Ephesians 6:5-9 | Serving God with a Pure Heart

there are opportunities in scripture to challenge, to exhort, to instruct, to teach us.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, right? This particular passage, it's written with language that was more understandable, perhaps, in the time that it was written, because it talks about bonds, servants, and masters.

And that's not necessarily directly applicable, to what we have today, but what we do have today is,

I think, reflective of the intent of what's being taught here.

It's, I think, and as we go through this, we're gonna use the approach that says, there are those in authority, and there are those who are under that authority, perhaps, in an employment situation, or in a relational situation.

So that's, I'm gonna take that liberty as we look at this today. I don't think it's necessary to take this and say only for those who are in bondage service.

Maybe the closest that we would have that would have been in Downton Abbey, those who were downstairs were in service to those who were upstairs.

But we all have relationships, and I think that the teaching of this is important.

Now, we're actually gonna look at this from three different directions. Two of them are taken directly out of the scripture.

One is those who are under the authority of somebody else. And then at the end of this passage, those who are in authority over somebody.

But then we're gonna ask the question, and I don't think it's an inappropriate question, are we always supposed to submit to those in authority?

Because I think that's as important of a question, especially as we've experienced over the last three years.

So we will actually get to that at the end of our time together today.

My opening thought is that man was called by God to work the garden. Man was given, at the very beginning, everything that he would need, which included the obligation to work the garden.

A cultural mandate. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And in that particular case,

I mean, Adam's master would have been God. He would have been, you know, having to respond to God in what he was doing.

Today, we are exhorted not to be a sluggard and to not have idle hands.

Many times in Proverbs, this shows up. It's important for us to be diligent in doing the service that God has called us and given us to do.

But in all things, and this passage really emphasizes it, in all things, the glory goes to God.

Yeah, Rick. Our peer group is looking at lessons from the book of Proverbs.

This week's lesson happens to be work a very sacred matter.

And what did you conclude? Well, that our work is extremely important and usually when we work, we are subject to somebody else's direction.

Even if we are the boss, we have to report, even to God, for our diligence and work ethic, et cetera.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and we're gonna get into that when we get into the second section, which is actually paragraph four.

If you are a master, you have a master over you, and that's God. Absolutely, you wanna open us in prayer?

Yes, Father God, thank you so much for your word this morning. And we pray that we would be trained by it.

We pray that we would be spurred on to work and to do the things that you have called us to do, that you have commanded us to do.

Lord, we are submitted to you. You are the Lord, and we are your doulos, your bond servants, your slaves.

Lord, we look to you as the king and the ruler of all, and we love you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, thank you. We're gonna look at five through nine. One of the commentaries

I read attempted to make this a scenario that is appropriate when the bond servant, or in our case, the employee, is working for a fellow

Christian. I don't know that I buy that completely, and we'll get into that.

But I'm gonna ask if you would read for us of five through nine. I'm gonna hand out some assignments.

Sandy, you get a couple of minutes to get your acts together. But 1 Peter 2, and there are actually gonna be two verses, 13 and 18 at the end of it.

Romans 13, but there's gonna actually be two verses there at Colossians 3,

Carol, if you would have that ready. So give me five through nine. Ephesians 6. I'm in trouble, by the way, aren't

I, the way I open this up? Most likely, yeah. Ephesians 6. Pray for me, brother.

Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would

Christ. Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the

Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

Lord, whether he is a bond servant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

We're gonna start out the beginning part of actually verse five, where it says, bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, and with a sincere heart.

There are three aspects I see there on what it means to be an obedient bond servant, and one of them is obedience, and the other is respect, and then the third one is sincerity.

What I am convicted of in this here is that there are gonna be a couple of ways to look at this, and I'm going to, with an attempt to not go political,

I'm going to say that President Joe Biden is the President of the United States.

Now, he is also Joe Biden. I believe, scripturally speaking, the establishment of the office is a

God -ordained thing. Okay, my total

Calvinistic side of me has this high understanding and acceptance of the sovereignty of God.

We do not have the office of the President of the United States in this country without God's will, and how we respond and react to the office of the

President of the United States is of utmost importance. I also believe that it is not beyond or outside of God's sovereign will that Joe Biden is the

President of the United States today, and I have to accept both of those. If you are in a work situation, as with everybody,

I've had a myriad of bosses that I've worked for, and some of them

I would, I would, what's that song in Man of La Mancha?

