Transcript: Making a Nightmare Job into a Dream Job

Video Transcript - Unit 07 - Making a Nightmare Job Into a Dream Job (David Feddes)

I'd like to think with you about turning a nightmare job into a dream job. And as we think about that, let's begin by thinking

about what a nightmare job is like. I hear from a lot of different people in a lot of different areas of work. And here are some of

the things that can make a job very difficult or even a nightmare. One is the boss, the boss treats you like a thing, not a

person, the owner of the company, or your immediate supervisor is not kind to you, and they just use you. And they are very,

very hard to get along with. And sometimes if the boss isn't hard to get along with, then some of the other people you have to

work with closely, are difficult to get along with. So at a nightmare job, the boss treats you like a thing, not a person. Another

thing about a nightmare job, the pay is low, it's not enough to meet your living expenses. You can't save anything, you're

always broke, you're not getting paid what you're worth, and there is no future retirement plan, no sharing in the company's

profits, you get rock bottom pay. Another thing about a nightmare job is that it's a nowhere job. You can't make any

advancement promotions, if there are any go to other people not to you, you're stuck at the level you're in and you're not

going anyplace upward. Another aspect of a nightmare job is that there's unfair treatment, the boss's pets, get all the good

things. And when they do bad stuff, or when they do a lousy job, they don't suffer any consequences.

But others seem to always get it even when they don't deserve it. And the punishments are directed to them. And it makes no

sense. It's irrational, it's just unfair. Another aspect of a nightmare job is that the actual tasks you do, the things you work on

are tiresome, and they really don't seem to accomplish very much of value. Now, again, if we're thinking about a nightmare

job, very few jobs will have all of these negatives at their most extreme. But these are different aspects of what makes work

difficult. And if you lump them all together, you would have a nightmare job. And certainly all of us want to do work that is

interesting. And that accomplishes something but a nightmare job, it just seems like it wears you down and you're still not

doing anything that's actually very worthwhile. Another aspect of a nightmare job. It's the kind of job that you don't want to

mention that you do when you're getting acquainted with others, because you're kind of embarrassed about having this job.

It's lower than other jobs that are out there. Some jobs are kind of prestigious, if you're the chief executive of a company, if

you're a doctor, if you're a lawyer, if you're a prominent professor, or scholar, if you're an important politician, these may seem

to have status, but other jobs. If you pick up garbage, let's say you're if you're a custodian who cleans up a building, those

aren't necessarily very prestigious jobs. If you're a shoeshine boy, and you work, shining other people's shoes, you don't

really brag about it. Nightmare jobs are jobs, very low status in the eyes of others. And a final thing about a nightmare job,

you're stuck. You don't have much other opportunity. And so just to kind of put food in your mouth, you have to stick with this

for sheer survival.

Now, no job is quite so bad that it would meet all of these perhaps. But when you have a nightmare job, you basically feel like

you're a slave. Now, that's a nightmare job. What about a dream job? What's a dream job like? Well, it's the opposite of a

nightmare job. In your dream job. The boss is perfect, he's ideal. There's nothing wrong with him. And he likes you. He's your

friend. He treats you like a person and he loves you. Another thing about a dream job is that the pay is good. In fact, it's

excellent. The pay leads toward having a share of everything. If you're working for a company that is thriving, and you're

promised that you're getting stock in that company, that you're in a profit sharing plan. And that in fact, you're going to inherit

a big chunk of the company right along with the owner. Now that would be a dream job, dream job has great pay.

A dream job has unlimited promotions, there is the possibility of rising higher and higher and higher to greater levels. was a

responsibility, greater levels of accomplishment, and the promotions run limited. In a dream job, there may be punishment,

but it's fact based. It's not just based on a whim or on misunderstandings. And so it's fair punishment. And nobody's just

targeted because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the boss happened to just kind of take a dislike

to you. The punishment is fact based and fair when there is punishment. And it's also done for your good. Sometimes, if you

are facing certain consequences, it's for the purpose of helping you to realize what you were doing wrong, and to help you

become a better worker. The tasks on a dream job are exciting, and important. It's interesting the work that you do, and you

know, you're accomplishing something that's really, really important, you're serving a valuable cause you're doing significant

things for others, you're doing things that may save lives, you're doing things that could change the world, that would be part

of a dream job is to have a perfect boss and great pay and promotions, and so on.

