All right, turn with me and your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3, as we continue our study of the book of Colossians. We're going to look at chapter 3, verse 22, through chapter 4, verse 1, this morning. Colossians 3, 22, through 4, verse 1. It's on page 1253, if you can use one of the Bibles that we have underneath the chair in front of you. Here now, God's holy, true, and life giving word. Bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters. Not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Father, thanks so much for your word. Thank you that you reveal yourself to us. And you teach us about your kingdom, and you teach us most of all about the glory and majesty of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Holy Spirit, help us now to grow as we study this passage. Pray that you use it to help us to know you more and to be even more equipped to continue our mission to make disciples of our neighbors and the nations. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Some of you have heard of the publication, Business Insider, and they put out a list of 17 things that will surprise you about work. 17 things. I'm not going to give all 17. But here are a few things that they said. They said the average person spends 90,000 hours in their lifetime at work. 90,000. Now that's really interesting if you think about the fact that they also said that 87% of Americans have no passion for their job. That's kind of mind-blowing. 87% of Americans have no passion for their jobs. It also said that 80% of U.S. workers are outright dissatisfied with their job. 60% say their jobs are making them insomniacs. 25% of Americans say that work is the number one source of stress. That's amazing. Last week we talked about how Christ and the principles of the kingdom of God transform our home and this morning we're going to talk about how for his followers Christ transforms work and judging from the statistics that Business Insider put out our country's desperate for somebody to do that. So before we go any further, however, we need to recognize here that in Colossians 3 and these verses the Apostle Paul is still technically talking about the Christian home or the Christian household. Because in Paul's day, many people and even many Christians had what are called bond servants and some translations use the word slaves. And that's a valid way to translate the word but it can be a little misleading because of the vast difference between first century Roman slavery and then early American chattel slavery which was egregious and horrible. So slaves or bond servants in Paul's day were not treated like early American, African American slaves here in America. First century bond servants did not wear chains. They were not whipped and tortured. A lot of them dressed just like anybody else. In fact, some historians say that if you were walking through the marketplace you wouldn't have been able to tell who the bond servants were and who weren't. And so all this to say when we read Paul's words here we do need to be careful not to envision images of early American slavery. In fact, I do want to recommend two articles for you. If you want to read about whether the Bible does or does not condone slavery. Here's two articles. One is titled why it's wrong to say the Bible is pro-slavery by Gavin Ortland. Why it's wrong to say the Bible is pro-slavery by Gavin Ortland. He's got an article on the gospel coalition that you can read. Another one you can look up is does the Bible condone slavery by Alistair Wilson? And you can read one or both of those and you'll see the Bible does not condone slavery. And so I'll leave that to you so we can focus on some other things here this morning. Because also before we turn to what Paul says to bond servants and masters it's important that we acknowledge that these verses are relevant for us here and now. We praise God that slavery was abolished and that it's illegal here in our country. But nonetheless the things that are taught here really still apply to us they can be applied to our lives. As one author says if slave owners are told they must not manage workers in pride and through fear how much more should this be true of employers today. And if slaves are told it's possible to find satisfaction and meaning in their work how much more should this be true of workers today. Tim Keller talks about that in his book every good endeavor. So we'll see there is a lot for us to apply here even though we are not slaves. So here in Colossians 3, 22, 4, 1 the Apostle Paul says four things to bond servants which will apply to those of us who are working those of us who have jobs or employees and then he says one thing to masters which will apply to those who are in some type of management or if you are the boss. So in so doing we'll see that Christ brings new life to the work life. That's what our focus will be for this morning Christ brings new life to the work life. And if we look at the principles here in these verses we can see that through Christ we get a new goal, we get a new audience, a new motivation for work, a new approach and a new standard. So we're going to walk through those things this morning. Look at verse 22 and let's talk about a new goal. He says bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters not by way of I service as people pleasers but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. So the first thing we can draw here from this passage is that Christ gives workers a new goal. And that's what we would do our jobs with sincerity with sincerity of heart. He's not simply instructing bond servants to obey. He's instructing them to obey whether or not the master is looking and that means that's what he means by not by way of I service. And he's instructing them not just to try to be people pleasers. They were to obey with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord or with reverence to the Lord. And the word here for sincerity is from a word that means single. In other words Paul