Video Transcript: Making a Nightmare Job into a Dream Job

Promotions aren't available, you're stuck where you are, you're not going to move up to a different level. You're not going to take a higher position in the firm. You're at where you're at, and there's nowhere to go but maybe down not up. Punishment is irrational and unfair. The boss's pets can get away with murder and you if you do something, you really get it and sometimes even if you don't do something. So punishment is just kind of arbitrary. It makes no sense. It isn't there. The tasks that you do are tiresome and don't seem to benefit anybody. They're kind of useless. That's another aspect of a nightmare job. It's hard to find a job that covers all these bases, you know, in one swoop. But these are different aspects of what can make a job very hard and the more of them add up, the nastier your job is. Some persons can work on an assembly line where it's not exactly useless. What they're doing is worth doing but it sure is tiresome and boring. Others may have jobs that are just downright useless if they really stop and think about it for a few minutes. There are certain kinds of products that are advertised and services that are offered which aren't exactly important and very valuable but somebody does them anyway. 

Status. Some jobs are just kind of looked down upon. Other jobs are looked up to. And a nightmare job is one of those where you really when you're in mixed company people don't know you. You're really not that eager to tell them what your job is because it's pretty low on the totem pole. It's lower than anybody else. And a final thing about a nightmare job that I mentioned is you're stuck. You really can't get out of it. Because you don't have other options. And so you hate it but you're stuck in it. And when you're in a job like that, well, you feel like a slave and slavery would be kind of the ultimate nightmare job that would cover all of these bases at one time. 

Now, when you think about your own particular job and what you're doing, you might say, Well, this one and this one are things I don't like. That one's not so bad. So as I say most of us would not have a job that would cover all of this in one swoop. But most of us are in jobs and we're not sure which aspects we do or don't like. If that's a nightmare job, what's a dream job look like? Well the boss is perfect. And the boss really, really likes you. That is one thing that would make a dream job is if you've got a perfect boss and you happen to be the boss's favorite. The pay is excellent. And not only do you get paid a good salary, but there's a profit sharing plan where you end up with a huge chunk of the company. That's good deal in a dream job. The promotions are unlimited. You can see well, if I do a good job here, then I move up to that next step. But then I move up to that next step and then I move up to that next step and a dream job you can really see opportunities for advancement. The punishment is fact based. There may be people get a reprimand or demotion or a pay cut, but it's based on what they deserve. And it's fair and not just who happens to be the bosses relative or the bosses favorite. The tasks you do are interesting, they're exciting, and they're important. They need to be done and they accomplish something very worthwhile. Your status ranks you as high as anybody else and it's something to be excited about and enthusiastic about and not to kind of mumble about when people ask, well, who are you and what do you do? And you're not in danger of losing a position. Obviously in a nightmare job you'd like to be just about anywhere else but a dream job once you got it you sure hate to lose that job now, wouldn't you? And so those are some of the things that would go into a real dream job. And when you have a job like that it kind of makes you feel like royalty. 

So you have a very sharp contrast. None of us, when you just think about the job that you might happen to have would say that it's a total nightmare and I'm pretty sure that none of you would say that it's a total dream, and that it's just uninterrupted joy, bliss and, and benefits all the way through. Now, as we think about this, I want to tell you that your nightmare job can become your dream job, which may seem like a really outrageous claim because some of us might at least have a smidge of willingness to believe that I could get out of a nightmare job and find a dream job if only you know I knew how to get there. But the message for today is how to turn a nightmare job into a dream job. A new view of your work is very key. You may think you need a new job. And that may be important. But first of all, a new view of your work can turn a nightmare job into a dream job. That's what our Scripture passages for today are going to reveal and indicate and you get this new view when you get a new boss. And when you have a new you. Those are really key. Everything I'm going to say today is a waste of breath if you don't have the new boss and the new you. It will sound just stupid. It will make no sense it will do you no good at all. 