I would go to the ends of the earth for that boss because of the respect that is gendered and just the godly approach.

And then I've had others that it was like, I just hope I can get through this person, and that they move on before they fire me.

We've all been in both. And which one is Joe Biden in your world? In your world? Did you say that?

He said there's the respectable and the, you don't have to answer that, I'm just kidding. You didn't have to say that.

Yeah, true. There is a reality that when you accept the commission in the military as an officer, it's a lifelong commission, unless for some reason you are removed from that commission.

I am no longer in active duty, I'm no longer actively executing my position as an officer in the

U .S. Navy. So we don't have to salute anymore? Correct. You didn't have to before. Did you say you had to salute again?

I said we don't have to. The President of the

United States is my Commander -in -Chief. And as a result, the President of the

United States is, oh, I see where you're going, okay, is a position that I have to have respect and obedience, sincerity of heart, all of this other kind of stuff.

Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be commands that are given that are stressful or difficult and stuff like that, but here we go.

Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and troubling and with a sincere heart. 1 Peter 2 .13.

Sandy, if you would give us that. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority.

That is not a, if you feel that it's appropriate situation.

It says, submit yourselves, and this is the exhortation to be obedient to those in authority over you.

Remember when it's 13 .1, Barbara? Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which

God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted.

Okay, you're into verse two now. We're gonna get there in a minute. There are no authorities except those which are established by God, and the obedience is, that is the bar that is set.

I told you we're gonna get at the end of this are there times where we don't obey, because that is an important question.

Now, give me verse two. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what

God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. This is the concept of respect.

This is the concept of the individual. See, now we've gone from the established position, the established entity, the president decides the king, whatever else, to now, are you going to show respect to the person who is sitting in that position?

And this has nothing to do with their righteousness. This really doesn't have anything to do with the appropriateness of what they're doing.

In that position, our response must be to respect. I did not say we obey everything that they had to say, but that is our position because of the sovereignty of God.

Are you talking about respecting the office or the person? Both. Both? Both.

Read that verse again. Read verse two again. Okay, consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what

God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. You cannot be in rebellion against the authority, and in this case, it's the person who is making the edicts.

We're going to go into, do we always obey or not? But the respect is a godly reaction to the person that God has put into place.

These are harsh realities. But, but there are blessings to be gained by them.

Now, Colossians three. You slaves must obey your earthly masters in everything you do.

Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Obey them willingly because of your reverent fear of the

Lord. And this is sincerity. Your earthly masters are God -given masters, and when you obey them, it should be with a sincere heart, not just get -by -to -get -by.

Yeah. I think it's appropriate that Paul addressed the marriage, marital system, before he straightened that out, before he went into difference with slaves and bond servants.

I could ask why, but your wife is sitting right next to you, and I don't want to get you in trouble. There are relationships that are special in the marriage relationship, and he needed to establish, in God's economy, the right relationship.

Women are wired with a propensity in certain directions, and men are wired in a propensity, and the teaching told us, come together, it's not egalitarianism, it's complementarianism.

We belong together because we complete each other. Now, if you want to challenge what

I've just said, the harsh words about what I've just said, 1 Peter 2 .18. Sandy?

2 .18.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

There it is. This is the Lord speaking, so you ask me, do we show respect and honor and everything, even to a wicked president, or to a horrible manager, to a wicked master?

Yes. Yes, that is our calling. That we'll get into, and there is the difficulty in this passage, and that's why we are gonna have to get through it.

Our service, our response to authority is to understand, is to be undertaken with submission to the authority of God.

That's our approach to how we react to authority, is that we are actually submitting to the authority of God.

He imparts the authority to our earthly masters, presidents, whatever it might be.

And if you think that you're, you have the option to say yes or no to respecting the authority, you're actually denying this act, that it is

God who put the authority there in the first place, and our respect and authority to God can never be questioned.

We're going to question, do we always say yes when an earthly master tells us to do something? But the concepts of obedience, respect, and sincerity are

God -ordained responses to authority. Can you respect the fact that God put

Biden there, but not respect him? There's a reason why he did that, and we respect that without actually respecting him.

