Living a Christ-Centered Life

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Open your Bibles with me and turn to Colossians chapter 3 and find your place at verse 17.
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The title of today's message is Living a Christ-Centered Life.
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The original title was All of Life is Christological, but I felt like maybe I'd make it a little easier.
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But that really is the heart of what we're going to talk about today, the Christological center of our lives.
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And we're going to begin to try to make our way toward the end of chapter 3, though I am not confident that even though we're going to read the entire text today, that I'm going to say all that needs to be said, and so it may be that in the next few weeks we will look at this more in depth, as is my pattern, if you have not picked up on it yet, to give an overview of a section and then go back and take the parts and look at the parts more deeply.
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One of the most historically significant changes that sprung up out of the Protestant Reformation is what is known as the Protestant work ethic.
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The Protestant work ethic was the belief that hard work, discipline, and diligence were not only important for economic success, but that they were a reflection of one's faith and moral character.
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The idea behind this was seeing one's vocation as not only what someone did as work to put food on the table, but rather seeing one's vocation as their calling from God.
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In fact, the word vocation comes from the Latin calling.
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So the idea of vocation means calling, your calling in life, whether it is to be a plumber or a pastor.
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It's God's calling in that sense, how it was seen.
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Max Weber is a German sociologist and he argues that the Protestant, and he says particularly Calvinistic ethic, was an important force behind the emergence of modern capitalism.
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That modern capitalism actually found its place in people seeing their work as more than just what they did to earn a living, but what they did as a calling from a higher authority.
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It's easy to understand how we can worship to the glory of God, and we've talked about that over the last three weeks.
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We've studied in depth the concept of singing and worshiping to the glory of God.
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It's easy to consider how we can study the Bible to the glory of God, or to do charity works to the glory of God, but the Bible teaches that everything that we do, and as we will see today, in word and deed, is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And as Paul compares in 1 Corinthians, all for his glory.
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So that's what we're going to see today as we consider living a Christ-centered life.
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Let's stand together and read the text.
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And we will begin at verse 17.
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Reading from the English Standard Version it says, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord.
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Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
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Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
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Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
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Bondservants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
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Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward, you are serving the Lord Christ.
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For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
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We're going to look at verse 1 of chapter 4 because it all fits into this passage.
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Masters treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word, and even now as I seek to give an understanding of it, I pray as my brother has already prayed for me, Lord, that you would keep me from error, that you would glorify yourself in the preaching, and Lord that it would be true, and Lord that your spirit would take the words into the hearts of your people, for believers that they would be edified, for unbelievers that they would be terrified, Lord, that they would see, Lord, the beauty of Christ, but also the terror of an eternity without him, and Lord that they would turn from their sin and turn to Christ, and Lord that we would see that all of life and thus all of eternity is wrapped up in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's in his name we pray, amen.
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When Paul wrote the letter of Colossians, it is fairly likely that he wrote the letter in what we call unsealed text.
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Now unsealed text means that he wrote, as was Greek writing at that time, in all capital letters, no spaces between words, no punctuation, so if you can imagine just reading the book of Romans and starting with just English letters, which you know well, all capital letters, no spaces, no punctuation, one long list of letters.
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That's what the, when we find manuscripts from some as early as the 2nd century, manuscript fragments, when we find them, that's what they look like, because that's the way writing was done at that time, and the reason why I bring that up is because it was not nearly as structured as what we have before us when we read our Bibles.
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When you open your Bibles, you have chapters, verses, and oftentimes in your Bibles you will have section headings, like if you're reading your Bible and you have an ESV, at this point you'll probably notice that the paragraph actually puts chapter 3, verse 17 in the former paragraph, and then there's a subject heading, and it says rules for Christian households, and then it begins chapter 3, verse 18 to the end.
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Well, just understand that those chapter verses, or chapter markings, verse markings, and the headings weren't in the original.
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Those are supplied to us by the translators and the Bible producers, the publishers provide those headings.
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And you say, why is he talking about this? Well, I'm talking about this because I don't think the heading is in the right place in the ESV, because even though verse 17 is the conclusion of verses, verse 16 and above, I also believe that it is intricately connected to the next section.
