Your Job and You #1

Your real challenge in your workplace environment is not the problems that you face or the conflicts that you might have from day to day with your employer. Your real challenge, your real call of God on your life is for you to master yourself, not to master your master. Have you ever thought of your job and employer in terms of what they can do for you?

If so, you've not asked the right question. Hello and welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and today Don begins a message titled, Your Job and You, as we continue our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. And Don, we often approach our jobs with a sense of entitlement, don't we?

Well we do, Bill, and my friend, you know it's possible that we do that without even really recognizing it. We're just so conditioned by our culture and by our environment and by our own selfish souls that we think about ourselves as we move into the workplace. But scripture points us in a different direction, to look at the self-sacrificial example of Christ and let our jobs be a place where we glorify Him by a cooperative spirit with those with whom we work. Listen in today as we study on the Truth Pulpit. Have your Bible open to Titus chapter 2 as we join Pastor Don Green now in the Truth Pulpit. What I want to show you this morning by way of introduction is the simplicity of the devotion that Christ calls us to. And we're looking at Titus chapter 2. What we're going to see is that the realm of your faithfulness does not require you to solve all of the problems in the world, to supply all of your funds for everybody that asks for them.

It's much, much simpler and it goes to things that are within the realm of your control. And your desire, your purpose, must be to be faithful to the One who has been faithful to you. And God has defined what that faithfulness looks like in His Word and it simplifies things. And so looking at Titus chapter 2 verse 1, I just want to read this passage that we're going to finish here today. Notice how, as we go through this one final time, notice how the Lord calls us to matters of character that are within our understanding and our control.

He says in chapter 2 verse 1, But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, purer, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored.

Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. Just a general observation about that is that the call to duty for a Christian is a call to manifest godly character. It's a call to be faithful to the relationships within the circle of our influence. That is the primary starting point of faithfulness.

It simplifies things in the complexity that the world tries to impose upon us, and it's very practical as well. Now as we go into today's text, verses 9 and 10, we're going to see that the Scriptures become imminently practical in terms of what they call upon us in our daily lives. All of us that have employment of one kind or another come under the umbrella of what the Lord says to us through His Word here in verses 9 and 10 here this morning, and the simplicity of it points out something that I want to kind of introduce it with this.

That your real challenge in your workplace environment is not the problems that you face or the conflicts that you might have from day to day with your employer. Your real challenge, your real call, the real call of God on your life is for you to master yourself, not to master your master. You're not to exercise dominion over those who have authority over you. Rather, you are to master yourself, master your heart, master the response that you make, and honor Christ by the way that you respond to the authority that's over you.

That simplifies things. That's the starting point of living out a godly life Monday through Friday. The apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.

As a preliminary observation in terms of what we're dealing with here, not only for our own personal lives but how we can counsel and encourage one another, notice the comprehensive nature of what is written here. There are not a lot of exceptions woven into this. In fact, there aren't any that are expressed in this passage. Notice verse 9, Urge the bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything. Verse 10, Not pilfering but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect, in everything, in every respect, this is comprehensive. And I plead with you as you hear the word of God here this morning, to check your heart as you're reading this and not immediately set up barriers or exceptions that apply to you, realize that the intent of this passage is to be a comprehensive approach to how you deal with those in authority over you in the workplace. And what we see in this passage, and there's so much that needs to be said on this one next sentence that I'm going to say, being a Christian does not exempt you from the obligations that society has in its relationships. The fact that you are a Christian does not somehow exempt you from the responsibilities of being a good employee to your employer. Rather, to the contrary, it calls you to an even higher standard than the world around you.

It calls you to be faithful in that and not only to be faithful but to have an attitude that is worthy of the love that you have for Christ. And so the reason that I say that is that it is just too common for Christians, and I don't know any of you in your workplace environment, and so it's easy for me to state this as a principle and whether this puts an arrow in your heart is up to the Holy Spirit or not. It is far too common for Christians to approach their workplace with a sense of entitlement, of selfish entitlement. I don't think they even think this way, but I've seen it so often in so many circumstances that I'm convinced that it is a major problem in workplaces, both secular and in Christian workplaces. Christians approach their work with the sense that having received grace from God, they are entitled to demand it from men. They're entitled to demand it, and they think this way unconsciously, but there's an expectation that God has been so gracious to me that I expect you to be gracious to me as well. Well, that's exactly the wrong attitude. You should think about life in precisely the opposite way. You should think about life from the perspective that having received favor from God, you should therefore be under obligation to give favor to men. It's not for you to demand it.

It's for you to give it, and that plays out in your workplace relationships, as we will see. Having read the passage, let me just say a brief word about slavery in the first century world that provides the backdrop for what Paul is saying. Paul's not directly addressing modern employment relationships as we know them today, although the principles apply, and it's important for us to realize that slavery in the first century was different than the American experience with slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It's a totally different situation. Legally speaking, in that society, in that culture, a slave was a thing, although a person, a living human being, he was a thing without rights that could be bought or sold, meaning that the slave could be bought or sold and that he had no legal rights of his own. And to our American mindset, that sounds really foreign to the way that we think about ourselves. But slaves in the Roman Empire, by one estimate, were about 20 percent of the population. There was 20 percent of the population in that great city that was without any legal rights.

