Christians at Work

Open your Bibles if you would, to Colossians chapter three. We’ll be in verses 22, all the way through chapter four, verse one.

This is one of the most celebrated times of the year for Christians. Easter is significant. It is wonderful, it's amazing. It's transforming. And it's next week. You guys need to get, I don't know, three, four or five of these. If you go to the car repair shop, hand one out to that guy, that's who I'm going to give mine to this week. Neighbors. There's good Friday on one side, and Easter on the other. So, these cards won't do any good next Sunday. So, pass them all out this week, and invite people to hear the transforming word of the Gospel. I just encourage you to do that. We're going to have a good Friday service at 6:30. It's going to be a little more solemn. Thinking through Christ on the cross. And Friday, of course, is still good. And I'll tell you why. But you have to come Friday. And then Sunday is of course Easter, and Christ is risen, ruling and reigning. And what a wonderful time that will be to celebrate that.

This morning, though, we have another sermon in our series from Colossians chapter three. Let me ask you a question: Is it only pastors who have a high calling? When you think about your job, do you think, “Wow, I have a high calling!” Right? I can hear you laughing already. Right. Pastors proclaim Scriptures, are a light in this world, make disciples, preach Christ, teach the Scriptures. Pray for others. Christians, are called to proclaim the Scriptures. Be a light in this world, make disciples, preach Christ. Yep, we're not doing the female pastor thing today. Everybody needs to preach and proclaim the Scriptures. To preach just simply means to proclaim. And to pray for others. That is our high calling. It is a fantastic calling that we have in life. Sharing the Gospel is simply teaching the Scripture to others. And we are all called to go and make disciples of all the nations. We see that in Matthew, we see that in Acts, we see that as Paul's mission, we see that as Peter’s mission, we see that as Christ's mission. It's our mission. They make disciples of us, we make disciples of others, and that's the pattern. We preach Christ, and we make disciples.

2 Corinthians 5:20 says that you and I are also “ambassadors for Christ.” We are ambassadors for Christ. It says this, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,” now listen to this, “God making his appeal through us,” God making his appeal through us. “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” So, what you have is God saying, “If you are a Christian, if you know Jesus Christ, if he has died and risen on the cross, if he's paid for your sins, you've received this by grace, then you are an ambassador. And you thought only some people had government labels, right? You're an ambassador for Jesus Christ. God makes his appeal through us. And God doesn't make mistakes. He's not like oops, shouldn't have hired those people. He loves all those who are his children. He called us his own. In John, he says we are his friends, in chapter 16.

Christians speak for God to the world. Your job is your mission field. Your job is your mission field. If you don't have a job yet, well, prepare for the future. Pray for those who do. If you're retired, and you're just collecting seashells on the seashore, then pray for those who still do. Your mission field is other places. If you're in school, you will see very specifically how this passage applies to you. In fact, if you're anyone, with anyone in authority over you, in any area, you will see how this passage applies to you. But our job is our mission field. It’s just maybe a little more clear for pastors, but it shouldn't be.

In your workplace, you are to be a light for Jesus Christ. You're to be a light for Christ wherever you are. In your school, you're to be a light for Jesus Christ. Whether you're at a Christian school or a non-Christian school. Whether you have a job with other believers or not. Your goal, your purpose is to be a light for Jesus Christ. Your job, I don't think it stretches too far, is to say that this is the place where you worship all day. When you wake up tomorrow, and that alarm comes pretty early, and you didn't get the rest you thought you're going to get on the weekend. You wake up going, “I get to worship all day!” No more laughing yet. I think you'll come to that conclusion here, very shortly.

Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Your life is worship, your whole life. Wherever you go, whatever you do. It's worship. Your body, your mind, your life. It all comes together for this high calling that God has given to us. It's “your spiritual service of worship,” as some translations say. It is what we exude when we go to work, and when we're at school, and when we're in the grocery store. And when we're filling up the car with gas. We are worshipping God, thinking with a biblical worldview, understanding the world as he has created it – for us to make an impact in this world for Jesus Christ. We're not just teachers, or doctors, or government employees, or programmers. We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. We are the spokesman, the spokeswomen, for Jesus. For God, himself. God is the Boss. And we proclaim his message. That is our calling. That is our purpose.