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In fact, I believe it serves as a bridge, and the bridge word is the word chi, which is the Greek word for and, because it says and whatever you do.
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The word and is finishing what was just said, because we were told to do all things, we were told to sing Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and do it all on Thanksgiving, right? And whatever you do, it can include that.
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But what we're going to see is we're going to see it also is going to connect to the next portion, because the next portion, I believe, is the whatever's we do in life.
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Because what's above is what we do in worship.
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We sing and we have Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and we teach and we correct, and those are things that we do in worship together.
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But the next section is what we do in life, and this whatever you do includes all of that, including our lives, including how we love our spouses, how we parent our children, how we minister to those around us.
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And I see in this passage, I see a structural connection actually between verses 17 and 23.
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So if you're looking at your Bible, you'll notice there are two verses, and both of them have the word whatever.
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And in the Greek, it's actually constructed in almost the exact same way.
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And this particular word, whatever, is in verse 17, where it says whatever you do in word or deed, and then in verse 23, it says whatever you do, work heartily.
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This idea sort of encompasses all that Paul is saying here, that everything that we do is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That everything that we do in life is to center around the one person of Christ.
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You've heard it said many times, it's not about you.
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And we say that a lot.
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It's not really about us.
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It's not.
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It's about Him and everything.
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Our joys and our sorrows, our wins and our losses, our successes and our failures are not really about us, but ultimately about Him.
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And so what we're going to see, we're going to look first at the main idea passage, that's verse 17, then we're going to look at the supporting ideas, which are verses 18 to 25, and then we're going to see the parallel, which is in verse 23.
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That's the outline for today.
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I don't have a fancy three-point outline or anything with alliteration, so I apologize for not having that.
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I couldn't figure it out this week, but I do have the idea of where we're going and what we're talking about.
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And it's all going to revolve around verse 17, because I do believe verse 17 is the bridge.
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Verse 17 bridges everything together.
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In fact, years and years ago, many of you know this, I had my own screen printing company, and it was in my garage, and then it went to a metal building in my backyard, and we, for three years, we printed thousands and thousands of t-shirts.
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Many of them, some of you were printing, some of you still have them.
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I see Kelly wearing my shirts all the time.
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Good craftsmanship, right? That was years ago.
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But on the wall of my screen printing shop was this verse, verse 17.
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It said, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord.
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Of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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Because I did believe that when I was dragging ink over a t-shirt frame, when I was doing that, sometimes hundreds of times an hour, that while I was doing it to make extra money for my family, and while I was doing it to be able to express my artistic desires, because I do have somewhat of an artistic side that likes to express itself in strange ways, and that was one of the ways that I did it.
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But even though there were personal benefits that I enjoyed from doing that, the one thing that I wanted to do was I wanted to do it to glorify Christ, and that when I handed someone a t-shirt, that it would last five, six, seven years, and that it would actually hold up, and that it would do well, and we would do tests.
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We would do what's called a wash test, where you print the shirt, and then you put it in the washing machine six times, over and over and over, and you pull it out to see if it's still printed after you've washed it six, seven, eight times, because you want to do a good job, because you want to have craftsmanship and quality in what you do, because you're doing it as unto the Lord.
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You see, that's what Paul is saying here.
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He's saying that whatever you do, in fact, the phrase here, kai pon hati eon poiete, that's the Greek sentence, it's actually in the indefinite particle, and it serves to form an indefinite clause.
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Whatever you are doing, whatever you are doing, and whatever you find yourself doing, it might not even be something you've purposed to do in the morning, but you, and you all know this, you may get up in the morning purposed to do X, and then Y comes out of nowhere, and Y becomes the focus of your day, and now you've got to do that, and now you've got to do that.
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In the name of the Lord.
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You've got to do that to the glory of Christ.