So the new boss and the new you is crucial to this. and if your new boss is Jesus, then the Bible's message is whatever your job is, and I mean, even if it is the ultimate nightmare job, work heartily as for the Lord and look forward to the Lord's reward. More than half of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves. When Paul writes his letter to the Colossians, he's writing about Christ as the image of the invisible God and the greatness of Christ and Christ in you the hope of glory and all these fantastic things. And then after they've heard all that they get to go live the Christian meeting that they've had together, and it's back to the grind under the slave owner for an awful lot of them. What do you do then? What's it mean to be a new you with a new boss if you're a slave. 

And Paul tells us in Colossians , he says slaves obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service, as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has gone and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. In a similar passage, Paul writes in Ephesians, slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord whether he's a slave or free. Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. 

Now, in reading those passages, you notice a couple of things right away. The slaves are called by God to be willing workers, to obey orders, to do what the boss says, to obey in everything those who are your earthly masters. Now, of course, that you know everything is always conditioned by whether it's lawful in the Lord. Because if your master commanded you to go out and assassinate somebody, for instance, or to go out and steal for him, then you'd obviously have to disobey the master. Just as the earlier commands, wives submit to your husbands or children obey your parents in everything that we've focused on in previous weeks are always conditioned by ultimate obedience to God. So if your master commanded something that was wrong, if your boss told you to do something, you know is against God's will, then you have to disobey. But other than that, a willing worker does what the boss says. Obey in everything. Obey your earthly masters.

And not just obey but be a self starter in dealing with your work and your earthly master. If you're going to be excellent in anything, you're going to be energized inwardly when nobody's looking. If you want to know the kind of worker who is best, it's the person who does not need somebody looking over his or her shoulder all the time. You can just count on him to be working hard and doing excellent work, even when nobody is there watching. They don't worry just about what punishment I might get if the boss sees me slacking off, or even what promotions or rewards I might get. If I can get the boss to notice how wonderful I am, but simply, you're energized inwardly. That phrase eye service. Eye service is trying to impress somebody else, whether it's the boss or anybody else, and the heart of Christian religion is that it is a matter of the heart. You remember Jesus Sermon on the Mount, he said, Don't do your acts of righteousness to be seen by man because you don't get any reward from your Father in heaven then. 

So if you're giving to the needy for instance, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving maybe in secret and then your Father who sees what's done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don't do it in the synagogues, in the street corners to be seen by man. If you do, you'll have no reward. Go to your room. Shut the door. Pray to your father who's unseen and your father sees what's done in secret will reward you. When you fast, don’t show how sad you are, how somber you are, how much you're fasting. You know put oil on your hair and wash your face and look cheerful so that nobody knows you're fasting except your Father in heaven. So the Christian life has always lived with reference to God, no matter who else is or isn't looking and preferably even when nobody else is looking. And so it is not just in your giving or in your prayer or in your fasting but in your work at your job. You do it energized inwardly by your devotion to Christ and not eye service. You do it with sincerity of heart, working heartily as Colossians three puts it or with sincere heart doing the will of God from the heart rendering service with goodwill. You see heart and will and what's going on inside is crucial for a worker. 

Now, having said all that, if that was all that these pastors had to say, it would be still very discouraging if you were in a job that is very, very, very unpleasant. You need to have more than just a command to get out there and do what the boss says and do it with a glad heart. You need to understand the motivations that are given. Now, I mentioned that you need the new you in order to carry this out and a text without its context is pretext. Always remember that. A text without a context is a pretext. You need to look at this stuff about slaves in its context and in the context of chapter three leading up to it says, set your minds on things above, not on things that are on the earth. You died and your life is hidden with Christ. You can't even begin to take in what's being said to people who are slaves, if you're still just trying to live for your old self and if your focus is on what's going on for the next 10 minutes here on earth. 