instructs the bond servants to single mindedness toward their work. And though none of us are bond servants most of us are workers or employees and we can and should apply this concept to our work lives. Now we can as Christians were called to be single minded toward our work. And this means that we're called to do our work with honesty and with focus. It means we should work hard whether or not the boss is looking and this may seem kind of demanding but it's it's actually liberating to be called to work hard. So let's stop for a moment just think about why it is we go to work. If somebody asked you why do you go to work what would you say? Some of us might say well I need to make money so I can put food on the table and that's a good reason to work. Others might say that you work to in order to accomplish things. You're trying to reach some goals. The truth is the number one thing we should do or the number one reason we should work and should want to work is because we're made in the image of God. We are image bears of God and God is a worker. If you were to look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 2 it says on the seventh day God finishes work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So when he was creating the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and all of the things that we see in Genesis 1 there he was working. And then when he creates humanity he creates us in his image. In fact in Genesis 2 15 it says the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. We were made to work and we flourish when we work. One author says work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer and sexuality. It is not simply medicine but food for the soul without meaningful work we sent significant inner loss and emptiness. And it is true. You were made to work. And you know one of the most common complaints or struggles that people who are in assisted living facilities or nursing homes have is that they don't feel like they're productive. They don't feel like they're doing something. They're feeling that God given design that they were meant to work. I was thinking about this and I remember numerous times when my family and I would go see my grandma grace. She was getting up in years and my family and I would go to visit her whenever we did. The kids loved visiting grandma grace because she always had a bowl of gum drops next to her easy chair and they would eat all those. But I loved it because we would be able to tell her what's going on. We would be able to talk about what the kids are doing in school. And she loved to see us. But she would always say something like I just wish I had something to give you. I wish I had something for you. And what she was thinking about is how in her former years whenever company was coming she put on this huge spread of food and all this stuff and she'd go to all this trouble and make you feel loved and welcome and it was awesome. When she was in her older years before she went to be with the Lord she just wasn't able to do that type of stuff. And so her built in longing to work to create to be productive was on display there. So God knows this about us. He knows that since he made us he knows that we're made to work that we flourish when we work and especially when we work with sincerity. And we operate according to our design when we're working hard and when we're staying focused on the task that we've been assigned and doing our job with hard work no matter who's looking. So as we follow Christ he transforms our work life by giving us a new goal. And the new goal is sincerity. Notice that Paul's not saying here that the goal should be that we accomplish all these big huge things or change the world but rather it's sincerity that we'd be sincere in our work. So I think it's right for us to think about what would it be like if we go to work on Monday or whenever you go to work next. What would be like if I was single minded on doing the best work I can do. So we have a new goal next let's look at verse 23 and we have a new goal. We also have a new audience. This is huge. Look at verse 23. He says whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. So here's another way that Christ transforms our work lives. He gives us a new audience.
He changes who we're working for. This fundamentally changes the way we should answer the question who do you work for. Right? And while it might be a bit odd if somebody said who do you work for and you said what while I work for Jesus. That may be a little confusing but at least in our hearts we should believe that actually the one who has placed us where we are at work. The one who's calling us to do the work that we're that's been said before is Christ. And if we think about that if we realize that Christ is the one who's called us to do what we do then it will transform our day. It helps us understand how we can strive to work with sincerity because if you think about it what if you don't like your job. Obviously a lot of Americans don't like their jobs from the stats. What if you have a boss that you just can't stand. It is hard to go to work if you feel like you're working for somebody or for a company or for any reason other than when you're working for someone you love. That's what's so huge. We're working for Christ and we love Christ and it makes it easier to go and work hard. So Paul's saying that we should think about the fact that we're working as unto the Lord. Flip back to chapter 1 verses 19 through 22. Let's just remember who some of the things that he has said about Christ. In chapter 1 19 through 22 he says for in him that's Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. And you who once were alienated in hostile in mind doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Whenever our job whatever our job may be we are working for according what Paul is saying. We're working for the one who made us the one who sustains us the one who has redeemed us on the cross and reconciled us and the one who is reconciling