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And I keep pointing, I keep saying to the glory of Christ, just real quick, I'm sure you know this, but just hold your place in Colossians, and very quickly, just turn over to 1 Corinthians 10 31, because there is a parallel passage in 1 Corinthians, and notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 10, I hear Bible pages, I don't want to go too quickly, but it says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, so whether you eat or drink, and remember the context of 1 Corinthians, there was a lot of debate in the church as to whether you should eat something or drink something, whether or not it was going to be an offense to your brother or provide a stumbling block to your brother, there was a lot in chapter 8 specifically of 1 Corinthians that dealt with what we should eat, meat in the marketplace that was used for idols and things like that, there was a lot of questions about that, but Paul here sort of summarizes the Christian ethic in chapter 10 by saying, so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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I can't help but be reminded of Spurgeon, and if you are Reformed, you knew I was going to get here eventually, but Spurgeon is famously known for enjoying the cigar.
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Now for those of you who are offended by any form of smoke inhalation for the purpose of gratification, buckle up, because Spurgeon, the great Baptist, yes, the great Baptist said that he would at times smoke a cigar to the glory of God, that he would smoke a cigar to the glory of God, and some people got offended by that, greatly offended, wrote letters, it was way before internet comment boxes, people actually had to put it in the mail, but he would receive complaints that he would speak so flippantly of the glory of God, and so he responded to their accusations, and this is what he said.
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He wrote an explanation, and this is from the pen of Spurgeon.
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He said, the expression smoking to the glory of God standing alone has an ill sound, and I do not justify it.
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Meaning, just stop right there, what he's saying is, I realize some of you got offended by it, and I'm not trying to justify, I understand why you're upset, but in the sense in which I employed it, I stand by it.
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No Christian should do anything in which he cannot glorify God, and this may be done, according to the scripture, in eating and drinking, and the common actions of life, when I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I felt grateful to God, and have blessed his name.
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This is what I meant, and by no means did I use these words triflingly.
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So if you want a theological explanation from the great Spurge, well there you go.
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Maybe I shouldn't call him Spurge, we weren't that good of friends.
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The great prince of preachers, but notice what he's saying.
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He's saying, I'm not trying to be flippant, I'm not trying to trifle with the things of God, but what I am saying is that there have been times where doing this action was a joy to my heart, and I believed I was glorifying God, I didn't believe I was sinning while doing it, and I was doing it to the glory of God, and in so much as I can do something to the glory of God, I'm going to do it and glorify God in it.
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Now some of you don't like it, and I can smell it, I can smell the disdain for what I'm saying.
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I'm not saying go get a humidor, I'm not arguing that you should go and buy your first box of cigars, because you may not need to do that.
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What I am saying is that do you look at your life through that lens? That everything you do, even the things that you do that are what we might say recreations, do you do your recreations in the name of the Lord Jesus? Do you spend your time online in the name of the Lord Jesus? Do you spend your time on your couch in the name of the Lord Jesus? Do you spend your time with your spouse in the name of the Lord Jesus? And by the way, what does it mean to be in the name of the Lord Jesus? That doesn't mean you just go to your wife and say, right now I'm going to sit with you in the name of the Lord.
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That might scare her and it would me too.
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No, to do something in someone's name means to be submitted to their authority.
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To do something in someone's name meant to be doing it for and unto them.
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If I came to you and I said I'm coming to you in the name of the President, well if I said I was coming to you in the name of our Governor, it might make you feel better.
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You would know that what I meant was that I'm coming with that authority.
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I'm coming with that message.
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I'm coming with that purpose and I am at this moment acting on their behalf as I come to you in their name.
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Notice how Paul in this passage clarifies for us the all-encompassing nature of what we are to do in the name of Christ because he says we are to enlago, energo.
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Those words are in word and in deed.
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We all know the word logos means word.
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Many of us have studied that, heard that.
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You've heard the word logos and you know that means word.
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Word is what we say.
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It's referring in this sense to our voices.
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Should what we say be in the name of Christ? Should what we say be under the authority of Christ? Paul has already told us that, hasn't he? If we go back earlier, he talks about us not using filthy talk.
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He talks about us using our words to build each other up and encourage each other and love each other.
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Our words matter.
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Our words are to be under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Whatever you do, first in word, but not only in word, but also in ergo.
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Ergo is work or deed.
