Colossians 3:22-4:1

I have had people reach out to me and ask for counsel and direction with all of this and my answer remains unchanged. I believe what ever we do, we need to do it in the name of Jesus!

This does not mean that we just go with the flow of things church or do whatever the culture is telling us to do, but rather seek the Lord and His Word for counsel and direction.

Rather than say yes and amen to what the culture tells us, we must educate ourselves about those things that leave us perplexed or even confused and listen to the Holy Spirit.

This morning I would like to begin with a nugget that has helped me time and time again:

How can I best honor and glorify God in this situation?

We must ask question church and not be like an ostrich with his head in the sand.

We must educate ourselves, because if we don’t the media will!

Let us not be a people that believes everything we hear, read, listen, or see, but rather be like the Bereans:

Acts 17:10–11 NKJV

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Today, we must search the Word daily to find out whether these things are so church!

Each decision should be made in prayer, not by what the media is pushing, not by what someone you talk with is telling you, but the Lord.

Listen to the Lord church, not what the culture is telling you>

Remember, the Word says: My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Following Jesus is not easy, but IT IS RIGHT! Plus it is well pleasing to the Lord.

Let’s read our text for today!

Read Colossians 3:22-4:1

Colossians 3:22–4:1 NKJV

Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Prayer

Review

We came as far as verse 21 last week where we zero’d in on Father’s not provoking your children, lets they become discouraged or disheartened.

And I was blessed because someone came to after service and said that although they do not have a wife, or children, that they walked away looking at their relationship with the Father who does not provoke anyone.

I know we had spoke of father’s in particular, but the Word father here is verse 21 to some scholars means parents:

Colossians 3:21 NKJV

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

I agree with both of these observation of this text, meaning that both fathers and mothers are not to provoke their children.

But I also believe that if we were to do an honest assessment on provoking or did an experiment and research regarding this topic, that we would find that men provoke way more than women.

Would you agree?

So women, please do not take this scripture and say, it is only written to fathers, therefore, I can provoke!

God does not provoke, therefore, let this not be part of our hearts and homes! AMEN!!

Backing up, I wanted to remind you that Paul gave us many imperatives in Chapter 3 and will give us even more today, but I want to share the three that he was driving home and that are the backbone of the Christian that is abiding in the Vine:

Paul taught us in verse 15 that we are to LET the peace of God rule in our hearts. This means that God peace is to be the umpire of our life. Umpires have authority church and can call you out or safe. They have the ability to overturn a call, to say yes, or to say no, but they must always make the call.

In verse 16, Paul taught us that we are to LET the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly. I think when Paul said to dwell in US RICHLY means that we must spend time with the King of Kings church. Nothing, absolutely nothing will dwell in us richly apart from spending time with it. After all, we cannot give away that which we do not have.

And besides, if it is not dwelling in us richly, how can we live our faith out loud? How can we share the gospel with others if this is not the case? If the Word of God is not dwelling in us richly, but the current culture or the ways of the world is, then guess what will be the biggest influence in our lives? Guess what will make our choices for us?

3. Then in verse 17, Paul teaches us that whatever we do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Church, if we have these operating in our lives, then guess what? We will be a disciple of Jesus, making other disciples.

We will desire to please the Lord and not man.

We will live our faith out loud instead of being ashamed that we are a Christian.

Oh by the way, Jesus said this:

Mark 8:38 NKJV

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

If the Word moves from our heads, to our hearts, to our hands, then not only will our homes be impacted, not only will our families, neighbors, and communities be impacted, but our places of employments will be!

Colossians 3:22 NKJV

Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

There is a tendency to look at slavery as something of the past. But it is estimated that there are today over 27 million people in the world who are subject to slavery: forced labor, sex trade, inheritable property, etc

Now your probably thinking what is Paul talking about here and how does this actually apply to us today, since there are no slaves or masters?

Well, first of all, I want to share a text out of Romans as we begin, because there are many slaves and masters today:

Romans 6:16 NKJV

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Whom or what you obey, you are a slave to. Hopefully it is the Lord church, but there are other masters, like your past, or something that happened to you in the past or recently, or your money.

Charles Spurgeon said, “There are 3 conversions, first your head, then your heart, then your wallet!”

Church, there are other masters like food, drugs, work, pornography, our physical , mental, or emotional health, people pleasing and the list goes on and on and on.

Jesus came to set the captives free:

Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Jesus desires us to be free church:

John 8:31–32 NKJV

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Enough preaching, lets get to some teaching:

Colossians 3:22 NKJV

Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

The parallel to this text is in Ephesians 6:5-9, but for the sake of time we will not go there.

Just remember that both Colossians and Ephesians were written in prison around the same time.

Most translations use the word slave or servant here instead of bondservant.

Bondservants-slave-doulos- n. — a person who is legally owned by someone else and whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master.

So yes, there was slaves in Bible times church, but let us not confuse this slavery with the slavery that we read about in our history books with the white man capturing Africans and making them slaves.

Interestingly, Paul devotes more space to this topic than he does to the relationships between husbands and wives or parents and children.

He probably did this because, along with this letter, he was sending the runaway slave, Onesimus, whom Paul had led to Christ in Rome, back to his master, Philemon.

No doubt there were many other slaves in the Colossian church as well.

Slaves were considered part of the household, so Paul deals with them in the context of family relationships.

He wanted to make sure that no Christian slave mistook Onesimus’ conversion to mean that he could rebel against his master; and, that no Christian master abuse his authority over his slave.

But why didn’t Paul attack the institution of slavery as being evil? Why didn’t he encourage slaves to resist evil masters? Why didn’t he denounce those who called themselves Christians and yet owned slaves?