But also to know you're doing something that is extremely worthwhile. Not only that, a job where the status is as high as

anyone else, you don't feel like you're at the bottom of the totem pole or on the bottom rung of the ladder. Everybody who has

a high status doesn't have one that's any higher than yours. And a final aspect of a dream job to highlight would be that you

have security, I've no danger of losing that position. Now, in a nightmare job, you wish you could get out of that position, and

you can't, in a dream job, you'd never want to leave that position. And so you're glad you have security with no danger of

losing that position. Now, if you have all of this, if you're in a dream job such as that, then you feel like royalty, you feel like a

king or queen, because everything seems to be so excellent. Now, what we want to think about is how we can make a

nightmare job into a dream job.

I didn't say not how you can just escape a nightmare job and then go do something totally different. I'm talking about how

your nightmare job can become your dream job. And this is really, really important. For all of us. It's important, particularly for

people who are Christians, because they want to serve the Lord and everything. And work is a huge part of our lives. And of

the time that God gives to us how can a nightmare job become a dream job? Well, a new view of your work can turn a

nightmare job into a dream job. Even if you can't change the job, you could change your attitude. And you get this new view.

When you get a new boss and a new you. You need to have the Lord Jesus Christ as your boss, and you need to become a

new you in him and work heartily and look forward to the rewards that Jesus gives. And in that way, your nightmare job can

actually be transformed into a dream job even as you continue with some of the difficulties that your so called nightmare job

imposed on you.

Now, as we think about this, I don't want to just offer you my opinion, I want to offer you the Word of God. And I want to offer

you the Word of God as it was directed to people who were slaves. Let's just say that if being a slave could be turned into a

dream job than anything can be at the time of the Roman Empire. When the New Testament was written, more than half of

the people in the Empire were slaves. If the gospel had nothing to say to slaves, about their work, then it was going to be

skipping over more than half of the people who were then living in the Empire. And in our time, if the gospel has nothing to

say to people who are in jobs that have a lot of things that are unpleasant about them, the gospel is not going to be life

transforming because our jobs are a big part of our life. So let's look at what the Bible says to those who are in the nightmare

job of serving as slaves and then we'll think about that some more.

In the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul wrote, slaves obey and everything those who are your earthly masters, not by

way of I 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 done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves

justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. And then from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, slaves obey

your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not by the way of I 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 is 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 that there is no partiality with him. Now, as we consider those passages, one of the first things we see is the call to be

willing workers and being a willing worker means, among other things, obeying orders, doing what your boss says, obey, and

everything, those who are your earthly masters, obey your earthly masters. If we're in work life today, and we have a

supervisor or someone who is above us, part of our task is to do what they say. Now, obviously, there are limits on this, if

your boss says, I want you to go out and kill somebody, and get rid of them as a competitor to my business, you would

obviously have to disobeyed them. If they told you to do something totally dishonest in order to make money, you would have

to disobey them. So when the Bible commands is obey, and everything, those who are your earthly masters, it clearly means

obey, and everything lawful, everything permitted by God, those who are your earthly masters.