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You know that word because if you've ever heard the word ergonomic, like an ergonomic keyboard is meant to help you work better.
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I remember years ago, my brother got an ergonomic baby carrier.
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Here was the change that it made.
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Normally you carry a baby like this.
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Babies be heavy, especially when they're fosky babies.
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We have heavy babies.
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When you carry a baby like this, it's really uncomfortable in your shoulder and your arm, especially when you're walking around for a while.
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They made an ergonomic carrier that changed the handle like this.
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When you carried the baby, it had the handle shaped that way.
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What it was, it was to increase the ability to do the work easily.
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That's where the word ergonomic comes from, to increase your ability to do work.
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That's where the word ergos comes from.
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Paul here is saying we are to do everything in word.
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That means with our mouths and indeed with our hands.
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Everything that we do is to be done under the authority of, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I mentioned earlier my screen printing shop.
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Another quote that I had on the wall was by Luther.
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I have come to find out that Luther didn't actually say this.
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I was disappointed.
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I felt like I needed to qualify it and tell you that what I'm going to say used to be attributed to Luther.
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He didn't actually say it.
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This is what it said.
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It said, the Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on his shoes, but by making good shoes because God is interested in craftsmanship.
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I love that quote.
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It's a good quote.
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If you're a businessman or woman, if you're a person who does something and you're doing it as unto the Lord, if you're doing it in the name of the Lord, you should be concerned about those things, doing it as best you can.
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I think the quote is true even if it's not attributed to Luther.
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I did find out why people attributed it to Luther.
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Luther did have a very strong view of vocation.
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He did write something very similar.
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I want to read to you what he wrote.
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This does come from the pen of Luther.
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He says this, the prince should think Christ has served me and made everything to follow him.
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Therefore, I should also serve my neighbor, protect him and everything that belongs to him.
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That is why God has given me this office.
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I have it that I might serve him.
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That would be a good prince and a good ruler.
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When a prince sees his neighbor oppressed, he should think, that concerns me.
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I must protect and shield my neighbor.
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The same is true for the shoemaker, the tailor, the scribe or the reader.
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If he is a Christian tailor, he should say, I make these clothes because God has bidden me to do so, so that I can earn a living, so that I can help and serve my neighbor.
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When a Christian does not serve the other, God is not present.
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That is not Christian living.
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So, the more expressive Lutheran quote was this, when we do our work, whether it is fixing cars as Jesse does or painting houses as Mike does, when we do our work, we are serving our neighbor.
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Yes, they are paying us, but we are providing a service to them and we should do it as unto the Lord.
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To do it with him in mind.
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You know people who have been cut corners.
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You know there are people who do unscrupulous things in their businesses.
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What does the Bible say about unscrupulous business practices? We should not engage in false weights and measures.
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You know how they would falsify the weight of certain things so that they could fool their people that they are doing business with, right? God says that is an abomination to him, because we should actually care about how we live life and how we do life and how we do business.
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We should care about whether or not when we are, Mike was telling me the other day, I hope you don't mind Mike, he said he had to come behind a guy who was putting trim in a house.
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Don't be mad at me.
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Mike said, I must have used 30 cases of caulk because this guy cut every corner he could and never got a joint to match up.
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He said, I am working on this house and I am having to fill every joint with so much caulk because the guy who came before me didn't make his miters match.
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He didn't cut them straight.
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He didn't flush his cuts.
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Now as a person who does a little bit of woodworking, that is anathema.
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The cuts have got to match or you start over.
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You measure twice, cut once, right? Because it matters.
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I built my daughter a swing set over the last few weeks I have been working on it and there is one board that is just a little off and I hate it.
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I look at it every time I go out there and I think eventually that board is coming off because I can't live this way.
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There is a cut out there.
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I cut the door.
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Me and Jerry, who is not here today, we cut the door for the nursery.
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If you have ever noticed and now you will notice it every time, I didn't cut it straight and it hurts my soul.
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Every time I see that door it bothers me.
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One day, and I think when we get the new doors there, I am going to take one of them.
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I am going to cut a straight cut because we cut to the glory of God.
