Turning Work into Worship (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

NOCO is sometimes what we're known as, nocompromiseradio .com. We are happy to be on WVNE 760.

I, again, give my kudos to Manny and Dave and the rest of the guys there, guys and gals.

Wasn't that a movie, Guys and Gals? Guys and Dolls, there you go. Boy, we've come a long way from West, side story, haven't we?

Anyway, kudos to the folks there for having a show like this on.

People say, well, why is the show's format like this? I don't know. It suits me. If I was as gifted as John MacArthur or Alistair Begg or R .C.

Sproul, I'd probably just have a regular show. It'd just be all my sermons on there and that would be enough.

But since I don't have those gifts, although thankfully I do preach from the same Bible, as a Puritan said, a lot of people preach the

Bible better than I do, but nobody preaches a better Bible. So some people preach the gospel better than I do, but they don't preach a better gospel.

Some people evangelize a lot better than you do, but they don't have a better gospel to evangelize with, now do they?

So that gives me encouragement. We try to figure out a format. The format was Mondays, at least in the initial format, although I've kind of strayed.

I've planeo, to stray, to go astray, like planets in the sky is a

Greek word, planeo. Seems like they go off course. Mondays was a sermon that I preached at Bethlehem Bible Church, and then

Tuesday, Pastor Steve is in. Steve, the Tuesday guy. Now he's been out a little bit, had to rearrange a few things, so he hasn't been on the last couple

Tuesdays, but I think he's back on probably by the time you hear this show. Wednesdays, I like to interview authors when possible.

It's a little harder to do because it requires more time, more effort, and I'm trying to get as many authors as possible.

We talk about books or something like that. Thursdays, positive, encouraging, Tuesdays, Thursdays where we just talk about a biblical subject, and then

Fridays, it's a cage match. Fridays is tap out, so we just go for things and work on biblical discernment.

And so that's pretty much the format. That's the flavor. That's what I'm trying to do. We're coming up on,

I don't know, 18 months on the radio, and we'll just see how long the Lord wants us on. I don't mean by a crystal ball or a divining rod or anything like that.

But we'll just see how my health is, how the elders of the church decide if V &E wants us on or not.

But the good news is there are plenty of shows for you to listen to, probably 400 that you can listen to. And if I die today, at least my kids can get a good dose of what dad was like, at least on the radio.

So today, No Compromise Radio, part three. This is Thursday. This is positive, encouraging.

Allegedly, this is the doctrine of work. We all have to work a lot. We all should work.

We could work for the glory of God. In the response to salvation, full and free, complete, the response to Jesus, the captain of our salvation, author and finisher,

Lord, Savior, Redeemer, friend, Alpha, Omega. In response to our great King, the captain, we want to work.

And so, if a king had subjects in his kingdom that were lazy, especially in light of if the king was a good protector, a good provider, he provided food and grain, he provided a wife, he provided shelter.

If the king was a good protector, wouldn't you want to do what the king said? The king said, pay more taxes, you'd say gladly.

King said, go work in my fields, gladly. You've done so much for me. Here's my response, honor, loyalty, gratitude, thankfulness.

And so, we here at No Compromise Radio understand the response to Christ's great salvation is joyful obedience, energized by the

Spirit of God. This isn't morality. This is not, it's nice to be nice and it's good to be good. This is the response of a

Christian. That's why when you see commands in the Bible about work, you'll often find them in response to, for instance, in Ephesians, you are in Christ, therefore live out who you are.

So right now, we are working on the doctrine of work. And last time I talked to you, the last two times, some good motivations for work, and now

I'm going to tell you actually how to work. Christ's likeness at work, most of these, if I talk to you about each one of these,

I think I have 15, I don't know if I'll get through them today. I know I won't get through them today. You can, in each of these, say, when

I have failed in this area, I have one who has been my substitute in this area because Jesus Christ was the

God -man and he worked perfectly. He worked very diligently.

He worked with an eye towards the glory of God, etc. And so, we're going to do adverbs today.

Many adverbs, most adverbs, have ly at the end. And so, I was just telling my daughter yesterday, how are you doing?

I am good. And I said, Maddy, we, when we're doing something, some kind of verb or action, the thing that modifies a verb is a, an, adverb.

