God's Will For Us In The Workplace Series

God's Will for Us in the Workplace

Ephesians 6:5-9

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The Book of Ephesians

(Prepared July 17, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

*The Apostle Paul was a prisoner in Rome when he wrote this letter to the Ephesians. Bible scholars generally agree that it was written during Paul's first Roman imprisonment. And Acts 28:30-31 tells us that "Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him."

*John Phillips explained that "Paul was not at liberty to go where he wished, but he was able to receive anyone who came to visit. So, Paul’s rented house in Rome became the headquarters of world evangelism. The Apostle could not go, but he led visitors to Jesus, and inspired many other Christians to keep spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul even led some of the Roman soldiers guarding him to faith in Jesus. The Apostle used 100 percent of his ability and authority to keep spreading the gospel and building the Lord's Church. (1)

*As Paul usually did, he opened this letter by giving us a better understanding of God's love and the good news about Jesus. Then in Ephesians 4, Paul began to focus on how we should live as Christians. And the heart of it is that we should live like Jesus lived: with godly goodness, kindness, humility, love, and forgiveness. But knowing our tendency to fall short, Paul also wrote in detail about how to have healthy churches and healthy families. Now we will see God's will for Christians in the workplace. Please think about this as we read Ephesians 6:5-9.

MESSAGE:

*Christianity is not just some pie in the sky, ticket to Heaven kind of religion. Christianity is soul-saving, life changing faith in the one and only Savior of the world, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christianity means having a personal relationship with the one true God who exists in three persons, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

*Christianity is not just a Sunday morning kind of thing. It's an on-going, everyday relationship with God that should touch every dimension of our lives, including both our time at home, and our time at work. God has a plan for every part of our lives, and that includes our time on the job. In today's Scripture, we will study God's will for us in the workplace.

1. FIRST: GOD WANTS US TO BE DEDICATED TO OUR DUTY.

*We see this truth in vs. 5, where God's Word says, "Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ."

*Think you've got a bad boss? What if you were a slave? What if you were completely owned by someone else, who could treat you any cruel way they wanted? Just a piece of property. That was the situation in the Roman Empire. Historian Edward Gibbon estimated that the number of slaves in the Roman Empire under the reign of Claudius (41-54 A.D.) was no less than half the entire population of 60 million people. That is an astounding number!

*Thank God for the Christian leaders who helped end slavery in the Western world! Slavery is a terrible thing, and it is still openly practiced in many parts of the world. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 to 50 million people. And that doesn't count the 24 million people in North Korea or the 1.4 billion in Communist China who live under brutal dictatorships where everyone is basically owned by the government.

*Human slavery is a terrible thing, and one of the greatest sins in our nation's history. So it helps to take a quick look back at the plague of slavery in North and South America. This is a diagram of a horrible slave ship from the 1700s. From the 1500s to the 1800s, African warlords and kidnappers sold captives to Europeans. The captives were usually force-marched to coastal ports on the west coast of Africa, where they were held for sale to European or American slave traders.

*Historians estimate that between 9 and12 million slaves arrived in the New World. Typical slave ships contained several hundred slaves. They were chained together and often stacked like wood, as you see in this picture. Up to four million died on the way. (2)

*Think how horrible it would have been to be a slave. You would have been under the total control of your master, no matter how cruel he might have been. You had to get up when he said, you had to go to bed when he said. You had to work where he told you, when he told you. You had to eat what he gave you, even if it wasn’t fit for the dogs. He could beat you for any reason or no reason at all. And he could sell off the rest of your family with no warning at all.