And you’re like, “I'm just glad I showed up today.” Right? I can see it on your faces. You're like, just happy to be here. Well, we're going to get a heavy dose of our purpose. And hopefully go out of here energized to be lights in this world. The programmer writes code for God's glory, not simply because he's paid. He does so as an ambassador for Jesus Christ and takes all the qualities of Colossians three and infuses that into his work. The football player, the soccer player, the basketball player, they don't just play for themselves. You don't say this player won the game. Unless of course, it's maybe tennis, right? Where it's an individual type of sport. But the team sports, you play with the team for the team. And the name of the team overrides everything you do on the court or on the field. They train, they practice, they play hard, for the benefit of the team. They understand who they represent. When we are at work, we represent Christ. We represent the King of kings, the Lord of lords. This is Who we represent at work.

This is what should be obvious to everyone and Colossians 3:17 summarizes this for us. Look there if you would with me, at Colossians chapter three, verse 17. I'm going to read out of the ESV, there are Bibles under the seats nearby. You can use that and turn to Colossians. It says, “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.” I love those all-encompassing verses, there's no way out of this. If you were looking for wiggle room, it's now gone. Okay. If you're looking for what's my purpose in life, there it is. Just memorize this verse. Job or no job, retired or not, worker at home, stay at home mom, college student, in elementary school. This is your purpose: whatever you do, in word or deed, it's to be done for the name of Jesus Christ. Whatever you say, you honor Jesus. Whatever you do, you honor Jesus. And this includes work. And if you think about it, God's plan and design is to marshal millions of Christians out into the workplace, out into the world, to be his lights every single day. What a grand privilege we have. What a grand privilege we have.

So today, we're going to focus in a little bit on the workplace. From Colossians 3:22 and following. It says this, this is point number one: “Make Your Boss Happy He Hired You.” Point number one: “Make Your Boss Happy that He Hired You.” Colossians 3:22, “Bondservants, 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.” Notice the focus there, the motivation there. Now “bondservant” is the word for “slave.” It's “doulos,” it means “slave.” But if you immediately think of white middle-aged men, whipping a certain nationality, you do not understand world history very well. You just have that American mindset. So that's why in the ESV, they translate this word as “bondservant.” Someone who is an indentured servant. 1619 in Jamestown was not the first time this all came to pass, no matter what teachers and the news might tell you.

In the Roman world, for Paul, this was basically the workforce. 30% of the population in the Roman world were slaves. Some had very good situations, they were doctors, they were lawyers, they could practice medicine, they were given charge over the whole family. Remember Joseph, he was a slave. He was second in command over the most powerful nation on the planet, at the time. Right, in that whole region. He was the most powerful, nothing withheld. And some had it bad. Now slavery in America, of course, was awful. There was nothing good about it. And so, we ask ourselves, why does the Bible broach this topic? And how are we to understand? How did you jump from that to the workplace? Well, I told you, this is the workforce. So that's in principle, how we're going to talk about it today. But also, for Paul or anyone else to encourage slaves to run away would be to encourage them to bring upon themselves a death sentence, a death sentence. So instead of trying to leave and die, how do you work in this situation?

Now take it down about 10 levels, you at your workplace. That's what we're going to talk about today. We think we're treated poorly; they were in many cases. And so, Paul is talking to them that have a very difficult situation, unless they have a Christian master, unless they have a Christian boss. So here, this situation that he's talking about, is in the context of submissive relationships. Right, that's the flow of this passage. Paul has been speaking about submissive relationships of Christians to Christ, of wives to husbands, of husbands to love their wives (in this submissive way to Christ), of children to parents. And now, in context of employees, to those who are their bosses. And Paul is trying to help them understand that there is a greater relationship in play here.

Your earthly status is not your most important status. Okay? It doesn't matter if you've got a great job, a high-profile job, or no one even understands what your job is when you tell them. You know, one of those jobs, where you just go, “I work for the government” or “I just work in code” because no one understands your job but you. Your status is not based on your job. Paul makes this very clear in Colossians 3:11. We've already gone over this, look at look at 11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;” but what does it say? “but Christ is all, and in all.” This is the greatest status that any human being could have, is to be in Christ.

