Slides: Making a Nightmare Job into a Dream Job

Making a Nightmare Job into a Dream Job
Colossians 3:22-4:1

Nightmare job

• Boss treats you like a thing, not a person.

• Pay is low; you’re always broke.

• Promotions are not available to you.

• Punishment is irrational and unfair.

• Tasks are tiresome and useless.

• Status is lower than anyone.

• Stuck with no other job available.

You feel like a slave!

Dream job

• Boss is perfect and loves you.

• Pay leads toward a share of everything.

• Promotions are unlimited.

• Punishment is fact-based and fair.

• Tasks are exciting and important.

• Status is as high as anyone.

• Security with no danger of losing position.

You feel like royalty!

Your nightmare job can become your dream job.

• A new view of your work can turn a nightmare job into a dream job.

• This new view comes when you get a new boss and a new you.

• If your new boss is Jesus, work heartily and look forward to His reward.

 Colossians 3:22 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. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
  4:1 Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free
   9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Willing workers

• Obey orders.  Do what your boss says.

  -“obey in everything those who are your earthly masters” (Col 3:22)

  -“obey your earthly masters” (Eph 6:5)

• Self starter. Excellence is energized inwardly when nobody is looking (not “eye-service”).

  -“sincerity of heart… work heartily” (Col 3)

  -“with a sincere heart… doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will” (Eph 6)

The new you

• Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on the earth… you died, and your life is hidden with Christ (3:2)

•  new self… not slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all… bearing with… forgiving… love… peace of Christ (3:9-15)

• And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (3:17)

Nightmare job

• Boss treats you like a thing, not a person.

• Pay is low; you’re always broke.

• Promotions are not available to you.

• Punishment is irrational and unfair.

• Tasks are tiresome and useless.

• Status is lower than anyone.

• Stuck with no other job available.

You feel like a slave!

Change your outlook even if you can’t change your job.

20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. (1 Cor 7:20-23)

Dream job

• Boss is perfect and loves you.

• Pay leads toward a share of everything.

• Promotions are unlimited.

• Punishment is fact-based and fair.

• Tasks are exciting and important.

• Status is as high as anyone.

• Security with no danger of losing position.

You feel like royalty!

Boss is perfect and loves you.

• … fearing the Lord… as for the Lord and not for men… You are serving the Lord Christ. (Col 3:22-24)

• … as you would Christ … as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. (Eph 6:6-7)

• No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends. (John 15:15)

Pay: a share of everything

• … from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward (Col 3:24)

• whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free (Ephesians 6:8)

• Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. (Matthew 25:21)

Promotions: unlimited

• Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” (Luke 19:17)

• The one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. (Rev 3:21)

• They will reign forever and ever. (Rev 22:5)

Punishment: fact-based and fair

For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. (Col 3:25)

Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. (Eph 6:9)

God disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10)

Task: walk in Jesus’ steps

18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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 a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 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. (1 Peter 2:18-21)

Task: win others to Christ

• If you are a Christian working for a non-Christian boss, pity your boss, not yourself. Eternal hell is worse than years of slaving.

• Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:9-10)

• Your job: make Christian truth attractive to unbelieving boss and fellow workers.

Task: benefit others

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. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. (1 Timothy 6:1-2)

Status: as high as anyone

• “You have only one Master and you are all brothers.” (Jesus in Matthew 23:8).

• Here there is not slave or free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Col 3:11)

• There is … neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28)

• Philemon should take Onesimus back “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.” (Philemon 16)

Security: no danger of losing position

• Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. (Matthew 24:46-47)

• 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. (1 Cor 15:58)

Dream job

• Boss is perfect and loves you.

• Pay leads toward a share of everything.

• Promotions are unlimited.

• Punishment is fact-based and fair.

• Tasks are exciting and important.

• Status is as high as anyone.

• Security with no danger of losing position.

You feel like royalty!