God, The Center Of Your Vocation - Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. At least eight hours a day, most of us invest our energies in a job. What is the place of work in a Christian's life?

Some feel that life's race is a rat race, never moving, but not going anywhere. Today, teaching from Ephesians 6 on how to make the most of your vocation. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, we need jobs for income to support ourselves and our families, but there's a lot of uncertainty these days about job security. And you know, Dave, there always has been uncertainty about job security. By the way, speaking of vocation, I've written a book entitled Making the Best of a Bad Decision. And as I'm looking through the table of contents, I noticed that chapter six is entitled When You're in the Wrong Vocation and You Hate Going to Work. You're right about the uncertainty that people experience, oftentimes not only uncertainty but a very uncomfortable work environment.

How do we navigate that? Well, it is, of course, with God's wisdom. But I want to mention that for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. It's entitled Making the Best of a Bad Decision. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy so that you can write this down.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book, Making the Best of a Bad Decision. I think you would agree with me that there are millions of people today who do not enjoy their vocation. They don't enjoy it. And there are many reasons for it. One is boredom.

They have to do the same thing over again and again and again. Another reason is personal conflicts. It's difficult to work with some people.

Some people at work are not necessarily committed to your personal happiness. Insufficient pay. They don't get paid enough. They think that they're underpaid so they have to look for something better.

And then another reason why so many people are dissatisfied is because it's a bad match. Their aspirations and their gifts and their inclinations lie in one direction and their job lies in another direction. And therefore they get up early in the morning and they go to work and they come home. They are unfulfilled. Oftentimes they do as little as they possibly can simply to get by because to them they are just earning a living.

You've got to earn a living and that's it. Let me ask you a question. Is it possible for the United States to pull out of its moral and spiritual slump? Is it possible for us to recapture a great deal of religious emphasis in the United States by people turning to God and the possibility of a spiritual awakening that would be national?

Is that possible? I'd like to suggest to you today that it will not happen. It will not happen unless millions of Christians recapture a biblical view of the workplace. Unless we have a biblical view of work and understand it from the vantage point of God, we will never have the impact that we should have because there are millions of people today who will not listen to a preacher, who will not listen, who will not read a tract. They will not read the Bible and yet they work shoulder to shoulder with people who know Christ. And only if we have a biblical view of work can we turn this nation around.

You know, many people think that work resulted as a result of the fall. They think Adam fell into sin and lo and behold, work began. Well, it's true that after Adam sinned, you remember the Lord said that you shall till the ground and it shall have weeds and so forth. But long before Adam fell, what does the scripture say?

You shall be in the garden, you shall till it and you shall take care of it for me. Work is God's way of us doing his will. Peter Hammond did an extensive study of 40 different characters who are on the pages of the scriptures. People whom we normally admire, people from whose lives we learn a great deal.

He discovered something very interesting. Three quarters of them never had a religious job. They did not have a religious job. Joseph, for example, did not have a religious job. Not even David had a religious job.

Luke did not have a religious job. And yet here they are on the pages of scripture, all kinds of different vocations, about 85 different vocations mentioned in the Bible alone. And here, these people whom we admire, from whom we learn so much, most of them were not in the religious realm of work as we normally think of it.

I might say in passing that 10 of the 40 had prison records. That should be an encouragement to some of you. Whether it is Joseph who spent time in prison or Paul who spent time in prison, these are the kinds of people that God used so mightily. My dear friend today, the secular workplace is the best place to prove the reality of God, to prove the reality of God.

We must forever demolish the idea that just because there is a special call to the ministry, to pastors, and to missionaries and the like, even though that is something special, the fact remains that anyone in any secular vocation, unless it is a sinful vocation, anyone in a secular vocation can serve the Lord just as wholeheartedly, with just as much fervor, with just as much enthusiasm, and sometimes with just as many results. Now with that background, I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, we read, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. The Apostle Paul is talking about submission to one another.

You remember in chapter 5 verse 21, he said, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives are to submit to their husbands, and we talked about that in chapter 5. Now we get to chapter 6, Children are to obey their parents. I might say in passing that Paul does not expressly say that women should obey their husbands, though he does say that they should submit to them, but children are to obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy a long life on the earth.