So now that we are in Christ, how are we to live? Are we to just go out there and demolish everything that's bad? Should we just go and tear down every abortion clinic today? Should we just ransack everything that's evil? That would be a very short-lived day for Christians once the military engaged. So how do you live with this? First, you have to understand that you're in Christ. If you've been saved by the grace of God, if God has transformed your life, and given you a new nature, he's given you a new name. He's now called you his child. Everyone is created by God. Everyone is valuable and equal in God's eyes, in the sense that they're all made in the image of God. There's just one race, the human race, with different ethnicities. But the race itself is one race. It's created and established by God. So, Paul says that [Colossians 3:11] “Christ is all, and in all.”

Second, Paul helps us see how our relationship to God then impacts the situations we're in. You see that’s the context here, the relationship to God impacts the situations that we're in. And in this context, we're going to look at how it impacts our work. That is, those who are in authority over us. We had to look at that years ago, Romans 13. What is our relationship, as a people, to our government? That's a submissive relationship. As Christians, how do we act and relate in that? Well, here it gets very focused. And it talks about the workplace. The indentured workers. Colossians 3:22, “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.” That's how you make your boss happy he hired you. In everything!

“Where, where's the wiggle room, Pastor Dave? Where do I? Where do I get out of this one? This is not feeling too hot so far.” Don't worry, there isn't any and it's okay. Obey in everything, those who are what? Your earthly masters. The word for “master” there is “lord,” your earthly lords. It raises it up even further. So, the first point is the hardest that we're going to talk about because, like MacArthur said at the Shepherds Conference (and Dustin referenced it last week in Grace Equip), obedience is a bad word. It's like a dirty word. Unless you're a Christian, or a parent wanting your children to obey, right? All of the parents are like, “Amen! Okay, I can see how this might be good.” Right? And you know, obedience is not popular at work. You know this. If you've been at your job for longer than like five days, you know who loathes to be there and just smiles when the boss comes around. You know, those workers, right? They're happy to share the credit when someone else deserves it. Always smiling when the boss is around. Working hard to look good and work little and get paid a lot. Right? I want the easiest job with the most pay and the most recognition is that not what all of the college students are told to do? It's just, it's just not reality. And a good five days at a bad job, we'll bring that about. And you go, “Why am I here?”

And this says, Christians should not behave “by way of eye-service.” Eye-service, to put on a show. “Eye-service” is only used one other time. And it's in Ephesians 6:5-6. Let me read that to you, “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters,” listen to this, “with fear and trembling.” That's the easy part, “with a sincere heart, as you would Christ.” Did you catch that? “as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” From the heart. We are not to be people-pleasers, that is, putting on a show. We are to be Christ-pleasers. Christ-pleasers. We are not just servants of our boss. We are servants of Jesus Christ, to the benefit of our boss. I know you guys are going to just play this sermon over and over and over again on your way to work and on your way home on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Don't miss the connection here. And this is significant. And this may be the toughest point to get over today. Obey your boss like he's Jesus. Ephesians 6:5-6, “as you would Christ…as bondservants of Christ.” Because you're a servant of Christ, you then serve this person, this lady, this guy over here, like they are Jesus. And that's it, that's all you have to do. Right? You are just going to sparkle at work on Monday, I know it. We can't sin for our boss, right? If he asks us to sin, we don't we don't do that. We don't worship our boss. That's what the eye-pleasers do. But Ephesians says to obey your boss from the heart, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. Obey your boss like you were his servant. He may already treat you like his servant. Right? At times we do that to other people, like they're our servant. And we get all, “Whoa, I just get to play the servant role when I want to, not when you want me to.” Right? That's how we think. But it's with sincerity, just as you would obey Christ. Now, this means you don't get to pick and choose. There's no picking and choosing what you do from your boss's perspective. This is, it's all in. Now if you pick and choose from the Bible, what you do and what you obey, this doesn't have an impact on you. This is totally passing by right now. But if you are all in on obeying Christ as Lord, then this is difficult.