If our masters were to command something else, if the boss were to say, to do something wrong, then we have to take our

stand. In the words of the apostles, we must obey God rather than men. But whenever we're given an order by our boss, that

doesn't conflict with the will of God, we need to do what our boss says. And another aspect of being willing workers is being a

self starter, you may do what the boss says, but you don't do it just because the boss is looking excellent is energized

inwardly when nobody's looking, that's what is meant when the Bible repeatedly says not by way of eye service, not only

when the boss's eyes are on you, but even when nobody else is looking, even when nobody else is noticing. A motive for

trying to work when the boss is looking is so that you won't get punished. And so that you might get rewarded with pay and

with a raise. But Scripture says that even when nobody's looking, do it for the sake of the Lord, not for the sake of eye

service. Now, this is in keeping with what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, about our spiritual life. He said, that we

shouldn't do our acts of giving to others in order to be seen by others, but we should do our giving in secret, and not left hand

know what the right hand is doing.

Jesus said, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues on the street corner

to be seen by men, they've had their reward and fall when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your

Father who is unseen, and your father sees what's done in secret will reward you. And the same holds true of fasting. Don't

disfigure your face, like the hypocrites to show people your fasting, put oil on your head, wash your face look cheerful, so that

nobody will know that you're fasting except for your father, who sees what's done in secret, and he'll reward you. So that's an

emphasis in the spiritual life. It's also something in work life where you do your activities, for the sake of God, out of the heart,

you do it with sincerity of heart working heartily, doing the will of God from the heart, doing it with a goodwill, this is all inward

motivation out of a relationship with God. And it is not simply outward pressures that somebody is looking, and there will

either be rewards or punishments based on how you're doing real excellence, you're a self starter, and the boss can just

leave you to do what you're supposed to do without even worrying about it very much. Now, having been told that we ought

to be willing workers, we need to understand what the context of this is, these statements in Ephesians, six, but also in

Colossians. chapter three I want to focus on in particular, are made in a certain context. And whenever you're studying the

Bible, just remember that a text without its context is a pretext. Just remember that in all your Bible interpretation, a text

without its context, is a pretext. Now what is the context of this command? For slaves to serve their masters and serve them

well. Well, Colossians three, the begins by saying, if you've been raised with Christ, set your minds on things above, where

Christ is seated the right hand of God set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

You died and your life is hidden with Christ in God, so an old you died, and you focus your mind on Christ. And that means

you focus your mind on Jesus raining now over you, he's your real boss. And you focus on the life that is hidden with him, the

heavenly life, that's the common those are your real rewards. And then Colossians speaks of the new self, which is being

made like Christ and the fact that this new self, you're not slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all, and whether you're slave

or free, is almost irrelevant to the fact that Christ is in you, and you're bearing with one another, and you're forgiving one

another, and you're loving one another, and the peace of Christ is dwelling in you. And all of that wonderful relational

language doesn't just stop with a spiritual feeling and a vibe, it goes with you to your job. Then in Colossians, three, verse 17,

it says, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father

through him. And it's in that context of the new you, and of having the peace and calm of Christ in you the love and

forgiveness of Christ in you, and the determination to do everything in the service of Christ that we hear, okay, now, here's

what how parents and children, husbands and wives auto relate to each other. And here's how workers and their bosses auto

relate to each other. That's the context. And in that context, those who really did have a nightmare job, were told that they

could work heartily, and they could work gladly for the Lord. Now, we have to be careful not to get too carried away in

applying this passage.

None of us is a slave. None of us has a job, as nightmarish, as many slaves had back then, where the boss treated them as

things to be bought and sold, where the pay wasn't just low, they didn't get paid. And they were always broke, they never had

any money, they were never promoted, they could get punished for the least little thing, your boss could kill you, he could get

away with murder literally get away with murder, because a slave owner had the absolute right of life and death over you. In

the Roman Empire, you could get some of the nastiest hardest jobs and tasks, you had a status lower than dirt, and you were

stuck. And if you tried to run away and you got caught, they could kill you. That is a nightmare job. And those people hearing

these words of Paul didn't just feel like slaves, many of them were slaves. And yet, Paul gave them this message. Now, as I

said, we shouldn't as we think about it today, go on a pity party where we think we've got it as bad as they do. But

nonetheless, there are some challenging things about our jobs. And we need to think about those in our own jobs. And if

we're Christians in the lives of the people we communicate with, some of them are in nightmare jobs, and having a very hard

time of it. This is true, not just in the workplace, though, it certainly applies there. And we want to think about that. But think

also for a moment just about life at home.

