How the Gospel Transforms the Workplace - Part B

Whenever you decide, I'm going to do my job as I'm doing it like I would be, I'm employed by God as unto the Lord.

You are going to turn, it's transformational by the way, guaranteed. It takes menial tasks and makes them noble tasks. When you work with the perspective of one who works for God, everything changes and even the most menial tasks become meaningful. And in today's teaching, Skip Heitzig tears down the myth of the separation of sacred and secular life because it's all for God. Now, here's a resource that will encourage you and help you relate with Jesus in a fresh way.

Looking deep into the empty tomb by Skip Heitzig consists of five messages, including Rise Up, Easter's Over, Now What?, An Empty Tomb, A Full Life, Jesus Died But God, and Come Alive. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most attested two facts in history. It is a fact that sets Christianity apart from every other world religion and it's the reason for our hope. Of all of the religions in the world, only four of them are based upon actual personalities. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

Those four are based upon the personality of the founder. But of all of those four religions, only one claims a resurrection for its founder. That's why we have hope. That's why we gather here today, because of that good news. For this Easter season, we've put together a special set of resurrection resources by Skip that include five of his finest Easter messages for audio download or on CD and a full video titled On the Road. We want to send you a copy of this package of messages as thanks for your gift to support Connect with Skip Heitzig and help grow this teaching ministry to reach more people in major cities in the U.S. this year. So request your package when you give your gift of $50 or more today and take a walk with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus. Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Let's turn now to Colossians 3 as we join Skip for today's lesson. So the New Testament taught principles, listen carefully, that eventually would undermine slavery and abolish it.

And by the second century, there were already so many people coming to Christ that slavery as an institution in the Roman Empire was already beginning to crumble. So that's the elephant in the room. That's the problem of enslavement. But let's expand this. That's the immediate context. Let's extend this to the employee-employer relationship, which brings me to the second aspect, and that is the priorities of employment.

Now, the text says this. Bond servants obey in all things your masters. Let's throw in the word employers. According to the flesh, not with eye service, not as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do when you're at work, whatever you do, do it heartily.

Ask to the Lord, and not to men, not to your boss, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Now, in just reading that, and there's not a whole lot here, but there are some characteristics that every Christian worker should have. The first characteristic is obedience. Obedience. Again, the text says bond servants, or again, employees, obey your masters according to the flesh.

Now, that's an important distinction. They were only their masters according to the flesh. When they were under the supervision of the master and paying off the debt or under the Roman, even if it was abusive and oppressive, they're only the master of the flesh, not the master of the spirit. Does not imply any intellectual superiority or that that person is better.

It's merely a physical relationship. Now, here's a problem that is happening. If you have slaves in this system becoming Christians and you have oppressive masters, that was very prevalent in the Greco-Roman culture. So now you've got these slaves becoming Christians. So for the first time, they're feeling elevated. They're standing up straighter.

Their heads are lifted up, and they're thinking, I'm a child of God. I'm royalty. I'm going to rule and reign with Christ one day. Why am I obeying this knucklehead?

I'm a new person. If they would have rebelled in that system, that would have destroyed their Christian testimony. So Paul says, now that you're saved, you're called to a higher standard. Be a model slave. Be a model servant. Obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Okay, we who work, we who are hired by a company, we who sign a contract with any organization, we too are called to obey. When we go to work, we work for the company, that company owns your time. Your time. It's only according to the flesh, they don't own all your time. They don't own your thoughts, but they own your time. And you might think, oh, no, no, no, I'm at this job so I can preach the gospel. Good, good.

I hope you do. But that's not all you're called to do. And I bring this up because I work in a hospital. I worked in radiology for years, and I remember this one intern who was a young Christian, not an intern, he was an orderly, excuse me, so he would get the patients and bring them down to our department. And he was a young believer, very zealous, but he was always late and never brought patients down on time. And so I cordoned him off one day and I said, can I just ask you a question?

Of all the orderlies here, you are always late. He goes, yeah, but God's given me opportunity to preach to these people. I'm sharing the gospel with them. I said, I'm glad you are, but do it on your own time.

Clock out, and when you're on your own time, go back up to the room and share all you want. But when you're on this hospital's clock, you go get the patients and bring them down on time, because that's what they're asking you to do. You see, frankly, nobody's really going to listen to what you have to say unless you have a commitment to work. How you work will often determine what people think about God. So obey, obedience, that's the first part. Second, diligence.