We don't obey our boss out of spite. We don't obey because we're going to get fired. We don't obey so that we’ll get promoted. We don't obey because we're going to get a bad performance review. Like, who likes those things? I remember going through those every year out in Los Angeles, like, I’d rather get a root canal. Right? And yet if those are our motivators, then our motivation is based on our own recognition, our own pay, our own performance, how others view us. And where's all this motivation from Christ? Where has that gone? Right? So, sincerity means a genuine heart, an honest heart, a truthful heart, a loving heart.

I remember thinking through some of the initial contracts our church had with the community, the first five years or so we were here. And thinking, wow, the person that I had to work with was pretty difficult. Obviously weren't excited about having a church in their building. And I thought, man, this is just going to be difficult for all 40 of us to go to church. And even just to get permission, and just the slightest thing we could be kicked out. And then I learned what a difficult life that person had. I learned some very significant things about this person's life that would make most of us crumble and just check out of life. And in addition to all his other responsibilities for running what they had to run, they had to have this church come in and also use the building and come in on the weekends and set up chairs and maybe misplace things and misplaced toys and all that kind of stuff. And I think once we understand our boss as a human, it gives us a different perspective. It allows us to work hard at making them be very thankful they've hired us and not trying to get them to just promote us, or raise our pay, or back off, or be easier.

Think about the implication of this verse, especially if there's someone you have a difficult time getting along with. 1 John 4:20-21, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Your supposed to love your boss. You say, “Wait a minute, Dave. My context is going off here, that says ‘brother,’ he's not a brother. He's not a Christian, so I can get out of it there.” Okay. Alright. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How about that one? Matthew 22, Leviticus 19, Matthew 19, and Mark 12. And there's about 10 others. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” You say, “Well, I don't live by him.” Okay, alright. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:44. “Well, that's just one verse.” Nope, there's another one. Luke 6:27, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Hate you!

Does your boss hate you? Give him a big hug. Love him. Love her. You know, if it's a her and you're a guy, do the side thing. You know, the really awkward. Hug, love them. “Why are you treating me like this?” “Because you're… No, because I love Jesus.” It will force you to figure out why are you acting the way you act in the workplace. It’s because of Jesus, it has nothing to do with that person, initially. It's just love. These are commandments, they're not suggestions. And if you're not willing to do this, you're not willing to live the way God's called a Christian to live. 1 Peter 2:18 says, “Servants,” that’s actually a different word, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.” The more verses I read the less wiggle room there is. So far, we're just obeying our boss like he's Jesus. We obey the just and the unjust, and we do good to them, and we love them. And this is just the first point. Do you see how different the Christian workforce should be in the world? The light should just be huge. No one more esteemed, no one more faithful, loving, and kind than a Christian. So, the first point: “Make Your Boss Happy He Hired You.” If you forgot, that's from Colossians 3:22, I promise we're going back there.

And that leads us to the next point, point two: “Make Your Boss Want to Hire Other Workers Like You.” Just like you. Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” We do our work for men or for women, for those in authority over us. But ultimately, it's for God. “As for the Lord,” right there, Colossians 3:23. I remember the onboarding process, many moons ago, in Los Angeles. And my job, after you get the job, there's a bunch of weeks of technical training, and they just want to get you up to speed on all their proprietary equipment and computers. And, you know the process, and there's the really fun HR conversations and such. And so, I was getting a huge dose of that. And so, I showed up, and I wasn't sure what kind of jargon or things they're going to have us sign that we heard or we'll put into practice, or we agree with, or we just agree not to disagree, or I didn't know what language I was going to get into.

And this guy's telling us about all the systems, and the equipment in this department that I worked in. He was very put together. Very professional. And yet congenial. He was nice. I was like, this is kind of refreshing. This is a dog-eat-dog world I'm in right now. It's thousands of people competing for jobs and this guy’s relaxed and nice. And then I got this huge surprise. He was a Christian! He told us that. In the onboarding process! That was his way of saying, be nice to everyone, even those who don't agree with, or you don't agree with their religion. Mine just happens to be Christianity. I love Jesus. Well, that was not at a Christian company, a very high profile, liberal, non-Christian company.