Some people especially some homemakers, some mothers who spend most of their time in the home and not out at another

job can nonetheless sometimes feel like a slave, even sometimes around our house, you know, the kids will say, oh, I didn't

get a spoon, mom, give me a spoon. And I'll sometimes say, well, your mom's not your slave, go get it yourself. But even if

the kid doesn't have to go get the spoon himself. A lot of the time a mom can do some of the work that's pretty much like a

slave that you couldn't get somebody to pay you to do. You start out as a mother by changing a whole bunch of poopy

diapers after going through an excruciating process of labor and delivery, things that no boss could force on you that level of

pain and giving birth, or that cruddy of a job of messing with poop all day. And yet, mothers might do it willingly. The things

that in one sense would be a nightmare job or a dream job, because of their attitude and doing it. Sometimes, of course, it

can drag a mother down to have all that going on too. But sometimes you can feel like a slave and a new attitude towards

what you're doing in the home is vital for children to these words can be applied. Some kids do their schoolwork day after

day, and they work on their studies. And they feel oh, what's the use of this? Why would I ever need to know this? This is so

dumb. And yet, they have to do it and they're forced to do it and they feel like the boss whether it's the teacher, the parents is

don't understand and they're just making them slave away. Sometimes kids that are asked to do certain chores around the

house feel like they are serving as slaves. They're not getting paid to do those chores, and why should they have to do them.

So, at the, at the workplace, as well as in the home, we need to be able to apply what the Bible says about turning a

nightmare job into a dream job. You can change your Outlook, even if you can't change your job. The apostle Paul writes in

First Corinthians seven, each one should remain in the condition in which he was called, where are you a slave when called.

And that means called into the Christian life and born again and made a follower of Jesus, were you a slave when called,

don't be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For he was called in the Lord

as a slave is a freed man of the Lord. Likewise, he was free when he was called, is a slave of Christ, you were bought with a

price, do not become slaves of men. Now notice what policy here, don't let it concern you too much. If you are still in a

position of slavery, if you get a chance to escape that and to gain your freedom, then do so. But otherwise, keep serving the

Lord. And don't think of yourself as a slave of man. Think of yourself as free in Christ. That's the key. For slaves at the time of

the Roman Empire became Christians, it lifted them up to know that they were free people in Christ no matter what their

masters thought of them. And so today, we who are in jobs that may be very painful and difficult, can nonetheless without

switching our job, even begin to serve the Lord in that and realize that were bought with a price slaves were bought with a

price of money, but were bought with the price of Jesus blood and we belong to Him. And it's a great thing, to belong to the

Master of the Universe, and to not be a slave of men. So change your outlook. And I want to think about changing our outlook

and realize that in Christ, the work that we have, can be a dream job.

The boss is perfect, Jesus is perfect, and he loves you. Your pay doesn't lead towards a share of everything. The promotions,

when you're working for Jesus are unlimited. The punishment is always fact based, and fair. And if you belong to Him, those

punishments are for you Good. The tasks that Christ gives are exciting and important. The status is as high as anyone and

the security is that you're going to be working for the Lord until he comes again for you. And that can make you feel like

royalty. Let's look at each of these in a little more detail and see how the Bible teaches this. The boss is Jesus Christ, he's

perfect, and he loves you. Colossians three emphasizes you are serving the Lord Christ. Ephesians six makes the same

point your work as, as you would for Christ, you're doing the will of God from the heart, you're serving the Lord, not man.

Always keep in mind who the real boss is. This is the central point of these passages. It is the key to making a nightmare job

into a dream job.