Diligence. Look at verse 22. Bond servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, looking around to see if the boss is looking, as men-pleasers, you know, saying all the right things to butter him or her up, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

And whatever you do, verse 23, do it heartily, energetically. Listen, you ought to be the best worker your company has, simply, simply, because you are a Christian. That would be your best witness. Now, after this little incident with this orderly, I traveled overseas, came back, got a job at a different hospital in Orange County. And I remember going for the interview, and I was one of several people they were interviewing, and after my interview, the boss said, thanks, we'll call you. You know, I know what a brush-off is, so I knew that he's going to see 20, 30 applicants and make a decision. So I was about to leave the room, but I came back, and I said, before I leave, I just want to say one thing. If you hire me, if you hire me, I will be the best worker in this department that you have. And he sat up, looked at me like, nobody's ever said that to me before.

And he said, put the application, he said, you're hired. Well, now I had to perform, right? I just made a promise.

Now, my neck's on the line. So for the next weeks and months and years, I had to live up to that promise. But diligence goes a long way. Did you know that workers in America admit, this is research that is done, workers in America admit that they spend over 20% of their time at work goofing off?

You know what 20% is? That's a whole day in a work week. A whole day. You know, there's emails, and there's Instagram, and there's, you know, important things to do.

Instagram, and there's, you know, important things to do. So obedience, diligence. Third is reverence. Look at verse 22. It says, you do it heartily as to the Lord and not to man. So you got a boss.

The boss has given you grief and given you orders. Do it as to the Lord, not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. Now, whenever you do this, whenever you decide, I'm going to do my job as I'm doing it like I would be, I'm employed by God as unto the Lord, you are going to turn. It's transformational, by the way.

Guaranteed. It takes menial tasks and makes them noble tasks. I'm doing this paperwork for Jesus. I'm doing this unsavory job for Jesus. I'm going to do it because this would please the Lord. It is transformational. It makes menial tasks and turns them into noble tasks. By the way, let's just destroy this myth that has been going around for a long time, and that is sacred versus secular.

You may have heard that term. Well, this is my sacred life over here. I go to church and I do these things. Then here's my secular life. Ain't no difference. To be perfectly literate in English, ain't no difference. So what Paul is saying, your sacred life should be transferred to your secular environment. One and the same.

One and the same. Now, maybe you're thinking, Skip, you know, you can preach on this all you want, but you work at a church and you work around Christians, and besides that, you don't know my boss. My boss is tough. I'm glad you brought that up. Listen to this. This is 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 18. Servants, servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, that is, reverence, respect. Be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.

Word means crooked, perverse. Got any, I'm not going to ask you to show up hands. Ever worked for somebody like that?

I have. I worked in a different hospital, and my direct supervisor knew I was a Christian and tried on purpose every chance she got to make my life miserable. I would come in and I'd be whistling or singing a song. There's Monday morning, and she goes, nobody sings on Monday. Nobody should be allowed to sing on Monday.

I go, I do. She tried really hard to be oppressive. I had one of these bosses. And then years before that, when I worked on a farm in Israel, and it was already hard work. It was backbreaking, boring work. It wasn't what I was used to. It was not mentally stimulating. It was just grunt work, you know, I'm just kind of doing whatever they tell me to do.

And I was just kind of mentally stimulating. It was just grunt work, you know, I'm just kind of doing whatever they tell me to do. One of my friends who was with me from America on this farm, this kibbutz, had the bright idea. Well, let's, he said, let's all of us American volunteers, Christian volunteers, let's volunteer for the worst jobs on the kibbutz. He knew Passover was coming up, and every Passover they export chickens to different people around the land. And so the kibbutz asks people to, on top of their normal responsibilities, to come volunteer and work for no pay and losing a few hours of sleep. It's from about midnight to two in the morning to work putting chickens in crates and exporting.

It is nasty work, if you've ever worked in that environment. But he just thought, let's do that, let's all sign up. And so we all did. And I'll tell you what, I had to think, this is to the Lord, this is to the Lord, this is for the Lord, this is for Jesus, with every stinking chicken I grab.

It's the only thing that got me through. But you know what happened at the end of all that, because these Jewish people knew that we were young Christians from America, and they came to us after it was all said and done, they said, we'd like to meet with you guys. We have never seen Americans like you. We always thought Americans are soft and weak and they don't want to do hard work.

And here you guys signed up for the worst jobs. We know you have a faith in Jesus. We would like you to tell us what that is. They invited our testimony. They would not have, unless Randy signed us up for working with the chickens.

So he did. Obedience, diligence, reverence, finally, patience. Well, when am I going to get compensated?

When is somebody going to recognize me? Well, verse 24 tells you that. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. That's the positive, and here's the negative.

But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. In other words, you have a job and a boss and things aren't great. It's boring.

They're not recognizing you. You're not getting paid enough. You're overworked. You're underpaid.

That's just right now. Isn't it a comfort? I hope it is, that God keeps track of all that and will reward you. There'll be an eternal compensation coming your way.

He's going to settle accounts. I've always loved the story about the missionaries, husband and wife. They went to Africa.

