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.
But not only are we to obey our boss, but we are to do it with respect and sincerity of heart.
Whoa. Wait a minute. My boss is a godless, mean and arrogant individual. There is no way that I can respect him.
In the original context of this letter, these verses where directed to slaves. Slaves did not have any say in what they were to do.
Slaves were considered property by the owners and by the government.
Nobody chose to be a slave.
Nobody was saying, “When I grow up, I want to be a slave.”
Slaves in the Roman empire were treated very harshly.
And here Paul is telling these slaves to obey and to do it with respect and sincerity of heart.
How was that going to happen?
By keeping a proper perspective and attitude.
This makes all the difference in the world in how we obey and do our job.
There are those who view their job as something they have to do so the bills get paid.
Slaves could easily view their job as one that if they did not do, they would be killed. It is hard to have a good attitude if that is your perspective.
But if a slave or even any of us, have a proper perspective of all that our job is helping to accomplish, we will be able to have a better respect for our job.
Laborer that lays asphalt.
If you understand that your job of laying down asphalt 10 hours a day is actually helping America to be interconnected and helping the entire commerce of the free world, you might have a better attitude and an easier time doing what you are doing and a better respect for the importance of your job, rather than just laying down hot rock for 10 hours a day.
Illustration – Architect and worker
There was an English architect named Sir Christopher Wren famous for rebuilding many churches in England and for St. Paul’s cathedral.
While reconstructing this cathedral, a journalist interviewed some workers and asked them What they were doing.
One replied, I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.
Another answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.”
A third answered, “I’m helping Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”
These three men were all doing the same job.
Who do you think had a proper respect for the work he was doing and an easier time getting up and going to work in the morning and a more enjoyable time at work?
The last one because of the proper perspective and the respect that he had for his job and the authority of his boss
If we keep a proper perspective of the effects that our job has on society, then we will be better able to respect our job and our boss’s authority.
Third, as an employee to play your part you need to
Serve your boss from the heart. (v. 7)
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Ephesians 6:7
7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,
We need to serve at our job wholeheartedly, doing the best that we can straight from our heart.
Our perspective of who we are working for often makes a difference in how we perform our job. We need to keep in mind that whatever we do as a Christian impacts others view of Christ. We need to work as if working for Christ. And when we do that and do a great job, regardless of our work environment, we glorify the Lord.
Jesus tells us that in everything we should do it to glorify God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (from New International Version)
And to truly glorify Him, He does not want us to only obey and have a proper respect for our job, He wants us to go the extra mile by serving whole heartedly.
The first 2 things we might be able to do without the help of the Lord. We could obey our boss and we might even have a right perspective that we are doing something that has much larger ramifications than just putting in 8 hours.
But this last thing, Serving wholeheartedly, you can’t do without the help of Jesus working in your life through His Spirit.
Serving whole heartedly means that you are going above and beyond.
It means you are going to go the extra mile in your job because that is what Jesus wants us to do. We aren’t going to do that out of the goodness of our heart. We are only going to do that by the power of Christ and because He said to.
Jesus says in
Matt 5:41
41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Which of us if we are being taken advantage of wants to do anything more for that person?
In our own strength none of us. But if we are in relationship with Christ, we can do it in His power and strength as we keep our eyes on Him.
We see great biblical examples of people going the extra mile in the Old Testament.
Daniel, just a youth when he was taken captive, he was a slave in the land of Babylon. But that did not stop him from being an exceptional servant.
Daniel 6:1-4
1 It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.
Wow. That is a person who was brought to the country as a slave yet served wholeheartedly.
Joseph is another example of serving wholeheartedly in poor circumstances.
Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, is also a great example of someone who goes the extra mile.
When Abraham’s servant went to find Isaac a wife, the Lord led him to Rebekeh. Rebekeh came out and gave Abraham’s servant some water and offered to water his camels.
Now a camel can drink about 20 to 30 gallons of water and Abraham’s servant had 10 camels with him. That is 200 to 300 gallons of water. She was coming out to get water for the evening meal.
Imagine for a second, you are running out to the store to pick up a gallon of milk for dinner. It is 5 o’clock, the family is hungry.
Some stranger asks you to push one of his carts out to his car. You oblige, and you see he has 10 carts full of groceries. So you offer help him push all the carts out. It is about 5:30 now. All the groceries won’t fit in his van, so you offer to take some in your van to his house. After all, he only lives about 10 minutes away, though it is in the opposite direction you want to go. But hey, how often do you get to help out someone. So you go and help him unload everything and when you get home it is 6:30. Your 5 minute trip to the store took an hour and a half.
This is basically what happened to Rebekeh only it probably would have taken her a bit longer. She had to get all her water from deep down in the well.
Now that is serving wholeheartedly.
Now, how many of us are really serving wholeheartedly, going that extra mile?
