A Heavenly Work Ethic

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again dear friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright? Oh, I’m fine, happy in the Lord, full of bounce to the ounce. Little too much ounce, but oh I’m happy and blessed. Man, I had a good breakfast this morning. Have you ever eaten scrapple? You know what that is? You Pennsylvania Dutch people know for certain, and some of the folk in Ohio and Indiana I think are familiar with it. The rest of you may not know that there’s a… [chuckle] maybe you won’t like this. There’s a delicious concoction made of corn meal mush and ground up pork. And it’s seasoned and boiled together and then formed into squares. And after it’s cooled you can slice it and fry it. And it is out of this world.

You can either eat it plain or with a fried egg or with syrup over it, or however. So I got up early this morning I thought, “I’m gonna have a good breakfast”. [chuckle] And I sliced a couple of those slices and fried them and put it an egg along side of them. Oh man, I’m just ready to take the world on now. Well, I hope everything’s alright at your house. Bless your heart.

We wanna go on in the Colossians chapter 3. He’s talking now about what happens when you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, that is, you do it by His authority as His representative, by His enablement, and for His glory.

And, as I have told you, this truth reaches right into some of the touchy areas of our lives, in case of employees, that were in Verse 22 “servants”, is the Greek word “slaves”, but we transliterate it into our own understanding, ’cause we don’t have slavery today in this country. So we say employees, obey in all things your employers, according to the flesh. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily.” That’s our word “psyched up”. Do it psyched up, as for the Lord, and not just for people.

“Knowing”, he says. You see, what you do depends on what you’re sure of. He said, “Do it psyched up, because you know something is coming”. Many a person’s Christianity is weakened and wishy-washy, and shallow because he or she doesn’t really know for sure very much about the Lord. Now, in this case, he says “You can afford, first of all, to give your employer complete allegiance and to follow his orders. Second, you can do it not just to please your employer, but to please God. And third, you can do it excitedly, because you know something”. What? Verse 24, “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ”. Now, I have to tell you that any kind of work here on earth loses its shine and becomes boring if you’re at it long enough. And so, this admonition to do your work psyched up, excitedly, piling right into it, it seems at first blush to be quite a tall order really. Who can be that way all the time?

Well, as I’ve said to you a moment ago, it all depends on what you know about the job and about your Lord. And if you’re doing it for him, and if you know that he is the paymaster. If you know that payday is coming, not on Friday when you get your check, but that the ultimate pay day is coming when you stand before your blessed Lord and hear from his lips, the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance”. Now, see, you’re working not just for an employer, an earthly employer, you’re working as a member of a family that’s going to inherit. And that makes a great deal of difference.

Here’s this man who owns, let us say, a trucking concern. He takes his eight-year-old out one day out into the shop where they are working on these huge trucks that travel the highway. And maybe there’s 8 or 10 of them on the lift, being serviced. And then he takes him out into the warehouse where they store the various goods that are to be loaded and shipped to various customers, and then he takes him on into the office and shows him the people that are working over the accounts, and then he looks at him and he says, “My son, one day all this will be yours. Now go empty the waste basket.” [laughter] You see the idea? What connection is there between emptying the trash as an eight-year-old, and the possibility of inheriting? Oh, there is a connection.

And when it dawns upon that, boy, now he may not understand it at age 8, on that occasion about which I’ve just spoken. He may not understand it fully, but when it dawns upon him, that everything he does is building toward a day when he will be John Q Citizen President of the ABC Trucking Concern, oh boy, he’s going to work differently. He’s gonna think about it differently, his attitude toward the job will be entirely different than it would be where he simply working for someone else, as an employee. Now, you understand what I’m getting at?

You, my friend, are a member of the heavenly family. God has raised us up with Christ and made us sit together in the heavenlies with him. And God is our heavenly father, and it says of our Savior, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren”. Your brother is a member of the family, He’s not ashamed to call them brethren. Jesus looks upon you as brothers and sisters of his, redeemed by the shedding of His precious blood, maintained this very moment by His intercession and with the father, and the show of his divine righteousness on your behalf.