And so, adjectives modify nouns. And so, if you are doing well, that is proper grammar, and that's using an adverb for this gerund, for this thing that functions as a verb.

And if you are doing good, that doesn't make any sense. So, that's what we say, though, in America, I'm doing good, but we do well.

How are you doing? I'm doing well. So, we're going to use adverbs. See, well doesn't have an ly. It's one of the exceptions.

But most times you see ly, it's an adverb modifying the verb.

And so, the verb here is work, labor, toil, engage, etc.

And so, we're going to use a lot of ly's to describe how you should work unto the

Lord. And so, remember, as we work through these, lots of times there are scriptural commands for slaves, for servants, to respond to their masters a certain way.

And so, we will, by implication, say that these are good principles for us as workers.

Remember, when you read the word slave in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, for instance, in Ephesians, you ought not to think of the most close time, at least time -wise, picture of slavery, that is the

United States. In the South, you should think, what was a slave back in the days of the

Bible, which would be more closely represented by employers and employees.

By the way, I condemn slavery in the South. It was horrible. It was heinous. And 1 Timothy 1, verse 10, talks about it's a sin to kidnap.

It's a sin, always and forever, to kidnap. So how to work in response to the gospel, energized by the gospel, with an eye toward the gospel.

Number one, how to work efficiently. You should work efficiently. Ephesians 5, therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

This is a generic statement. This is general. This is an overview. This is umbrella, but I'll apply it to work here.

You ought to be wise in your work. You want to have, as MacArthur translates it, accurately or precisely with care.

You want to make sure that when you've got a time, when you have a season, when you have a life to live as a born again person, that you are to be working efficiently.

You ought to say, I've got one life to live and I should do it for the glory of God. Number two, obediently,

Ephesians 6, 5, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

Be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh. That is a present tense verb.

And you, if you are an employee, you ought to be obedient, uninterrupted obedience.

Obedience in all things, that's Colossians 3 .2, a parallel passage, 3 .22 rather. In all things obey those who are your masters on earth.

If the master is good, obey him, bad, obey him, enjoyable to be around, obey him.

If you can't stand your job, then you can quit. Here, back in those days, it was much more difficult to quit.

You have no liberty to pick and choose the commands of your boss, except when they ask you to sin.

When they ask you to act in an ungodly fashion, in an unrighteous fashion, in a way that you cannot do because you're a

Christian, you, like Peter and the Apostles, have to obey

God rather than men, Acts 5 .22. It's like with your kids.

Your kids need to obey you in everything, in all things, with one exception, and that is if you ask them to do something unrighteous or sinful.

That's why, children, it says in Colossians 3, obey your parents in all things.

For this is well pleasing to the Lord. You need to jump. Well, how high? That is the response of a blood -bought

Christian because, ultimately, you're obeying God. You're doing it for God.

You're doing it for the Lord. Now, certainly, if you have a boss that tells you to cheat, to lie, to steal, to not report things, to have money under the table, not report to the

IRS, the list goes on and on and on and on. You ought not to obey, but your obedience should even be out of an attitude of deference, of submission, and it's like these old

Operation Rescue people who would march and then get ticketed and then get taken off to jail and they would flop all around.

No, you don't do that. When you need to disobey for the sake of God and His Word and Christ Jesus' glory, then you just put your hands behind your back and then you walk away.

You don't do the whole flopperoo. Number three, how should you work? Info at No Compromise Radio.

You can email me if you'd like. We'd love to get your emails. How do you work? You work, number three, reverently, or I could say godly.

Ephesians 6, verse 5 goes on to say, how do you work? You're obeying to your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with fear and trembling.

You want to work reverently and godly and you want to have an attitude of, I'd like to please this person.

I'd like to make them happy with my work. Number four, sincerely.

Ephesians 6, verse 5 goes on to say, in the sincerity of your heart. That means the simplicity.

You're not superficial. You're not hypocritical. You're genuine. You're not trying to have a different motive, an ulterior plan for why you work.

You want to be sincere. Number five, worshipfully. How should you work?

Worshipfully. That is unto Christ. It says right there in Ephesians 6, verse 5, as to Christ.