I do not think that this teaching tells us to be advocates or disciples of President Joe Biden.

I don't think that's what this is teaching us, but it is teaching us that when we consider who the

President of the United States is, we react that way. When we consider who Joe Biden is, we're not given the option to be

Christians who denigrate Joe Biden just because he's Joe Biden. There's a difference between standing up against the principles, abortion, or standing up against the person.

There's a difference between that. Yeah, Rick, were you going to say something? I was just going to say, what if the things that he is proposing, and pushing, and making into laws, and allowing, not only allowing, but supporting are sinful according to this?

That's my last takeaway. Hopefully we have enough time to spend a lot of time on that because you nailed the issue on the head.

The difference between supporting the policies and supporting the man are important.

We should not be, as Christians, we should not be known for denigrating

Joe Biden. We should be known for standing up against abortion. We should be praying for Joe Biden's salvation.

Amen. Oh, yeah. Yeah, John. Yeah, there's an old saying, or a common saying, that I think might fit here, and it's respect the office, if not the man.

Does that fit? It sort of does, except that we're supposed to also respect the man. According to what we've been reading here, we are still supposed to respect the man.

We don't respect what he's doing. That's different than respecting...

Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. All right, now, give me verse five through seven. We're going to talk about the motivation for our service.

And while we're getting that, Sue, if you would get Colossians three, there's two different verses there, and James one,

Bob, if you would get that, and Rick, if you would get Matthew six. Actually, I'll just talk to that one, so I'll save you for the next go -round.

Go ahead. Ephesians six, five to seven. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would

Christ's, not by the way of eye service as people -pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ's, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the

Lord and not to man. I underlined in that little passage the first part we talked about.

This is our goal, this is our charter, okay? We're supposed to be obedient, respectful, and sincere, but now we get on to it.

In verse five, as you would Christ, in verse six, of Christ, in verse six, of the will of God, in verse seven, as to the

Lord. Do you get the emphasis there? Our motivation is to the

Lord. The manner that we serve our earthly masters must reflect how we react and respond and would serve the

Lord. And if you would have an approach to how you would serve the

Lord, you owe nothing less to how we respond to our earthly masters.

I didn't say their policies, but how we respect to them. Any service that we perform must be genuine and not motivated by trying to look good.

Everything that we do must be genuine and not motivated by pleasing other people.

Doing something so that you're given favor by your master when behind their back, you're doing something else.

I started my tenure in Moorestown coming out of General Electric.

And Moorestown was RCA, taken over by General Electric. Fortunately, I came to Moorestown by way of Baltimore, which was

Martin Marietta. So everybody didn't know initially that I was GE or I would have been shunned terribly.

That being said, the people in Moorestown were very wary of somebody that comes in from the outside.

And as a manager, as a program manager, I needed to get things done. If I didn't ask the question to its fullest,

I would get what I would call malicious obedience. They would answer the question that I asked, not the question

I needed to know. And so as a result,

I would go off and in doing something, making a decision based on incomplete information.

Our motivation in everything that we do must be as if we were doing it to God.

Would you try to hide something before God? No. That's a fool's errand, right?

First of all, we love him too much to do that. Second of all, he's on a mission he knows anyway.

So how we react and respond to our earthly masters must be as pure of heart and pure of intent.

I just looked up the word respect. Yeah. To feel or show differential regard for, esteem for, or admire.

To avoid interfering with or intruding upon. Avoid violating.

Absolutely, that's a well said. That's a great definition. Where'd you get that? Webster's. Webster's, thank you

Mr. Webster's. I use that once in a while. Colossians 3 .17, who did I give that to, please?

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God that fathers give him.

Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord. If you're going to be serving as a bond servant or as an employee or as an underling to somebody who's an authority over you, whatever you do, do it unto the name of the

Lord. That kind of puts you on the block. I'm going to do something, and I'm only going to do it half -heartedly.

I'm going to do something knowing that's not what they, and I'm going to do it in the name of the Lord? I can't go down that path.

Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord. Our actions are actually done, as believers, our actions are actually done for the sake of God in all things.

And this doesn't, this is not modified by the character of the person that you're serving.

This is the character of who you are. This is your motivation. What a world it would be if everyone did the things that they were doing or asked to do, strictly for the

Lord. Amen. Now here's an interesting factoid on what you're saying.