What's the point? Well, he was such a good worker, that he could use his own faith in Jesus Christ, to get forward the message of the company in a way that honored the company and brought glory to Jesus. I was like, “This is amazing!” He and I became great buddies that day. That was the first impression. Okay, maybe that was the like the 10th impression. That was the first impression on how to be a good worker from the company. There weren't many Christians at that place. But they were so hard working, so dependable, so trustworthy, so well qualified, so successful, that they put up with their religious positions, because they got so much benefit out of them and productivity at work.

To put it in Paul's language of Colossians 3:23, they “work[ed] heartily, as for the Lord” and because they did that, people enjoyed having them around. You know unless it was Pride week or something. They just loved them being there. It was great. It's not that Christians should turn their noses up to their bosses or look down on them. It's that we should be authentic, be authentic. And that authenticity should promote Christ, not self. “Heartily” here is the word psyche in the Greek. It means everything you are; you give it your all. Your soul’s involved in this. You feel like your soul, your all, is involved in your work. It's hard, I know, I haven't always been a pastor. Some people are anything but enthusiastic at work, right? They're like the constant “Eeyore’s.” How’s it going? You know, “I'm doing fine. How are you?” They look like they had a root canal or a colonoscopy or something. Right? It's like, Wow! I don't think I ever want to be like that person. That's the opposite of what it's talking about here. Heartily, enthusiastically. I think the Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this “enthusiastically.”

So, you're thinking, “Okay, sounds great, but, you know, the phrase ‘toxic workplace’ was actually started at my job. That's where the phrase came from. Right, that's you, that's what you're thinking like, “Okay, how am I going to do this?” Well, here's the only out that you have, that all the bondservants of Paul's day never had. You ready for it? Get another job! You can do that. You're free to leave. There aren't any shackles. There's no ear piercing or burned in tattoo on your arm that says: “Return me to my master.” Which is what they would do to slaves in the Roman times, you can find those signets. Just look up the British Museum, for instance. And if you want to a secular understanding of this, you can see how they treated some of their slaves. It's burned into them and some of them have marks, you know. But you, you may feel scarred from working for your boss or your company, but you can leave. But if you stay, you have to be a light. Your boss should love to see you coming. You inspire other people. You're contagious in a in a good way.

Notice, in Colossians 3:23, this is all encompassing: “whatever you do,” whatever you do. Maybe you're the big dog and you present to 500 people and you just kind of stroll into the room and everybody snaps into shape. But what if you just present to five? Or what if your cubemate says, “Hey, can you get me some coffee? I'm really busy.” Right, as though you're not. And you say, “Yeah, sure.” You know, you love your cube mate or whoever you work closely with. And then the boss comes by and says, “Hey, can you get coffee for everybody? We're having a party over here in this other department.” And you think, that's not in my… what? Job Description. Let me give you a new job description: Serve your boss like he's Jesus. Just put that at the top of your job description. And then go through everything you’re “hired to do.” Told you there was no wiggle room. And we're getting past this point pretty quickly, so hang in there.

Here's the point, Christians aren't perfect but we should be different. Christians aren't perfect, but we should be different. When someone asks us, “Why do you do that? You just took out the trash.” Right? “You make like a gazillion dollars a year, why are you doing that?” “I love Jesus. He can wash stinky toes. I can empty the garbage.” I mean, just every chance, promote Christ. So that's point number two: “Make Your Boss Want to Hire Other Workers Like You.” Now the logical question is, as we're dealing with this and we're thinking, “Okay, well maybe I do need to get another job after this sermon because it's not working for me, I work right now and I'm just not doing good. I'm more like a light of death at work, and I don't want to be like that. But does God actually care? I know he sees, but Does God care?”

