Biblical Instructions for Godly Work

Go ahead and stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. Father, thank you for the day. Lord, we just thank you for another opportunity to just to lift a joyful noise to you, Lord, and spend some time in your word. God, as we enter this time, Lord, just give us a heart of thankfulness, Lord God, of gratitude of all the things that you've done for us, Lord.

Not just the ways that you provide for us and take care of us, Lord, but for what you've done through us, through your son, Jesus, for the new life that we have in you. Lord God, we love you and we praise you in your precious and holy name. Amen.

Lord, yes, you are coming soon. And one day, Lord, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen. Amen. You guys can go and have a seat if you like. And we'll be right back. We'll continue on.

Yes, Lord God. Again, one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen. Your grace so free washes over. It's your endless new.

And my sorrow and debt. And my sin. Lost without hope. With no place to begin.

So let mercy come. Arrested. My life began.

Ash was redeemed. Only rose today.

It's your endless joy. Your darkness rejoiced. There's no heaven. Lord God, we thank you for the new life that we have in you. We thank you for when death was arrested. Oh, the joy to be. The joy to know. It's when I. Decrease. You fill up my soul. What a joy to see. The joy to hold. It's when you want nothing more. Wash me in glorious light. Joy. Oh, the joy.

Joy. My soul. What a joy. The joy. Would you stand with me for this last song? Never fails me. I've been held in your wake up. The head. Of a goodness. Like no other. Goodness. Like no other. Goodness. No surrender. Yes, you have, Lord. Been so, so, so. Oh goodness. You have, Lord, been so. So. So good, you have. Oh, the goodness. Of God. the goodness. Wouldn't youра Let's run it, now.

Let's run it now. Let's run it now. Let's run it now. Jesus. And all my life, you have been so, so. Of the goodness. You have been so, so. So. Oh, the goodness. You have been so, so. Oh, the goodness. You have been so, so of a goodness. Oh, God. Oh, God, we just thank you, God, again. We come to you with an attitude of thankfulness and not a need. Oh, God. in. We come to you with an attitude of thankfulness for how good you are to us, Lord. For all the ways

you take care of us, God, provide for us. You heal our hearts, God. You give us new life. You are so good and kind to us, Lord. We thank you.

God, we praise you. God, we thank you for how good you are to us, Lord. God, and we thank you for your word. Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes this morning, I just pray that you, God, would just overflow him with your Holy Spirit and prepare our hearts to receive the word that you prepared for us this morning. And God, just give us ears to hear. And hearts to receive. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. And all God's people said,

amen. Let's have some fellowship. If you could begin the process of finding your seats, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. If you would, take a look at your bulletin over on the left-hand side. The biggest thing that needs to change about the things going on throughout the week is that

there will be no Wednesday night services of any sort because everybody's families are coming in town. And there will be nothing on Thursday because you are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with your families. So, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, some things to take note of. Just a reminder that the live nativity at Bible Christian

Church is December 8th and 9th from 630 to 830. That being said, we could sure use a few more people. It's a very easy job. You basically just have to stand there wearing a sweet costume and look very Christmas-y. Matter of fact, you're all doing great. You're all doing great. You're right now you would look christmasy exactly as you are right now with it with the cause you just

have to do what you're doing right now you just have to look and so um so anyway we could sure use a few extra people for that um so there's a sign up uh out in the lobby and uh we'd love to see you get involved um also a reminder that adult choir practice is uh this sunday or is today at four o'clock um over on the right hand side of your bulletin is the ministry spotlight this is one of the ministries that we support here at calvary chapel it's called joy kids ministry as a matter of fact um zach fry who helped start joy kids taught for me over the summer joy kids is a christian children's home located in southern india pastor caleb and his wife ruby provide the children with an education a stable home meals and more all while sharing

the gospel as the children graduate from school joy kids continues to provide a support system for them as they attend college or join the workforce so that again is one of the places that you all support as you give to calvary chapel you um one thing that is not in your bulletin is that as a reminder about the women's retreat on december the second uh at calvary fellowship grace calvary fellowship in wellington and there is a sign-up sheet in the lobby right by where you got your bulletins for that and then i think sandra were you gonna make an announcement okay sandra has an announcement for us okay another thing that looks like it dropped off the bulletin but we'll add it back in for next week um again community fellowship being

unified it has been a huge theme uh god's been placing on my heart lately and so uh number one i want to thank everybody for um the pastor appreciation dinner that was just a huge blessing it was great to see everybody and it was fun and had a ton of help and we appreciate you guys uh we thought we would do a movie night like a christmas movie night get everybody together um and so what we thought uh we set aside december 1st it's the first friday in december it's gonna be like in two weeks i don't know um but um what we thought we'd do is um if you come at six if everybody brings christmas cookies or a treat or whatever we can kind of mingle for about 30 minutes get our sweets and then we'll sit down and watch the movie