You have to have an eternal focus and you have to have an upward focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what the new you in Christ Jesus has. And you remember some of the things if you were here during those services, it speaks out the new self. And then it says here there's not slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. So already earlier, he's kind of given us advanced warning that in the sphere of being in Christ and Christ and you whether you're slave or free, doesn't really count all that much. And then he talks about bearing with each other, forgiving each other. Where do you bear with each other, forgive each other? Well, you have to do that at home, in your marriages, in relationships between parents of kids, but you need to do it at work an awful lot too. And forgiving each other, loving each other, let the peace of Christ dwell in you richly. These are all part of the new you that make it possible also to live Christianly in the workplace and in the work that you do. 

And then as Paul said just before he got into talking to wives and husbands, to parents and children, to slaves, and masters, just before he got into that, he said whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him. So always God directed in the name of Jesus, thankful to God. This is how the new you behaves and this is how the new you behaves when you punch it in to work on Monday morning and have to get back to your job. And when the glow of high spiritual experience maybe wearing off of a bit. Nonetheless, the new you heads over there to deal with that tough situation. And there are various aspects of our lives where we may struggle and let's not pretend. I mean, as we go into this passage and dig into it a little more, let's not pretend that we've got it as bad as the slaves of the Romans had it. We've got, all of us, whatever we may happen to think of our job, we've got it better than they do. But as we take a passage like this, it's so valuable to us, because you say, well, if God said that even to folks in that kind of a work situation, then certainly what he says, I shouldn't gripe about in applying it in my own work situation, which is better. So for some of us who have employment, you know, Monday through Friday and are working on a job we need to hear this kind of message about turning a nightmare job into a dream job. 

But even those of us who aren't in that kind of situation, it can benefit from these words. Let's say you're a mom. I have occasionally heard around my house, my wife have to say the words I'm not your slave and she doesn't really seem to say to me. It's when kids say.. Mom, I didn't get a fork. Mom, I need a fork? Well, can you know where the forks are? Get over there and get them. You know that but if you're a mom, kids get used to moms doing a ton of stuff for you. Moms do a lot of cleaning up and I haven't noticed moms getting paid that well when they clean up or when they run and do one more errand for the kids. And let's face it, most of what moms do, if you had to do that under the orders of an employer, it would be in some respects one of the rottenest jobs in the world. The thing that makes it a good job is your perspective on it. If somebody made you just clean up poop for a living, okay, somebody might not like that word from the pulpit but it appears in your house with some frequency. Okay? 

If you had to do that for a living you would say this is the worst job in the world except every time you have a kid you get to do it repeatedly again and again and again. And you know sometimes people say you don’t pay me enough to do that. Well, if you're a mom and occasionally a dad dealing with things around the house, there are some things you get to do that nobody could pay you to do and they don't pay you to do and then you get to do it anyway. So the pay isn't that great. The promotions aren't that stupendous when you're a homemaker. Things can get pretty irrational and unfair and you don't appreciate it. And the tasks, what the tasks again depending on your perspective, all of those tasks just taken individually may seem like nothing. But if you see I'm helping them, mold an eternal soul here and I'm working for the Lord Christ. Well then all of a sudden, it changes everything. Being a mom was one of the great things in the world. But if you lose that perspective, you say, Man, this is tough. So you know that can be a mom who's not even employed by somebody else can certainly benefit from what's said here. 

And I've known one or two kids who feel that homework is certainly akin to slavery. It's about as boring. It sure doesn't accomplish anything. I can't see why we're studying this stuff. And the boss is not always that friendly I found, at least when I'm the boss. And so there are times when in your homework or in the chores that you have to do as a kid you know, you you're very highly conscious of the extreme difficulty and value of carrying out the garbage and the expense for example, providing you with room and board that kind of is ignored. So sometimes when you're a kid too, you've got certain things to do, whether it's your schoolwork, whether it's your chores, and you can feel come on and you can go through it with a whole grouchy attitude as though you're on the great martyrs in the history of humanity. 