all things to himself. In other words when we are working thinking and knowing that we're working for Christ we're participating in what he's doing to restore and renew the world. And in this he transforms the way our hearts look at work because no matter what our job is we know that we're doing that work for someone that loves us and for someone that we love and it's always easier to do something especially if it's hard if it's for someone you love. Think about it like this I was remembering that in 2006 Hannah and I drove down here we moved down here from Minnesota to Florida and in the process I didn't realize how big a deal this was at the time but her parents and her brother decided to do something incredibly helpful to us but it was a ton of work. They actually drove from South Florida where they lived all the way up to Minnesota like 26 27 hours of driving in order to just turn around and drive all the way back down to Florida with us in our moving truck. And again at the time I wasn't thinking that was such a big deal but now as I've driven my family to and from Minnesota a number of times and survived. I'm realizing man that was a huge thing that for them to do right for them to to go through all that trouble and all that driving and you gotta ask yourself like what if somebody they didn't know really well had asked them that. Hey would you drive all the way across the country just to turn around and drive all the way across the country. You know if that was if somebody they didn't really know very well asked them they might they might do it because my in laws are really great people but probably not. Now if somebody they didn't like you know then they probably hard pass right there's just no way but so why would they do that why would they go to all that trouble. It's been all that time on the road because it was for us they love us. They're willing to do it even excited to do it because they love us and Christ knows that we love him if we know what Christ has done for us and forgiving us of our sins then we know he knows we love him and so he transforms our work lives by calling us to do our work for him and so when we really don't want to go to work we need to hear him saying to us will you do it for me. When we are really struggling with a boss and when we want to just quit and not go back we can hear him in this verse saying will you do it for me. Or maybe you have what Forbes magazine said is the hardest job in America. Do you know what they said is number one? Stay at home mom. Hardest job in America. And maybe that's your job and maybe when the kids are driving your bonkers and you know someone needs a ride and the laundry is piled up the ceiling and you just want to crawl on a cave and die. You can hear the sweet voice of Christ saying you do it for me it's transformative. We have a new audience we're working for the one who's redeemed us. We have a new goal we have a new audience look at verse 24 let's see we have a new motivation. He says knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you are serving the Lord Christ. So this is really profound. Remember Paul is talking to bonds servants and bonds servants did not receive a paycheck for the most part some actually did. But nonetheless here Paul says something else that transforms our work life that we have a new motivation. We're no longer motivated by gain what we can gain. Now we're motivated by grace. Paul tells the bonds servants basically not to worry that they're not going to be paid for their work because they've already been guaranteed the inheritance through their faith in Christ. The inheritance what is he talking about there. He's talking about none other than the new heavens and new earth. What we've received that promise that will inherit the kingdom of God and that's the promise that we have through faith. When he uses this phrase the inheritance he's referring to the fact that those of us who trust in Christ will inherit the world the kingdom of God when Christ comes. And that word inheritance really matters here because it shifts our motivation from gain to grace. You know you don't earn an inheritance. You receive an inheritance because by nature of who you are who your parents are. And part of the gospel part of the good news of the gospel is that through faith in Christ we are children of God and he has promised us this inheritance. In other words we are liberated from being motivated to work by what we can gain and we're empowered to be motivated to work by what we've already received for free by grace. Because when Christ was dying on the cross paying for our sins he not only paid our debt but he secured this inheritance for us. He secured this future in the new heavens and new earth for us. And when we're there we won't lack anything ever. All our needs will be met. We will flourish beyond our wildest dreams. And so the more we believe that we've been guaranteed this inheritance by grace the less we'll worry about what we can gain right now. And the reality is nothing is ever good enough for us. Like if we are living for what we can gain we're never going to be happy. If you're motivated to work by what you can gain then you're going to be set up for failure. And you can take it from John D. Rockefeller, the American oil tycoon who became one of the wealthiest people in the world and he was asked one time Mr. Rockefeller how much money is enough money and his answer was just a little bit more. That's because our hearts were not satisfied by gaining more and more things. We're satisfied by the grace of God. So if you're working in order to gain as much as you can you can this your Paul can change your motivation and see that working to gain more and more is really a trap. In Christ we can look at things differently. We can realize I've already inherited the kingdom of God it's waiting for me. And this changes things so maybe maybe you are working too hard maybe you are working so much that you're not seeing family and friends enough. And maybe that's because