is called the ultimate gift it's an awesome movie um kids will enjoy it but probably not little littles and so i'm i'm gonna work on getting nursery for little littles and um but probably i don't know what age yeah i don't know you you guys know your kids and if they can it's not a cartoon for sure but um if they can sit through a christmas movie they're more than welcome but we'll be doing some sweets and and watching a movie and what better way to start christmas and uh doing that and then the last little announcement i have is um judy is uh has been working with the kids she's doing an awesome job they're going to be singing the first sunday the sunday right after that december 3rd so

i ask parents if you guys can be here like right at 10 30 for the next two weeks um that would really be appreciated because what we're going to we're it's hard when the kids kind of keep keep keep keep straggling in and i know sunday mornings it's just it's just a tough thing but um if you could get here by 10 30 that'd be super because she practices with the kids from 10 30 to 11 um then we can kind of make sure who all is going to be here and that kind of thing and then um on the third we need to make sure that they're here so they can run through it a couple times before they sing for you guys so if you have any questions about the singing uh duties here if you have any

questions about anything else um just try and find me okay thank you okay for our responsive reading today wait i did this i was supposed to tell everybody so janna got the total count of the boxes uh that we packed to send to uh operation christmas child our goal was 200 we did 245 so uh so we far surpassed our goal which is pretty awesome and what's really amazing that like ross always brings up you know at least 10 people per box with the gospel of jesus christ so that's 10 times as many people uh they'll be affected with the gospel so pretty cool all right for our responsive reading this morning we are going to be in psalm 19 psalm 19 looking at the new american standard for this so that we all sound the same if you

need a copy of a new american standard there should be one in the row around you and as you are turning to psalm 19 if you would if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word i will read the odd verses psalm 19 for the choir director a psalm of david the heavens are telling of the glory of god and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge there is no speech nor are their words their voice is not heard their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world placed a tent for the sun which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber it rejoices as a strong man to run his

course its rising is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect restoring the soul the testimony of the lord is sure making wise the simple the precepts of the lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the lord is pure enlightening the eyes the fear of the lord is clean enduring forever the judgments of the lord are true they are righteous altogether they are more desirable than gold yes than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb moreover by them your servant is warned in keeping them there is great reward who can discern his errors acquit me of my hidden faults also keep back your

servant from presumptuous sins let them not be a burden to you and let them not be a burden to you rule over me then i will be blameless and i shall be acquitted of great transgression let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh lord my rock and my redeemer and father we come to you and i praise you lord that you have revealed yourself to us not only through nature but lord you have given us your word and so lord as we seek you in your word this morning may you reveal yourself to us in a brand new exciting way and may we be the men and women that you called for us to be and may we be the men and women that you called for us to be

and as your word says may the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in your sight lord we thank you and we praise you in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would open up in your bibles to the book of ephesians chapter six ephesians chapter six well it was fun to go and speak somewhere else and kind of visit a different church and do something but man it's really good to be home good to be back with family not that we're not all family but you know it's just different uh jared did a fantastic job i got to listen to his message and uh what a blessing to be able to leave and know that uh that god's word will continue to be proclaimed so uh but today we

get back into ephesians dealing with uh those relationships that we're supposed to have the way that god would call us to live as we are saved by grace and so today we come to another subject which i think is really important because it's so important to me and it's so important to our lives and that's the subject of our work and so uh the title of this morning's message is biblical instructions for godly work biblical instructions for godly work now i did a little bit of research a little bit of thinking about this because our employment the work that we do is so much a part of our lives as a matter of fact uh work your actual work day comprises about one-third of your life i looked it up last night

a little research on some numbers i figure somebody's probably done the math on this and praise god they had uh i just typed in how many hours uh do we work in our lifetime and in somewhere around 90 000 hours is how many hours you'll work in your lifetime the average person that works a 40 hour week works right in the neighborhood of 2100 hours a year so again comprising about one-third of our life which tells us that it's a pretty important part of our lifetime right to to work the way that we do and so um so i was thinking about this importance of work and and the things that it means for us work of course is how we provide for ourselves it's how we're able to have the things that we need uh work also is how we exercise our god

given giftings and talents in a very practical sort of way and actually the puritans had an idea their philosophy was that work is actually a gift from god it's something that god gifted us not only to do those things but also to serve humanity and to serve god it's interesting when you look at this adam when he was placed in the garden even before sin was given a job not only to name the animals that's usually what we say adam's job was to name the animals that wasn't all that he did he also tended the garden he took care of the garden and of course jesus our second adam he worked a job as well besides just being the messiah he was also a carpenter right worked

with his hands his entire life up until he began that earthly ministry and so work is important as a matter of fact when you look at the millennial kingdom in prophecy we find out that each of the things that we do in our lives that we do in our lives that we do in our lives we will have jobs the great thing is that we won't have sweat and toil in our jobs the problem with work comes of course from the fall is what we talked about a few weeks ago that work itself is not a curse the fact that work is hard is a curse because adam was cursed and told that in the sweat of your brow and toil you will bring forth fruit from the ground and so sometimes because of the uh because of the fall work can be a little bit perverted in our minds we can pervert the