Now, to get beyond that mentality and dealing with my life is a nightmare job, you need to realize you can change your outlook even if you can't change your job. Now one thing, good news for some of you kids is you're not gonna be kids forever, and you won't be doing homework forever. There may be a day when you pine for the day when you did two hours of homework a day and then got to goof off an awful lot of the time. But anyway, well that's another subject. If you're in a job at work, just listen with Paul said to slaves, he said each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Where you a slave when called, don't be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. Now if you're in a job and it is a real stinker of a job, and yeah, better one comes along then you don't say, well, I've been told by the Lord to remain in the condition in which I was called. If something much better comes along, grab it. If a slave had an opportunity to gain his freedom, Paul said, go for it. But even if you can't get your freedom, don't let it be a huge deal because then you serve the Lord in the situation you're in. For he who has called in the Lord as a slave is a free man of the Lord. Likewise, he who was free when he was called, is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price, do not become slaves of men. 

Here Paul just transforms everything. Your owner might have bought you and thinks he owns you. Paul says you want to know who really bought you. You pay attention to the one who bought you with His blood. And don't ever think that you're just somebody's slave. And so you can change your outlook, even if you can't change your job. And if you have that outlook changed and are informed by the scriptures then here's what the Bible says about your work. No matter what kind of job you're in, you have a boss who is perfect and who loves you. You have part of pay that leads towards a share of everything. The promotions are unlimited, the punishment is gonna be fact based and fair, the tasks are exciting and important. The status is as high as anybody else, and there's no danger of losing your position. And so I want to focus on each of these in just a little more detail. And think about that and hopefully the Lord will give us grace and transform our outlook on our work. 

The boss is perfect and loves you. Notice what he says, you are serving the Lord Christ. Both of these passages it just comes up again and again and again. Here's what you're really working for. Here's who you're really working for. Here's who the real boss is. Now always remember who your real boss is. And it's not that person that you happen to see sometimes looking over your shoulder or giving you the orders. Never forget who the real boss is. This is the most important thing that Paul is saying here that you have one boss, the Lord Christ who bought you. And the reason you work hard and do your best and strive for excellence is not always because your boss on earth deserves it. And sometimes that boss doesn't deserve it. Okay, just get that clear. Sometimes the boss doesn't deserve it. Some of those slave masters back in the time the Roman empire did not deserve to be obeyed in everything, and to have their Christian slaves working hard for them. They didn't deserve it. But the Lord Christ did, and so they did their jobs well. Jesus is the boss and he's perfect and he is your friend. Jesus said, I no longer call you slaves. I have called you friends. And this is an aspect. It was kind of nice when we just preached about Set your mind on things above where Christ is and can kind of keep it in the realm of personal meditation, focusing on Christ and so on. Focusing on Christ means keeping your eye on him as your boss and living by faith and not by sight. Not by the boss, you see, but by the one you don't. By his friendship with you, even if your boss at work is pretty unfriendly and hostile a lot of the time. 

What about the pay? Well, a share of everything doesn't sound that bad. It says from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. The inheritance I think some translations just put it as an inheritance, but it actually is literally as our translation has it the inheritance. Remember pay day. Remember, inheritance day. Remember the day when you're going to cash in all your stock options that have been accumulating in the kingdom of God. Jesus said don't invest here on earth where moth and rust destroy. Invest in heaven. And your work invested in Christ means you receive the inheritance, the inheritance of eternal glory, of eternal riches as your reward. Whatever good anyone does he'll receive it back from the Lord whether he's slave or free. And Jesus words in one of his parables where the master speaks to the servant says, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. 

