When God's the Boss
Sept 6, 2009
It’s right after lunch and you get caught napping at your desk. What do you say? Here are the top 10 things to say if you get caught napping at your desk:
10.They told me at the blood bank this might happen.
9.This is just a 15 minute power nap that they raved about at the course you sent me to.
8.Whew! I guess I left the cap off the White Out. You got here just in time.
7.I wasn’t sleeping. I was meditation on the mission statement you shared with me and envisioning a new paradigm.
6.I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance.
5.I was doing a highly specific yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress.
4.Man, why did you interrupt me? I almost figured out a solution to our company’s most vexing problem.
3.The coffee machine is broken….
2.Someone must’ve put decaf in the wrong pot…..
And the number 1 thing to say if you get caught napping at your desk: ‘In Jesus’ name. Amen.’
On this Labor Day Sunday we are going to talk about work. It is something we have to do. It is a part of the curse of the Fall of man. If we don’t work, we don’t make money and we don’t eat. And so “I owe, I owe it’s off to work we go.” Most of us don’t live by the initials TGIM but we do live by TGIF…. We look at work as a curse, not as a blessing and can’t wait for the weekend, for vacation, and yes, even retirement.
Throughout God’s Word we see that God has even redeemed the concept of work from one of drudgery to one of opportunity. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul gives some practical advice on how we as Christ-followers can redeem our work and make it a mission and ministry rather than just a job. While this letter is set in the context of master and slave, the principles apply to the boss/worker relationship.
Paul’s overarching admonition to us is that we choose to make Jesus our ultimate boss. “Obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” The sad part is that Christians all too often don’t obey their earthly bosses precisely because they do not obey Christ very well. The assumption by Paul is that our obedience to Christ is the benchmark by which we compare our work ethic at our employment. What is your life and work ethic?
I. When Jesus is your boss and you claim His name in your life, then our call as workers is to excel in the area of ethics. Paul wrote in verse 6, “Obey them not only to win their favor when they eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” That means that we will do our work with honesty and integrity not only to please the boss, but also to be a witness to our faith and to honor Jesus. The sad truth is that George Gallup, the pollster, found NO difference between churched and unchurched workers when it come to lying, stealing and loafing on the job. Employee theft stands at $50 billion per year. Time theft, i.e. arriving late, leaving early and playing sick accounts for an additional $150 billion. As believers, as Christians, how are we doing with the ethics part of our work?
II. When Jesus is our boss, we also excel with working enthusiastically. Verse 7, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” This means doing your job with everything you got. You jump in hook, line and sinker and with both feet! When you hate your job, it is hard to be enthusiastic about it. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek ‘en Theos,’ which means ‘in God.’ And often times it is only God who can make us enthusiastic about our jobs!
III. When Jesus is your Boss you excel above expectation. Verse 8 finishes the sentence begun in verse 7, “Serve wholeheartedly…because you know the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does….” In the day of Jesus the Romans occupied Palestine. Any soldier could demand of any Jew that he carry his equipment for one mile. Jews hated this with a passion and they bitterly counted each step. At exactly one mile they dropped the load. They had met the requirement and did what was legally required of them. Notice what Jesus said, “If someone forces you to carry his load for one mile, then because you belong to me, go also the second mile.” Jesus set forth a higher standard of not doing just what was required but of going “beyond the call of duty.” Jesus knew that people would not forget the person who goes the second mile. Are you a second mile worker?
Around 1920 a pharmacist bought a South Chicago drugstore. He soon became bored with the routine and began to dream of ways to make it more exciting. With the advent of the telephone people began to call in their orders so the pharmacist decided to challenge himself by seeing how quickly he could deliver their orders. When someone called in, he repeated the order aloud while his assistant filled the order and the driver left to deliver it. He kept the customer on the phone chatting until the order arrived. As word spread this drugstore became the busiest pharmacy in Chicago and within a few years, Charles Walgreen revolutionized the pharmacy industry, all because he went the second mile in serving his customers.
Listen to the Message version of Colossians 3:22-24, “Don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being Christian doesn’t cover up bad work.”
Jesus came to do the work that God the Father has given Him to do. Jesus’ work was to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” And so he did on Calvary’s cross. As we partake of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper we are reminded of the work of the cross and also reminded of the work that we who claim the name of Jesus, the called out ones, have been given—to be His witnesses and to serve this present age in Jesus’ name.