work and there's three ways that we do it number one is that some people just plain refuse to work some people just won't get a job uh as a matter of fact we're having a real issue with this in our culture today i know several people that own businesses and they all pretty much tell me the same thing they can't find anyone to come to work for them they can't find anyone that will show up that will continue to show up and do the job that they've been given to do that's why sometimes when you show up at a restaurant and they tell you it's going to be an hour and a half wait and you're like but there's there's five tables over there and they're not going to show up and they're not

that are completely open and they say yeah but we don't we don't have any servers for those tables because they can't get anybody to show up to work and so some people just plain refuse to work interestingly enough scripture tells us that a man who won't work is worse than a heathen so god takes this pretty seriously right the second way that we pervert work is that we just simply complain about our jobs all the time now i know none of you do that that's somebody else we're going to talk about all the people in the world that do that because it's none of us in this room we're well aware of that because we are spirit-filled christians don't complain about anything but some people do complain a lot about their work but but then the

other end of things is that we can turn work into a god and we can become workaholics we can become people who are so invested in our work that that we neglect our families or we neglect our relationship with the lord or we neglect other duties that we have because we're so focused on that almighty dollar and we're we're workaholics but it whatever it is work is one of the most important things that we have as a matter of fact work and witness go very much hand in hand i would say that there is no greater way to declare our witness of our faith in jesus christ than a strong work ethic but i would also tell you that there is no faster way to destroy your witness than to not have a strong work ethic because people will look at you

and base your faith believe it or not on how you handle yourself at work so the best thing that we can do is get back into god's word and find out what god's word has to say and so we pick up in chapter six verse five and it says this slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in sincerity of your heart as to christ not by way of eye service as men pleasers but as slaves of christ doing the will of god from the heart with good will render service as to the lord and not to men knowing that whatever good thing each one does he will receive back from the lord whether slave or free and masters do the same thing

to them and give up threatening knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him so as paul has often done he's going to give two different sets of instructions remember all of this discussion that will end today all of this discussion began in ephesians chapter five verse one and i'm going to give you two different sets of instructions when he said let each of you be subject to one another in the fear of the lord and we said that there were three main relationships of mutual submission that were to take place first was the relationship of the husband and wife second was the relationship of parents and children and third we come to the relationship of employers and employees so first he's going to give

instructions to employees then he's going to give instructions to the employers in this aspect of mutual submission now before we get into this we need to address a word that comes from the word of the word that comes up in the very first verse that i just read to you a word that could potentially get me in trouble as a pastor a word that actually has cast a great deal of aspersion upon god's word and that word is slaves because all liberal critics of the word of god say well you know the bible endorses slavery the bible is where slavery came from and they gave all these things and it's like okay so let's deal with this okay so the bible neither endorses slavery oddly enough

really never condemns slavery either never talks about revolting against slave owners what it does instead of dealing with the institution of slavery is the bible deals with man the bible deals with man and completely sets aside the aspect of slavery and presents man as man is intended to be presented because you see for those who are slaves the bible elevates the slave to in christ being the free man you are now the free man in christ but the bible also de-elevates de-elevates de-escalates brings back to earth the master by telling them that you as a master are a bond servant of christ because the bible puts all man on the same playing field you see in god's eyes there are only two groups of people there are those who are in christ

and there are those who are not in christ if you are in christ you are free and a bond slave of christ if you are outside of christ you are in bondage to sin and so the bible doesn't deal with the institution of slavery it instead deals with the man presenting that we are all one in christ now with that being said our understanding of this carries much more of a greater context to our employee employer relationships so he starts off with one main command notice what it says in verse 5 slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh there's one command that's given to employees and that is to be obedient now it's interesting because this

word obedient literally means to hearken to a command or to submit to it's the exact same word that was used when we dealt with parents and children when children were told to obey their parents the idea is exactly what it sounds like you are to hearken to the instructions and submit to the authority and so if you're here today you're going to be obedient to those who are your masters okay and you are an employee you have a job first of all congratulations you're one of the good ones second of all your job is single fold you are to obey your master you know where we usually run into problems in our places of employment we we don't want to obey our master we don't want to do

what the boss tells us to do because after all who is he to tell me what to do who made him boss the company made him boss we're to be obedient to those who are head over us we are to be obedient to the commands of our employers too many people show up to work and they say i'm going to do what i want to do today i don't really want to do what anybody else tells me to i'm going to do what i want to do and when we have that you end up getting fired because you're not obeying your boss and so there's this one command that's given when you show up to work you are to obey because that person has been put in authority over you now he tells us who we are to obey we are to obey our

masters according to the flesh our masters according to the flesh that both identifies who we are to obey but it also puts limits on our obedience who we are to obey are those who god has put in authority over us as far as this earth is concerned you see this issue of authority and we'll deal with a little bit more is really really important but that authority that they have over us is only in regards to physical things of the earth anytime that violates the things of god much like in parental relationships much like in a marriage relationship there is a limit at that point in time to their authority so we are to obey our masters but what paul does is so good he puts four heart attitudes that we are to have