Look in Colossians 3:24, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Point number three then is: “To Be Satisfied with Your Heavenly Reward.” You know, you walk into the grocery store, and there's that plaque up there that says, employee of the month. I mean, how long does that recognition really last? Right? I mean, they've been putting it up for 20 years, who remembers who was employee of the month, in October five years ago? Probably, the only person, is the one who was the employee of the month. Right? So, we need to be satisfied with more than just that, “attaboy.” You know, we all need encouragement, we all need to hear that, yes, that's the direction you should be going. But that should not be the sum total of our motivation. When slaves serve the table, all they're doing is just what they're required to do. Jesus said that. He is just doing what's required, will his master thank him simply because he did what he was supposed to? So, we need to work to be satisfied with the heavenly reward. And that's a promise, “you will receive [it].” That's God Almighty, saying, “I see everything you're doing. And I'm going to reward you for everything done in my Name.” I love that. I love that. No matter where you are, what you're doing in life, this all-encompassing purpose. It's God sees you. He cares about you, he loves you. He knows what's going on in your life. All the things you do that no one else sees or remembers or understands. He sees and knows and understands. And he's going to give you an eternal reward. Not just a little plaque. Or like the job I was at, a watch. Like, who wears the company watch after you get one? I don't know. I don't even know where that thing is.

God will reward you for all the things you do at work as a Christian. You say, but this verse just sounds like I'm getting an inheritance like just for being a Christian? Well, no, it's more than that. The companion letter here is Ephesians. So, let's go back to Ephesians 6, it's the same context. Ephesians 6:5-6, turn there with me if you can. “Bondservants,” there's the same word, “obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling.” See, there is more I didn't add, “with fear and trembling… as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” So, Ephesians 6:5-6, are the exact same context we're talking about. And then it says this, Ephesians 6:7-8, “rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing” what are we supposed to know? “that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”

There's no such thing as going unnoticed in God's economy, no such thing. And that's not necessarily all of our motivation. But it's okay to be motivated by the rewards of God because they're good. They're from the Lord. They're a blessing on us from him. He sees you, he knows you. And the context of this is to bless you for all that you're doing. Colossians 3:24 uses the word “inheritance,” we will receive an inheritance. You know what that is, when somebody dies, they leave something for the next generation. You know, they leave something behind that is supposedly good. This is a good inheritance, not an inheritance of debt. But a good, a positive thing. You know, it's a nice memory, maybe it's financial. But here, we receive an inheritance that doesn't go to anyone else. It stops with us. You receive this eternal inheritance.

So, when you're at work, and your boss is just like do, do, do, do all this stuff. And you're like, “Wow, does he even know?” Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he doesn't know all the revenue that your company makes because of your decisions. Maybe he doesn't know why things just magically work well, at your department, at your office, and in your area. Or why your wing at school works well, and your bosses or your teachers don't get it. They don't understand. And why things in your life just work well. We need to seek a better recognition, a better reward. Than just, “Hey, here's a bonus.” And when they treat you like a servant next week. You’re like, “Remember last week, I did really good.” Right?

This inheritance is eternal. Right? Where moth and rust do not destroy. You get a new nature. You get a group of friends that are always nice. That's part of your reward. And you will always be nice. You get a new body that won't grow old or tired. You could go for two walks in a day, and not be tired. You could jog really far. And then do it all over again. Your body is going to be incredible. Your brain is going to work the way you thought it should be working. Right? When it's not working the way you think. And you're talking and you just can't grab the next word, you can kind of see it. You thought you knew where you were going. And then it's like, train left the building. Your brain is going to be amazing. You're going to be glorified, with Christ. You're going to live in heaven. Walk on streets of gold.

I mean, how big does the paycheck need to be before you're satisfied and content? You want to know? That never satisfies. Just look at all those who are making twice what you do. They're not satisfied because of that. What do they want, like Rockefeller said, “A little bit more.” Right? Satisfaction doesn't come from those things. It doesn't come from another week of vacation. It doesn't come from being able to go on a nicer vacation or being able to go on one at all. Because when you go you just come back and the works like three times as high. Right? But those things are nice, they're blessings. God's created the world for us to enjoy. Look at Ecclesiastes, in the midst of all that is vanity – that is, just the wind that passes by – there is good over and over again. And in most of the chapters it says, and this is good, and this is from the Lord for you to enjoy. So, life is to enjoy. But we need to make sure our motivation is set towards a heavenly reward.