To know who your boss is to know you're serving the Lord Christ, and then to do everything in that light. And when Jesus is

your boss, not only do you have a perfect boss, but he loves you and he doesn't treat you as a slave. No longer do I call you

servants. I have called you friends. Jesus has a close relationship to us, he treats us as friends and his family. elsewhere. In

Hebrews chapter two, the Bible says Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers, you have a perfect boss, he loves you. Never

Forget it. And whatever you may happen to think of the human boss you have here on Earth, do everything in your

workplace, not just for that human boss, but for Jesus Christ. The boss who is both human and divine. The pay is excellent.

The pay is a share of everything, you'd be mighty happy. If someone were giving you good wages and then said I've got this

profit sharing plan and everything that happens in the company is going to be for your benefit. And I'm going to make you an

inheritor of all the riches that the owner of the company has.

Well Colossians three says from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward, the inheritance, the inheritance is

what we get as sons and daughters of God. If children says the scripture then heirs all things are yours and you are Christ's

and Christ is God's. God says that we will have a share in everything in the inheritance as our reward whatever good anyone

does this he we'll receive back from the Lord, whether he's a slave or free. What does Jesus say in Matthew 25, and his

parable? He says that when people stand before him, those who have loved him and served him as their boss, he'll say to

them, 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, what a statement, enter into the joy of your Master, you are an heir of God, you inherit everything that Jesus has

earned for you. And his whole kingdom is something that he shares with us. And so we shouldn't be griping about how poorly

we're paid. We are in the greatest profit sharing plan. In the history of the universe, we have the most fantastic retirement

plan ever conceived. And meanwhile, God gives us all that we need to sustain us from day to day, as well. And so we can

count on him, he will provide us seek first His kingdom, and all the other things will be added to you as well. And promotions,

another statement from Jesus well done, good servant, because you've been faithful in a very little you shall have authority

over 10 cities, this has to be understood. We're working for Jesus now. And we're working often in comparatively small things,

but greater things are coming. And if we're faithful, in the lesser responsibilities that we have in this job in this life, greater

jobs in a greater life, are still to come.

Jesus is the one who overcomes I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. Let me just think, again, with you about

promotion. Can you think of any higher promotion than sitting on the same throne as Jesus Christ, and sitting there right

beside him, Jesus says, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. When you serve the Lord Christ, you have a future of

reining with him, they will reign forever and ever. The Bible says that we will have responsibility and authority even over the

mighty angels of God. Wow, you cannot get promoted higher than a position where you get to rain with Jesus Christ and

have authority even over angels. So don't be a grump. If the promotion doesn't come instantly, walk by faith, not just by sight,

walk by faith in the promises of God. In this life, there may be punishment at times, but it's going to be fact based and fair.

Jesus says that he will render to everyone what he has coming to him. Colossians says, for the wrongdoer, we paid back for

the wrong he has done and there is no partiality. Now, this is a statement that cuts two ways, to slaves who had bosses who

can sometimes be unfair. This says that there is fairness when it says there is no partiality. It's translated also, God is no

respecter of persons, God treats people equally. And this means that masters who have been cruel, have to answer to God.

This means that workers who aren't doing what they're supposed to do will also have to answer to God. So if the wrongdoer

is the person who's working and getting fed and paid to do certain work, and then isn't doing it, well, then he's gonna have to

answer for that. But it also means that if there's a boss who is not paying what people deserve, who's not treating them as he

ought to, then he's got the answer to God. Now, this little phrase, Masters do the same to them. Maybe one of the most

radical phrases in the whole of the Bible, think of it at this time when masters are absolute authority and the power of life and

death over their slaves.