in our obedience as employees in our work ethic as employees are you ready for these the first heart attitude that we are to have is that we are to obey with respect we are to obey with respect notice what saves says slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling now the fascinating thing about the words fear and trembling is that you immediately picture in your mind somebody who cowers and is trembling right like those are the kind of words that actually create a picture in your mind and while he uses those words the idea behind those words that he uses are not that we should live in fear of those who are in charge of us instead we are to live with respect

of the authority that they have we are to live with respect of the authority that they have that means that you are to act respectfully it means that you are to speak to speak respectfully it means that you are to have an attitude of respect to the person that has been put in charge over you now it doesn't matter if you think they deserve to be an authority it doesn't matter if you think they deserve your respect it doesn't matter if you think they even know what they're your job to determine whether or not the person who has been put in charge of you has any business being in charge of you. It's not your job to determine whether or not that person is good at

their job. It's not your job to determine whether they are worthy of respect. It's your job to respect those who have been put in authority over you. It's fascinating how authority has been the major theme in each of these three things that we've dealt with, right? And it's almost like there's a whole thing that works together here, right? Like in the marriage relationship, a

husband needs to realize that he is under the authority of God. Therefore, the way that he treats his wife should be under the authority of God. A wife needs to realize that while she's under the authority of God, she's also under the authority of the husband and therefore should treat her husband with respect. If that relationship doesn't work right, it plays into the whole rest of the family. Children are to understand that they are under the authority of their parents. And if

the husband is under the authority of God, then the wife puts herself under the authority of the man. Then the children will put themselves under the authority of the parents. But if that authority level is never seen within the home, you know what happens? They go into the workplace and who don't they respect? The authority of their boss. I present to you the workplace in 2023. Because that's exactly what's

going on right now. There's no respect in husband-wife relationships. There's no respect in parent-children relationships. Therefore, there is no respect in the workplace relationship. And for those of you that are teachers in here, you are well aware of the fact that there is no respect in the classroom. And I know that some of you sitting in this room today are too young to be in the workforce. I would tell you that these

apply to the authority figures over you, i.e. your parents, your teachers, and your coaches. You are to respect the authority. You are to respect that authority that's over you. Sometimes I wish that I could just make my kids run laps like your coach used to. Remember when you didn't respect your coach and he would just run laps? I wish that I could just make my kids run laps.

Okay, run lines so you throw up, right? Like, sometimes I want to do that with my kids. I don't do that. I don't make them do that. I love them. I'm really gentle with them. But you have to respect that authority, right? And so, he tells us we are to be obedient, number one, with respect. The second way that he tells us that we are to be obedient is with sincerity. With sincerity.

That word sincerity means undivided or wholehearted. Uh-oh. You see, this now starts to add to the way that I'm supposed to present myself at work, or listen, kids, at school, or at your practices, is there should be a sincerity. There should be a wholehearted devotion to what you're doing. You know what that means? It means you're not just putting in your time. Too many people show up and there's no sincerity. There's no wholehearted

devotion. I know, and I share this with first service, too. I know that there's this place just north of Arc City. It's called Strother Field. And there are these great places there. They're places of employment, and they give people jobs. And I know what takes place at some of those places in Strother Field because I've heard some of the stories. I know that when people show up, there's no sincerity. There's no wholehearted

devotion. Instead, what there is is they're sleeping, and they're sitting and doing nothing, and they're punching a time clock and playing on their phone until they get there, until the boss shows up. We'll deal with eye service in just a minute. But there's no wholehearted devotion. There's no deciding, hey, today I'm going to work hard, not because my boss is here,

not because somebody told me that I'm supposed to, but because, gosh darn it, I take pride in my work, and God has given me giftings and talents, and I want to use them to glorify God in everything that I do. And so I will work wholeheartedly today. Instead, we have a lot of half-hearted workers, which is why we put out poor products, because there's no wholehearted devotion in our jobs anymore. And he tells us that when we work, we are to work with sincerity, a wholeheartedness. The second way he tells us that sincerity works is that we are to work

with a sincere heart as to Christ. We'll get to that part in just a moment when we talk about working unto the Lord. But the third thing that he tells us about sincerity is that it's not supposed to be with eye service. What does eye service mean? It means you work hard when someone's watching. We all hate that employee, don't we? We all hate that coworker, that when the boss isn't around,

they're on their phone. When the boss isn't around, they're just talking the whole time. When the boss isn't around, they're not doing anything. But when the boss shows up, they're the hardest working person you've ever seen in your life. And you're going, where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where were you the last three hours? Right? And the boss shows up and says, man, you guys have

gotten a lot done. This looks really good. And they're always the one that says, thanks. Because they're always the one that gets noticed. Have you ever noticed that? Why is it that the people with eye service always get noticed? Listen, God sees. We need to know that. We'll deal with that in just a minute. And they say, you did such a great job. And they're like, thanks. And all you

