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Honoring & Serving One Another
55 Plays3 months ago
1 Tim. 6:1-2
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Transcript
Pastor's Highway Encounter
00:00:01
Speaker
One busy weekday, a pastor was driving to an appointment, and he came upon an 18-wheeler in the right-hand lane of a two-lane highway. He thought this could be problematic, but what was more troublesome was there was another 18-wheeler in the left lane, and they happened to be side by side, one not going faster than the other. And this pastor was in such a rush to do well pastoral things. And so he lovingly did what any normal male driver would do. He began swerving to the left and to the right to try to get in view of this 18-wheeler. Is there somebody in front of this 18-wheeler? Why is he going so slow?
00:00:56
Speaker
Perhaps he doesn't see me. Maybe I should just flash the lights a couple of times. Nothing. Maybe I should honk the horn. Maybe he just doesn't know I'm back here.
Unexpected Police Encounter
00:01:07
Speaker
So he honks the horn quite a few times. Oh, I see some of you have been in this situation before. Eventually, the 18-wheeler speeds up. And the one in the right lane slows down, and they both get over in the right-hand lane. And there's nothing but open highway. And boy, the pastor says, now's the time for me to make up lost time. And so as he speeds past the 18-wheelers, he realizes there's the reason everybody was going slow. This officer right there.
00:01:42
Speaker
Lights go on, sirens go on, this pastor gets pulled over. Nervous, he's sitting there looking in the rearview mirror when all of a sudden a wave of relief and comfort comes over him as he realizes the officer walks up, happens to be a member of the congregation. So as he rolls his window down, instead of saying good morning, officer, what did I possibly do wrong, he says this, well hi brother Frank, my brother in Christ, how are you doing today?
Christianity and Life Challenges
00:02:20
Speaker
And friends, what the pastor did was what many of us do all the time. We expect our situation to change because our status has changed.
00:02:34
Speaker
We expect our situation to somehow be dictated because our status has changed in Christ. In other words, we think now that we're a Christian, somehow we're free of possibly our obligations, possibly unpleasant situations. The truth is, friends, most of us, when we come when we become a Christian, it's not some dramatic change. The clouds don't part and the angels don't sing audibly anyhow for us. We don't suddenly have a new job or better pay or higher salary or better living condition. That unbelieving boss we had on Friday is still the unbelieving boss we have on Monday. The only thing that's changed, friends, is you and I.
00:03:33
Speaker
Christ calls us to extend his kingdom from the current place you and I are at, the current situation that you and I are undergoing. Whether it be a student, a mother, a clerk, a farmer, becoming a Christ follower does not release you from your obligations, nor does it promise a release from your unpleasant situations. This is what we're going to see today in our scripture that while becoming a Christian does have benefits, what it really does for us is it calls us to a higher standard of living in all situations and all relationships. One of those relationships we're going to look at today, we're going to start with Christian slaves and their Christian masters.
00:04:20
Speaker
Second, we're going to look at Christian slaves and their Christian masters. And third, we're going to look at you and I. What does this mean to you and I today? How are we to live in the service of others? For us to understand our passage today, which I know many of you are looking at your outline and you're thinking there's something wrong. The pastor has left off a digit. because there's only two verses we're covering today. Friends, this is what the rest of the evangelical church does Sunday after Sunday. They normally only preach one or two verses. The reason why we're only preaching two verses today is because this is one teaching unit today, and you'll see as we uncover.
Historical Context: Roman Slavery
00:05:00
Speaker
What we have to understand, and I get it, when we hear this term slave, many of us cringe.
00:05:08
Speaker
And the reason we cringe with slave and the reason we don't associate with this term is because of how it's been practiced and witnessed in the American culture. Friends, let me reassure you that in Jesus' time, in Rome, in Corinth, in Ephesus, get this number. 50 to 60 million people were slaves. One out of every three people was a slave. It's not the slavery that you and I are accustomed here in America. Slavery was not necessarily an involuntary act. Many people in indentured themselves or placed themselves into servitude simply to pay off a debt.