If you don't know Jesus, I would beg you to consider him. To give Jesus your all. By now in life, you're probably realizing, there must be something better. And there is, his name is Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to pay for your sin. Something you and I couldn't do. Oh, we could die, however, that wouldn't be worth a whole lot. That would not be the perfect willing sacrifice. We blew that about 10 minutes out of the womb. Right, screaming to get our own needs. Can't even form words. But we communicate. And we've been doing it ever since. Jesus paid for it all, he paid for everything. And the righteousness that you and I have, like the good deeds we do: helping a little old lady across the street, doing something nice for somebody, cold cup of water. The standard is perfect holiness. It's this perfect righteousness and without that we're not going to be in heaven. We will be in hell forever. The greatest good that you can experience on Earth is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I would encourage you, if you don't know him, if you're not 100% sure that you know Jesus and that all of your sins are forgiven, then trust him, today. Trust him, today. Come to Jesus, today. Believe in him, turn away from your life of serving yourself, of putting Jesus off, and serve Christ. That is where true joy is. And true forgiveness.

So, one logical application from looking to our heavenly reward, is that we don't take things from work. Yeah, that. All the way down to the paper clips, right? I mean, we love paper clips, they're everywhere. Just take them for this, take them for that, print a little bit of home stuff at work. You know, those kinds of things. Use the company car for home purposes some. Or just the time schedule. I worked a good, solid 40 minutes this hour. Now it's, you know, internet surf time. Got to order that thing. Didn't do it over lunch. And now I'm going to do it on company time. Employee theft, I looked this up, 50 billion a year. 50 billion! That's a lot of money. Not just things, but time. And listen, like I said earlier, we're not going to be sinless, but we should be different. It should impact us when we do those things. Like, “Alright, I'm not doing well on that, I need to do well. Jesus's reward for me, is better than anything I can skim off the surface at work.” As one preacher said, “We got to make Jesus look good at work, we got to make him look good in everything.” And so, we use work stuff for work. Remember, there's no way to go unnoticed. And everything that you do is all seen for the glory of God. And we need to be satisfied with that. So that was point number three: “Just Be Satisfied with Your Heavenly Reward.

So, there's a word to bosses as well. What if you're the boss? What if you're the woman? You know, “you're the man.” What if you're the woman? What if the buck stops with you? Well, there's a couple of good verses for that. Look in Colossians 3:25, “For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.” Colossians 4:1, “Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” Don't go to work on Monday and say, “Guess what I heard on Sunday?” “Hey, Boss, let me share with you my favorite Bible verse. It's Colossians 4:1.” Don't do that.

No, when people leave work, they don't stop talking. How was your weekend? “Eh…” Or, “It was great, I wasn't at work.” Right? I mean, even the Christian radio: “It's Wednesday, you've made it halfway through your week. You miserable, pitiful souls who have to work for the glory of God in all of your jobs. You made it to Wednesday.” Right? That's every Christian radio station on the planet. And then Friday, “Wahoo, it's Friday!” No, “Wahoo, it's Sunday!” And then I get charged up when I go back to work. And it's like, “Hey Boss, I'm ready to roll. Let's get going. I've been working since three o'clock this morning just for you.” Alright, so some of your bosses make it difficult, but they also are supposed to treat you fairly and justly. Just like the Bible says, they also have a Master in heaven. And there's no partiality with him. You know that worker that gets away with everything and you don't. There's no partiality at all with him. Those in charge, have God as their Master.

So, if you're the boss, what are you known for? Because they make assumptions, your non-Christian workers, make assumptions about the God you claim to serve based on how you live. The same way the boss does with how the Christian workers live and talk and act. Right? They make assumptions about God. If your boss is just, a non-Christian worker will think, “Well, God is just.” If your boss isn't fair, if you are the boss and you're not fair, then your employees are going to think, God's okay with unfairness, with justice going out the window. Same thing here in Colossians 4:1, the word “Master” here is actually kyrios. The same word used to describe Jesus hundreds of times as “Lord.” These are earthly lords, earthly masters.