can think was, you guys did a great job? No, I did a great job. That guy was just standing there the whole time. But see, that's eye service. They work when somebody else is around. But I have a question for you. Are you the employee everybody hates? Are you the person that only works hard when the boss comes around? All the rest of the time, you're just kind of putting in your time, right? You're

just the one that's just kind of sitting around, waiting for the killing time till it's time to clock out, right? He says, no, it's not to be with eye service. And then the fourth thing he says, and it's not to be as a man pleaser. Those who care only about pleasing people. See, our work is not to be done just so that people will tell us how good of a job that we have done. Our work

should have a higher standard. And so, number one, he tells us that when we obey our masters, when we obey our bosses, it's first of all, to be with respect. Second of all, to be with sincerity. But third, it's supposed to be as unto the Lord, as unto the Lord. Notice what it says in verse seven, with goodwill, render service as to the Lord and not commit. With goodwill, render service. Now, it's kind of interesting because the Amplified Bible

translates that phrase goodwill just a little bit differently. It says with enthusiasm. Some of the other commentators put it this way, with a good attitude, without complaining, with an eagerness that does not need to be told what to do next. How do I work as unto the Lord? Well, first of all, I work enthusiastically. I work with an eagerness that doesn't have to be

told what's next. I've always said, if you're going to do ministry, you have to be a self-starter because all day long, I am the only guy down here. And when I'm down here, if I'm not a self-starter, I never get anything done. And many of us are not self-starters. We're always waiting for the next project to be given to us, the next job to be given to us. But to work with

enthusiasm means we don't need to be told what to do next because it's the next thing that needs to be done. I always tell kids, especially young men, two things. I give them two really good pieces of advice. At least I think they're good pieces of advice. I think all the advice I give is good, but I think this is particularly good. The first piece of advice I give about work is this.

If you will show up on time and do what you're told to do, you will always have a job and you can write your own paycheck because the world is full of people right now who will not show up on time and will not do what they're told to do. You have no idea how many people that I talk to, because I just like to talk to people. And sometimes I talk to people I've never met before that own businesses, and I'm like, man, it looks like you're needing a lot of extra help in here. You know what they'll tell me?

I hired two people last week. Neither one of them showed up. They were supposed to show up on Monday to start working here. Neither one of them showed up. I just have never heard from them since. I heard one boss say, I hired a guy. He showed up. He went to lunch, never came back. I have never heard from him since. There are people who will show up for the first week and then just plain

stop showing up. Or they won't show up on time. I've never heard from them since. I've never heard or they are so serially late that they have to get fired because they're going, I can't count on you showing up on time and you have to be on time to work. There's a policy that says you have to be on time. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you will show up on time and then tie it with it,

that magic thing of just do what you're told, you will always have a job and your boss will always give you a raise because he's going to be happy with the fact that you show up and you always do what you're told to do. I say, but. If you will look for what else needs to be done, if you will go outside of the lines and go, what's the next thing that I need to do? Every time you finish a project, say what's next, or just see what's next and then do it, you'll own the company. Because they will continue to

put you in charge of more and more and more because they know that they can trust you because you work with enthusiasm. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. This is an area that the Lord has done some work on me about. I'm kind of passionate about this because God has had to change my heart so much. Now, my parents instilled in me a work ethic. I've always worked since I was

about 12 years old. I started mowing lawns and I like to mow lawns. It's one of my favorite things to do. And so when I went to work at Prairie View Christian Camp, I was doing grounds and maintenance there. So I was mowing. And if I saw something else that needed to be done, like mowing related, I immediately went and did it. And I remember my boss coming to me one time and

saying, who told you to do all that? And I was like, oh, dude, I'm sorry, man. It just needed done. And I really like to mow. So I did it. And he goes, I've never had an employee like that. Now, before you start going, dude, quit being so arrogant. I'm going to tell you how bad I was at some things for a while. You know why I was enthusiastic? Because I liked it. I enjoyed what I did. And so I was really

enthusiastic to keep doing the next thing. So I went to Bible college and graduated Bible college. I knew I wanted to go into ministry, moved to Kansas City and needed to find a job. The first job that I found was doing groundskeeping. Again, no problem. I loved what I did. I enjoyed what I did. I could work enthusiastically at it. However, groundskeeping doesn't pay very well. And I was married and it was time to start thinking

about buying a house. And I knew we were going to be having kids at some point in time. And I just wasn't making very much money. So I needed to move up. So I moved into the remodeling department. I didn't love it, but it paid better. And I was learning some interesting things. Well, all this while I'm mowing yards on the side because I needed to make some extra money

because it's just who I am. And so I'm mowing for this guy who owns a construction company. And he says, hey, you've got a really good work ethic. Come to work for me. I'll pay you way better than what these guys are paying you. I said, okay, well, how much? And he wrote down a number and I was like, done. So I went to work for him. And you know what I realized? I don't