In an earthly job, the pay may not be quite enough, and you may never have the opportunity to save much of anything because you just don't have enough earthly income. But even in that circumstance, and you do need to attend to the affairs of yourself and your family, not denying that, but the pay is what Christ ultimately pays us for. And that changes your attitude toward the work you do right now. Well done good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a little. That's the point. Right now you're working at jobs, and those are minor compared to the things that you may be entrusted with someday in the kingdom of God. And the responsibility not only but also just the benefits. And so if you're in a job that doesn't have any opportunity for a retirement plan or profit sharing in the company or anything like that, the Bible is very different. The Bible says, all things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's. You are heirs of all things the Spirit of his Son, makes us His children. He adopts us and if we were children, then we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Romans chapter eight. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. You need to think about that. Heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. That is called profit sharing. That is called getting the whole company. And it's very, very important as we think about what attitude we're going to have if we're working for the Lord Christ. 

The promotions. Well promotions are unlimited. Well done, good servant says Jesus in one of his parables. You've been faithful in a little money, take authority over 10 cities. The one who overcomes I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne. This is called upward mobility, in the extreme. I will grant to sit with Me on My throne. Now you may think this is an unrealistic sermon, where I'm talking about and he said the preacher doesn't know what my work is like. I will tell you right now, your problem is not that I don't know what your work is like. Your problem is you don't know what it's like to sit on the throne of Jesus Christ, okay, and none of us will until it actually occurs. But if we have to live by faith and not just live as pagans, we need to understand that to the one who overcomes I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne. Scripture says they will reign forever and ever we are promoted in glory and in authority higher than the angels. And this hint of receiving charge of 10 cities because you were faithful with a little bit of money is a picture of being faithful with small things in this life, including our work life, and then being given promotions and much greater authority and responsibility in the life to come. And living by faith means that you keep this before your attention every time you go off to work, every time you're wondering why that person get promoted and not me? Think about the real promotions.

Punishment. Well, the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there's no partiality and this applies to a worker, it also applies to the boss. Now I'm focusing in this message mainly on the message to people who are the workers and not the bosses and employers. If you're a worker and you're a slacker, and the boss doesn't notice, somebody else notices. If you're cutting corners or not putting in an honest day's work for the money you're paid, even if the boss doesn't catch it at it, somebody knows and the wrongdoer will be paid back. But it's not just true that the lazy worker isn't gonna get away with it, but the nasty boss isn't gonna get away with it either. And there's no partiality. Partiality, God is no respecter of persons is another way that that sometimes translated. God doesn't care if your title was master, and the other person's title was slave. God looks at how you measured up to his requirements of you and masters at that time, you could get away with murder if you were a master. I mean, it literally. You can murder your slave and get away with it, maybe for a little while. But you would never get away with murdering a slave in God's eyes. 

Your master is in heaven. And notice where it's translating master in Greek is just kurios all the way through. It's just the word for Lord Jesus. Jesus is Lord is Jesus is kurios. Master, the one who is your boss, he’s a kurios, a master, a lord. And so it just reminding the masters you've got to master just as somebody else's master and we're reminded we are workers because Jesus is our real kurios. He's our real master, our real Lord and he's not partial. Now, masters do the same to them might be about the most radical phrase in the whole Bible. Jesus through Paul has just been telling slaves what they ought to do and how they ought to work what they ought to do for masters as being in the Lord and then he says to the masters, now you do the same to them. 

Now, the notion that masters and slaves ought to be treating each other the same, and that the master better be doing what is right because he's got to answer to God was a very strange notion in an empire where you have the right to kill your slaves or do whatever you wanted. But it's a fact that sometimes in this life, your boss is gonna have you overly barrel even if slavery is not legal anymore. Your boss has got to where he wants, you got nowhere to go. You got to do what he says, and you're not going to be able to get a job somewhere else, at least not very quickly. And so a boss can get away with oppressing workers at times, but not really get away with it. And so the reminder here is if you're a worker, remember that God is watching you even when others aren't, and remember that God is also watching your boss. And if you're really upset about how unfair your boss is, just keep in mind that there is somebody who's gonna balance all the accounts and your boss will have to answer to God someday. 