They had gotten old. They were coming back to the United States, and they boarded a ship to come back to New York Harbor. Aboard the ship, coming back from Africa to the States was President Theodore Roosevelt. He had been in Africa also, but not as a missionary, obviously. He had been in Africa with his gun, hunting big game, just for a few days, shot a few animals, was coming home. He's on a boat, pulls into New York Harbor, tons of people in New York Harbor, fanfare, confetti, welcoming the president, not the missionaries, the president home. Clapping, bands playing, president comes off.

The couple goes to a cheap hotel room that night, and the old man says, it's just not right. We give our lives to save souls in the jungles of Africa. We have poured out ourselves. We have been spent. We come home and get nothing. This guy comes home and he gets fanfare, and his wife put her hand on his shoulder and said, sweetheart, we're not home yet.

We're not home yet. Now, when you get home, I bet the reward in heaven is going to be far better than any raise on earth or any promotion that you got or didn't get, much greater. So patience, obedience, diligence, reverence, patience. So we have two aspects, problem of enslavement, what was really going on in the New Testament era, the priorities of employment for those of us who work, and then third, the professional environment. And this is to the master.

Verse 1 of chapter 4, and we'll close here. Masters, give your bond servants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Single sentence, simple directive. That's the employer's task.

What is it? He is to provide an environment, a professional environment that is equitable, impartial, and fair. Equitable marketplace, impartial workplace. You see, according to Paul, when in this relationship of slave and master 2,000 years ago, if a master got saved, he has just placed a master above him. When a slave owner gets saved, he has just said, there is another will higher than my will that I must please and look after.

That's a change. See, before his salvation, he was the boss. Before his salvation, the buck stopped with him.

No longer, says Paul. You also have a master. Every master, every slave master in the New Testament who got saved was a slave of Christ. Romans 6 22, but now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life.

Now, as I wrap this up, there's just a couple things you should know. I mentioned that by New Testament times, as the Christian gospel kept penetrating, that slavery became less and less. Roman policy eventually relaxed. Rome realized that having happy slaves, contented slaves, they were more productive. They started treating them more leniently. Masters even taught slaves a trade and, in some cases, became close friends with their slaves.

And then, after a period of time, the Roman Senate granted slaves who were accused of crimes a right to a fair trial, and eventually, it was abolished altogether. Quick question. What if a slave and a lord, a master, both get saved?

Right? That's ideal, you would think. That's ideal. That's awesome, because you're going to be in church and there's no male, no female, no slave, no free. We're all one in Christ.

Yes, but that will have its own kind of possible problems as well, just in the same way it would have a problem today. Here's the problem. I think, my boss is a believer, and so am I. That means I can relax a little bit around him or her. That means I'm working for a Christian, because I'm working for a Christian. A brother, I can work a little bit less, because I don't have to worry about my testimony. He's already saved.

He's already a Christian. We're brothers. We can just sit around, have coffee, and discuss things. No, put in a full day's hard work, because doesn't it follow that if you, according to Paul, are going to serve somebody who isn't your brother in Christ, that you would certainly serve somebody who isn't your brother in Christ, that you would certainly serve somebody who is your brother in Christ? So, put it all together, because we're leaving this section for good. A new man, a new you, a new man makes a new home, and a new man makes a new work environment. Now, if all of us had the attitude that we studied in this few verses, it would be a powerful, and I'll even say shocking, testimony to an unsaved world.

It would go a long, long way. I want to close with something from the second century. Justin Martyr, one of the early church fathers, wrote that there were many people that were coming in contact with Christians, transformed men and women, the Christian church, and he says, and we'll put this on the screen, they were changed from violent, by their interaction, changed from violent tyrannical characters, either from having watched their Christian neighbors, or from having observed the wonderful patience of Christian travelers when they were overcharged, or from just doing business with Christians.

People were transformed by just contacting, at a professional level, doing business with Christians. So, here's my challenge to all of us. Let your work be the means by which you offer yourself to God to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Say that again. Let your work be the means by which you offer yourself to God to reach a world for Jesus Christ. In fact, I'm going to say it again, a third time, third time's a charm. Let your work be the means by which you offer yourself to God to reach the world for Jesus Christ.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. That's Skip Heideck with a message from the series, I Dare You. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages coming your way to connect you and many others around the world with God's Word. When we remember all that God has already done to fulfill His promises, it helps us to trust Him to fulfill every word in Scripture. And that's why we share these teachings, to encourage you to put your faith in God and follow Him with confidence. And we want to invite you to help keep these messages online and on the air so more friends like you can experience God's presence in their life as they keep growing in their faith.

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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzigs begins a message about how you can identify and nurture healthy relationships in your life. Solomon will write in Ecclesiastes chapter 4, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.

And then he even continues and says a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. So that means that the Christian life is a team sport. Christian ministry is a team sport. Serving the Lord is never a personalized endeavor, always a team sport. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.