The Total Package

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? You’re doing alright today? I’ve just been praying that God would put His love and blessing and peace and power and encouragement into even the tone of my voice, let alone the words I say so that someone may be able to remark this was just for me. Oh, that’s what we want. We gotta put a handle on the Word of God so that you can get hold of it for yourself. Well, I trust things are going along well and if you’ve struck a day where things aren’t too good, your heart may be heavy or sore, or even full of rage and resentment because people have hurt you, look to your Savior, will you? He’s able to change your inner feelings as well as the circumstances. Look to your Savior and trust Him till He’ll see you through, He will, He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. I know that life sometimes gets very rough for you ’cause I’ve lived a while, but Jesus brings us through and today or this evening, whenever you’re listening, you look to your Savior and he’ll meet you need, I know He will.

Now we’re looking at Colossians four and this has to do with the way God touches a manager’s life if he endeavours to fulfill the command found in Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” And so when Paul starts talking about the boss, he says pay your people properly. Don’t under pay them because you’re gonna have to face God about the paychecks one day. And he says, “Learn to pray, pray your way through the day. Learn to watch for the answer, and also learn to watch what’s going on around you.”

Many years ago, I was president of Youth for Christ and our office at that time was on Monroe Street in the Loop of Chicago. On the second floor, a big loft of a place on the second floor where we’d put up some partitions so as to get office space and then we had the mailing functions toward the back of that same area, and that was our headquarters office. Well, we regularly had prayer with our people, and so it was that on one occasion the prayer time was called, and the telephone was put on hold and even the telephone operator came in to join us momentarily in the time of prayer. The Palermo Brothers were there, the singing apostles of joy, they called themselves or others call them, and they were visiting with us so they sang a little and give a witness as to what the Lord had been doing in their lives and we had a good time of prayer and fellowship and then went back to our work.

Well, when the girl who was at the reception desk went back to her desk, she found that somebody had come in while we were gathered and had taken her purse which she had left in a half open drawer on the side of the desk. Well, she was upset as we all were. We felt bad for her and we tried to, I think we took up a little offering for her to make up for the money that she had lost in her purse. Anyhow, after we’ve gotten over the initial shock and tried to do the best we could about it, the Palermo’s with their inevitable jovial and humorous side to their lives, we’re talking about it. And Louis looked at her and he said, “You know, the Bible says “watch and pray. You should have kept your eyes open while you were praying” [laughter] Well, I don’t know.

But I do know that life doesn’t have to take you by surprise. Solomon, the wisest man said, “The prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: But the simple pass on, and are punished.” God is in favor of planning, He’s in favor of watchfulness, He’s in favor of being alert and knowledgeable.

God doesn’t want you to be a dedicated clod just because you’re His, God wants you to be successful, He wants you to be alert, He wants you to be on the job and not to be taken by surprise. All of this I think is provable if you read the Bible and see the point of view that your Heavenly Father has about you and about your work. And so if you’re a manager, don’t let life fall in on you just because you’re trying to be spiritual. Keep up with things, and at the same time, watch for God’s answers to prayer. Learn to pray for your people, learn to pray that they’ll be good witnesses, good soul winners, and that they’ll understand the Gospel well enough to communicate it. That’s the Colossians 4:3. And then in verse four, He says, “Pray that I may make the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the Gospel message that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Pray for your people that they’ll understand the basic obligation of the Christian.” The basic obligation of the Christian is to live Christ, make it manifest. The word manifest is the idea of a truth or a person presented in a package, that’s where that is. A truth or a person presented in a package.

Do you wanna think about that? Are you a very good package for the gospel? See the Greek verb is phaneroo, which means presenting a truth as a person. Our Lord Jesus manifested God to us. That’s the same verb, same Greek word used there. Our Lord Jesus manifested, “Now the grace of God is manifest.” Given to us in other words in a package. You see, people don’t really understand these expressions that we use. Your average unsaved person doesn’t know much about the grace of God. When you say, the gospel, he doesn’t know what that means. To be saved, to be lost, to be sanctified, he doesn’t know about that. And the only way that he’s gonna understand what you’re talking about is by observing what Jesus is doing in your life. When you pray, now we’re talking about managers, when you pray for your employees, pray that they’re going to be good manifesters, good examples, walking demonstration of what Jesus can do. Make manifest.