And by the way, even the tough things that we may go through in our life, including our work life need to be seen in light of the fact that God uses a hardship as a blessing to us. View hardship as discipline Hebrews 12 says, and it's not just hardship to discipline for being bad. Discipline in some way, shape your life even if you haven't done the wrong thing. He disciplines for us, us for our good that we can share in His holiness. So even punishment that isn't fact based and fair in one sense in the workplace can nonetheless be fair and serve God's purpose in shaping you to be more and more like Jesus Christ and here's why. 

We're gonna move on to what the task is. At the same time, we're gonna see how unfair punishment might be part of the task God gives us. Servants, this is another slave passages. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only for the good and gentle. There were some good and gentle masters. But also to the unjust. For this as a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows, while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is the gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. Now, In His Steps was a very popular book a while back by Charles Sheldon. And the question of that book all the way through was, What would Jesus Do? Ever heard that one? You know, the old book was in his steps, the newer version is WWJD. The original version was if you're a slave and your master is beating up on you unfairly, endure it. 

And make sure that if you're gonna get punished, it's for being a Christian and for doing what's right, not for being a slacker and for being a knucklehead. If you're gonna suffer, make sure it's for doing what's right. Hey, here's some news. We're all gonna suffer. Okay? All those prosperity gospel folks are full of it. You're gonna suffer this life, there's two options. You gonna suffer for doing right? You're going to suffer for doing wrong. You're gonna suffer. Now, and here it says you might as well when you do good and suffer for it, it's a gracious thing. You're just being punished because you're wrong anyway. Well, you got it coming to you, don't gripe to me. So that's basically what he's saying here. If you suffer for doing wrong, you  had it coming so you know, straighten up. If you suffer or doing right, don't go have a pity party. Because you say, Wow, I am becoming more like Jesus Christ. I get to suffer like he suffered. He suffered for doing right. He was persecuted unjustly and I'm following in his steps. This is how God shapes me. 

And then another part of your task is to win others to Christ. If you're a Christian and you're working for a non Christian boss, you should pity your boss, not have a pity party for yourself. Eternal hell is worse than a few years of slavery. I mean, that is the logic that Paul uses in some of his writings. If you are the Christian slave of a non Christian boss, who deserves all the pity. Well, if you look at it from a purely earthly point of view, of course you feel sorry for the slave. If you look at it from God’s and the heavenly point of view, that masters got some big problems. Slaves were to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They ought to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, which means ripping off the boss and stealing stuff, but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior and this means that you have a task at work to make Christian truth attractive to an unbelieving boss, and to unbelieving fellow workers. If you were worried, I'm making widgets or I'm at some job that seems to be accomplishing a whole lot of anything. Maybe you need understand what your task is, again. You do have a task to do whatever it is God called you to do, and to do it well. But this is at the core of your task wherever you go, and whatever you do. Your job is to make Christianity attractive. And get off the pity party and start feeling sorry for those who don't know Christ the Savior and Lord, and let your life be an outstanding slice of the Bible, that they're not reading, so that they can be drawn to Christ. 

Now, Paul says something similar and he goes on, let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. So the same theme again, make the name of God and the teaching get a good reputation. And then he says, Those who have believing masters, you know what if the master is already a Christian, I don't need to save him. Then if he's a jerk, I can do it everyone. Well, those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the grounds that they are brothers, rather they must serve all better, since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Some of you have Christian bosses and some of you are really privileged and you know it. You really value the fact that the people you work for and with are Christians, but never take for granted. If that is your situation and your work helps them to earn more and to grow their business, be glad. You're bringing benefit and so your work benefits others. It can benefit the non saved boss, it can benefit the saved boss as well. And so focus on your tasks in doing things that are helpful to others. 

