From 9 To 5 Series

Intro – Bumper Stickers

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I am sure that you have seen the car bumper stickers that describe a persons view of their job.

I owe, I owe, It’s off to work I go.

I’m so broke that I can’t even pay attention.

I am sure that there are many others, but the point is that there are many people who view work as only a means to pay the bills.

Our job was never meant to be that.

Some think that work is part of the curse, but that isn’t true. Even before Adam and Eve sinned, God gave them work to do.

But regardless of your view of work, the fact is that each one of us will spend a significant portion of our life working.

If you were to calculate the hours worked from 16 to 65 working 40 hours per week with 2 weeks vacation every year, you would see that you are going to work for nearly 100,000 hours in your lifetime.

That is a lot of hours. And that is a significant portion of our life.

If we are to live real life in a way that glorifies the Lord, we are going to need to know how God wants to play our part from 9 to 5.

Finishing Series

We are finishing up our series on Real Life today. We have talked about how to play our part as a

Mother

Wife

Husband

Father

Child

Single person

And today we are going to talk about playing our part in the workplace.

Turn with me to Ephesians 6:5 (829).

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We are going to see what Paul has to say about living Real life in our job situation.

In these verses, he is actually addressing slaves and masters. If this is how it was supposed to be for this type of work relationship, we should be able to easily translate this into our own working relationships.

Ephesians 6:5-9

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

(from New International Version)

Paul starts right our with the first thing we need to do if we are going to live Real Life well, playing our part and glorifying the Lord.

He tells us to

Obey Your Boss

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Ephesians 6:5a, 6

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters…

6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

Obey – this word is in the present tense imperative indicating that this obedience should not be interrupted, but continuous.

That means that you should not be doing the job you have been hired to do only when your boss is looking.

We should be doing what we are supposed to be doing continually.

There is a saying in the business world that goes something like this.

“It isn’t what is expected that gets done, it is what is inspected.

There is much truth to that in every aspect of the world. However that is not the way it should be for the Christian.

As Christians, we need to do our job, not because man is going to inspect it and it had better be done, but because we are honest and we do the job we have been hired to do, and do it well, regardless if anyone is looking or not.

We should be people of integrity and do what we say we are going to do.

If we have been hired in a certain role, we need to fulfill our responsibilities to the best of our abilities. That means obeying the things our employer tells us as long as they do not contradict what the Lord would have us do.

Secondly, Paul tells us that we need to

Respect Your Job and Your Boss’ Authority

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Ephesians 6:5

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. (from New International Version)

Here is where it gets a bit tougher.

We can obey our boss. They are paying us to do our job. We can do it and do it well.