you're so driven to gain gain gain. Well here we can have a different motivation. Grace what we've already been promised what we already know will receive. Alright let's look at verse 25 and see that he also gives us a new approach. It's at 25 says for the wrong door will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there is no partiality. Here Paul reminds bond servants that there are consequences for sin so no matter who we are or how hard our job is. And so as workers who are Christians we can let this first give us a new approach to our jobs. And that is one of integrity and ethics. Whether we work with other Christians or not we can be people who do what is right. Even if it's legal to do something that's morally wrong. Trusting in Christ we can seek to do things that are right the right thing all the time. In so doing we bring the flourishing of the kingdom of God the flourishing ways of the kingdom of God to the workplace. We participate with Christ in the renewal and restoration of the world. Think about this if you're a teacher and you do your job with honesty then there's going to be more honesty in that school because you are there. If you are a salesman and you do your job with integrity there's more integrity now in that company then there would be if you weren't there. If you are a construction worker and you do your job with compassion there would be more compassion on the job site. Because we're bringing the good ways of the kingdom to this broken and messed up world. One author tells a story about a non-Christian woman at the time who saw her Christian co-worker do something that blew her mind. He took the blame for something a big mistake when he really could have pinned it on someone else. And she was so amazed that he did the right thing especially since he lost some reputation. She was so impressed that she asked him why he did it. And his answer was quote I'm a Christian that means among other things that God accepts me because Jesus Christ took the blame for the things I have done wrong. He did that on the cross that's why I have the desire and the ability to take the blame for others. And so her next question for him was where do you go to church? So we can have a new approach do our job with integrity and ethics. Finally let's look at chapter four verse one here's something Paul says to masters which we can apply to people who are in management or who are the boss. He says masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Here Paul gives masters a new standard and that's equality. So we can apply this if you're a manager or for your boss. We have people that work for you. In this case Christ transforms your work life as well by calling you to always do what's right for your employees. To treat them well and this Greek word for fairly is really a word for equally. So Paul tells masters to treat their bond servants as their equals. And as for managers and bosses this is a call to treat your employees well. It's in the kingdom we will all have work to do but we'll all be treated with full dignity and full love at all times. And as a Christian who's a manager or a boss you can do this now. You can show what the kingdom is like even now by treating your employees as good as you can as well as you can. You know the fact that God's ways are the best ways are evident in many ways in this world especially in this. Because studies show that when companies treat their employees really well it ends up being not only good for the employee but it's good for the company. In fact one publication says that when a company treats their employees really well they see number one increased productivity and more employee loyalty. Number two they see stronger customer relationships. People like to buy things from companies that when they know that they treat their employees well. When companies treat their employees well there's less stress among the employees and they take fewer sick days. Number four there's higher employee retention and number five there's greater talent or more selection in other words. When somebody's looking for a job if they know a company has a reputation for treating their employees well they're more likely to want to work there. So if you're a manager or a boss it's good to ask yourself some ways what can you do. What can you bring to the table so that your company does things differently and treats their employees as good as possible. Because in Christ we have the ability to treat people who have different roles in society as are equals. We're able to do for them what we might want them to do for us. Lastly I read a story about this guy named Matthew Defbeck and he was one of the partners at a firm called Houston Haynes and Boone. And in 2009 he found out that one of the employees of this firm had a son who needed a kidney. And this employee's son was a grown man who also had a son a little six year old boy. And so this partner at this firm hears about this and he keeps thinking about the fact that he doesn't want that little boy to grow up without a father. And so he decides to go and get tested to see if he's a match turns out he was. And so he went and gave his kidney to this employee's son just to show his love and just wanting to serve that employee as well as he can. It's amazing. So in Christ we're able to do these things. We're able to put the needs of others before our own which is exactly what Christ has done for us. We were in need. We needed salvation. Christ came. He died on the cross to redeem us and now through faith. We have that and that empowers us to turn and treat others with love and grace as well. Let's pray. Father thanks so much for your word and these simple things. We pray Lord that these things would transform our work life. As employees we would see the beauty of what we're called to and as employers that we would treat people justly and fairly. And that we would see opportunities to show the good kingdom ways all because of Christ who has redeemed us. And so we pray this in his name. Amen.