Biblical Home (pt3) Masters and Slaves

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Well, it's been said a few times today that I am starting my vacation tomorrow, but I'll have you know that my vacation has already begun.
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Well, I say that because preaching is not my job.
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Preaching is my joy.
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Vocational ministry is my job.
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I work through the week, but on Sunday I give this as an offering to God, so this isn't work for me.
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I'd do it every day even if I...
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if this was...
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I would preach every day, even on vacation.
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Jennifer has to keep me from trying to find a place to go preach, so...
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Well, I do want to invite you to take out your Bible and open it with me to Colossians chapter 3, and we're going to finish the chapter today by looking...
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again, we're going to read verses 17 to chapter 4, verse 1, but we're going to focus today on verses 22 through chapter 4, verse 1.
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And we've been examining the home and the structure that Paul describes as a godly home.
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And he gives an outline beginning in verse 17.
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He says, everything we do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then out of that he builds a structure, and he says, this is what a Christian home looked like in the first century.
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And I've shown this before, but just to remind you, the structure of the home was that it began with the wife and the husband.
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The husband was to love the wife, and the wife was to submit to her husband, to respect him, and that the main social commitment, the main responsibility in the home is that the father and the mother, the husband and the wife are to be unified, and that they are to be the primary relationship.
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Outside of that, we have the relationship of children.
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And as I've said over the weeks past, sometimes that gets out of order, and people make the kids the focus rather than the marriage relationship, and that often creates a problem because the children, while ultimately very important, they are going to leave one day, and they're going to leave their father and mother and join unto their wives, and the two are going to become one flesh, and they're going to become a family, and the whole nucleus will begin again with a new husband and wife.
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Well, in the first century, there was also an additional portion of the family, one that we may not understand in our modern culture.
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There was the relationship of the master and the servant.
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And what we're going to see today is that this relationship between master and servant is actually a microcosm of all authority in the world, and it ultimately is a picture of how we should see ourselves in relationship to God.
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We focus a lot on being children of God, and we are, but the Bible also says we are His slaves.
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And so today, we're going to see how the servant and slave, or rather the master and slave relationship is a picture of God and His people.
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He has purchased us, and we are bought with a price, and we are not our own.
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So with that, let's stand together, and let's read.
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Beginning again at verse 17, because this, I believe, sets the context for the entire section, and 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 in 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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And now moving to the subject of servants.
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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.
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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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And then in chapter 4, verse 1, it finishes this section by saying, Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
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Let us pray.
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Father, as we seek to understand the context in which this text was written, as we seek to better understand the relationship between master and servant, and as we seek to apply this in our lives, and particularly in our life of faith, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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For God, as you know, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error, and I pray that you would keep me from that.
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And I pray, O God, that you would open up the hearts of your people to understand the Word, that your Spirit would go out, that it would be mixed with faith, and as it is believed and received, Lord, that He, the Holy Spirit, would apply these truths to the heart of every person.
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And Lord, as we are going to be dealing with a somewhat controversial subject today, as we use the word slave, Lord, knowing that such a word often brings up connotations that are very negative, and Lord, rightfully so in many cultures, I pray, O God, that we would understand Paul's usage of this in reminding us that we, in fact, are, who have come to Christ in faith, have been made His slaves.
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And Lord, we ought to rejoice in that.
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We pray this in His name.
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Amen.
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When we examine this text, and we look at what Paul has written here in this section of Colossians, one thing jumps out to me, and has really been on my mind over the last several weeks, as you all know, this biblically functioning home, this is our third sermon in this little short mini-series as part of our longer study of the book of Colossians.
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And the thing that jumps out to me is that the most amount of attention that Paul gives in this text, beginning at verse 17, going to chapter 4, verse 1, the most amount of attention is given to the servant.
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Husbands and wives are given one verse each.
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Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.
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Husbands, love your wives.
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Children and fathers are given one verse each.
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Children, obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.
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And fathers, do not provoke your children.
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One verse, one simple sentence.