like construction. So you know what I didn't show up working like? Enthusiastically. I would show up and be like, oh my gosh, today is another day. And I'm here to tell you right now, I did some of the worst jobs that you can possibly do in construction. Listen, I was called my boss's special helper. Word to the wise, if your boss calls you his special helper, nothing

good's going to happen next, okay? He's going to give you the not really fun job. So one day I show up at this job. We were building a pool in Shawnee, Kansas, right? And so we're in again. I just, I show up, I put in my time, I get out as fast as I possibly can. It's all part of what God's doing in my heart. I dread going to work every single day. So I show up one day and it's my first day

on this particular job. And I start doing a few little tasks that they had given me to do. And the project manager shows up and he asked the superintendent, he goes, so have you told Ryan about his special job yet? See, there's that word again. When the word special is used, it's not going to be very special, at least not for you. He said, have you told Ryan about his special job

yet? And I was like, what's Ryan's special job? Okay. So we'd built this pool and it was to have a wave pool with it, right? And so we built this wave generator structure. It was made out of concrete. Only the problem was when they dug the footings for the wave generator structure, they didn't go below the frost line. So I just, I love the collective sigh that just

placed there. Yes, now, you know, some construction people in the room. So, so instead of tearing this whole huge concrete structure down, they're like, some engineers came up with a plan. Listen, I love you engineers, but every now and then the plan, I'm like, really, that was the plan. Can we just start all over again? No, we came up with a plan. What we needed to do is we needed to dig down

about two foot and we needed to dig all the way to the back of the wave generator structure without messing with the existing footings. So it all had to be, wait for it, by hand. So the right hog got to dig a trench just wide enough for my body. And then I laid down on my side in the trench and I took a pickaxe and I dug and I dug and I dug, right? The wave generator structure was probably about this wide. And so I

dug all the way back after having dug two foot down and I filled it with concrete. Every day I would show up and I would go, and it's August, right? It was just me in a puddle of mud while I'm digging back there. And the mud wasn't because it rained. You know what I'm saying? Feel me? And I was like, Lord Jesus, what have I done? I hate my job. I can't even tell you some of the ones I had to do because I got in trouble for saying a word

a few weeks ago when I told you that fun little story about marriage, right? Got in trouble for saying that. So I definitely can't tell you a couple of the other jobs that I had to do that involve sewer systems, right? So, so I just didn't really enjoy my job at all. And I dreaded it. And I tried every which way to Sunday to get out of that job. I was like, Lord, I don't want to do it. I hate this. And so I put in job applications, other

places. I tried everything I could to get out of the job, but either a, it didn't pay well enough because I didn't have experience in anything else or B God just said no. And finally, one day I just surrendered to the Lord and the Lord said, Ryan, I want you to be here as long as I need you to be here. Quit trying to go find other jobs. Quit trying to go do other things.

You be the best that you can be. And I'll take care of everything else. So slowly but surely from that point on, I decided I would work as hard as I could and be as enthusiastic as I could. And so that's what I did. Every day I started showing up and every day I would have to say, Lord, you have to give me the right kind of attitude because I don't like what to do, but I know that you want

me to do it. So every day I decided I was going to be enthusiastic about my job. And you know what happened? My heart about my job started to change. It was fascinating how instead of me dreading showing up to work every day, I started, I won't say look forward to going to work every day, but I was okay with it. And even hit a point where I went to my supervisor and I said, Hey, tell me what I can do to continue to grow. Tell

me what kind of classes, maybe some trade schools that I can go to so that I can maybe become even better at this because I know that God's going to have me here as long as I'm supposed to be here. And you know what happened three months later? I got laid off and God said, you're released from this job because I was there until I could learn to surrender to the Lord and be enthusiastic in a job, even if I didn't want to, because my work ethic was my witness because my attitude was my witness. You know, it's kind of fascinating side story that goes along with that. One of the last jobs that I had, or one of the last projects that I worked on

at Fire Herm Construction is we had, we had built a facility called Engineering. They make all the great big air conditioners for like Walmart and all those kinds of places. It's in DeSoto, Kansas. And we were laying sod outside of this place. And, and me and another buddy of mine were laying sod together. And he definitely wasn't any kind of a Christian or

believer or anything else. And so we're out laying sod and all of a sudden this rainstorm comes through. It was like September timeframe. I think a rainstorm comes through. So we go and jump in the truck to wait out the rainstorm. And while we're sitting there, we'd start talking about life. And he had a major dispute with another employee that we had. And we got to

talk to him. And he said, I'm going to talk to you about life. And I said, I'm going to talk to you through that dispute, what that guy had done wrong, what he had done wrong. And I got to lay out the whole gospel message to that guy. And you know what? About six months to a year after I moved down here, he called me up one day, Ryan, what are you doing now? Tell me what's happening

in life. And we started talking. He goes, you're never going to believe it. I've been attending Lenexa Baptist Church ever since, ever since you quit working here. And I thought, isn't that just like God? That when you will decide I'm going to work with enthusiasm, I'm going to do what God has called me to do. Even if I don't want to, God will not only make