Probably not too many.
Now maybe you are an employee here today thinking, if that’s what being a Christian is all about, working my fingers to the bone for no recognition and no pay, then forget it.
Well, that may be true in the immediate sense, but that isn’t true in the eternal. Our work will be recognized and rewarded, if not here, then in eternity.
And that is the final thing for workers. You will
Receive Your Reward from THE Boss
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Ephesians 6:8
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
Colossians 3:23-24
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving
Daniel, Joseph, and Rebekah each received blessing and recognition in this life, though it may have taken a long time in an earthly sense. But they continued to persevere and serve none the less.
Besides those blessings, they will receive eternal rewards as well.
Those who obey and do what Christ wants will be rewarded eternally and you can definitely take that to the bank.
The Lord ain’t gonna go out of business or file for bankruptcy.
Our heavenly reward will not be
stock options in Enron but
Eternal rewards in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not cannot break in and steal (Matthew 6:20).
Keep your focus,
Keep your perspective,
obey,
Respect,
Serve and
receive your reward.
One side note for Christian employees.
You have been hired to do a job. You need to do that job.
There have been Christians that spend all their time at work trying to convert the lost and not doing what they have been hired to do.
Now we need to be a witness always, but we are not being a good witness if we don’t do the job we have been hired to do.
If we are faithful to the Lord in doing what He wants us to do in our job, He will provide opportunities for us to evangelize others.
Now, what about Christian Employers?
How do you play your part from 9 to 5 as an employer?
Well, let’s see what Paul says
Ephesians 6:9a
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way.
(from New International Version)
Treat them in the same way? What same way? With respect. Just as you want them to treat you.
Jesus wants you to
Respect Your Employees
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You need to be treating your employees with respect.
Now Paul is writing here to Slave masters. They owned slaves. Slaves were thought of as tools.
Nothing more than a hammer that could talk.
And here Paul is telling the masters to respect them as persons, just as they wanted to be respected by their slaves.
So Employers, you need to be respecting you employees.
They are people too. Their sole purpose in life is not to make you rich. Yes you are hiring them to do a job and they need to do that, but don’t treat them as if you own them.
Paul was telling this to masters who actually did own their slaves.
Christ is calling you to respect your employees.
Respect their time
Respect their families.
And employers, this is not only obedience to Christ, it is good business.
Studies show that employees are much more productive and are willing to do more for employers who are respectful of them.
Listen to this from the Better Business Bureau
According to management experts the single greatest key to productivity is happy employees. …. For years, the belief was that money was the source of employee happiness and retention. While there is no question that money is important, management studies show that it does not buy employee happiness. While employees want to be fairly compensated for their efforts, they also want to be challenged and treated with respect.
The Better Business Bureau offers the following suggestions to managers for how to increase employee happiness:
• Empower workers to do the job you hired them to do. A work environment in which employees are constantly monitored, micro-managed and bossed around can be stifling. While most employees are capable of receiving empowerment, not all will seek it, however. The overriding motivation for all employees is to be treated with respect.
• Treat employees the way you would want to be treated. Think about how you would want to be informed of changes or acknowledged for a job well done. Then do the same with your employees.
From the Better Business Bureau Website accessed on 7/7/06 http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=397
That sounds an awful lot like
Masters, treat your slaves in the same way (Ephesians 6:9a).
So Respect your employees.
Secondly, you need to
Encourage your Employees(do not threaten them v. 9b)
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Ephesians 6:9b
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them
You do not want to be continually threatening your employees. That is not how you are going to get the most out of your employees and that is not the way a Christian employer is going to glorify the Lord.
Instead be encouraging to your employees.
Help them to do the job better if you think it needs to be done better.
Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t fire someone who doesn’t do the job. This doesn’t mean that you can’t tell a person that they will eventually be fired if they don’t do the work that is needed.
It does mean that this is not your modus operendi.
If you continually go around threatening employees to get them to perform better, you are going to find that their performance actually suffers if that is how you constantly treat them.
When people are respected and encouraged to do good work and recognized for it, they will want to continue in that.
So encourage your workers.
Lastly,
Be fair with your Employees (Show no favoritism v. 9c)
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Ephesians 6:9c
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.
Colossians 4:1
4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
You need to be fair with all of your employees. Don’t play favorites. Not only is it not good business, it is not godly.
When we treat employees differently under the same circumstances, You are only going to hurt yourself by helping to create a disgruntled employee.
Be fair and treat people who work for you fairly.
Conclusion
As I have gone through this series, especially this last one, it is amazing to me that there are so many people in the world who spend thousands and thousands of dollars to go to seminars on how to be good business people or be better wives or husbands, or fathers or mothers or whatever, when if we would just read the Bible and follow God’s way for living our life, we would enjoy our life much more and be better at everything.