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We cut in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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We do it as if we are doing it for Him.
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I don't want to present my Savior with a crooked cut.
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I know that may sound so frivolous and so small, but when we do what we do and everything that we do, we are to do it unto Him and in His name and for His glory.
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Whether we are singing up on the chancel, whether we are playing a guitar.
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I think about our worship team who every week comes in and they practice early.
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I think about our Sunday school teachers who prepare and come and do all these things.
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It is all done to the glory of God, but it doesn't have to be those things.
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It could be your household, your mothers who are there, who are cleaning and cooking and homeschooling to the glory of God and in His name.
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You know this proverb well I am sure, but I will remind you of it.
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Proverbs 3 verse 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
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But then what does it say in verse 6? In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.
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In all your ways, in everything you do.
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This isn't just New Testament concept.
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This is all Bible concept.
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In everything that you do, you do everything.
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Acknowledging Him as the source of life.
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Acknowledging Him as the purpose of life.
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Acknowledging Him as the center of life.
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Again, Christ is the center of our lives.
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That is living the Christ centered life.
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Everything I do, whether I am making food for the fellowship dinner.
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Whatever we do and Gary too.
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We do it all to the glory of God.
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I have pressed this point.
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I hope you understand this is the point of the message.
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But now I want to show you how Paul practically works that out.
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Because that begins in verse 18.
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Beginning in verse 18 down to chapter 4 verse 1, he gives a practical outworking of this truth.
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Whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
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He did say also giving thanks.
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Remember that was the end of why we sing.
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We sing, we giving thanks.
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And also whatever we do, we do giving thanks.
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That doesn't mean everything is easy.
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That doesn't mean everything elicits an immediate gratification.
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But sometimes we give thanks even in our trials.
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James 1 tells us that we understand that even our trials bring patience and patience brings maturity.
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We look in verse 18.
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He begins to work out this idea and he does so by addressing the family.
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The smallest and most intimate social unit in the world.
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He says first to wives.
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Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.
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Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
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Now in the weeks to come I do plan to come back to this.
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So if you're anxious about what that means or you have questions, I will address it again.
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I want to do a little short section on digging deeper into what it means to submit and what it means to love and all those things.
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And I don't have time today because I want to show you a broader picture of what Paul is doing here.
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Because what Paul is doing in this section is Paul is actually creating concentric circles.
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And it's all about the household.
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And the household begins in the center with the relationship of the husband and the wife.
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And he starts with those.
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And he says in everything you do, whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving glory and thankfulness to God the Father through him.
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And then immediately wives submit unto your husbands and husbands love your wives.
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What he's doing is he's going to the very smallest social contract but the most important social relationship that exists outside of your relationship with Christ.
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The smallest social contract you can have is between two people.
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And the most important social contract you can have is between the two people who say I do.
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And so he's going to those two and he's saying it all starts with this.
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It all starts, when you talk about doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it all starts with the husband and the wife.
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That's where it begins.
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But he doesn't stop there.
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Notice he goes on and he goes a little bit further outside the circle and he includes children and parents.
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So we'll just say children and parents.
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Because by the way that's a different social relationship.
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And you say well I know that.
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But do you really? Because some people put this relationship here.
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Oh now I'm stepping on toes.
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Now I'm going to get somebody upset.
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Because some people take this relationship and make it the most important.
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And the children become the focus of the relationship and the marriage and the husband and the wife become second.
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And that can lead to many, I've seen many households and many problems.
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So Paul creates these concentric circles by beginning with the husband and wife and then the children and particularly the fathers.
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And we're going to talk about this next week because we're going to talk about how the father had a unique relationship in the disciplining of the children.
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You know fathers don't provoke your children.
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There's something here why he's addressing fathers specifically.
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Do mothers discipline the children? Yes.
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But there was a, and you say well where are you getting that from? First Timothy.
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How's a man not qualified to be an elder? He's not disciplined, he doesn't have control over his house right? He doesn't say something to the mother, he says something to the man right? The discipline of the home begins with the man.