Fathers do not exasperate your children. Instead bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. What a beautiful passage of Scripture, and if this were a series of messages on the home, I would preach on this, the relationship between fathers and their children. But we're going to move on today and notice that just as Paul said, Children, obey your parents, he says in verse 5, Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 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 the heart.

Wow. The apostle Paul says that the first attitude that a slave should have toward his master is an attitude of obedience. He mentions that word obey three times, three times in two verses.

Now, we read this, of course, from the vantage point of the 20th century, and we've got all kinds of problems. We say to ourselves, why is it that the apostle Paul did not simply come out and condemn slavery because we know slavery is so wrong? Well, for one thing, there were something like up to 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. And because there were so many in some cities, there were more slaves than there were masters. So it was not as if, you know, the slaves could rebel, slavery could be taken care of, and a new social order be brought in.

It couldn't happen that quickly. And the apostle Paul did not want the slaves to rebel because many of them came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and what he says is this. It is possible to exist in an unjust or unjust social order and still be a marvelous witness for Christ, even being a slave, you can represent Jesus Christ and you can do so effectively, not only in this life, but be rewarded in the life to come. There is no doubt that the apostle Paul's position was simply this, that he knew that the best way to bring about social change was not necessarily to impose new orders or new social legislation, though that is important. And we're all in favor of just laws. We're in favor of those laws that came as a result of the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield, laws that would not permit child labor, for example.

But at the same time, something like this that was this widespread, the only way that change could be brought about, really, is by the change of the heart. And then years later, Christianity would be the means by which slavery would be diminished eventually and eventually recognized to be the evil that it really is. But with that background, I want you to notice that the apostle Paul also not only talks to the slaves, but also to the masters. He says in verse 9, treat your slaves in the same way, that is, recognizing that you're accountable to God.

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. So Paul has a word for slaves, but he also has a word for masters and says, watch it, because God is looking out and there is no favoritism with God. Well with that background, I want us to examine then the three attitudes that the apostle Paul says slaves should have.

And then what we will do, of course, is to translate that into the employer-employee relationship that all of us face every single day of our lives. First of all, Paul says, obey them, an attitude of obedience. And then he goes on to say, actually, he explains that by saying, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear.

I need to pause there. Many of the slaves had masters who they rightly did fear because they were cruel masters. And of course, the apostle Paul would not have condoned cruelty. But what he's saying is, in the midst of your situation, which you cannot change, obey with reverence and fear.

Why? Because that's the attitude that you would have if you were serving Christ. And he says, obey your masters just as you obey Christ.

That's difficult for us to grasp, isn't it? And notice he says, do it with single-mindedness. Verse 6, obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is upon you, but like slaves of Christ.

Folks, at this point, we have to just pause and accept this into our souls. What Paul is saying is that if you're an employee, you should obey your employer as if he were Christ, as if he were Christ. Do you see that the apostle Paul is saying that it is in the midst of the reality of the workplace that we prove that God is real, that we prove our authenticity as Christians, and it is our responsibility to make our masters look good because ultimately we believe that we are doing it for Christ. We're doing it for Christ.

Now why is this important? Why did I say a moment ago that I don't think that the United States can be recaptured for the gospel unless we rethink and recapture a biblical view of work? Paul gives the reason for it in the book of Titus.

Listen. Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, and now listen very carefully, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our savior attractive. Paul says the reason that you should obey your master as if he were Christ is because you are making Christ look good.

You are making his teaching attractive. You do not do like the other workers do who say that because we are being underpaid I'm going to steal some of the things at work. I'm going to take some of the tools and I'm going to put them on my truck and I'm going to take them home.

I'm going to take some of the office supplies and I'm going to load them into my lunch kit or into my briefcase and I'm going to take these home because after all that would only be fair and just. That's the way the world does it. But you're not to be that way because you are a servant of Christ and you're to prove that you are different. I like the way the King James put that verse in Titus. It says to adorn the gospel, to adorn the gospel and that's your responsibility and mine in the workplace. So we do not fall into slander.

