is not a main thing and it is not a plane. Think what I can give it to for your consideration.

What is really main and plane is that the gospel is absolutely revolutionary.

It is revolutionary in reading from Colossians chapter 3. If you have your finger in there is a suggested you might, you will notice that in verse 11.

You have a similar statement to what you have in Galatians chapter 3, Paul has pointed out to these folks in the same way as he does in Galatians, that there is no Greek Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian city, enslaved free by Christ is all and in all. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is everything.

He's absolutely everything and so when a man or woman becomes a new creation, then not only does that ride that radically alter one's relationship with the living God, but creates it actually in Christ, but it also means that in that new creation. We are brought into a society where barriers that separate us from one another in the events of everyday life. Those barriers are then abolished in Jesus. That's what that's what the Bible says now is very very important that we understand that we understand that this happens in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it alters our relationships at a fundamental level. In other words the gospel does watch the world endeavors to do and cannot do and that is create union of heart and mind amongst those who by dint of their background, their culture, the race their aptitude, their giftedness or their status are within the framework of society, almost inevitably separated from one another.

Where are you going to get the slave owner and the slaves sitting side-by-side, not of the local coffee shop, not in the bazaar, not in the gatherings for social engagement, but only in the church and that is exactly what has happened here.

To these believers in the churches to whom Paul writes now what we need to realize is that it immediately then sets up a question and an inevitable question which is well if that is the case, and if those essential barriers are broken down in the gospel.

How does that than work in the ongoing circumstances of where one is in bondage as a slave and the other is actually a master and the answer to that is as follows. First of all, regeneration does not remove the slave master distinction in the same way.

The regeneration does not alter contracts if you owe $10,000 to the bank on a Friday afternoon and you went to an evangelistic crusade on the Saturday and you became a Christian. On that Saturday evening on the Sunday when you showed up at church. You still owe $10,000 to the bank regeneration did not alter your contract in the same way that if you were married and you became a Christian. It didn't alter your relationship with your spouse it change your relationship with the father and brother die mentioned to your relationship with your wife but it did not actually change it because those relationships are slave and master our earthly relationships as false as or as it translates it in the King James version. They are relationships. According to the flash. So think about it, the Christian master in the Christian slave in the context of everyday work at live with a very clear line of demarcation. The boss is the boss, the employee is the employee they may treat each other, respectively, and respectively, but in actual fact they are distinguished from one another, but within the framework of the church when you move from Monday through Saturday into Sunday and everyone comes into the fellowship of God's people and unites to sing God's praise and bows to seek his forgiveness, and so on. In that context, it may transpire that the slave is actually a leader in the church, the slave may actually be an elder in the church because the slave is a man of spiritual maturity. So you have this very interesting juxtaposition whereby the slave who Monday through Friday is saying yes or yes or on Sunday is giving thanks to God for the elements in the celebration of communion and the slave owner or his master is under in every real sentence the jurisdiction of that sleeve who exercises authority as one set apart to it as one who watches over the souls of men and women including the soul of his boss. Now when you think about that in the strike. She was a little strange.

You realize why it is because most churches are not prepared to even consider this as a possibility that most to serve as elders and not moving. If you like. Just one little slide over from the office of significance that they that they find themselves in during the week into now another officer significance in the church so that the people who run the business are usually look to us to be the ones who run the church. What why running a business is not necessarily akin to spiritual maturity. So the distinctions that exist within the workforce are changed not radically removed or changed within the context of the church in the workplace. The fact that the slave owner and the employee may be brothers must not, says Paul very clearly here, become an opportunity and occasion for either one of them to take advantage of the circumstances so that the slave must not then say, well my boss is my brother in Jesus. Therefore, I can slack off, but rather because he is my brother in Jesus to be an opportunity to display an even more exemplary faithfulness. You see, because what Paul is saying here when you look at the passage carefully is that in a sense the slave is no longer really serving man but is serving Christ, so that is why he makes it so perfectly clear that in verse six. Not by way of eyes services people pleasers, but is born and servants of Christ, or as those who are serving the Lord. Colossians 3 and not serving man what happens in that and this is the significance of it is that when this is really engaged, then two things are true. Number one the employees work is transformed and number two the employees witness is enhanced work transformed and witness enhanced because the testimony of the employee in circumstances that may often be very, very undesirable, socially unacceptable, nothing that they would want to do when in that context. They then display the faithfulness that is represented in their acknowledgment that they are serving the Lord Jesus ultimately then the gospel is commanded and not only those who look on, but those who are part and parcel with that individual will have occasion to say why is it that this lady, this fellow is as diligent is as responsive as this kind is as punctual is as engaged as they are, why wouldn't they just be doing as little as they possibly could. After all, look at the circumstances in which they find themselves. What is it. First of all I did point out a couple of things to you first about the Christian slave and vice a slave we can in your hedge against the employee.