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And even masters, when they are brought into attention in chapter 4, verse 1, even masters are only given one verse.
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Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you have a master in heaven.
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But, when the servant comes into view, the servant is given four verses, longer, more full verses, to describe his role.
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Now, that could be merely coincidental.
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However, I am of the mind that there is nothing in God's Word that is merely coincidental.
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I believe, in fact, instead of it being mere coincidence, I think it actually points to the uniqueness of the role of the servant.
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Unique from husband and wife, unique from child, and unique from master.
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The servant is being pointed out in a unique and specific way.
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Several weeks ago, I showed that there is a relationship between verse 17 and verse 22.
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If you're looking at your Bibles, I just want to remind you of this relationship.
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In verse 17, it says, And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That phrase, and whatever you do, is repeated in verse 23.
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It says, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men.
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The same phrase, the same Greek word, is used at the beginning of both of those verses, and it is translated in the English Standard Bible, Whatever you do.
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In verse 17, it's talking about all of life.
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Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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But in verse 23, it is specifically focused in on the servant.
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That is the context of verse 23.
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Because the servant has a unique role in the home.
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The servant was the one of lowest rank.
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The servant was the one who exercised no authority of his own.
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But rather, any authority he may have, maybe he's the teacher of the child, maybe he is the head of the preparation of the food, or maybe he's running the family farm, or whatever position of authority the servant had, it was very well understood that that authority was not an inherent authority, but was a derived authority.
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His inherent authority was none.
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He was a servant.
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So when he acted, he acted on behalf of who? Of his master.
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You remember when Jesus told the parable of the servants, who were given the talents, and the master left, and he gave each one a different talent, and when Jesus came back, each one had done something different with their talents, and the two that had taken their talent and used it to further the master's kingdom, who had used it to make a profit on behalf of the master, he said, well done, my good and faithful servants.
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Because they were working on behalf of him.
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You've done well in my stead.
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You were good servants.
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But then there was the wicked servant.
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You remember what the wicked servant did? He buried his talent in the ground, so that when the master returned, he didn't lose anything, but he also didn't gain anything.
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And the master said, the least you could have done was, you know, put it up at Vistar and got .3%.
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You know, you could have at least done that.
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But you didn't even do that.
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And the servant said, well, I knew you were a harsh man.
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I knew you were a man that was exacting and untrustworthy, so when I did this, I did it out of fear.
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Not out of loving fear, but out of a fear of your harshness.
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And what did the master say to the servant? Depart from me, you wicked servant.
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Why? Because the servant didn't have any inherent authority, but he did have a derived authority given to him by the master, and his responsibility was to do for the master.
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And when he didn't, he was considered wicked.
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The title of servant is one of the ways that we, as Christians, are described over and over in the Bible.
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In fact, this week I read a book in preparation for the sermon, along with my regular study.
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I added a book to my study this week, and I read the book Slave by John MacArthur.
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And it was a good book.
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I would say the vast majority of it didn't really break any new ground.
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Mike had read it, and we talked about it before.
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It was sort of a lot of things that were relatively well-known, but there were a few little nuggets that he mentioned in that book that I thought were very important.
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And probably the most fascinating thing in the book is the introduction to the book and how he talks about having come to have written the book.
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Because the book is entitled Slave.
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And he says, I chose specifically to use this word slave because I have come to realize, and again, I'm not quoting directly, I'm just recounting what MacArthur said.
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He said, I've come to realize that many modern translations refuse to translate the word for slave into slave because it has so many culturally negative connotations.
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So instead of using the word slave, we've used the word servant or bondservant or something like that.
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And he says, if you study the history of this word, and the word here is the word doulos, and it is used over a hundred times in the New Testament, and almost every time it's used to refer to our relationship to Christ.
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Paul calls himself this.
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He is the doulos of Christ.
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Paul and Timothy, the doulos of Christ.
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He uses it over and over and over again.
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And if you pick up a lot of Bibles, the English Standard Bible, you pick up modern translations, and even the King James, you will find oftentimes it's translated servant rather than slave.