The Bible is telling Christian masters to do the same to them, which means treat your slaves the way the slaves or to treat

you. In other words, we treat each other as equals and be doing what is right stop your threatening, knowing that you've got

the same Master as they do. In Colossians it says treat your slaves justly and fairly, or it can also be translated, provide your

slaves with what is just and fair. In other words, pay them, give them what their work deserves. And the small we start doing

that you're not treating them as slaves anymore are you? You're treating them as just employees where you're providing

them what they have coming to them. At any rate. It says that if you don't do the work you're supposed to do as a worker, or if

you miss treat people as a boss or as an owner or as a master, you've got God the answer to and his punishment is going to

be fact based and fair, not just done on a whim or unjust and God does when he sends things into our life that are difficult, he

will often do that, for our good. God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His Holiness. And sometimes part of

that discipline, it's not even a direct punishment. It may just be the learning to be molded in character, and to grow in grace.

And God lets us go through tough times at work, to grow in grace.

He's using even hardship at work, to discipline us for our good that we may share in His Holiness. It's not always a

punishment. Sometimes it may just be a shaping kind of discipline. Just as exercise is a kind of discipline. That's not a

punishment, but it's toughening ourselves up for greater work for the Lord. So at any rate, we can take confidence that it's

always going to be fact based and fair, when God is the one deciding on the discipline about our task. Well, sometimes let's

face it, bosses are mean, and they're not fair. And even then we have a great task to walk in Jesus steps servants, says the

Apostle Peter, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to be unjust, for this is a

gracious thing. When mindful of God one endures sorrows, while suffering unjustly. For what credit is that if when you sin and

are beaten for it, you endure. But if when you do God, and suffer for it, and you endure, this is a 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. This is a tremendous task to follow in the steps of Jesus, Charles Sheldon wrote a book a while back in his

steps, and then decades later, the question that was asked in his book became very popular in his steps. The book has

people asking what would Jesus do? And later on the whole WWJD, what would Jesus do movement took off? Well, the

origin of in his steps, in terms of its context, is this statement to slaves who are being unjustly punished that they're following

and Jesus steps when they do good and suffer for it. Hey, here's a memo for you. We're all going to suffer. The only question

is, are you going to suffer for doing bad? Are you going to suffer for doing good? Forget all those prosperity, people who say

that you're never going to suffer, if you really have enough faith in Christ, you're going to suffer? Okay? What's it going to be

for?

Peter says, what credit is is is that if you're suffer for sinning and doing bad stuff, you just got it coming to you. But if you do

good, and suffer for it, and you endure, well, then you're doing something that is following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ,

who also suffered for doing good. Now that is a high and lofty task, walking in the very footsteps of Jesus Christ. Think about

this task. In your work, you can be winning others to Christ, if you are a Christian, working for a non Christian boss, pity your

boss, not yourself. Eternal hell is worse than a few years of slaving. This is a message that the scripture tried to get a lot

across to people who actually were slaves, that if you're a Christian and your boss isn't, don't think of him as the boss, and

who has all the influence over you think of yourself as the one who could influence your boss positively, and think of your

boss, not yourself as the one who deserves to be pitied. slaves are to be submissive to their own masters and everything.

They ought to be well pleased and not argumentative, not pilfering, that means not stealing stuff from the boss, but showing

all good faith and why? So that in everything that may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, so that everything, they will

make the teaching of the Christian faith attractive, and help their boss and others around them be drawn to the Lord, your

job, whatever your various jobs might be. A central job is to make Christian truth attractive to an unbelieving boss, and to

unbelieving fellow workers.

If you think that you're in a job that doesn't have much that's important, and that you're not achieving a whole lot. Think about

that one for a while. Eternal souls are in the balance and the way you do your job and the excellence and honesty and the

way you do it cooperatively instead of argumentatively. All these things are adorning the doctrine of God our Savior, and

making Jesus Christ attractive to people who desperately need him. 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. See, there it is, again, make it

attractive, make Christianity appealing instead of something that people will despise. And you're doing that for non Christian

masters but then also, those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they're brothers rather,

they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers, and beloved. So if you do happen

to have a Christian boss, be thankful to God. And just remember that whatever you do to benefit your boss or to benefit that

company is benefiting a fellow believer, and that should encourage you to continue at your tasks with all the more energy. So

again, thinking of your tasks, we're walking in Jesus steps, we're making the gospel attractive to people who desperately

need Jesus Christ. We're benefiting other people, and bringing benefit also to fellow believers if we happen to be working for

one of them. And the status of our work well, it's as high as anyone, Jesus Himself put it this way, you have only one master,

and you are all brothers. That is the kind of statement that can change the world. When people no longer see each other as

higher ranked or lower ranked, as slaves or free or masters, and servants but instead we have one Master Jesus Christ, and

we are all brothers.