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And how have we not messed that up and put that on its ear? And even through television and popular media made the man into the idiot and the wife into the all-knowing seer of the home right? We do that.
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And the world, art imitates life and life imitates art.
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And we've got a thousand and one Al Bundys out there.
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And fathers knows best nobody has ever even heard of.
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Yeah I mean you can win me.
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You know what I'm talking about.
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The idiot father is what we see and like I said we're going to get into this more in the weeks ahead.
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But you understand concentric circles, we started with the husband and wife now we're to the children and the parents.
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And then outside of this and you say this one is going to bother some people but it's okay.
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Don't let it bother you because I'll hopefully help make this make sense in the weeks ahead.
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There was the servant and the master.
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Because in a first century home that was typically the, especially a home that was with any financial stability they would have parents, children and servants.
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And the servants were often people who needed to work and they didn't have, you couldn't go to IBM or Costco and get a job in the first century.
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Typically you had to work on people's land who had land, who had things for you to do to serve and that's sometimes you had to sell yourself into slavery just to be able to provide for your family and things like that did happen and it was a reality.
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And the Bible doesn't condemn this particular economic structure because this was the structure that was there and so this is what was dealt with.
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And again another story of the Bible just to remind you.
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Think about the story of the prodigal son.
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That's the relationships right? You never hear about the wife but obviously you assume there's a man and wife and then you got the children, the two boys and the one boy, I want my inheritance early, runs off into squanderous living, ends up in the pig slop and then what does he do? He says, my father's servants live better than this.
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So there's the home structure and that was the concentric outside.
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And Paul is saying wherever you're at and whatever you do, whether you're a father and a mother, whether you're a child and a parent or whether you're even a servant in the household of a master, whatever you do is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if you're a believer.
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Because you can be a believing father and mother, you can be a believing child, you can even be a believing servant.
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But everything that you do is to be done.
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And by the way servants is not the only one mentioned.
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That's why I wanted to see verse 1 of chapter 4 because I do believe again these verses sometimes separate us where we shouldn't be separated.
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Verse 1 of chapter 4 is connected to that because he mentions masters.
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And what are the masters supposed to do? They're supposed to be godly understanding that they have a master who is in heaven and everything they do with their servants is ultimately done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So that's the picture that Paul is creating with this outline of the home.
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And everything radiates out of that.
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Life and love and vocation and entertainment and everything.
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And Paul is saying that's comes out of that idea of doing everything to the glory of God and in the name of Jesus Christ.
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Now I do want to look at one quick thing and that's verse 23.
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I said earlier that verse 17 and verse 23 create what I consider to be a parallel in this text.
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If you look with me at verse 17 again it says, and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God through him.
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Now quickly look at verse 23 it says whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.
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Now you could argue linguistically and I've thought about this a lot this week.
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You can argue linguistically that verse 23 is connected immediately to verse 22 which is referring to bond servants and so what Paul is saying here is to the servant understand that whatever you do you should work heartily as for the Lord not for men.
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Understand that when you serve you're serving as to the Lord not to men.
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Yes that's true.
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But I do believe and would argue and how I come to my conclusion as Mike and I love that phrase how you reach that conclusion too, is based upon the use of the structure of the sentence because if you go back to verse 17 the structure between 17 and 23 is almost exactly paralleled.
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Both saying whatever you do.
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They're both in what's called the present active subjunctive which is very interesting and I think that these two ideas are parallel and here's why.
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Because in verse 17 we're told whatever we do we do in the name of Christ under his authority for his glory and in verse 23 we're told whatever we do we do it for him even if we're the lowest person of rank.
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Because if you go back to the list it starts father, mother, children, servant.
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Even if you're the lowest of rank you're still doing everything to the glory of God.
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See it's easy to say oh the pastor he does what he does to the glory of God or the president he does what he does to the glory of God or the governor does what he does to the glory of God.
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But the plumber does what he does to the glory of God.
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The person who's down on his knees and he's cleaning he's doing that to the glory of God.
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Everyone from the highest to the lowest and wherever we are socially, economically, whatever we do and whoever we are.
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You know that's how we often identify ourselves.
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We identify ourselves by what we do.