They were someone that their master could buy or sell at his whim and pleasure. And so there is a difference there than what our modern employment experience is. They had it a whole lot worse than we do in our workplace experience. And so as you're hearing what's about to come, you have to realize that Paul was calling on people in more difficult situations with fewer rights than what you have in your workplace and calling them to this great standard.

Now, if you're in a situation where you voluntarily entered into your employment relationship, you accepted the terms of your employment, the obligation for you to be like what Paul describes here is of even greater import. Now, having said that, it's easy in some circles for the conditions of slaves in the first century to be exaggerated for the sake of effect today. The truth of the matter is that there were slaves in every manner of level of society. There were those who were abused. There were those who were mine workers, for example, who by very nature of being slaves in the mine were expected not to have a long lifespan because they were just used like cattle and the intention was to use them until they died and then there'd be the next slave up. And so for those, the slavery was a system of abuse. But in the first century, there were also slaves at other levels of society.

There were teachers, there were doctors, there were municipal workers that were in this slave status and so their daily life was often better than their legal status would have suggested that it would be. And so when Paul was talking to slaves, here's what's important for us today, he was talking to those across a broad spectrum of society with no legal rights but with different socioeconomic factors influencing their daily life but all of them sharing this one common trait, they were under the authority of a master who had absolute control over them. The principles of the Gospel had immediate moment-by-moment effect on their lives and it's the same way for us as we enter into our jobs day by day. And what I want you to see out of that, so many things I want you to see out of that, but what I want you to see is that the Bible is practical, not theoretical and that being a Christian brings obligations on the way that you live and it brings obligations on the attitudes that you bring to the relationships around you. There is no such thing as a truly converted person who has instantly changed in all of his relationships. The whole perspective changes. And so there's no such thing as walking an aisle, making a verbal profession of Christ and then going back and living the exact same way that you did. Conversion, salvation, true Christianity changes everything. And we see that expressed in verses 9 and 10 in the specific area of the workplace relationship.

I'm going to give you four points for this morning. The first point, if you're going to take notes, is I just want you to see the general principle in the marketplace for Christians. The general principle. And the general principle is this, is that God calls you to a life of submission under the authority of the one in your workplace. Look at verse 9 with me. He says, urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything.

What follows predominantly in the rest of verse 9 and verse 10 is simply an application of that general principle. We need to look at this aspect of being subject to their own masters in everything. Paul is telling us that in the workplace, to be subject means that you accept your position, you recognize and honor the authority of the one, of your supervisor, of your boss, whoever it is that's over there. You recognize that authority and you honor it. You bring a spirit of compliance, a spirit of obedience to that relationship.

It may be that that boss is unkind, is unworthy of that respect and authority, but as we're going to see, that is irrelevant to you. That is irrelevant to the way that you live because this principle of obedience, this principle of submission is not predicated on the worth of your human master. It is predicated on the supreme authority and worth of the one who in scriptures calls you to this standard. This is the command of God upon your soul. This is what God calls you to in your employment relationship to be subject to your own masters in everything. Now, think with me for a moment. I'm not going to turn to all of the passages that we could in this.

There's just one that I would have you turn to. Turn to Titus chapter 3, verse 1. What you must understand is that the principle of submission in the Christian life, submission to authority, to God-ordained authority, is woven throughout the entire existence of a Christian. Here's the point, beloved. Pay attention here, as well as every other thing that I say today. When you say pay attention here, you kind of diminish everything else by comparison. I've got to stop doing that.

But this is really important. You cannot object to the principle of submission without objecting to the whole nature of what God calls Christians to be. It's in every aspect of life. Look at Titus chapter 3, verse 1. He says, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.

Be subject to authorities. You know, in different places, in Romans 13, God calls us to be subject to the governing authorities. In Ephesians 5, verse 21, he tells people within the church to be subject to one another. He tells wives, a verse later, to be subject to their own husbands. And you can go on and you can find this illustrated in many other places, this attitude, this principle of submission. And we should recognize with one another, and I don't know, I have no idea who needs to really hear this, but we should recognize that the self-assertive principle that operates in our culture, that spirit of rebellion that loves to flout against rules, that loves to flout against common moral standards, that proclaims their rebellion, that calls you to be your own man, be your own woman.

Question authority, as the bumper stickers often say. We must understand and recognize that that is absolutely satanic and contrary to the spirit of the New Testament. We serve a Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, who submitted to the will of his Father. If the eternal Son of God could submit to the will of his Father and enter into human flesh in order to accomplish his mission of dying for sinners, of dying for his church, then it's only right and proper for us to adopt that same spirit of submission, that same sense of honoring authority, just as Christ honored the authority of his Father even though he was co-equal with him as God, then it's right and proper for us as Christians to honor the authority that God sees fit to place over us as well. And that's what Paul is addressing here in Titus.