Here there is not slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all there is neither slave nor free, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,

in Christ the slave has as much status as the most important chief executive, or owner or boss in the whole world and don't

you ever forget it. Now, this letter to the Colossians, which said some of these things, was carried after Paul wrote it that to

Colossae by a man named Onesimus, and he went back to his former master Philemon, Onesimus had run away. He was a

runaway slave. And he had gotten away from Philemon. But then later Onesimus had met Paul and Onesimus had become a

Christian, and it helped Paul a lot. And now Paul was sending Onesimus back to Philemon carrying the letter to the

Colossians, as well as a personal letter to Philemon. And then that personal letter to Philemon that Onesimus carried from

Paul. Paul said that Philemon should take him back no longer as a slave, but better than as a slave, as a dear brother, see

the words of Jesus, you have just one Master, and you are all brothers taken back not as a slave, but as a dear brother, and

when we're in Christ, and when we're dealing with fellow Christians, each of us is as high as everyone else, and we are all

royalty in the kingdom of God. And in this position of working for Jesus, we have security, there's no danger of losing the

position.

Jesus says, 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. So there again, you see the pay the inheritance, of being honored when Christ returns, but also the

fact that we have work to do for him until he comes again, hey, we've got job security, God's got a task for us to perform. And

we do it until he comes for us and takes us away through death, or until he comes again, in all his glory, and makes the entire

world new. And therefore we should continue working for him. 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. It's never in vain. When you're working

for the Lord. That statement comes at the end of a great passage, about Jesus's resurrection, and about our resurrection.

Now, as we see these things, we need to recognize that Christ calls us to transform to make our nightmare job into a dream

job. By walking with Him, you have a perfect boss, and he loves you. And you won't necessarily see this until you walk by

faith in Jesus Christ. All these things that I've been saying are impossible for those who don't have faith, and who just look at

circumstances. But when you get your mind off of just what's happening on the earth, and you lift your heart to things above

where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and you fix your minds on things above on Jesus as raining right now, and

Jesus is coming again with his inheritance, then everything is transformed as you become the new you your boss is perfect.

The pay is leading toward an inheritance and to share with everything. Slaves at the time of the Roman Empire had no right

to inherit a thing and yet, the scriptures repeatedly tell the slaves you're going to inherit it all. The promotions are unlimited,

you're going to reign with Him and sit with a throne on a throne with him. Even the punishments and disciplines are for our

good and are fair. The tasks He gives us are exciting and important walking in his steps even suffering for his sake along with

him leading non Christians to know more of Christ, by the way we work as well as the way we talk, benefiting our fellow

believers, our status, hey, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life around some for

many, and in Him, there is no slave or free, but Christ is all and is, in all, we all have the same exalted status in Jesus Christ.

And until it comes again, stick with your job, you have a position, keep serving in it. Now if, as Paul said, if you're in a terrible

job here on Earth, and you have the opportunity to switch jobs, well then go for it. If you can gain your freedom to do so says

Paul. If you can get free from that one, and find a better one, go for it and serve the Lord even better in that new position. But

whether you're in a new position, or the same old, same old, you can transform you can make that nightmare job into a

dream job because you are working for the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the friend who sticks closer than a brother, our

Lord Jesus Christ, you are heirs of Christ, sons of God, you are a son or a daughter of the King of the universe. And when

you're doing your dream job for Him, you don't just feel like royalty, you are royalty.