Do you know that there will be a thousand years where purity and righteousness will reign on earth?

Yeah. And at the end of those thousand years, Satan is still going to be able to deceive.

The answer to that is the sin nature of man. That's the unfortunate answer.

Colossians 3 .23, do you have that, Sue? And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the

Lord and not to men. What we do is not being done to man.

What we're doing is being done to God. And our earthly masters are the benefactors of what we're doing.

Remember, God put them in the first place, God gave them the authority of what we're doing. We should do it as heartily and purely and totally as if it's for God, and by the way, that service is done for man.

I'm not saying you obey every order that was given. We'll get to that at the end. We will get to that at the end.

James 1. James 1 .22?

Yes. Um, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says. When we are under the authority of somebody, we are supposed to, by nature, do what is right.

Don't just do lip service. Don't pretend the individual who sits at the desk at work, playing solitaire, when the boss walks in, they quickly change the screen.

Be aware that whatever you're doing is being done to the Lord, who sees it and knows it all.

Amen. Matthew 6 .1, Matthew 6, the first beginning of it, talks about there are certain spiritual disciplines that nobody would dispute are good disciplines.

Prayer, offering gifts, offering offerings, and fasting.

And it starts out that section by saying, do not do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them, but do it before God.

Our motivation for how we serve and how we respond to our earthly masters, if it is driven by a heart to recognize everything

I'm doing, I'm doing for God, because of God, and my earthly masters are a benefactor.

The questions are, do I really like Joe Biden or not? Become immaterial, because I love

God. That doesn't say I do everything they say, because we'll get to that at the end.

Give me verse eight, please. Ephesians 6 .8, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Our ministry here on earth includes our time spent under the authority of somebody, doing whatever it is that we must be doing.

And we do get reward, we do get reward from those who we work for, not always.

There are those that we work for that will gladly take your accomplishments and make themselves look good to the next hire.

I get that, I get that. But at the end of the day, where do we really get our reward?

According to this verse, where do we really get our reward? From the Father, who is good and faithful and righteous, and what we are able to get because of our relationship with God can make you sleep good at night.

Having a temporary reward from your earthly, that's kind of fun, and it is, and it's good, and I'm not saying we shouldn't be pursuing that, but knowing that what you have done pleases

God. Do you remember the verse we looked at this morning together, Psalm 147 and seven?

Yeah, do you remember what it said? It basically, it says that our acts of righteousness please

God. Now there's a great thought, that here is the creator of all, the great

I am in heaven, sitting on his throne, and there are things that we do when we choose to do them that please

God. Wouldn't it be awesome when you go up into heaven,

Louise Reynolds, we've seen the video of her singing to her grandchildren gospel songs, and they're dancing.

In my imagination, I see the Heavenly Fathers looking at that and smiling.

And then, well done, that good and faithful son of God.

Amen, and how about eventually when you're called home, to hear the

Father say, Bob, when you did this and this, it pleased me. This is our true reward for what we do, is that it's a pleasing work to God.

Philippians 2 .13, I do not give that, so Rick, you've got that. Matthew 5 .16,

I will talk to that. Proverbs 16 .3, Rick, did I give you one yet? No. Okay, you've got

Proverbs 16 .3, go ahead. Philippians 2 .13. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

He is actively working within you. He's got his Holy Spirit living within you, for his good pleasure.

So to make a choice that I'm going to obey my master, I'm not gonna obey my master.

I'm gonna say this master doesn't deserve my obedience. I have other priorities that seem more important.

What he has called you to do is for his good pleasure. He establishes what you're to do, where you're to be.

He is the Sovereign God, and it's for his, man, that is, that's a motivation right there, knowing what you're doing is because of his pleasure.

Matthew 5 .16, therefore, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works.

Fortunately, the verse doesn't stop there. Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works.

And glorify your Father. Thank you. Glorify your Father who is in heaven.

So the works that we do of righteousness are actually an opportunity for those who see it to give glory to God.

These are blessings that we have as bondservants. And then

Proverbs 16 .3. Proverbs 16 .3, commit your work to the

Lord and your plans will be established. If you are devoting what you're doing and you intentionally are devoting your service to your master as a service to God, he establishes what you're doing.