We do not join all of the complainers at the coffee clutch. We don't do it that way because we have a higher master. We have a higher responsibility and every piece of work that we do we do so well that it can be shown to Christ because that's who really is watching. We obey those who have the rule over us. You know and God prospers us in the midst of that I might add in very remarkable ways.

Some of you may say well I want to go into business for myself. You know Peter when he fished all night that was when he was in business for himself and then in the morning Jesus Christ came you remember and said take the nets and put them out into the deep and that isn't what you did. That was not wise fishing procedure and Peter probably thought to himself what does this preacher know about fishing? But nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net and it was so full that they needed another boat to help them with the fish.

Let me ask you a question. Do you and I so believe God when it comes to work? Do we so trust him that we believe if we are faithful he will meet our needs and we will obey to adorn the doctrine of Christ? Of course there's nothing wrong with getting a better job if you have the opportunity of doing so.

There's nothing wrong with joining a group that might complain about wages but remember that when you are doing that you are not simply representing your own need or your own rights. You are representing Christ. So Paul says first of all obey your master. Secondly he says you serve with obedience you serve with whole heartedness whole heartedness. You'll notice it says 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 the heart serve wholeheartedly again as if you were serving the Lord not men.

Wow. Did you catch that little phrase by the way doing the will of God from the heart? You say I always thought that only pastors and missionaries needed to worry about the will of God seeking that needle in the haystack. I thought that the will of God was for people who had good jobs that people who taught Sunday school but but not for me. Are you able to receive this into your soul today or do you resist what the Apostle Paul is teaching? That even slaves could look upon their responsibilities and wake up in the morning and say today I do the will of God.

This is God's will. Now you know of course that there are many slaves who were in jobs that were not according to their aptitudes. You know there are people today who say you can never really be happy unless you have exactly the right gift mix. Unless you know who you are and you have a job that is in line with your education your aptitudes your desires you'll never be fulfilled. I do have to say that I'm very privileged to have responsibilities that are in line with my desires and aptitudes but but in a sense those of us who can say that we are anomalies.

Most people can't. Most people say I hate this job because it is not where my heart is. You think that there were ever slaves who said I hate this job?

Of course there were. But what the Apostle Paul is saying is if Jesus Christ cannot change our attitude toward our job we have to call the power of the Lord Jesus Christ into question. You hate it because you're doing it for your boss. Can you learn to like it because you're doing it for Jesus? That's the question. I've often thought about this not just when I had to prepare a message on it and I thought to myself I'll bet well I'm a pastor. I venture to say that there were slaves who were really Michelangelo's but who never had the opportunity of fulfilling those dreams. There may have been slaves who were Newton's. They had a scientific mind. Oh how they desired to study the heavens and to study the science of the times whatever that might turn out to be. They desired to do that but they could not. They were slaves and they had no option. There may have been all kinds of gifted people like that maybe a Shakespeare among them and they were never allowed to write a single line of literature. And yet the Apostle Paul says there you are in a vocation you don't naturally like with a boss with whom you do not naturally click and you are doing the will of God do it from the heart.

You say well how can that be? Christianity does not offer an escape from circumstances. But Paul would say that the power of the gospel offers an opportunity to master those circumstances and to use even those circumstances for Christ.

You conquer those circumstances. Well this is Pastor Luther and of course I don't even have to mention to you that the issue of slavery is very controversial. The Bible does not approve of slavery but it humanizes it.

Of course that takes a much longer discussion. But the point that I want to make is that God was teaching us through Paul that no matter what our vocation is, we can serve God in it as long as we don't have to compromise our consciences. I've written a book entitled Making the Best of a Bad Decision. I wrote this book because I wanted people to understand that God does not abandon us even when we make terrible decisions.

As a matter of fact one of these times I'm going to be telling you about the worst decision ever made. But for now I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because here's how you can connect with us. You can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Once again I want to thank you in advance for helping us in this ministry.

As a result of people just like you, running to win is now heard in more than 20 different countries in four different languages. Click on rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has brought part one of God, The Center of Your Vocation, the 19th message in a series on Between Heaven and Earth, taken from Ephesians. Next time join us for some concluding thoughts on you and your job. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.