00:05:57
Speaker
Some people place themselves into servitude because, well, that master provided them structure and security. And so they willingly went in to slavery. They also, get this, they went out of slavery. And sometimes they went back into slavery many times. Very few slaves did this their entire life. We very rarely see in the Bible old slaves. Most of them were freed by the age of 30. So this is the context of what Paul is telling Timothy here in this new church that's formed in Ephesus. He says there's going to be people that are both masters and slaves.
00:06:44
Speaker
and slaves that are now free. This is the congregation that's made up in Ephesus. And no doubt, this new Christian freedom that the slaves have received, and they're hearing this message being preached that we're all equal in Christ. We're all brothers and sisters in Christ. This would have added to attention. Imagine if you will, you're a slave. And you show up on Sunday morning and your master, who has been barking orders to you all week long, is now sitting in the pew right next to you in the church in Ephesus. And you're like, hey, my brother, it's good to see you. As a master, that might be a little off-putting. Paul understands this. This is the context of what's going on this morning in this church.
00:07:39
Speaker
There's this potential for a stressful relationship that may boil over if Paul doesn't tell Timothy, this is how we are going to address this. And he starts in verse one of chapter six and he says this, all slaves should show full respect for their masters. Why? So that, or yours might say, for the purpose of not bringing shame upon the name of God in his teaching.
00:08:11
Speaker
but These opening verses are very specific advice to those who would serve under non-Christian masters. this would be a When you hear this today, when I say slave or master, just think yourself as a slave and the master is your boss at work. So Paul's saying to Timothy, here's some very specific, real, tangible ways that you and I as slaves should interact with our unbelieving non-Christian bosses. He says we ought to respect them. This word is the same word honor that we saw when he talked to elders and widows. It's the same word when he said pastors should be shown double honor.
00:08:58
Speaker
He's saying here that you're showing them respect even when they don't deserve it. I don't know about you, friends, when I work for a great boss or I have a great teacher, man, I can respect them all day long. I love working for people like that, that treat you right. But he says, even if they don't treat you right, you should show them honor.
00:09:26
Speaker
Even if they put you down, you are to show them respect. Even if they're unfair, you should still show them respect.
Christian Behavior in the Workplace
00:09:34
Speaker
in the And the reason we should do this, he says, is so that you don't blaspheme, is really this word, that you may not tarnish God's reputation. What happens, friends, is sometimes when we become Christians, We somehow ah have this other other than worldly attitude. Let me explain. Sometimes what what we do is we think now I'm all about prayer and missions and soul winning. And I can't really be bothered with those menial tasks that everybody else has to do.
00:10:16
Speaker
I'm on fire for the Lord. That's all that matters. I don't care what my boss says. That's nonsense. He's dealing in the temporal. I'm all about the eternal. That's what we often do when we first become Christians. New Testament scholar Philip Townsend says this, I love this, He says, this happened to him in military in England. He said, several of us, including Frank and Eric and my good pal Blandon is this guy's name. He said, all of us were recently became Christians and we fully knew we were baby Christians. He said, but in our enthusiasm to serve Christ, we somehow concluded that we were no longer going to concern ourselves with shining our boots or pressing our uniforms.
00:11:07
Speaker
That was for the other military guys. He concludes our superiors, however, had another thing coming. They quickly connected our newfound faith to our sloppy appearance. And he says, friends, in a small corner of the world, Christianity was in danger of being linked with insubordination. the way they acted, the way they held themselves spoke poorly upon Christ. Something like this, friends, is what's going on in Ephesus. He says non-Christian masters now have this interaction with their slaves, and these slaves who have now become Christians are no longer functioning the way they should. They're no longer serving like they used to. Now they're disrespectful. Now they're unprofitable.
00:12:03
Speaker
And he says, don't do this, Timothy, tell them don't do this because by their actions, their masters are now going to say, those Christians are all the same. They're lazy. They don't want to do the hard work now. All they talk about is heaven.
00:12:24
Speaker
He says, you've got to be very careful about equating your spiritual status with your social hierarchy.