If Isaiah employee you can in your heads a slave to the Christian slave has a different incentive and a different motivation all right as we saw this morning our earthly masters we approach with fear and trembling, not because they tyrannize us because were fearful of slighting the cause of Jesus we approach them with the sincerity of heart, as we would Christ and then in verse six, but our incentive and our motivation is not on the basis of eyes service. Now that may mean the kind of eyes service the loop so deceive the boss is coming and if they're not coming and we can do as little as possible, or the kind of eye gaze, that is the eye gaze looking to see how we can attract favored by the boss, how we can put on a little bit of a display how we can develop the fine art of giving an appearance of obedience, of giving an appearance of diligence, when in actual fact the reality is not the case.

In other words, it's just the contrary, it is not the kind of heartfelt engagement that is called for. Now, as I've mentioned in passing this morning. I recognize that in the framework clear his mind in which to serve. I don't have the opportunity that many of you do that most of you do, along with my colleague Simeon.

We served together. We have relationships with one another, and so on. But in actual fact, I would imagine that it's pretty tough out there and I think it must be tough in a workplace when the kind of behavior that Paul says is not to be part and parcel of the Christian employee, i.e., the kind of behavior that is eyes service that is either currently in favor that is all that that the individual and in the in their factory or in the workplace is constantly trying to put herself in the position where she seen in the best light, where she manages to make it obvious to those who are to the room. She reports that she really is a quite remarkable person and so what is going to be pretty difficult dealing with that kind of thing.

When that kind of behavior which Paul says should not mark the Christian employee would not kind of behavior is not only practiced by then, it is apparently rewarded and when you find yourself coming up for your annual review and the person that you know is a complete rascal and a con artist is now admitted advancing in the company and Jews who are trying to do what you're doing by Christian principles are not operated on the basis of eyes service but on the basis of a heartfelt commitment to Jesus you find yourself left on the site. What we do that spread not yourself because of evildoers trust in the Lord and do good. Many of the songs and come out of slavery and those who have experienced the deprivation of often song in a way that is pointed away from the circumstances because they are so bad as I've told you many times.

Mahalia Jackson is one of my favorites and when she sings, you know, why should I feel discouraged and why should the shadows, and why should my heart seem lonely and long for heaven and home. Why should, because after all the circumstances are such that they are overwhelming when Jesus is my Capt., my constant friend is he and his eyes on the sparrow and I know he watches me see the gospel really does make a difference. Is it really a quite sad thing for many of us that when we think in terms of the gospel. We think in such an atomized kind of way. The gospel is this� What it means in this how you know and is what you do with but identify the gospel is is so vast and so huge is that we have been saved from sin's penalty is the denizens of the school that we are being saved from sin's power that one day we will be saved from sin's presence and so I was the gospel then manifest in the workplace that is represented in the community of Parkside church while up in the what Paul says is the way you're really going to make a stab for the gospel is by you. The incentive according to its towards which you operate in the motivation of your take Exhibit 1, a pagan slave. Here's a pagan slave.

Here's a pagan employee and that he or she in bays obeys in everything is fastidious I would of just fear of their earthly boss or out of the ingratiating desire to be regarded as better than they are as that set employee number one employee number two. The Christian employee now is obeying in everything but for an entirely different reason.

Because the Christian employee is a servant of Christ, and that is the emphasis that runs like a thread all the way through both the Ephesian passage in the Colossian passage not by way of eyes service as people pleases, but is born service of Christ during the will of God from the heart is the second thing to notice of the Christian employee renders wholehearted service with a good will, wholehearted service with a goodwill. What is this.

Meanwhile, I think it means this it means this in part that the most humdrum job. The most humdrum routine job. Whatever it is, whatever you can think of. Whatever it is you do becomes a vocation when it is looked on as being God's will. Helpful perspective on work from Alastair Begg and Truth for Life. We know today. This message is especially relevant for many whose careers have been disrupted as a result of the coronavirus, whatever our situation. Keep in mind we can cling to the truth that the gospel gives us purpose in everything we do and that is the subject of a book that we want to highlight today with the book titled discovering the good life. The author is Tim Savage and he reminds us that though many of us are merely surviving on this journey of life. God's design is for us to thrive. If you want to know what the abundant life author look like and be motivated to live each day with the joy that our creator intends for us. This is a book for you. You can request your copy when you join the team of faithful monthly truth partners whose regular giving makes this ministry possible. In fact, it's truth partners giving that enables all of our books and studies to be sold at cost without any markup. And today we'd love for you to take advantage of a low cost offer. We been highlighting it's a USB titled 10 years of favorites. This is a collection of Alistair's most popular messages from the past 10 years hundred and 23 messages in all 10 years of favorites will provide many hours of rich Bible study for you or your family the best part is the price.

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Go to truth for.org/true partner or call 888-588-7884 Bob Lapine join us again tomorrow for the final message of our series called life together. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living