And here again, remember that some tasks that that are really kind of important, don't always get a lot of good press. Take a garbage guy, for example. We're all in a world of hurt if the garbage doesn't go. There's these jobs that get paid millions. You know, some of these entertainers that I mean, Charlie Sheen gets paid millions. What good does he ever do to anybody? You know, turns their minds into a cesspool for a little while and then you go on to something else, and he gets millions doing that. So just because the task is paid highly or highly recognized doesn't mean it's great. The people doing the garbage, they're doing something important. The ladies or men who are changing the diapers are doing something pretty vital even if it isn't highly paid or recognized. So the tasks that benefit others in any way are worth doing. And your status is as high as anyone These are words of Jesus. You have only one master, and you are all brothers. By the way, that sentence is kind of like a depth charge that is just dropped and goes kaboom and blows away inequality and slavery wherever it's taken seriously. You have one master, and you're all brothers. 

You'd say, well, Paul said all this stuff about slavery, does the Bible favor slavery. No, it just tells slavery's, how to slaves how to make the best of a bad situation. But it also says you have one master and you're all brothers here. Here there’s not slave or free. Christ is all and in all. There is neither slave nor free for you're all one in Christ Jesus, you’re sons of God in Christ Jesus. And by the way, this letter to the Colossians, was carried back to Colossae in part one of the couriers was a guy named Onesimus and Onesimus was a runaway slave going back to his former master who could then have him executed. But the former master was a Christian named Philemon and Onesimus had been converted to Christ after he had fled and ran into Paul. And now Paul sends him back. But he tells Philemon take him back no longer as a slave, but better than a slave as a dear brother. And whatever your situation, you're not a slave. Let me make that clear again. None of you have a position this as bad as many slaves faced at the time this was written. 

But whatever status and how low you think it is, oh, I'm gonna I'm just a this person. I'm just with that kind of person in my work. Nobody's just anything if you're working for the Lord. You have a status as high as anybody. There's neither slave nor free. You're an ambassador and a worker for the Lord Jesus Christ and you've got to position that lasts until he comes again. Whether he comes for you personally through death, or whether he comes again and transforms the whole world. Blessed is that servant, whom his master will find doing his work when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. There's the pay day, the promotion day that's coming. But in the meantime, we have a job to do until he comes again. And that's the position that goes on and on whatever your earthly jobs might change here and there. You're always working for him. Therefore, my beloved brothers be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. 

Whatever your hand finds to do, says Ecclesiastes. Do it with all your might. And when you know the resurrection truth as displayed in First Corinthians 15, then you can always be abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that it's never a waste when you're working for him. You have a dream job when you're working for him. You have a perfect boss who loves you. He is going to pay you everything. He's going to promote you to a position where you reign with Him forever and ever. Any punishments or disciplines in this life are going to be fact based and fair in his dealings with you and in the shaping of you. You have the tasks of leading others to Christ, of benefiting fellow believers of doing work that needs doing, whether it's in your family, in your workplace or wherever you go. And you never need to let anybody look down on you. When you belong to Jesus Christ. Your status is as high as it can get when you are royalty in the Son of God. You don't just feel like royalty. You are royalty.

We thank You Father for your word. And we pray, Lord, that by your Spirit, this word will take root and bear much fruit in our hearts and in our day to day work. Help us Lord to live with the glory of Christ upon us practicing the presence of God in all that we do. And wherever we go. Lord, help those of us who do struggle in our work situations right now to have all that we need supplied by you so that we can lift our eyes to Christ so that we can realize that our life is hidden with you and you Lord Jesus, our boss our master in all that all we do is to be done as to the Lord. And Lord help those of us who do have employment and have many good things also from our earthly job in earthly boss to be grateful for those things and to realize what privileges we have and to realize that to whom much is given, much will be required and so help us Lord in whatever situation we find ourselves to serve you gladly. Help those of us Lord whose main work is in the home. Help the children who are growing up learning to do chores, learning to be diligent workers, learning to study hard and grow in wisdom and stature. Help each one of us, Lord, to be willing workers in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in His name, amen.