This is a general principle. God calls Christians to a life of submission, of subjection. An angry, contentious, argumentative person eventually forfeits his right to claim to be a Christian. And in the workplace, which is the passage that's in front of us, an angry, argumentative, abusive, uncooperative person is sinning against God regardless of the kind of authority that is over him.

We have to be different. This is the call of God on our lives. This is the general principle that the Scriptures call us to us. Recognize the authority of your master, of your boss, and obey it.

That's the call of God on your life. Now, Paul, graciously, wisely, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, goes on and explains what he means by that. He doesn't leave us to guess what that might look like. And so that brings us to our second point. We've seen the general principle of submission.

Here in the workplace, Paul gives us the second point, which is the specific application, the specific application of the point. What does submission look like in the workplace? What does it look like for one under the authority of a master? Well, first of all, as we see in verse 9, if you're taking notes, you can write this down. God commands you to please your boss and don't argue with him.

Please your boss, don't argue with him. This is the plain words of Scripture. Look at verse 9 with me here, where he says, Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything.

Whoa, Paul, that sounds pretty serious. What do you mean by that? Can you expand on the point?

He says, sure, I'll be happy to. I know I'm writing this under the inspiration of God, so let me tell you what I mean by that. What I mean by subjection is to be well pleasing, not argumentative. So please your boss, don't argue with him.

This is a very practical outworking of what it looks like. Here's the point. Your job as a Christian employee, whether you're working for a secular company or a Christian employer, God calls you to please your boss. That's your job, is to please your boss with what you do. Your job as a Christian worker is to make your boss happy with a good attitude.

And if you're going to do that, you have to abandon that sense of entitlement. I was blessed when I worked out in California and I had a little bit of supervisory responsibility. I was blessed to have many Christians who lived this way in our workplace. It made for a sweet environment in which to work.

Over the years, there were enough illustrations of people who sweetly come to mind who weren't like that. They stood out like a sore thumb. They wanted to be the boss. They had better ideas.

They wanted to do it their way and they got angry when they didn't get their way. It happens in a Christian environment, it happens in a secular environment. What you need to make is the commitment of your heart. You've got to think about this in one sense. You've got to think about this in isolation. You've got to think about it in solitary.

You've got to think about it alone in the presence of God, just thinking about how you want to live before God. Forget about your boss, forget about your employment, forget everything else, and just realize that your primary duty of loyalty is the Lord Jesus Christ who saved you. And when you start to think about your workplace environment, you ask yourself, okay, Lord, what is it that you want from me? Well, what he wants from you is expressed right here.

I want you to be a kind of person, not to generate a particular result. He wants us to be a particular kind of person in the workplace. And so as you carry out your duties, you should have in your mind that you're doing this with a positive desire to please your employer. You think about your job as a Christian, not primarily as the employer who has things that you might want to be a certain way or not. Your primary responsibility to Christ is to please your boss.

And as you please your boss, you're pleasing Christ, even if there doesn't seem to be any other spiritual context to it. Look over at Ephesians chapter 6. This is one of the five passages that I alluded to that address this.

And as we go through the rest of this message, something should impress itself upon you. The Bible only has to say something one time for it to be completely authoritative and true and to engage the fullness of your intention. If the Bible says something twice, there's an emphasis there. If the Bible says it five times, God is shouting at us to pay attention that this is something that is crucial to Him. Five times we see this principle repeated.

We're going to look at all of them before the end of the message. And so you're to view your work as service to Christ, not your human boss, and that means that you do it in a spirit of cooperation. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 5. Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will, render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

See, it's the principle that applied whether you were slave or free. He's saying serve, be obedient to your masters, do it with a pleasing attitude, do it with sincerity, with fear and trembling, and have the mind that you're doing this ultimately because this is what Christ calls you to, not simply purely for the horizontal perspective of your human boss. In today's culture, submission has almost come to be a dirty word.

It offends our delicate sensibilities. Sadly, that's a sure sign of our fallen rebellious nature. God's word points us back to an attitude in line with his perfect will. Pastor Don Green will conclude his message, Your Job and You, on our next broadcast. Join us then on The Truth Pulpit. Right now, though, Don's back here in studio with some closing words.

Hi, friend. Let me give you just a closing word of encouragement as we wrap up today's broadcast. I know that many of you have found us for the first time on Christian radio, and that's wonderful, but I also realize that sometimes your schedules don't let you work around the broadcast schedule. We have made it possible for you to be able to still get The Truth Pulpit on a regular basis. We have a broadcast of each radio broadcast that you can find, and you can have it automatically delivered to your favorite listening device. If you go to our website, you can find a link to the podcast, sign up for it, and be sure to catch every episode. Here's Bill to help you find it. Just visit thetruthpulpit.com, where you can also learn more about this ministry. Once again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time when Don Green presents more from The Truth Pulpit.