Daily Devotional – July 17, 2020

Friday already? Well, I understand the sentiment. It's always nice to look forward to the weekend.

I'm looking forward to the Lord's Day, although according to the weather forecast, it's supposed to be a pretty toasty one, so it'll be good to be having service indoors in the air conditioning and not outdoors in the sun, in the heat.

That would be rather unbearable. Well, anyway, I hope your Friday is going well and I hope the whole week for you has gone well and that after yesterday's encouragement regarding our work,

I trust you've had some food for thought in how you're doing your job. Well, several years ago in my reading,

I came across this quotation that has to do with today's workforce.

Listen to what it says. The writer says, a dark cloud of dissatisfaction blankets today's workplace.

Only one in 10 workers say they are satisfied with their jobs.

For the overwhelming majority, work is dull and meaningless. This pervasive discontent has spawned the paradoxical problems of laziness on the one hand and overwork on the other.

Authors Patterson and Kim, in the book they wrote, The Day America Told the Truth, tell us that only one in four employees gives his or her best effort on the job and that 20 % of the average worker's time is wasted.

That's a pretty sad commentary on the nature of work in today's workplace.

But, you know, what we saw yesterday and I want to continue thinking about today is that this is not to be the way

Christians handle their work. And Paul, in Ephesians chapter six, he's writing to bond servants and their masters, and we pointed out that the relationship is different today.

If you're an employee working for a company, you're not a slave to that company.

It may feel like it sometimes, but you're not. You're really not. And if you're an employer, you're not a master.

So there's a different dynamic, but the principles that Paul expresses here in Ephesians six are nevertheless helpful and important for us to keep in mind.

And as Christians in the workplace, we need to bear these in mind that we can do our job, whether we're employers or employees, in a way that gives

God pleasure and is spiritually helpful for us. So what we pointed out yesterday is that Christians in the workplace need to be obedient to their employers.

We need to do what we're asked. We need to do so diligently, with sincerity, without hypocrisy, and with integrity.

Let's look at a couple other things today. One of the things Paul says is that we need to serve in our company, in our workplace, with a good attitude.

He says at the end of verse six that we do the will of God from the heart.

That is, there needs to be a certain measure of enthusiasm for the work that we're called to do.

And admittedly, not every task that we're called upon to do is something that excites us, but we need to give it our energy.

And we need to do the work that we're called to do from the heart, and not out of a sense of slavish obligation, but a desire to please the

Lord and to please our employer. So do the work from the heart. And then he says we also need to do it with a positive and helpful spirit.

So he says at the beginning of verse seven, rendering service with a good will as to the

Lord and not to man. Rendering service with a good will. That is, we have a desire for the good, the welfare of the company and those over us to benefit for their welfare.

That's having a good will toward our employer, toward the work that we're called upon to do.

You've probably seen and maybe experienced this yourself, and you're asked to do something and you really don't want to do it.

And you really don't care if it's to the benefit of the company or your employer or your boss.

You really don't care. It's something you don't want to do. And so you do it because you have to, but you do it with a begrudging spirit.

It's not a sense of goodwill. I know I've done that. We all have. We're human beings and we have failed miserably at times in our experience.

This is why Paul's writing what he writes, because we need these encouragements. We need this exhortation.

And then we also need to serve in our workplace with spiritual insight.

If we're a Christian, we're a follower of Christ. We need to serve with spiritual insight.

How so? Well, listen to what he says. Paul says, do your job with a sincere heart as you would

Christ. Obey your earthly masters with a sincere heart as you would

Christ. So we need to see that our employer, who is calling upon us to do certain tasks, is representative, in that case, of Christ.

It doesn't mean he's perfect. It doesn't mean he's Jesus in any sense of the word. But what

Paul's communicating is that Christ has put our employer in his place and put us in our place.

And when that employer gives us a job to do, it's as if Christ is giving us that job to do. So our boss, in that sense, is representing

Christ. And we need to see ourselves as bondservants of Christ.

This is what Paul says next. He says, we don't do this by way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ.

Whatever the job is that we're given to do, we need to see ourselves first and foremost as working for Jesus, working for Christ, our

Lord and our Master, our ultimate Lord and Master. Our earthly employer is like a go -between.

We serve our earthly employer as a means of serving Christ. And then

Paul also says that our work needs, we need to see our work as something that we offer to Christ.

So in verse 70 he says this, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man, rendering our service to the

Lord, to the Lord and not merely to man.

Now that gives us a sense of responsibility to serve in our employment, our place of employment with spiritual insight.

So when you go to work to Monday now, I guess, when you go to work Monday, you have to go to work and you walk into that workplace, look at it with a different set of eyes, that this isn't simply a secular workplace where you go and you do a secular job for maybe an unconverted boss or whatever.

Instead, look at it as a spiritual place where you've been called to serve and you are serving

Christ and Christ is directing you through your employer. That gives us a tremendous, tremendous perspective.

Well, I trust that these thoughts have been an encouragement to you. I don't intend to lay any guilt trip on us because as I said and as admitted,

I haven't always done my job in the different workplaces I've served in a most stellar fashion, which is exactly why

I need Ephesians 6 verses 5 and following. And I hope that you sense the positive encouragement to be the right kind of worker that Paul wants us to be, that God wants us to be.

Well, as you close out the rest of this Friday and work toward the weekend,

I hope you'll look forward to the Lord's Day and in the meantime, get done what you need to get done, get some rest and refreshment as well along the way.

So let's pray and ask God to give us that good weekend and a time of rest from our work so that we can get back at it on Monday in a way that pleases him.

So our Father and our God, we do thank you today for your encouragement from your word to be the right kind of workers, workers that will please you and will most likely please most employers.

Help us to be those kind of employees, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well have a good rest of your

Friday and look forward to seeing you Sunday morning at 10 30 if you can make it for the

Lord's Day, the service and if you can't make it, join us online.

We'll be on Facebook or at the church website at 10 30 live streaming the morning service.