What Starts at Home Goes to Work

Do Everything in the Name of the Lord  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Col 3
Colossians 3:22–4:1 NASB95
22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. 1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.
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Everything starts at home and Goes to WORK
Work as worship… 
What - you talking to us about that? You are a professional christian. Easy for you… that is your job to worship…
You and I can both choose to worship… or we can choose to be distracted, discouraged, and indifferent.
Can remember my first job! Working at the big d gas station - 15 years old. I sure didnt view it as worship… but I remember thinking I was rich! My mom was driving me around and I was getting minimum wage at age 15!
Didnt have cell phones… So between customers I actually worked.
Look back to 21 years of working for Lowes. Everything from the Janitor up.. 
Times are changing. Job interviews are different.. Times are different. First started… hired and driving a forklift in like half an hour. Huge disaster…
Wasnt long till I was invited to the back shed for a wrestling tournament… NWA - WWF… Nature Boy… THESE ARE GROWN MEN! One of the managers came and asked if I was scared! Jim Barrett…Rodney Cook and I were the road warriors… CRAZY! If we had cell phones we probably would have just stood around like this…
Rodney Cook and I were the road warriors… CRAZY! If we had cell phones we probably would have just stood around like this…
Times are changing… different work places… different cultures… the command to work and to allow it to be worship is no different!
Paul was continuing in this passage to address the third household relationship. Slave and Master.
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The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 4. The Lordship of Christ in Earthly Relationships (3:18–4:1)

Third, Paul never hints that he endorses the institution of slavery. He tells slaves and masters how they are to conduct themselves within the institution, but it is a bad misreading of Paul to read into his teaching approval of the institution itself.

For Jesus and the apostles to have called for slavery’s abolition would have been to promote unemployment and social chaos. Further, the saving message of the gospel would have been swallowed up in the call for social reform. Eventually, the influence of Christianity helped bring an end to abusive forms of slavery in the Roman Empire.

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Slaves were attached to households in Paul’s day, but we can apply these same truths to Christian employers and employees today. Paul reminds servants that they have masters according to the flesh as well as a heavenly Master, Christ. The Christian employee is to work to honor and please Christ. “Eyeservice” (v. 22) means working when the employer is watching. But the heavenly Master is always watching! We are not to be men-pleasers, but Christ-pleasers.

Something should be noted: the purpose of the early church was to spread the Gospel and win souls, not to get involved in social action. Had the first Christians been branded as an antigovernment sect, they would have been greatly hindered in their soul-winning and their church expansion. While it is good and right for Christians to get involved in the promotion of honesty and morality in government and society, this concern must never replace the mandate to go into all the world and preach the Gospel ().
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 144.
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In our Day if the Apostle Paul was writing, I believe he would have addressed the modern workplace
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 4. The Lordship of Christ in Earthly Relationships (3:18–4:1)

They need to serve the Lord Christ not only in order to receive their inheritance but also to avoid punishment for doing wrong (v. 25).

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The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 4. The Lordship of Christ in Earthly Relationships (3:18–4:1)

Slaves and masters ultimately serve the same Lord, and that fundamental spiritual reality not only relativizes their earthly relationship but even sets the stage for its abolishment.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon D. Exhortation to Prayer and Christian Witness (4:2–6)

They must resist the false teachers, but they must also continue to reach out to their fellow citizens.

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The obedience required of slaves is not external service, doing a duty with a reluctant attitude, as those who merely please men. Rather, Christian servants are to please the Lord by working with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Holding God and His will in high regard is the right motive. They are to work heartily (putting their whole inner man into the effort), as for the Lord rather than for men, serving their master as they would the Lord Himself.

Why do we work hard.
Pleases the Lord
Sets us apart as followers of Jesus Christ.
Gives opportunity for the gospel to be shared.
Closer the relationship - more important the life lived.
Why does it seem so tough???
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All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.
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The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Ten: A Family Affair (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

It would be well for us to review Ephesians 5:18–6:9 and note the parallels between that passage and the one we have just studied. This section of Ephesians emphasizes being filled with the Spirit, while the Letter to the Colossians emphasizes being filled with the Word; but the evidences are the same: joyful, thankful, and submissive living. To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the Word.

The fullness of the Spirit and the fullness of the Word are needed in the home. If family members are controlled by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, they will be joyful, thankful, and submissive—and they will have little trouble getting along with each other. Christian employers and employees will treat each other fairly if they are filled with the Spirit and the Word.

The problems we have at home, at school, at work… heart problems
Only God Can change the heart. Heart of worship. Heart of murmuring
The most menial job is transformed to greatness in serving the Lord.
If you are a business owner… a Master.
You have a master… different. Boss. WWF
Martin Luther said, “when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we should remember how God normally provides bread: through farmers transporters, and retailers.
God doesn’t normally drop in reeses from glory.
What is our work in field and garden, in town and house, in battling and in ruling, to God, but the work of children, through which He bestows His gifts on the land, in the house, and everywhere? Our works are God’s masks, behind which He remains hidden, although He does all things. (“Exposition of ”)
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Merida, Tony.
quoted Abraham Kuyper statement, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
Spurgeon said, Did anybody thus dream of supervising Raphael and Michelangelo to keep them to their work? No, the master artist requires no eyes to urge him on. Popes and emperors came to visit the great painters in their studios, but did they paint better because these grandees gazed upon them? Certainly not! Perhaps they did all the worse in the excitement or the worry of the visit. They had regard to something better than the eyes of pompous people. (“Our Motto”
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Merida, Tony. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (p. 158). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
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Merida, Tony. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (p. 167). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Not saved by our works but we are saved to good works.
Ephesians 2:8–10 NASB95
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Eph 2
This passage should change the way we treat people. From the least to the most important. - care for them
What is our motive to work?
From paycheck to praise.
From duty to desire
From half hearted to heartily
Not worshipping the work, but allowing the work to be worship.
If you do not have Christ, then you need to receive the One who, though being the ultimate Master, became the ultimate Servant, dying for sinners like us. Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves: to free us from slavery to sin and bring us into loving relationship with the Father. He came to give us what we could not earn: spiritual life. He came to make us what we could not become: no longer slaves, but sons. He is the obedient Servant, the best Master, and the sovereign Lord. Look to Him and live.
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Work as Worship… what you do there employers… should send them home encouraged… not discouraged… served, not beaten down… and tired!
employees. Hard working. Go to bed tired knowing where ever you were was better because you were there.
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