Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Your Work Matters to God, Part 32 of 45

TEXT: "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 as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free. 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" (Ephesians 6:5-9).

IDEA: We can find significance in daily work if we realize that our jobs are where we carry out the will of God for us.

PURPOSE: To help listeners feel the significance of their daily work.

We sometimes talk about "making a living." What is implied in that?

Is it possible to be glad you have a job but not see much significance in the job that you have? For example, in a recession, people get laid off, and they are glad for any work they can get.

I. It is sometimes helpful to start with hard cases to establish principles.

Do you think it would be difficult to convince a physician or a nurse that their jobs are significant?

Do you think it would be more difficult to convince people flipping burgers in a fast-food shop that their work was significant? Why?

II. When the apostle Paul talked about the significance of work for Christians, he made his strongest case when he wrote to slaves.

What do you know about slaves in the first century?

There were about 60 million of them in the Roman Empire.

Roman citizens felt that work was beneath their dignity, so they turned most work over to slaves.

Slaves did all kinds of work. They served as teachers, scribes, physicians, manual laborers, farmers. They were also the garbage disposal system. In some sense they resembled people in a modern economy.

Slaves had no rights before the law. Aristotle referred to them as "living tools." He argued that a free man would not have a slave as a friend any more than he would make a friend out of a hammer or a saw. Not everyone thought that.

The lot of the slave was not an easy one in the Roman society. Even though they did important work, they were still slaves.

III. Several times in the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes directly to slaves and gives them significance in their daily work:

Ephesians 6:5-9 – "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 as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free. 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."

Paul writes that Christian slaves were to do the "will of God" from the heart.

When you think of the will of God, what does that mean?

If God had a missionary map in heaven, where do you think he would put the pins or markers? Why?

Does "doing the will of God from the heart" have more to do with where we are or with how we serve?

How does thinking about doing "the will of God" where you work give your work significance?