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And the reason for that is probably pretty well understood.
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We have a negative understanding of the word slave.
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And partially because the only context that we understand slavery is of course in the context of American history.
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We don't often consider that slavery has existed since the dawn of man, and it has existed in every culture, in every form, and has existed throughout the history of man.
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In fact, I want to quote from Thomas Sowell.
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Now Sowell is not a Christian that I know of.
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He may be, but he doesn't write as a Christian.
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He writes as an economist.
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If you're not familiar with Thomas Sowell, I would encourage you to read, especially if you're interested in economics and cultural and political history.
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He writes on those subjects, and he is a social commentator, and he writes this.
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He says, When slavery is mentioned, too many people automatically think of whites enslaving blacks.
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That is not even one-tenth of the story of slavery, which existed on every inhabited continent.
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The very word slave derives from the word, for some white people who were enslaved on a mass scale, the Slavs.
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That's where the English word slave comes from.
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It's from the Slavs.
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Moreover, slavery existed in the Western Hemisphere before the first black or white person ever set foot here.
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The indigenous peoples of this hemisphere enslaved one another, just as Asians have enslaved Asians, Europeans have enslaved Europeans, and Africans have enslaved Africans.
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Western civilization actually was the first civilization to regard slavery as morally wrong, and it is the civilization with the most guilt about it.
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He goes on to say, To this very moment, slavery continues in parts of Africa and the Islamic world, but very little noise is made about it because there's no money to be made in denouncing it, and there's no political advantage to be gained.
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Of all the tragic facts about the history of slavery, the most astonishing to an American today is that although slavery was a worldwide institution for thousands of years, nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century.
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People of every race and color were enslaved, and they enslaved one another.
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White people were still being bought and sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire decades after American blacks were freed, and more whites were bought as slaves to North Africa than blacks brought to slaves in the United States or to the 13 colonies from which it was formed.
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He goes on to say this, The September 2003 issue of the National Geographic had an article about the millions of people still enslaved around the world right now.
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There are an estimated 27 million men, women, and children in the world who are enslaved today.
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27 million people today.
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There are more slaves in the world today than there ever have been in history.
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So when we think of slavery as a one part of one culture that existed at one time, we are missing the grand scale that has been all throughout human history and still exists to today.
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Now am I supporting slavery? Am I endorsing slavery? Certainly not.
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But what I am saying is that when we look with a myopic lens at one period of history and say this is what slavery is or was, we miss the bigger picture.
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Paul lived at a time where slavery was the norm.
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Think about it.
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There was no Walmart to work for.
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There was no Publix that you could go and become...
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We work for Publix.
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What are you looking at? Management? Yeah.
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You couldn't become a manager at Publix.
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In general, there were cultural divides and the cultural divides were those who owned things and those who didn't and those who had property and those who didn't and those who had property tend to own the property and tend to have servants who work for them.
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They were slaves.
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And slavery was based in the time of Paul more on economics.
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It was a matter of social status.
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People sold themselves as slaves and they could not pay their debts or provide for their families.
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In the time of Paul, sometimes doctors and lawyers and even politicians were slaves of someone else.
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Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for them by their masters.
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And here's a good example of that.
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Do you remember the time when Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son? Remember the prodigal son takes his father's wealth and he squanders it in loose living and then ends up in the pig slop? And the prodigal son, when he comes to himself in that moment in the pig slop, and he says what? He says, My father's hired servants live better than this.
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I'll go back and be a slave to my father because it would be better to be that than to be this.
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So he understood that there was a way in which he could live a better life even if he was living as a servant of someone else.
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It's interesting when you study the scripture and you look throughout the Bible, you'll note that the Bible never really condemns slavery as outright.
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In fact, John MacArthur did say this.
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We're talking about his book.
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He says, In no place in scripture is there any effort ever made to abolish slavery, and at no time did any prophet or preacher or teacher or apostle ever attack it.
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And that makes us uncomfortable.
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Well, I don't like that.
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But understand this, the Bible does address certain things.