And of course, brother, sister, if you’re in management, you better pray that God will do that in your life as well. All that some people will ever know about Jesus, they’ll learn from observing you. “Ye are our letter our epistle,” Paul says, “written in people’s hearts.” If you wanna communicate to other people about God, one of the best ways to do it is by His working in your life. People will observe that and they’ll understand more about how God works. Now, we’re still talking about the results in a manager’s life if he or she obeys the command in 3:17 of Colossians, “Whatever you do in word or you do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” Another result of obeying that command, what is it? Walk said He, in wisdom toward them that are without. Now without what? Well, it’s the idea of being outside of Christ. Walk in wisdom toward people who are unsaved, redeeming the time. This idea of redeeming the time occurs in another place as you know, “Be not unwise but be understanding what the will of the Lord is redeeming the time because the days are evil.” What does it mean? There are two things that you’re supposed to do that are particularly significant for unsaved people around you.

Walk in wisdom, that’s the first thing. Live a life where every moment of every day is characterized by God given wisdom. Now happily although God will never do your homework for you, God will give you wisdom. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given to him.” We read in James 1:5. So this is not an impossible command. This is a command that is quite capable of fulfillment in your life. He says this word walk, means live every minute of every day. We can paraphrase it that way, live every minute of every day in wisdom, especially as it affects unsaved people. And it says to them that are without, and that means as it affects unsaved people. Alright? Now that’s what it’s saying. Now what does it mean to us?

Well, first of all, wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know. God won’t do your homework for you, he won’t read the budget for you if you have to balance it. You have to read it, you have to study it, you have to find out what it says and if you can’t understand it, go get somebody who can. During the years when I was president of the college, and I had to wrestle with budget problems.

I remember on one occasion I went over to my friend Jack Norton, and I said, “Jack you’re a number cruncher, you can do these things. This thing doesn’t talk to me. Would you look at it at your convenience and sort of mark it up so it’ll talk to me?” Sure, he said he would. Well before I got to work the next morning he had already been in my office, as a matter of schedule and habit I would do my radio first and then go to the office. So before I ever got to the office, he had been there and he had left the copy, the man, the dear man had worked all night and had analyzed that budget up and down had marked up the different significant areas in red pencil and there it was. Boy, did it talk to me. So if you can’t understand a thing humanly speaking, get some help. Ask God to send you to somebody that can help you. Remember the old man, that prayed, “Lord, send me a turkey.” And that didn’t work, so he prayed, “Lord, send me after a turkey,” and that worked. [chuckle]

Well do the homework, get so you understand, but then, then what? Oh you need wisdom. Wisdom is God’s gift to you, of knowing what to do with what you know. And James 1:5 which I quoted a moment ago, was there for you beloved, to pray and to be divinely guided in your decisions based upon the facts at hand. Wisdom. Now why? Because the unsaved person around you, those who are observing your life but who do not share your faith in the Savior, they cannot fake, they cannot duplicate this divine direction that will be yours as you ask God for His sovereign guidance. And this is one of the great factors in management. The loyalty even of the unsaved around you, people, not everybody who works for you as a Christian obviously. And just you can’t work that out in this kind of a world. So not everybody who works for you is a Christian but everybody who works for you, watches you because you’re a Christian. And so this divine sovereign direction in decisions is going to be a great factor in securing the loyalty and cooperation and happily eventually the salvation of the unsaved around you.

Then He says, “Walk in wisdom,” and then he says, “Redeeming the time.” Most managers spend time in ways that were they to analyze it would horrify them. Learn to use your time every minute of it. Here and there I found people who are capable of tremendous output in their daily work. And when I inquired, I found out that they had mastered the secret of redeeming that I meant, is make every minute work for you. Now that doesn’t mean you’ll be a slave to a schedule, it does mean that you will find out the areas where you’ve been in killing time, losing time doing nothing productive and you’re gonna make time work for you. We’ll talk a little more about that the next time we get together. Alright?

Dear Father today, walk in our shoes, look through our eyes, and reach love and help through our hands in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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