Oh, you belong, don’t you? Well, then, what is before you? Well, there’s coming that day when you’re going to see His blessed face and Paul says, “When we shall see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” We had that verse a while ago in Colossians itself, Colossians 3:4. Ah, you’re going to see your blessed Savior, you’re gonna see the one with whom and for whom you’ve been working. “You are laborers together with God,” Paul says in Corinthians. You’re gonna see that one and you’re going to be rewarded. “If any man’s work abide which he hath built,” Paul says in Corinthians, “He shall receive a reward.” Knowing then he said, “that from the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance.” Oh, earthly pay days may come every Friday or every other Friday, whatever it is. But ultimately, you are not working simply for that earthly employer to whom you give assuredly your best shot every day in putting out the work, but ultimately you’re working for the Lord Jesus Christ and one of these days you’re gonna receive the reward of the inheritance.

“All things are yours, says Paul, and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” All things are yours, you share and everything that the Lord Jesus is and has when you trust Him and obey Him as your Savior the reward of the inheritance. One of these days beloved, you and I are going to get the reward, payday some day. Well, hallelujah. That’s great, isn’t it?

Now, He says knowing, see your attitude toward an earthly job depends upon what you know about the heavenly relationship of that job. The job itself may be dull and boring, or maybe so difficult that it frustrates you again and again, but your attitude toward the earthly job is determined by your attitude toward your heavenly employer. The one who is a member of your family and you, a member of His family and you’re going to inherit all that He is and all that He has, in that glad day when you see his face. That beloved, will make you have a different attitude, let us say, toward your job even if you’re counting widgets by the gross or by the thousands. If you have a dull, boring job today, look at it from heaven’s point of view, and you’ll find that there’s a shine about the job and a shine on your life that wasn’t there before.

So He says, “For ye served the Lord Christ.” Jesus is Lord. Paul says in Philippians, “For this cause God at highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus is Lord. Now, that truth you see has to affect every part of all of our lives, and it does if you’ll allow it to do so. Jesus is Lord. Ye serve and that’s the verb form of the word that means slave. Ye serve like a slave the Lord Christ. See. Is He Lord, that’s my question, is He Lord of your life? Now he’s Lord of the universe, He’s Lord of all that’s going on. “By Him, all things hold together,” the Bible says, but the question is, have you made Him Lord of your life. Back to the Philippians just for a moment to show you how Christ can be Lord of your life.

In chapter two, “Make Him Lord of your feelings,” verse one, “Make Him Lord of your mind,” verse five. “Make him Lord of your procedures.” You work out the salvation that has been worked in already. He’s Lord of your attitude, do all things without murmurings and disputing. He’s Lord of your reputation that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God indeed without rebuke shining as lights in the world. He’s Lord of your testimony holding forth the word of life. It’s just a few thoughts here from Philippians 2, that show you how the lordship of Christ affects all of your entire life, “Ye serve the Lord Christ.”

Small thought here, if you are serving God, you know that He’s gonna treat you right. Sometimes you take a job, especially if you’re doing contract labor, you take a job and wonder whether the client will really pay you or not. Some of you been through that haven’t you? You people who are artists and graphic people, and layout people, and printers and what not, You take on a job on a contract basis and maybe the customer isn’t always willing to pay what he or she should.

But when you’re dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that you’ll always be treated right. Aren’t you glad that so? Take that into consideration the next time you strike a snag in business. When something comes up and it doesn’t work right, and you’re grumbling and you say, “Oh, I didn’t get what I ought to get there. They didn’t treat me fairly.” Just look up and say, “Lord Jesus, I’m working for you.” I have to tell you, God has a way of evening things out, you may be cheated on one deal, but He’ll make it up on the next, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Isn’t that great? You think about that as you go on through the day.

Dear Father today, grant to us to work for Jesus enthusiastically, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!