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The Bible does condemn kidnapping and what we would call, the Bible uses the term man stealing.
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So to go and kidnap someone and force them into slavery was an abominable act even prior to the New Testament, even in the Old Testament, Exodus 21-16.
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Whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death.
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So there was a law which forbid stealing men and selling men and it was punishable by a capital punishment.
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So we're not endorsing any form of treating human beings in that way.
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The Bible doesn't endorse that.
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In fact, it thoroughly condemns it.
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But there was a sense in which the culture of slavery, master and servant, was understood to have its place at this time in history.
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So much so that when Paul wrote a letter to a man named Philemon, and you have this in your Bible.
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Go home and read it today.
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It's one of the smaller books of the New Testament.
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And back a few months ago, I preached through the Little Letters.
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I called it the Little Letter Series and I preached 2 and 3 John, Jude and Philemon because they were all the one chapter books.
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And I showed how the interesting thing about Philemon is, if you're unfamiliar with the story, the story of Philemon is very simple.
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There is a man named Onesimus who was a slave to Philemon and Onesimus ran away.
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He ran away from his master and as he ran away from his master, at some point he came in contact with the gospel, probably under the preaching of the Apostle Paul.
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And upon hearing the gospel and preaching from the Apostle Paul, he asked, what should I do? And the Apostle Paul sent him back to Philemon, but he sent him with this letter.
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And if you're unfamiliar with the letter, the letter was simple.
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Paul says, I could command you to treat this man like a brother, but I'm not going to do that.
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I'm going to leave it to your conscience.
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Maybe interpret it a little differently, but that seems to be the way Paul comes.
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He doesn't command Philemon what to do, but he says, here's what you should do.
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You should understand this man has become your brother in Christ and you should receive him as a brother.
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However, notice he doesn't say to Onesimus, he doesn't say, fight for your freedom.
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He says, go back and submit yourself to this man and we'll pray that this man will do what's right.
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So there is still the understanding of the master and slave relationship, still the understanding of the one who has authority and the one who is in submission.
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And Paul writes the letter to Philemon calling him to receive the slave as a brother.
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So as we think about this subject of masters and slaves and we think about the subject of slavery in general and we come back to Colossians, what we need to understand is that what is in view here is more important than masters and slaves.
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What is in view here is the concept of authority and submission.
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And this has been the overall concept that has been going since Paul began this section.
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In fact, this is what we've been talking about for three weeks if you've been here listening to me.
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We've been talking about authority and submission.
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What was the first thing? Wives, what? Submit unto your husband.
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And all God's people go, oi vey.
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Right? We don't want to hear that.
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But the Bible is very clear.
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It calls wives to submit unto their husbands as unto the Lord.
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And it calls the husband to love the wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
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And so there's a relationship of respect and a relationship of authority.
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And the wife is to respect her husband's authority.
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So authority and submission is seen in the husband and wife relationship.
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And then it's children.
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Children do what? Remember we said last week the Greek word means to listen.
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Listen to your parents.
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Obey them.
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Hear them.
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And he says children obey your parents.
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But fathers understand this.
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You have a role in the home as well.
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Your role of authority is not unchecked power.
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You are not a mini-tyrant.
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But what you are is you are to be a godly man who does not provoke your children.
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I was thinking about that this week.
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Jennifer and I were talking about that very thing.
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About how easy it is for a father to provoke his children in regard to faith.
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To lay upon his children burdens and expectations that aren't in line with scripture.
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Or maybe they are in line with scripture but your child is not yet a believer and yet you're placing these burdens and saying you must do this.
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You must feel this way.
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You must think this way.
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Not allowing the spirit to do the work but thinking you yourself are the Holy Spirit.
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How many fathers have exacerbated their children in regard to the church? And how many children grow up and say I don't want any part of that? So there are dangers.
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And there's a responsibility for the child to obey but for the father to recognize his authority and to be a godly father.
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To be a loving father.
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And then we come to this third relationship.
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Again the outside relationship.
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The masters and servants.
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The master and the slave.