00:12:37
Speaker
He says just because we're all the same spiritual status now in Christ doesn't mean that you can just somehow stop listening to your boss. Instead he says you must work hard and you must honor and respect him Not because he deserves it, because you're doing it for the sake of God. You're doing it for God's reputation. His very reputation is on the line. So so what is our motivation to work hard and serve your Christian boss on Monday when you show up and they don't deserve that respect? God's honor. You're doing it for the sake of God.
00:13:20
Speaker
You're doing it, I like Alistair Begg said, to make Christianity attractive. You show up on Monday morning and your boss is just, boy, they are laying into you and you're just thinking to yourself, things are unfair. I'm tired of being treated this way. That other company wouldn't treat me that way. Let me tell you what, yes, they will. Because that other company is full of unbelieving bosses just just like yours. He says, however you should treat your boss, even in that very unpleasant situation, in such a Christian way that they go, wow Christianity is kind of attractive. It almost seems like the worse I treat this guy, the harder he works.
00:14:07
Speaker
How many of y'all remember gym class in school?
00:14:13
Speaker
jim Now, this is not the gym you guys have today, kids. um I apologize. This illustration may go over your head a little bit. See, in gym class that we had, you actually had to do exercises. There was a day committed to push-ups. It was push-up day. If you were like me, you would come into gym and you'd, well first they'd have a big rope hanging from the ceiling and you were excited. Ooh, today's rope climbing day. No, today was pushup day. And you got in lines, you remember this, everybody got in lines, and the coach stood in front, up, down, up, down, right? This is the way it worked, because when he was over here, Loretta up and down, and Loretta's,
00:14:57
Speaker
Right? And he's looking this way, but everybody over here is doing what? They're just staying like this. They're not doing the push-up. Then when he comes over here, Michael begins pushing up. All these people are over here because they're they're out of the eyesight of the coach. Some employees act like this. They're all push-up when the boss is around, when the boss is watching. But when the boss doesn't watch, boy, they They're quick to hang out in the break room. And I get it, cigarettes are not a thing. But you ah you know back in the day when cigarettes were a thing, it was a cigarette break. This is where everybody went. They went out and had a cigarette. When I worked with guys in the IT t field in the early 90s, you might get out of an eight-hour day one good hour of work out of them, the other seven that were smoking cigarettes.
00:15:53
Speaker
They were away from the eye of their boss and they had no energy, no enthusiasm, no heart. And friends, dare I say, no respect. So the effect of this conduct is devastating, not only to the place you work at because you're not really working.
00:16:13
Speaker
It says it's devastating to the gospel.
00:16:18
Speaker
The place where we work at for most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, is the only opportunity where we get to share the gospel with somebody. Kids, when I say work, I mean at school too for you guys. When you go to school, that's your sphere of influence. That's your opportunity to show people your Christianity.
00:16:40
Speaker
What a better testimony it is that you live in such an attractive way that no matter how bad things are going in your life, You just show up and serve.
00:16:56
Speaker
I like this. Chuck's a adult. He just says this. you got love I love Chuck just because he just, maybe because I've wired a little bit like
Balancing Faith and Professional Life
00:17:04
Speaker
him. He's just so matter of fact. He says, things aren't going well. Suck it up. Serve. Things aren't going great. Guess what? Serve. Serve with the passion that people look at you and go, there's something different about them. Boy, they're serving with a different motivation. Instead, what we tend to do, friends, frankly, as Christians is we think we're above that. We're above work. We're above hard work. And what we do when we do that and we're lazy is we give our boss ammunition to say, ah, that Christianity.
00:17:47
Speaker
Phewy. Who wants to be a Christian just so I can be lazy? So I can be indignant? So I can tell my boss, you don't own me? Christ owns me? I heard somebody in Crewe tell me that one time. You know, Crewe is that college thing. You don't own me? God owns me. Well, that's great until you go to work on Monday morning. God's with you, but guess what? You have a human boss as well. Better learn to serve them. and we do it for the sake of God. Adorn God in your workplace, make the teaching about God, your savior, more attractive, you do it for his sake and his sake alone. All right, so that's how you interact with a non-Christian boss. What about a Christian boss? Well, he goes on here in verse two and he says, well, if your master or your boss is a believer, he says there's no excuse for being disrespectful.