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Preacher, painter, mechanic.
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We often do that.
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Why? Because it's part of God's calling.
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It's part of what we do.
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It's part of who we are.
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I mean Mike tells me all the time I can't go without painting.
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I'm sorry to be talking so much about you brother we just spent so much time together recently and all the time we've been friends.
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Michael paint in his sleep.
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And so no matter where you are in the hierarchy of social economics and social economics is so unimportant but people tend to put great emphasis on it.
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People put great emphasis on what you make, how much you make, what you do.
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And the point is here it doesn't matter because whether you're doing it for $100,000 a year or whether you're doing it for $20,000 a year you're to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Whether you're the master or the servant you're to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because everything that we do all of life is Christ centered.
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And by the way Paul is simply repeating something that he already said in this book.
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Turn over to chapter 1.
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Turn over to chapter 1.
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If you remember back at Christmas time last year we were going through chapter 1 verses 15 to 20 because that's the great Christological section of Colossians.
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But notice what it says in verse 16 about Jesus.
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It says for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority.
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And then it says this.
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All things were created through him and for him.
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You were made for him and you were made to glorify him.
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Whatever you do wherever you are you are made to glorify Christ.
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Now I want to draw to a close and I'd like to do so by referencing an article if I could.
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The title of this article it's by Gene Edward V.
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and it's called The Glory of Heath.
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And it is entitled Vocation the Spirituality of Ordinary Life.
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That's the title of the article if you want to look it up.
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And this is what he says.
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I can't quote the whole thing but I'll quote a couple of sections.
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He says some forms of Christianity teach that we should separate ourselves from the world in order to be purely spiritual.
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But in contrast the Lutheran doctrine and he's basically referencing the protestant work ethic but he calls it the Lutheran doctrine.
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He says the Lutheran doctrine of vocation offers spirituality to ordinary life.
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See we often separate the sacred and the secular.
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But in scripture it's all sacred because we're doing it all to the glory of God.
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And when we start separating the secular and the sacred we divide our minds.
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He goes on to say in medieval theology the word vocation, the Latin word for calling I mentioned that earlier, referred only to the calling to the monk, to the nun, or to the priest.
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These holy orders required vows of celibacy, poverty, obedience.
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In recovering the gospel Martin Luther insisted that having a family, working to make a living, and being a citizen of the culture are all vocations from God.
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All believers are priests and the table of duties in the small catechism, this is what Luther gave, refers to husbands, wives, parents, children, rulers, subjects, employers, and employees as all occupations of holy orders.
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They're all from God.
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Luther called vocation the mask of God.
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He said God is hidden in ordinary people.
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Everyone who does things for you, your parents who brought you into existence, brought you up and cared for you, your spouse, whoever made your clothes, whoever built your house, the artist whose musics or drawings or stories you enjoy, the experts who designed and built and programmed your computer, all the people behind the scenes who keep you safe and make your life possible.
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Consider that God looms behind them all, blessing you through all these people working through their individual vocations.
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Do you see your life in everything that you do to be under the authority of Christ and for the purpose of glorifying Him in the service of others? That is what it means to live a Christ-centered life.
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But I'll say this, it's impossible to live a Christ-centered life if you don't know Christ.
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Living a Christ-centered life is not just fixing things in your life and going through steps or going through disciplines.
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It's about turning your life over to Him and making everything about Him and submitting yourself to Him.
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Beloved, have you done that today? Maybe you're a believer and you're struggling and you need to come back and you need to recognize areas in your life that you've allowed to move away and you need to bring them under Christ's submission today.
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Or maybe you're outside of Christ and you need to realize there's only one, only one who provides salvation and can give you a new life, a life centered on Him and a life that will not end when you take your last breath, but a life that will go on in eternity always and forever being a Christ-centered life.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to study your Word and I do pray that we would seek to live a Christ-centered life, those of us who believe in Him.
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And for those, Lord, who are here who do not yet trust in Christ, I pray that today they might hear the call to repent of sin, turn from their old life and turn to a new life in Christ.
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And I pray all of this in Jesus' name.
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Amen.