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And he says to the servant.
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He says you are serving Christ.
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Because in every act of submission in this list when wives submit to the husbands it's as to the Lord.
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When the children submit to the parents it's fitting in the Lord.
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And when the slave submits to the master it is as to the Lord.
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Why? Because the ultimate authority is not the husband.
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The ultimate authority is not the father.
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The ultimate authority is not the master.
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The ultimate authority is Christ.
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That's Paul's entire point.
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In every area of life where we are called to recognize authority we are being called to recognize the authority of God first.
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In fact if you have your Bibles just very quickly turn with me to Romans 13.
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Now I don't have the time to go through all of Romans 13 and there are many things that we would do well to study but I want to look at verse 1 very quickly.
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I don't have it on the screen so I'll just read it to you from here.
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It says in Romans 13 verse 1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Why are we called to recognize authority according to this passage? Because God establishes authority.
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Why are we called to submit to authority? Because authority comes from God.
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Now I know you're itching in your seat to want to talk about the exceptions.
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Well what about when the government commands us to do that which is evil? Well the Bible is clear.
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We obey God and not men.
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But you know not everything the government calls us to do is evil and not everything we are called to submit to is wrong.
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But we are always looking for the exceptions rather than the places where we should submit.
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You say but I'm an American.
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We don't submit to nothing.
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Don't tread on me, you know.
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You got the flag with the rattler on it and the yellow and you know.
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It's called something.
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Thank you.
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I should know that.
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I'm going to get, somebody's going to say something for me not knowing that.
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Yeah you can give me a hard time.
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And I'm, you know, I'm for standing for truth.
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You know that.
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I've said from this pulpit I think there may come a time where I have to talk to my family through glass because some of what I say may eventually become illegal.
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That don't mean I ain't going to say it.
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There was a movie one time my wife and I were watching.
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It was a movie about a missionary in Russia and he was, they were in a room.
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This guy was saying things that were ungodly and the man said to his wife, he said someone should say something.
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And she said well why don't you say something.
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And he said well if I say something you won't have a husband.
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And she said I'd rather have a husband.
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She said I'd rather not have a husband than have a husband who's a coward.
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Thanks wife.
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Here we go.
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It's like alright.
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But that's the reality right.
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Submission to authority does not mean that we give up godliness because there's one authority that's above all authorities.
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There's an authority that's over Joe Biden.
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There's an authority that's over the UN.
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There's an authority that's over every organization in the world and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And we submit to him first.
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There's an authority that's over you husbands.
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There's an authority that's over you fathers and it's the Lord Jesus Christ and his authority trumps your authority.
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And when you exercise authority in your home you should do so under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And you should actually when speaking to your children explain to them that I'm not speaking only on my own authority but I'm coming to you as an ambassador of Christ.
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When I call you to repentance when I call my children to not do something or to do something I'm telling them it's because God has said this not me.
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So again this whole section is about recognizing authority and submission.
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I did put together a little graphic on the screen because and this is important and I know that some people have misused this some people have twisted this but it is very true.
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So if you don't know this God has established three authorities in the world that are all described in his word very clearly.
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And the three authorities are the home, the church and the government.
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We would say the familial authority the ecclesiastical authority and the civil authority.
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So when we're thinking in terms of masters and servants we no longer have masters and servants in our world.
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We no longer live in America where there are masters and servants.
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There are in other places but there's not here.
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So we say how do we apply this whole idea of masters and servants.
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We step back and we say what's the underlying principle? The underlying principle is authority and submission.
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The underlying authority is there are times where you're in a position of authority there are times where you're in a position of submission and you need to understand where you are and you need to relate to each one of those under God.
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So for instance in your home in your home there's a structure at least there should be a biblical structure.
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The structure is the father is the protector, the provider and the pastor of the home.
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And men if you haven't heard my sermon on that I'll send it to you if you want it.
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You have a three-fold role in your home.
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You are to protect your family even if it means your own life.
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And I don't just mean from the guy trying to break in in the middle of the night.