Ephesians 6, verse 7, as to the Lord, not to men. So you see past your boss, past your foreman, past your owner, and you say my primary boss is the

Lord. Hendrickson said, in spirit people cease to be slaves as soon as they begin to work for the

Lord, and no longer in the first place for men. So you say

I have a boss, but I'm here to please the Lord. You can do this at home too, if you're a child or you're a wife and you have to submit to a husband that's less than perfect, every husband, then you look past that person.

Number six, how should you work? Virtuously. That is with integrity. Ephesians 6, 6.

We're talking about work today if you just tuned in. How do you work for the glory of God? How do you work unto Christ Jesus?

How do you work in light of the gospel and how it has affected you? You work with integrity, virtuously, not by way of eye service,

Ephesians 6, 6, as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ.

Say well, when the cat is away, the mice will play.

Somebody stand by the door to see when the boss is coming back from lunch, and then you signal us like drug dealers, drug runners, and then we quick get back to work.

The walk boss is by? Boss walks by and you're really working hard, but when the boss is gone, he's on vacation.

Who really cares? That verse, Ephesians 6, 6, should make it so that you as a

Christian should strive for by the Spirit's empowerment to work in such a way that the boss never needs to come in and check on you.

Never needs to see if the light's on when you're supposed to be there. Never needs to check in and, you know, as far as I'm concerned,

I've got such a great Christian employee that you don't even have to do the time clock anymore.

You just write down what you've done because I trust you. I know exactly what you do and you have a wonderful track record of working in such a way.

There was a Reader's Digest story. It says a retired friend became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall.

Observing the activity regularly, he was especially impressed by the conscientious operator of a large piece of equipment.

The day finally came when my friend had a chance to tell this man how much he'd enjoyed watching his scrupulous work.

Looking astonished, the operator replied, you're not the supervisor? Well I might not pick the funniest jokes in the world, so let's move to the next one.

Number seven, enthusiastically. This is going to be convicting. Are you listening today enthusiastically?

I probably shouldn't even say this, but it's no compromise, so I have to. How about this? Are you listening to the show now,

No Compromise, when you should be working? Now maybe your boss lets you listen to shows while you work, but if you're supposed to be engaged in work and working for the glory of God, and then you say

No Compromise comes on at 3 .30 and I'll just kind of put everything to the side, are you really working enthusiastically?

Ephesians 6 .6 says doing the will of God from the heart. People run around trying to find the will of God all the time.

It's the will of God that you work hard. You work enthusiastically and you do it from the heart, literally heartily in Colossians 3, with your soul.

Work from the soul. Put your soul into it. Not minimum, not bare minimum, not lowest common denominator.

Ecclesiastes 9 says whatever your hand finds to do, verily do it with all your what?

Might. I remember what Vince Lombardi once said, if you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

Let me repeat that. If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, fired up with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

I'll fire you enthusiastically. Would your boss say you're enthusiastic about your job?

I mean really, if I were to talk to your boss, hi this is Mike Abentroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, is

Jack Lombardi, is he really enthusiastic about his work?

Does he do the will of God work here at this company from the heart? I wonder,

I wonder, but that's what we're striving to do because that's honoring to God. Eugene Ormandy dislocated his shoulder while conducting the

Philadelphia Orchestra, allegedly. He was putting his whole soul into it.

Ephesians 6, 6, doing the will of God from the heart. We want to work with all our mind, and if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

It's worth doing enthusiastically. Actually the word enthusiasm, epistemologically, etymologically rather, means en, i -en, theos, enthus is closely translated theos, which is in God.

Put God into it. Put God into your work. You think, you know what, I'm going to work for the glory of God, and so it's going to be enthusiastically.

I'm going to do the right thing. I'm going to just, nobody else sees, I'm still going to do it. Number eight, eagerly, eagerly, you don't have to be prodded and pushed and come on, get on, get going.

Somebody kind of poking and prodding you all the time. Let's motivate. Let's get going. Ephesians 6, 7 in the context of work.

Of course, the original context is slaves and masters, but we see immediate, instant, very applicable things here.

And this is, you know, how much more should we who live in a free enterprise society and a free society work to the glory of God if slaves were supposed to work to the glory of God back in the days of the

Roman period. Ephesians 6, 7, eagerly, with good will, with good will.

You don't have to be pushed and prodded and checked on and people begging. There was a sign in a store window that said, no help wanted.