00:18:45
Speaker
Those slaves should work all the harder because their efforts are helping other believers who are well loved.
00:18:57
Speaker
My wife had a fabulous boss in in a past district. Not that she doesn't have a fabulous boss now. Please, please hear me. She had a great boss, and what made this lady fantastic wasn't that um she was organized because she was. It wasn't that she was a great administrator because that's what she was. It wasn't that she took a liking to Kim personally. That's helpful, but that wasn't the reason. It was because in totality, this lady, um the overarching umbrella was she was a Christian. She was a believer.
00:19:33
Speaker
And so there was this special bond, if you will, um between them. It's something fantastic to have a Christian boss. Let me just tell you that. And if you are a Christian boss, let me tell you, there is a certain level of responsibility that you have to those who are underneath you, whether they're believers or unbelievers. There's just a certain blessing that comes from dealing with unbelieving workers.
00:20:02
Speaker
He says here that you're supposed to love and honor one another. He says those who are believing masters are not to show less respect because they're a brother or a sister. You know how you can show somebody less respect in that regard? You just look back to my illustration at the beginning. Say, and this wasn't the case, but just say, I was speeding through Cameron and Stephen Hoddle pulled me over. Hey, brother Stephen. Whoo, you know what, let me tell you what was really, my pedal got stuck, my foot wasn't on it, it's really not, you know ah hey i am I gonna see you on Wednesday at that Bible study class? See what I'm doing is I'm taking what is a spiritual equality where we're all one in Christ and I'm now trying to overlay that in a social hierarchy.
00:21:00
Speaker
Stephen has a job to do as the police officer.
00:21:08
Speaker
If I didn't hold him in regard that way, if I didn't say, oh you're a police officer, rather I'd rather have you as my brother in Christ, I'm dishonoring him. I'm disrespecting him. He holds a certain position and hopefully I never run into that situation where I have to be in front of him that way. Paul says,
00:21:34
Speaker
the real problem with going on in Ephesus, obviously here in this church, not only do you have a slave and master, which are now on this level playing field, what appears to be going on from the text is there's some level of disrespect happening between the master and the slave in the church context. it's It's an attitude that says, hey, you're my brother in Christ, why are you now giving me orders?
00:21:59
Speaker
He says we've got to be real careful in this regard. When we're in the church, it's one thing. When we're outside the church, it's something completely different. Paul gives us three reasons why Christian slaves should show respect or honor for their believing bosses. It says the first is we're not to take advantage of them. First off, because they're believers. We treat them differently because they are a believer.
00:22:26
Speaker
They're loved, they're looked upon not just as our master but because they are a fellow believer. It doesn't give us an opportunity to rebel or to treat them poorly or to not work as hard. As a matter of fact, I like my translation. It says you should work all the harder.
00:22:49
Speaker
How often do you go into work thinking today's the day I'm going to work twice as hard as I did yesterday?
00:22:58
Speaker
Don't you know that Christian bossiers, they have an obligation, but wouldn't it be great if you made their job a little easier by showing up to work and working really hard? Because what does that do for them? That not only shows everybody else who's an unbeliever who works for them, wow, look, all Christians work hard.
00:23:23
Speaker
Are you somebody, I put a note in here, are you a hard worker?
00:23:28
Speaker
And then I put when no one's around.
00:23:33
Speaker
but I don't know about you. I work really hard when there's a group of people. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's a competition thing. I don't know if I just, I feel obligated to work really hard. When it's just me sitting in the office by myself, it's tough sometimes to really work hard. It says the best thing we can do is we can love our Christian boss and show them that we love them by working twice as hard. I love this Warren Wiersby. He says, I recall counseling a young lady who resigned from a secular job to go work at a Christian organization. And he said in about a month in, she was completely disillusioned. She told Warren, she said, I thought things were going to be all heavenly and angelic. But instead, my boss continual continually tells me what to do.