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You protect your family from bad theology.
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You protect your family from wolves in sheep's clothing.
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You protect your daughters from boys who only can see one thing and from your sons from women who are as the proverb says the whorish woman who wants to come and steal his virtue.
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Right you have a responsibility to protect your family.
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You have a responsibility to provide for your family.
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If your family's going hungry I ain't talking to your wife I'm going to talk to you.
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Because you have a responsibility to provide for your family and you have a responsibility to pastor your home.
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Meaning be the spiritual shepherd of your family.
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So that's the structure.
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The husband is in the role of protector, provider, pastor.
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The wife is the supporter.
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She is his helpmate as the scripture says.
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She's created to be everything he isn't not everything he is.
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And she comes alongside and she submits to his leadership.
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Together they raise the children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
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That's the family.
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And then we have the second structure which is the church in case you didn't realize it there's actually ecclesiastical authority.
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The Bible does establish an authority within the church.
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And it ain't me I'm not a Protestant Pope.
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I'm serious.
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People think sometimes the preaching pastor is the head guy he's in charge.
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No, ecclesiastically the Bible says that Paul appointed elders in every church.
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And the elders led the church.
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The presbyters, the overseers.
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The word episkopos means to oversee.
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And that's the elders of the church.
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And they have the responsibility like in the home they have the responsibility to protect the church from false teaching.
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And to provide sound teaching.
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And to lead and guide and provide counsel and wisdom in all of the things that we struggle so much to do.
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And there are men in the church who are called deacons and those deacons are responsible to serve the body.
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And to come alongside the elders.
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Now they're not our wives.
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But in a way they are helping to serve the body in any way the body has need.
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And the body still has a responsibility to serve within itself.
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What does Ephesians say? Ephesians says we do the work of ministry.
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No, we teach so that the church does the work of ministry.
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That you minister to one another.
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And that's the structure of the church.
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Governments are different.
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Governments, you know, we're living at a very weird time.
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Only in the last 250 years has there ever been anything like a constitutional republic or a state government.
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Throughout the history it's almost exclusively been monarchies.
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Even though we could go back to ancient Rome and talk about some of the democracy and things that existed in that time.
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Almost always there's been a form of democracy or egalitarian leadership where there's a small group leading.
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But in any way there's a governmental authority.
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There's also two other authorities and these are ones that we don't talk about a lot.
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But the two other authorities are the authority within the individual.
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You realize that on an individual level you are called to be self-disciplined? That we shouldn't always have to have somebody to tell us right from wrong but that God has given us his Holy Spirit.
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And the Bible actually says, the Apostle Paul says, he said I, my favorite verse in the King James, I buffet my body.
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No, he said I buffet my body.
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Bad joke.
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No, he said, he said I discipline my body and bring it under subjection so that when I preach to others I myself will not be a castaway.
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He's saying I actually discipline myself.
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So as I don't have to necessarily have to have this one or that one tell me what's wrong because I know what's right from wrong and I have to discipline myself to do what's right from wrong.
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And there's also vocational authority.
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I threw this one in there because this is the way most people apply the master-servant relationship today.
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Most people don't do any of the stuff I talked about.
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I listened to several sermons this week trying to see, is anybody going to talk about slavery? Nobody want to talk about slavery.
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By the way, the Legacy Standard Bible is a recent translation and I'm not for new Bible translations and I just think we have too many to begin with but I will say this about the Legacy Standard Bible.
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One of the things they did was they went and translated Dulas as slave rather than a servant to try to bring back this understanding of we are slaves to Christ.
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So if you don't have one, look it up online, you'll see in this passage it says in Colossians 3, it says slaves obeying everything.
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You're earthly masters.
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Just a thought.
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But getting back to the idea that I was saying, most people don't want to talk about masters and slaves today so they immediately run to the idea of vocational authority.
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And I will admit that that is an application that can be made.
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If you are in a vocation, and by the way, that means your job.
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If you are in a vocation, you have a responsibility to your boss.