I can only answer briefly. We need to be careful to approach the issue from the perspective of the first century and not read our own time back into that scene.

Slavery was a widespread institution in the Roman world, woven into the very fabric of society. It is estimated that about half of the population in the Roman Empire were slaves. Some scholars say that there were approximately 60 million slaves during this time.

J. B. Lightfoot observes: “To prohibit slavery was to tear society into shreds.” It would have resulted in a bloody slave war, with much loss of human life and a dubious outcome.

At this point in history, Christianity was not a powerful public force.

It was an almost unheard of splinter sect off Judaism.

If Paul and other early Christian leaders had associated the faith with an antislavery movement, and had that movement been defeated in a bloody slave rebellion, it would have been the death for Christianity.

Even if such a rebellion had won, it may have created mass social chaos, where suddenly emancipated slaves may not have been able to find work to support themselves.

Paul’s approach was to lay down universal principles which undermined the evils of slavery and eventually led to its demise. Roman slave owners had come to view work as low and degrading. Paul elevates all work, whether manual labor or management, by saying that whatever we do, we should do it heartily as unto the Lord, not for men. He taught the radical principle that in Christ there is “no slave and freeman, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11), thus establishing the personhood and equality of the slave with his master. The slave in Christ is a brother to his master (Philemon 16). Paul didn’t stop by telling slaves to do their work well, but went on to giving masters the countercultural command to treat their slaves with fairness, reminding them that they have a Master in heaven to whom they are accountable.

History has proven Paul’s approach to be wise; these Christian principles have toppled the evil of slavery.

So church, our comparison today would be employee to employer

How do you work? Do work work unto ma or unto the Lord?

Here are few principles that we can glean from this text:

Obey- we are to obey our masters church, we are to obey our boss and not defile his character, not slander him, or mock him or her, or talk behind their back, but we are to serve them. Remember i n verse 17 Paul says what ever we do in word or deed, we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

But if your boss is trying to get you to lie or falsely sign documents or writes grants that are not true church, then you must stand up and help them to understand that you cannot be dishonest because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Do quality work- remember we are to live our faith out loud, therefore church, our work is our witness. Work hard church and play later...

Be positive Pete or Patty, not negative Nancy or Noah- do not be a pessimist but be an optimist, after all if you are critical all the time, do you really think someone will want want you claim to have.

Remember that your place of employment is your mission field. You do not work for man, but for the Lord. So work unto Him!

Explain Copperfield Wire Mission Field

Dr. Howard Hendricks, told of being on a flight where an obnoxious man was raising a stink about every minor grievance he could think of. Even though most people would have told the guy where the exit door was, each time the stewardess responded with kindness and grace. After watching this for some time, Hendricks called her over and complimented her on her good attitude with this difficult man. He asked for her name so that he could commend her to the president of the airline. He was taken aback when the stewardess responded, “Thank you, sir, but I don’t work for American Airlines.” She looked like she worked for American Airlines. She had on their uniform and nametag. “You don’t?” Hendricks sputtered. “No,” she explained, “I work for Jesus Christ. American Airlines just pays the freight.” Wherever you work, if you see that you work primarily for Jesus Christ, the job takes on new dignity and meaning as you see yourself serving Him.

5. Do not do be a people pleaser church! Look at the text again:

Colossians 3:22 NKJV

Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

Paul placed this here in the text because the slaves would go all out when their master were present, but when they were not in their presence church, they would be different, they would not act they same.

Paul wrote this to the church at Galatia:

Galatians 1:10 NKJV

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Do you act one way in front of the boss, but he is not around you act totally different?

Do you know what we call this in the church? Hypocrisy!

not with eyeservice – ophthalmodouleia (“eye” + “serve”) – service performed only under the master’s eyes

Matthew 6:1 NKJV

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

6. Do everything with sincerity fo heart, fearing God. Remember, that the fear of the Lord is wisdom church. Do your work with a cheerful and joyful spirit so people will see and glorify your Father in heaven.

Proverbs 9:10 NKJV

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

God knows the thought s and intents of our hearts, he know when we are hurting and he knows when we are being lazy

If we would keep in mind that the Lord is with us at our places of employment and we have been commanded to work unto him, should not our work ethic be amazing?

Should others taste and see that the Lord is good because they see Christ in us the hope of glory?

There are help wanted signs everywhere church and places cannot keep help.

This country was founded on the Word of God.

In the beginning this great nation had Christian principle and a Christian work ethic and after this study I have come to terms with not only is the home falling apart and kids being raised without a father, they have no Jesus, therefore, the have no good work ethic.

The reason why people cannot find help, is not because of unemployment benefits, but because the christian work ethic is fading church.

And the only way to bring it back is to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

We are not to bring the culture into the Bible church, but to take the Bible into the culture.

If you want to know why this country is in the shape it is in, it is because it has fallen from Grace.

God who is rich in mercy wishes not one perish but have ever lasting life!

Church, the way we work speaks volumes to those around us who we serve. Do our words and actions line up with what we believe?

Do we profess, but not posses?

Let us remember that going to church doesn’t make us a Christian anymore than going to McDonalds makes us a big mac.

Have you really surrendered your life to Jesus and been filled with his Spirit.

Do you hunger and thirst for more of Jesus and less of you?

With all heads bowed and eyes closed>

Is there anyone here that would like to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Or is there someone who would like to recommit their life to Jesus?

Prayer

Announcements

Any announcements?

Sept 11 at 9am Work day help

Benediction

John 6:27 NKJV

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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