your life a lot happier, increase your witness, but you'll never know the fruit that will come from that. You see, we are to work as unto the Lord. He says with goodwill, enthusiastically rendering service to the Lord, listen to the Lord and not to men as unto the Lord, as if you were working for the Lord. Have you ever viewed your job that way? Have you ever viewed the fact that

you're not doing whatever it is that you do for your supervisor? You are doing it for God. You are building parts in an airplane manufacturing company for God. You are a police officer for God. You are a mapper for God. You're a computer programmer for God. You named the thing, but that you're actually working for God. You see, the reason why I was able to do so good when I

mowed lawns is because I was able to do so good when I mowed lawns. I was able to do so good when I mowed lawns. I viewed every yard as if it was Jesus's front yard. Cheesiest thing I've ever said, but that really is how I looked at it. That, and I wanted to look like Hoffman Stadium. Both of those things are why I always tried really, really hard, right? And so I had to start viewing it like I'm not a

construction worker for me. I'm not even a construction worker for Fireharm Construction. I'm building it for Jesus. And everything that you do is to be done unto the Lord. In other words, would God be pleased with the effort that you're putting forth? Again, when I first came out of Bible college, I was trying to find a job and trying to decide what I was going to do. I went

and spoke with an advisor at Johnson County Community College to see if I needed to get another degree. The guy that I spoke with, his name was Darwin Lawyer. Believe it or not, a guy named Darwin Lawyer was a Christian. So it's like an oxymoron. So I start talking to him and man, of all the people for me to go talk to, this really strong believer in Jesus Christ,

he looks at me and says something that I've held on to for the last 25 years. He said, we understand that as believers in Jesus Christ, we don't have jobs. We have ministries. Sometimes that ministry is supported by a church. Sometimes that ministry is supported by an employer, but we don't have jobs. We have ministries. And that changed my view of a lot of things. And I pray that that changes your view of a lot of things, because what you do,

is not just a job, it's a ministry. Because you are representing Jesus in everything that you do, and you are working as unto the Lord. And I think working unto the Lord means a couple of things. If I am working unto the Lord, it means I can't be lazy. I can't be lazy when I'm working for Jesus, because Jesus is my supervisor and I'm answering to a higher calling. When I'm working

as unto the Lord, I can't be a complainer, because after all, when I'm complaining about my job, who am I ultimately complaining? Jesus, right? But it also means that as a believer in Jesus Christ, if I'm working unto the Lord, it means I will maintain a godly balance. Because if Jesus is my supervisor, he would never have me neglect my family life for my job. He would never have me neglect my wife for my job. He would never

have me neglect my ministry for my job. He would never have me neglect my relationship with him for my job. Therefore, working unto the Lord means I will maintain a godly balance. In the way that I handle my job, but brothers and sisters, we are to obey as unto the Lord. Number four, we are to obey understanding that God is the one who rewards, that God is the one who rewards. Notice what it says in verse eight, knowing that whatever good

thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. You need to understand that. You need to understand that your work will one day be rewarded. Sometimes you will see those rewards on this side of eternity, even if it doesn't feel like it right now, because God sees everything that you do. Listen, I've been there where I'm the one doing all the work and somebody else is

getting all the credit. Anybody been there before? Yeah, we've all been there where we're doing all the work and somebody else is getting all the credit and we're going, Lord, I don't understand. But you know what I've seen happen? The guy that was taking all the credit for the work that I was doing got marched out of the facility. Watched it happen. And I was like, and God said, see, I see what's going on. I know what's happening and I'm able to

reward. I'm able to reward in the way that I'm supposed to. And so sometimes we see those rewards on this side of eternity, knowing that he who is faithful in the small things will be blessed with that much greater. But sometimes we may not see the rewards on this side of eternity. We may not see them until we stand before our father. But that doesn't mean that you don't work hard now

because God is going to reward you. And so sometimes we see those rewards on this side of eternity, God ultimately rewards. Because remember, you can't control the outcome. All you can control is what you put in. I tell my girls this all the time because sometimes things don't land the way that they want them to. I don't understand. Why am I getting treated like this? And I tell them

the exact same thing every time. I'm like, listen, there's only two things you can control. And that's all you can worry about. Just these two things. You can only control your attitude and your work ethic. That's all you can control. You can't control your work ethic. You can't control how somebody responds to it. You can't control how all of the other people react to

it. You can't control whether or not the person in charge ever sees that you did that. All you can do is control those two things. But I promise you there is one person who always sees it, and that's God. And he'll always take care of you in the way that he sees fit. You trust him because our rewards come from him. Now, he goes on now for the second part to give instructions,

to employers. So look at verse nine. It says, and masters do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. Perhaps you're sitting here this morning thinking, but Ryan, I'm the supervisor. I own the company. I'm the boss. So what am I supposed to do? What are the biblical instructions for me? Well, he just gives it to us right here. He says, masters,

number one, do the same thing to them. Well, what does he mean by that? Remember, mutual submission, right? There's a mutual respect for each other. And so what does he mean when he says do the same things to them? Well, treat them the way that you want them to treat you. What does that mean? Well, let's go through these four things again. As an employer, you should,

first of all, treat your employees with respect. If you're a supervisor, treat your employees with respect. And so number one, if you're an employer, if you are a boss, you need to, first of all, treat your employees with respect. Number two, you need to treat your employees with sincerity. You need to treat your employees with sincerity. What does that mean? Wholehearted devotion.