00:24:28
Speaker
And he said, Are you working just as hard for your Christian boss as you did your non-Christian boss? And he said the look on her face provided the answer. And he said, you don't need my counsel, and you need the Bible, and you need to have a one-on-one conversation with your boss. And you need to apologize for not working twice as hard.
00:24:54
Speaker
Friends, this is the message that you and I have today. What do we do with a message like this? This is what I walk through all week long. What do we do with the message? it First off, is it relevant today in our society? Since we don't really have slaves and masters like like they used to do, it isn't relevant, and I say it sure is. Because I think too often we get heavenly minded. This theologian Simon Robinson says, you and I as believers, we we shouldn't be too heavenly minded. We should be rather somebody who is grounded and able to be used for earthly purposes. What he means here is you show up to work as a Christ follower, that's the first thing. Bless you.
00:25:43
Speaker
Your first task when you show up on Monday morning is you have a job to do, but you're doing that job as a Christian. Does that make sense? Your first job isn't a grocery-sacker if that's what your profession is. When you show up, you're not a grocery-sacker who just also happens to be a Christian. You're a Christian who is just so happens to be a grocery-sacker. Does that make sense? It's the priority and prioritization of what we do.
00:26:13
Speaker
How do we do this in our workplace today? Just two quick ideas here. We have the opportunity to share the gospel, to share the good news with our colleagues and our employers. And that really is an opportunity. It's a privilege, if I can use that word. It's something that not everybody does, frankly. but we're all called to do. So whether you work of at the school or you go to school, you have a sphere of influence. and And what we're commanded to do is to share the gospel to those people that you meet every day. And where this becomes tricky for you and I is we don't know necessarily who those lost people are. There may very well be some people you think, oh, that person's saved.
00:27:11
Speaker
you'll never know until you present them the gospel message to which you say I'm not real confident doing that pastor that's why we hired you thankfully On Wednesday night, starting in August, third week in August, we're gonna have a course called evangelism, and and it's called evangelism and doctrine. And so I wanna clarify just quickly what that is. It is a class that will help you understand what you understand and why you understand it and how you convey that to somebody in the gospel message.
00:27:46
Speaker
regardless if they're your co-worker, regardless if they're Jewish, regardless if they're Muslim or they're Church of Christ or LDS or Mormon or whatever name they want to give themselves these days. it It enables you to feel confident talking to people and in talking to them, taking a regular conversation and turning that into a spiritual conversation and then provide you an opportunity to share the gospel.
00:28:14
Speaker
We have a real opportunity, a privilege to do that at work and at home and at school. Where this hurts us, pay attention real quick, where this hurts us, frankly, is if we're lazy or unreliable at work, or we're gossippers at work, we undermine the message that we're trying to convey. So that person says, oh, you know, that Frank, he is just a slacker. That guy just, you know, every chance he gets, he's not working hard. Well, then Monday morning Frank comes in, hey, I want to share the gospel with you. How many people are going to be receptive to that message? If Frank is the lazy guy, there's a real hindrance to the message if we don't
00:29:01
Speaker
properly come to it. We don't want to be a hindrance. We want to be somebody who proclaims it, and I love this, sometimes by words. Your job is to proclaim the gospel, sometimes using words. What does that mean? It means just by the way you live, you should be showing people the gospel. Sometimes you may have to use words and tell them, oh hey, do you know why I live the way I live? Hey, your grandmother just died. I would be wrecked. Why do you seem like things are going okay for you? Well, let me share why I have hope in Christ.
00:29:40
Speaker
It's opportunities like that that we have to share the message. The unbeliever looks to their situation. The believer looks to their Savior. The unbeliever looks at their situation and goes, how in the world am I ever going to get out of this? The believer doesn't look at their situation. They look at their Savior.
00:30:04
Speaker
i put I put this just, and i have ah i have ah ah I'll be completely transparent. I have a a super hard time scrolling through Facebook sometimes and reading people's comments. Christian people's comments. Because I go, really, where is your faith lie?