And I guess the biggest way to think about this, as we finish up here in the next few minutes or so, it is just that if you're the boss, and you tell them you go to Grace Bible Church, are they going to want to come here? If you're the Christian worker, always reading your Bible at work, always. You got “Jesus” stickers on your laptop, you know, if that's allowed even. And they look at you, are they going to want to come to your church? There are exceptions. But generally, Christians should have great reputations in the workplace. They might not like your religion. Like that guy that was doing the onboarding. They might not like his religion, but they like him. And they'll put up with it. They might not put up with that at your work. But does our reputation whether we're at school, or whether we're a little kid, or whether we've been a Christian for 5 minutes or 50 years – do others feel drawn to our God because of us?

I remember my first job out of college, actually had it in college and then kept it for about 10 years or so. I was making computer graphics at this podunk little commercial station in the Midwest. What does the Midwest know about commercials? Nothing. Right? They know about corn, they know about combines, they know getting up at 4am. And, you know, running these big machines and soy and that's what they know about. Aluminum, largest aluminum plant is in the Midwest as well. They know about that. But you know what I loved doing? Was going to work. Because I had a Christian boss. He wasn't perfect. You all know, we all know the weaknesses of our bosses, right? We can list those [snap] just like that. But I enjoyed the guy. And he had flaws. But he was genuinely different. And the company wasn't a Christian company. It was just a Christian run company. And there were, of course, non-Christians there and we worked together, we worked on very tight deadlines. In other words, like a commercial idea might happen at 10 o'clock and by 6pm it needed to be on air. Shot, produced, everything edited, uploaded – or in our case, in those days, the tape driven to the studio. But I loved going to work. He made it so enjoyable. And I stayed there about 10 years.

My next job was in Chicago, working on an animated film with vegetables. Don't hold that against me. Hundreds of people there. Hundreds. Some of them were like, “Do not talk to me about religion, at all.” I’m like, “Aren't you working on this product all day that is just talking about stuff like this?” Christian and non-Christian. It was, by far, one of the most fun workplaces I've ever been at. Of course, except here. But it was super encouraging. It was a lot of fun. I mean, we weren't the most talented bunch, that's for sure. And I only came in at the end of one of their projects to help them finish for about five months or so. And I was from, you know, cornfields and this job was in Chicago land and… But it was so fun! You know why? Because our bosses, we’ll call them Bob and Larry, were so nice. They were fun! What you saw on the screen was them in real life. That's why it all worked. But they were nice people. They were fun! They weren't theologians. But you can't hold that against them if you're not one, right? They weren't theologians, but they were kind. There wasn't any murmur at the office, like how do we have to work at this awful place? I think I'll keep working here another 10 years. Right? There was none of that.

Why? Because Christians are not perfect, they're different. We serve Christ! Here, at the workplace, at home. And we help each other, and we encourage each other to love Jesus Christ. And that is the foremost goal of our lives! It's not a great paying job, that should be second. It's not the best boss, that should be second. We already have the best boss. Right? And so, as we go out from here, and we think about these things, and we ruminate on, “Okay, what do I need to get in gear here at work?” It brings us back to where we started here, in this message. I guess I could have just read one verse to you today. Ah, it’s so funny. Turn to Colossians 3:17. This is your purpose: “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.” So let us work unto the Lord, for the name of Jesus, with thankful hearts, and make a difference in this world.

Let's pray.

Father God, you know us, you know the things we're really good at and the things we're really not. And Lord, today, we just pray that you would give us a new love for you. So that we can have a new love for our boss and others. Whether they be our neighbor, our enemy, our brother in Christ. Lord, may we love Jesus so much, that we just can't help but to be a light and a blessing to others. Lord, help us with this.

And Father, if there's someone here who doesn't know you, I pray that they would give their lives to Jesus Christ right now. That they would just confess their sin to you. Confess their need and receive salvation by grace.

Now friends, let's just take a moment and ask Jesus Christ to help us to live for him at work.

Lord Jesus, thank you for all of these things. Give us courage and grace to put this into practice even tomorrow. And even today. In your precious Name, Amen.