Wholehearted devotion means you care about your employees. I have two little stories about this. When I interviewed at Lakeview Village a long, long time ago, I don't know how I remember some of this stuff, but praise Jesus. She asked me a question. The interviewer did. She said, who was your favorite boss that you've ever had? So I told her who it was. And she said, what made them the best boss that you ever had?

I said, you know what made them the best boss that I ever had? Is that when I made mistakes, they corrected me and then told me about the one that they made that was a lot like it. Because I felt like they understood. They didn't demean me. They corrected, but then we laughed about it and they told me about the mistake that they made. Because it's just human. We're just humans. We were all on the same playing field.

It's just that they were the one in authority over me. And I've always respected that about that. And I've always hoped to treat other people the exact same way. Because when it comes right down to it, none of us are without mistake. And if you are going to constantly tear people down for the mistakes that they make, then they will live in fear and make even more mistakes. The second thing

is, you know, it's interesting as a boss, you have such a responsibility. And I don't know if you realize that. Some of you that are small business owners, you know this. And I will say I was blessed. The guy that ran our company, the, the, the construction company that I worked for, he, he was an amazing man because he cared so much about his employees. Construction gets really

slow in the wintertime. I don't know if some of you know that, but a lot of times wintertime, especially January, February, deep in the heart of winter, there's just no work. And so a lot of, a lot of employers that employ construction workers, they just lay their workers off for the winter, right? And they got to figure out, draw on unemployment for the winter.

He never did that with us. Matter of fact, he always kept us working. He would find projects, around his house that needed to be done. One time he even brought all of us as employees in and he said, welcome to Rogers construction school. And he paid, and I, the older I've gotten and the more that I know about payroll and stuff, the more I'm like, dude, the amount of money that cost him

to bring 10 guys in that he was paying a pretty decent amount of money to just sit in a classroom and him teach us things for like a month. That's an investment in employees that I did not fully grasp at that point in time, but it's because he cared about his employees and he wanted to know that we could still pay our bills, even though things were a little bit lean in the construction world because he served his employees with sincerity. Number three, as unto the Lord, remember that, that you are answering to God for the way that you treat your employees, just like your employees are answering to God for the way that they, uh, uh, follow you. And then the last one, understand that God rewards. And I think,

I need to pay attention to this. I understand that God rewards those who honor him and he deals with those who don't. And as employers, we should pay attention to that. And so he says, first of all, do the same to them. Second of all, give up threatening. There should not be a threatening sort of environment where your employees feel like they can't come talk to you about anything

where your employees feel like they have no voice with you, where they're constantly scared because they don't know how it's going to be today. Give up threatening. And then number three, realize that you both serve the same master. You both serve the same master. You see how that creates that level playing field for us? Because when it comes right down to it, we all answer to one person and that's God. Brothers and sisters, we need

to understand that the way that we handle ourselves in the work world, the way that we handle ourselves in our jobs, especially if we have secular jobs, speaks to the way that we work, the way that we respect, the way that we treat other people. Then listen, our faith is useless. It's just an ideology that we follow. And this is just a social club where we gather.

Our faith should seep into every aspect of our lives to where we honor God in everything, in our marriages, in our families, even in our jobs. Amen. Let's all stand. And with this as a theme, if you have a job this week, it is Thanksgiving and you should be grateful. You should praise God for what he has provided for you. And so I pray that everyone enjoys your Thanksgiving. This is the first of many

opportunities that you're going to have to have just a ton of time with your family, to talk to some of them and encourage them in their faith, to talk to some of them and bring them to the faith, an opportunity to witness. And opportunity for patience, right? Amen. And so as we are around our families, I'm praying that you enjoy Thanksgiving and all of the trimmings that go along with it. So if you would please

bow with me. Father, we thank you so much for the time that we've had in your word this morning. I thank you for how patient you are with us, how good you are to us. And Lord, I thank you for your word as it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And Lord, may we follow you with all of our hearts. And Lord, as we said before, may the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

We thank you and praise you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

God, we just thank you again for the day, for another opportunity to spend some time in your word. God, we thank you again, just for all the ways you take care of us. Take care of us and provide for us, Lord. God, we just thank you for your son, Jesus, and the new life that we have in him. God, we just thank you. And we just want to express our gratitude to you this morning, God. We just thank you again for who you are and how much you

love us. And as we go throughout this week, I just pray that your Holy Spirit continue to minister to our hearts, Lord God. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Amen.