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You have a responsibility to your manager to be on time, to do what you're supposed to do, to work as unto the Lord.
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And when you don't do that, you're actually sinning against God.
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When you take advantage of a man who's paying you to do a job and you don't do it, yes, that's a sin.
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You're robbing from that man.
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Well, I don't like to hear that.
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Paul says when we do this job, whatever it is, we're to do everything in the name of Christ.
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We're to do everything to glorify Him.
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Christians should be the best employees.
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Christians should be the best volunteers.
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By the way, just in case, even if you're not being paid, if you've committed to doing something, you should do it the absolute best you can.
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You shouldn't have to have a paycheck to do it unto the Lord.
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If you've committed to being a servant, you be the servant in whatever way you have committed to being.
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We don't have heart.
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We give our whole heart.
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So looking back at the text, I also want to read real quick.
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We have Colossians 3.
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We just read that.
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I want to look at Ephesians 6, and then I want to give some thoughts about these two as we begin to, not really draw to a close and get you too excited, but as we begin to move to the body of the sermon.
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Bond servants.
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This is Ephesians 6.
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And again, this I'm reading from the ESV.
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We could say slaves.
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It says, bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not by 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 men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or free.
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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.
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So if you compare Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6, these are the things you can draw from that.
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In regard to being a slave or a servant, he says, obey your earthly masters and do so with sincerity, not with hypocrisy.
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What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who does something only because they're being watched.
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Actually, the word hypocrisy comes from the word which means to be an actor, to be a performer.
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It's actually, hypocrisy actually comes from, the etymology is under judgment.
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Hypo meaning under, chrisos meaning judgment, so hypocrisy means I do it because you're judging me, you're watching me.
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But when you're not watching, I don't do it.
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This is why a lot of Christians are called hypocrites, right? Because they exercise their Christianity only when others are watching.
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Paul says, when you're called to do your job, when you're called to be a servant, you're called to be a servant in this way, sincere, not in hypocrisy.
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Can your manager trust you when he goes away? Can your manager leave with you his books and trust that he'll come back and be better for it? Or at least not be worse.
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He tells them in both passages, he says work for the Lord and not for men.
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So whatever you're doing, you're working for the Lord and not for men.
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And I could go around the room and I could praise so many people and I would, I would go through and praise every single person but there are certain people that, you know, I just, just would be too much to say.
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But I'll say this.
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We're gonna be losing Matt and Anna in three weeks.
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Oh, boo, boo.
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Our worship leader is moving to Michigan because for some reason he wants to be in the cold.
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But ever since he took that position, I've never once had to go behind him and wonder if it was gonna be done.
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And not only be done but be done with excellence.
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And you know, he's never gotten a dime.
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He's never asked for a penny for all that he's done at this church.
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And I've never had to ask him, hey, did you get this done? He calls me.
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Hey, you forgot to send me the sermon.
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Yeah, I did.
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Sorry.
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I'm so grateful for men like that and for women like that that have that attitude.
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I say what I'm doing, I'm doing for Christ.
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When we do that, we will do things with excellence.
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And we will do things with the right heart.
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Servants, obey your masters.
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Do so with sincerity.
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Do not be hypocritical.
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Work for the Lord, not for men.
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And trust that the Lord will reward your labor.
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It says that in the text.
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It says you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
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You're not looking for a crown from me.
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My crown's made of paper.
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It comes from Burger King.
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The crown is from Christ.
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And all we do is lay it back at his feet.
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So when we are in a position of service, we serve as to the Lord.
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But let us not forget the instructions to masters because they're there as well.
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We see this in chapter 4, verse 1.
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It says, Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you have a master in heaven.
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You see, if you're in a position of authority, if you're a manager, if you're a boss, if you're a leader, if you're an elder, we are elders.
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We are called to serve justly and fairly.
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Not to treat people with threats.
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Notice what he says in Ephesians.
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He says, Stop your threatening.
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Understand that you also are a servant.
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No matter what position you're in, no matter how high a position you have, you can be CEO, COO, C3PO.
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You can be anything.