His right hand of love and grace and everything else. My takeaway,

God is sovereign, he is omniscient, he is just, you can continue that list.

God rewards those who serve for his glory. He rewards those who serve for his glory.

Now, give me verse nine, you need to look at a different angle. Is this the end? The end of the passage.

And then we go off script. Then we go off script. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

Those who are in authority have to recognize that their actions need to be with a pure heart because truly,

God is both over the servant and the master. All glory and honor belong to God.

If you are placed in a position of authority, don't abuse it. If you are placed in a position of authority, don't think that you're all that because you're only there because God puts you there in the first place.

Colossians 4 .1 is going to say, masters, treat your servants with justice and with fairness because you too have a master in heaven.

You can put it another way, it goes around, comes around. Everything that we do here on earth in a relationship, master, servant, it's

God who's ultimately in authority. Candy, I'm going to ask you to get 1

Corinthians 11 and it's a longer passage. John, I'm going to have you have

Philippians 2. 1 Corinthians 11 .1. Now, this is

Paul writing to those in Corinth who he's trying to teach and instruct and impart

God's word to them and this is what he has to say. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

As a master, what a opportunity you have to live out and to show the godly characters so that you can say, be an imitator of me.

I know I'm fallible, I know I'm a sinner and whatever else but I also know that my children are grown when

I go sit with my grandchildren, when Sandy sits with her grandchildren, to have such a demeanor about me, such an obedient response to how

God, that we would pray that our children are imitating, our grandchildren are imitating.

Be imitators as I imitate Christ. That would be a great plaque for somebody who's in authority to have above their desk.

Be imitated as I imitate Christ. Philippians 2 .3 expands on that. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourself.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourself which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

That's our charter, that's our opportunity if we're in a master situation with those underneath us.

My thoughts are that the master has a calling to lead in a way that glorifies God.

Not themselves, that glorifies God and encourages their workers through their actions to be imitators of Christ.

Bob, you said what a world it would be. What a wonderful world it would be. All right, now, here's the reality.

One of the papers I wrote when I was in seminary, we were talking about obedience and righteousness and stuff like that.

Pretty much everybody here is of the right age group. Who remembers Lieutenant Calley? Sure. The Vietnam War?

Yeah. V -L -I. Huh? V -L -I. Yes, the V -L -I incident. This is before your time.

Yeah, it doesn't ring a bell. The Vietnam War was a difficult time.

It was the first war that was ever fought in the press. And televised. And televised real time.

Everything that we had, every advantage we had, every issue we had was out there in the press.

And so the Viet Cong, the communists, knew everything that we had. All right, it was a difficult time.

And it was also fought very uniquely in that the Viet Cong, the communists, used indigenous people as bombs.

And so the soldiers would go into a village, and it might be a 13 -year -old little girl, and she is armed with bombs to kill you.

You just didn't know. It was brutal. Brutal time. So there was this village that was considered to be a strategic importance and danger,

V -L -I. And Lieutenant Calley, who was a platoon commander, was given orders from Amahai to destroy the village.

All inhabitants. What do you do?

You're Lieutenant Calley. And you honestly don't know all of the intel that those above you have, okay?

And there might be a real reason why this has to happen. What do you do? Well. No.

That's a tough one. I don't know. As a soldier. As Lieutenant Calley, as a officer in the

U .S. Army, and he has been given a direct command from headquarters that the village has to be obliterated with all inhabitants.

What do you do? Right. I think there's two answers. Yes? For the non -Christian, you follow orders.

Because those orders aren't contrary to the law of God. But as a

Christian, even though you're out there to kill the enemy, you're aware that there are innocents and children and such in that compound.

Now this is looking backwards, though. Lieutenant Calley obeyed the orders and he was court -martialed.

Yeah. Okay, now here's the thing. Who do you obey and why?

We're gonna look at some passages. Acts 4 .19, we're coming back up to the top.

Sandy, I'm gonna ask you to find Acts 4 .19. This is a scenario where Peter has been brought in front of the

Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, whoever, and they're distraught at the fact that Peter is preaching

Christ, and they're distraught that things are happening in a way that is gonna be detrimental to their position of authority and power.

And so they throw him in prison, they bring him out, and they say, no more. You cannot preach that anymore.