No help wanted. That was the store sign. As two men passed by, one said to the other, you should apply.

You'd be great. No help. No help wanted. I didn't make it up.

I didn't steal it either. I don't know who said it, but it was not mine. How about this one? This isn't mine either, but it's interesting.

There are three kinds of workers. When a piano is to be moved, the first kind gets behind and pushes. The second pulls and guides.

The third grabs the piano stool. Ow! Yow! Ephesians 6,

I could summarize number two through eight here in my little list by reading

Colossians 3, verses 22 and 23. Slaves in all things, obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord, rather than for men.

So, No Compromise Radio, how to work in light of the cross, in light of salvation.

Number nine, submissively, submissively, Titus chapter two, verse nine, urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything.

You don't need to know why all the time. I'm not saying you can never ask, but you just need to do it.

Action. This is the kind of submission found in first Peter chapter two. 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.

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

That is commendable when you work submissively. Number 10, pleasingly, pleasingly,

Titus two, talking about bond slaves as well, to be well -pleasing, to do a good job, to get attaboys.

You don't do it to get attaboys, but people will recognize how you work. Number 11, happily.

Here in Titus chapter two, verse nine, it says not argumentative. Are you an argumentative employee?

I mean, that is convicting, isn't it? Always arguing, that's not the best, that's not how I see it.

If I was the boss, well, maybe if you worked hard and you got to be a boss, then it'd be better.

But in the meantime, wherever you are, and if you work for somebody, you shouldn't be an argumentative person.

You shouldn't be the kind of person that bosses really don't like. Running around, that's not my job, that's not my job description,

I need more money, wasting company time, I'm always watching the clock and can't wait to get out of here,

I'm always talking to other people and gossiping and hanging out by the proverbial copy machine, talking about everybody else.

Don't do that. You need to be a happy worker. Be a happy worker where you go in, paint a smile on your face if you can't figure out how to get it on there for real, and then just go in and be a happy worker.

What does the text say? Titus 2, not argumentatively. Not argumentatively.

I'll ask you again on No Compromise Radio, are you an argumentative type of employee?

Always trying to argue about things. I don't think I'd want you to work for me either.

Complaining all the time, disagreeable, bad mood. That is not honoring to Christ, especially if you think of this, there are unbelievers that are happy about their work, that find joy in their work, that find contentment and fulfillment and satisfaction, and so if they, the unbeliever, can do that, how, what are the next two words

I'm going to use, much more should you. How much more should you?

You say to yourself, this is something that is eternally relevant.

I can heap up rewards for my eternal inheritance based on just working in a happy fashion.

How about this, listen to what Martin Luther said, the maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays.

Not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps, but because God loves clean floors.

The Christian shoemaker does his duty, his Christian duty, not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

Now argue with Luther about the monk thing if you like, but let's just fast forward his life some.

You can make shoes to the glory of God without putting a Jesus, I mean a Christian fish symbol on them, just good shoes.

I think it was once I got a buck knife, I think I bought it for Luke, and then on the inside it says we have one boss, you know, from the management, from the owners, we have one boss,

Jesus Christ, we want to make things really well, we want to make buck knives to the glory of God. Matter of fact, maybe they need to be a sponsor of No Compromise Radio.

Buck knives, that makes me want to buy a buck knife, because it's excellent quality, craftsmanship, it's well done, comes with a good guarantee, and it's got a little slip on the inside.

I sure hope it is buck knives, I would hate it if it was some kind of fillet knife, and I just gave them props.

Buck knives, we have a boss, his name's Jesus, we work for him. Wow. Now, if the buck knives were really cheesy, and they would break, and they weren't very sharp, they didn't last, they corroded, they got rust really fast,

I would say, stop putting that on there! Don't say that! But since they make them so well, and they're so quality, as we would say in the

US, I say that's good. That's a good advertisement, and that's a good way to work in a pleasing, happy way.

If you're a worker, you want to work hard, and I don't want to be outworked by unbelievers.

We need to work in this world, and there's nothing wrong with work. It was before the fall, it was going to be in heaven, but on the earth, there's difficulty, and so we'd like to work righteously, not sinfully.

That's why we have Jesus, the one who never compromised with work, and we can look to him to work well.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.