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But you're under Christ.
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And God shows no partiality.
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Notice what it says.
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It says, With Him, there's no partiality.
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In fact, if you go back to Colossians, it says in verse 25 of chapter 3, He says, For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done.
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You know who's in view there? Who's the wrongdoer? The master.
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In the context, and if you compare it with Ephesians, I think I can bear this out.
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The person who is the wrongdoer in verse 25.
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Because he's speaking to the servant.
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He's saying, Do these things right.
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And the reason is, even if your master's wrong, you're right, and your master will be judged.
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Because God doesn't show partiality.
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When you stand before God, you're not going to stand as a CEO.
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When you stand before God, you're not going to stand as a manager, as a boss.
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You're going to stand as a servant to Christ.
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You're going to stand as a slave to Him.
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And there will be no partiality between the master and the slave.
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Because there's only one true master.
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And we are all His slaves.
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Now it can be hard, as I said earlier, it can be hard to directly apply the master-servant relationship in our cultural context.
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But here are some things to consider.
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We are all in various relationships of authority and submission.
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In the home, in the church, in the government, at work, and even in ourselves.
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And in the areas where we are called to submit, we are to submit as unto the Lord, sincerely and without hypocrisy.
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And where we are given authority, understand that it's always a derived authority.
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Any authority that we have comes from who? Christ.
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He says the government even.
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It's from God.
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And therefore, we are to exercise authority without a heavy hand, without a threatening voice, knowing that we are serving God when we are in authority over others.
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We should be the best bosses, the best business owners, the best employers, the best managers.
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In every area of life, the relationship of authority and submission is meant to reflect our attitude towards God.
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Do we really believe God is our master? Do you really believe that? Do you truly believe that you are a slave to Christ? Paul didn't mind calling himself that.
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Paul never shrunk back.
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In fact, here's the thing.
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Do you know the word Christian was actually a derogatory term that was used? In the first century, it was the enemies of the church that called them Christians.
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The Christians didn't call themselves Christians.
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Do you know what they called themselves? Doulas, slaves of Christ.
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You look at the early church fathers over and over and over again.
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They begin their letters, slave to Christ, a servant of the Lord.
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That is my title.
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Do we have too high a view of ourselves that we would be offended to consider ourselves a slave to the Almighty? I'll end with a quote.
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This is from Sam Storms.
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I mentioned him a few weeks ago.
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He's becoming a person I read more often.
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But he said this in an article that he wrote entitled You Are Not Your Own.
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And this is how he finished his article.
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He said, The fact is everyone is a slave.
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Either you are a slave to your sinful flesh and your own ego and the expectations of others or you are a slave to Jesus Christ.
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And by the way, the status of slave is not for this life only.
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Don't ever think that once we find ourselves in the new heaven and the new earth that we will advance beyond slavery, that we will somehow gain a new freedom that releases us unto ourselves.
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No.
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We will be slaves of Christ throughout eternity.
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And he quotes from Revelation 22 which says this, No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and the servants, slaves, will worship Him.
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They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.
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Because He will be our Master and Father forever.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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And I do pray now, Lord, as we begin to consider what it means to be a servant of Christ and we gather around His table, that we would be reminded, Lord, that You are in fact Lord.
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We call You Lord.
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We call You Koryos, which means that You are our Master.
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Lord, help us to never shrink back from that title of being Yours, being owned by You.
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You who have cattle on a thousand hills have saw fit to reach into the slave market of sin and redeem us as Your own.
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We've been bought with a price and now we are Yours and Yours forever.
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What a wonderful truth.
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And God, as we come around the table, we are reminded that this table is for those who are Yours.
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This table is not, Lord, simply a time to eat bread and to drink the cup, but, Lord, it is a time to remember what Christ has done.
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And I pray that only those who are truly Yours would receive this table today, that those who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ would abstain.
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And, Lord, if there are those who are struggling with some sin or problem, that they would repent so that they would be prepared to receive that which reminds us that all of our sins have been nailed to the cross and we bear them no more.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.