If you have 4 .19, read that. Yeah, so if he had not done it, would he not have been court -martialed?

Calley? Yeah. He would've been court -martialed. Military is a very strange beast because if you are a junior officer, pardon my expression, but if you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.

It is a difficult one. I just brought that up because commands are not always, but there are times, but there are times where it is so obvious.

Give me 4 .19, Sandy. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge.

And later on in Acts 5, he's gonna say, Peter answered, we must obey God. I want us to understand that throughout all of this teaching today, servants, you must obey, you must respect, you must be sincere to your masters until they ask you to do something that is contrary to scripture.

That is our stand here, Jeff's your stand? Yeah. In all things, we must obey

God first of all. So if the command is given to be disobedient, the pastors up in Canada that have been told you must read from this script, that's where you must go, and if you don't, you're going to jail.

They read from this script, but now they know that they are going to accept the penalty and the governing authority has the authority now to throw them in jail.

That is what's going to happen, but you respect the authority, you don't respect the order, if it's against God's will.

The doctor who says I will not commit an abortion and then goes to jail for it, they must accept the authority to throw them in jail, but not accept the order to commit that abortion.

We are justified in our actions by God. There are some verses, John 14 is going to say, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

If the worldly authority says do this, you must obey

God's command first and foremost. Revelation, Romans 10 is going to say

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Do you trust in God?

Obey his command. The reward will come from God. There may be difficulty here on the earth because of it.

If your denomination is demanding that you as a pastor accept social gospel, social justice gospel, and you say no, that denomination may say, well then you can't be a pastor in our denomination.

Okay, I got God, I've got God. Revelation 14 is going to talk about here's the perseverance of the saints that you keep his commands.

This is your everlasting reward that you keep his commands.

You don't always obey ungodly commands. Luke 11, 28,

Barbara, I'm going to ask you to pull that one out. Matthew 10 and 28, I'm going to ask

Carol if you would pull that out. And then Colossians 2, we're going to close with that concept,

Colossians 2, 8. You have Luke 11, 28? I'm getting it. Okay. He replied, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

That's it. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it. If there is a conflict, follow the word and you are blessed.

That does not mean you won't experience difficulties, but follow the word and you will be blessed.

The Left Behind series, strongly from the pre -trib point of view, has individuals in the tribulation who get the gospel and the way that they write it was the pastor had made videotapes that people could watch after so many people disappeared from earth and that ended up with a revival of sorts.

And according to their book, there were, what did they call it? Motivational devices or something like that.

They were guillotines. Who refused to bow the knee to Nicolai Carpathian.

Nicolai. Nicolai. Nicolai. Nicolai. Carpathian nephews. Carpathian nephews. But the way he portrays that is

Chloe, as she's going to the guillotine, that's the daughter of Rayford Steel.

She's now married to Cam, whatever. Anyway, she is singing hymns and songs and rejoicing that God gave her peace of mind.

If you are hearing the word of God and keeping it, you are blessed. God will keep you.

Matthew 10, 28. Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body.

They cannot touch your soul. For only God, it's only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

When those moments come and you have to choose, am I going to obey a ungodly, earthly command or am

I going to obey scripture or choose scripture? Because if they're going to take and give you the results of your disobedience, the worst they can do is kill your body.

Your soul will live forever in glory with God. There are going to be those moments where it's going to seem, do

I go here, do I make an issue of this? Do I take a stand here?

There are going to be those things. The old frog in the pot of water is an image because the first time that you allow worldly directions to supersede scripture, the first time you do that makes the second time easier.

Be solid in your convictions. Colossians 2, 18. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.

Empty traditions, vain deceit, it won't creep in in my exhortation. After all of this teaching, be obedient to your masters.

Above all, be obedient to God. Do you want to close us in prayer? Yes. So Father, give us wisdom,

Lord, how to be obedient to masters and more importantly, to be obedient to you in all things.

Lord, give us the courage to do that. As you say, they can only kill the body, which seems like such a big thing to us in the body, but knowing that we have eternal life after this,

I pray that you would remove from us the fear of man, the fear of death, the fear of anything other than the fear of God.

So Lord, help us to fear you above all and we love you and give you all the praise and glory in this teaching through Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, folks. Thank you. Deep stuff.