00:30:26
Speaker
Why are you so down in the dumps of your current situation? And I'm friends, I'm not telling you that the throws of life come upon you and you just walk around like, haha, nothing's wrong, I'm so happy all the time. No, but it says that our joy is found in that suffering, knowing that it will produce in us all these fantastic things.
00:30:50
Speaker
Don't look to your situation, look toward the Savior. Serve Him in such a way in your job and at school that people take notice and go, hey, you know
Living to Glorify God in All Settings
00:31:00
Speaker
what? Christianity, that's kind of attractive. that's They're doing things kind of different. Wow, the Methodists aren't even doing that. What's going on in that Baptist Church?
00:31:14
Speaker
I put a note here. You'd be surprised if you invite somebody to church how many people will turn you down. I have never had one person who's just flat out said, you know what, I'm not gonna come. Thanks for that invitation. But you'll never know until you invite somebody. Hey, you wanna know more about God? You wanna know kind of what drives me and what I do? You gotta come to church on Sunday. You gotta come on Wednesday night. Oh my gosh, we're having this great thing, its evangelism. You should come. It's gonna talk about why we believe what we believe. It's a good primer for the Christian faith. You should really be there.
00:31:52
Speaker
And then if they tell you no, come tell me because I want to meet that person. Then we'll put them up on a list. No, I'm joking. There'll be no list.
00:32:04
Speaker
Second, we have to be real careful not to take advantage of our Christian bosses and expect favoritism from him or her, like that police officer illustration. We got to be real careful, friends, that While we do have a common bond in Christ, that we don't ah overstep that and think that that somehow gives us extra privileges to, I don't know, get special treatment.
00:32:35
Speaker
You know, I've heard this before. I've had somebody give us, or I would go to somebody and give a proposal for some work being done. Hey, I need this work being done. And I've heard somebody go, well, pastor, this is my best Christian price I can give you. I thought, I didn't know that. There's a Christian price and a non-Christian price? All this time, I should have been, Do you see how strange that becomes? Because now what we we do is we're overlapping this freedom that we have in Christ, kind of wiping out our social hierarchy. And it just doesn't and doesn't work that way, nor is that what Paul is telling Timothy. He's just saying, friends, when we when you get pulled over by Stephen Hahnall, expect him to do his job. And I love Stephen, um and I probably should have cleared it before him. I may leave in handcuffs.
00:33:34
Speaker
But it would be foolish of me to think somehow he's going to treat me differently, nor should I ask him to treat me differently when he's functioning as a police officer. Is that clear?
00:33:50
Speaker
Instead, we ought to lift up our bosses. Don't just serve when you want to serve, serve even when you don't want to serve. Serve your Christian boss with energy and enthusiasm. Give him a reason to go, Christianity's attractive. Man, all of us should be Christians. Imagine if you're the only Christian under your boss and you are not toeing the Christian line. And friends, there's many ways we can do that. It can be partying on the weekend, it can be using foul language, it can be just intermingling with other unbelievers in a way where that worldliness sticks to us.
00:34:33
Speaker
That's why Paul's so cautious to Timothy. Reach the world, but don't let the world stick to you. Does that make sense? We've got to be real careful when we're in the workplace that that doesn't stick to us because then our Christian boss can't use you as an example. Man, look at Tom. That guy's a hard worker. And he's a Christian.
00:35:01
Speaker
And that Kim, she comes in, she puts in 8 a.m., sometimes 7 p.m. She's a Christian worker. Give that ability to your Christian bosses to use you as an example so that he may then go, hey, you know what? So-and-so who's an unbeliever. Look at Kim, look at Tom. These guys work for us so there and they get after it and they're Christians. What a great testimony.
00:35:35
Speaker
I'll simply end with this. The Westminster Confessional says the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. May what we do ultimately glorify God, period. Whether you do it at school, whether you do it at work, whether you do it for an un-Christian boss, whether you do it for a Christian boss. May everything you do when you show up Monday through Sunday, may it be to the glory of God.
00:36:08
Speaker
And all God's people said,