Slaves of Christ

Providence Baptist Church

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Amen. Christ is worthy. Think about the songs that we've sang this morning.

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Christ is the friend of sinners. In response to Christ's great work, the church should arise.

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He's not just a friend of sinners, though. Christ is King. We ought to crown Him with many crowns.

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He is glorious and wonderful. We ought to hail the power of Jesus' name.

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He's King of kings and Lord of lords. He is worthy of a healthy church. As a catechism we read this morning, how do we glorify

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God? By loving Him and doing what He says. And so as you turn in your Bible this morning to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, this is what we want.

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We want our church. We want the members of our church. We want believers here to glorify

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God, to hear what God would have us to do, and then respond in faith and trust and obedience.

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Christ is worthy of these things. We continue our way through this great letter, and I know in some ways it certainly has been pretty slow.

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I'm not saying that we have to go through every book and verse of the Bible as slow as we've gone through Ephesians.

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We're coming up on almost three years. So next month will be our three year anniversary of when we began this letter to the book of Ephesians.

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But I cannot emphasize enough as we take up the word of God this morning, and consider what it has to say to us.

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That our Lord Jesus is worthy of our listening to what He says here in His word.

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You get confused sometimes and you think, boy I have a red letter Bible, and in my red letter

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Bible I hear the words of Jesus, and those carry a little more weight than the words of Paul. But I'm here to admonish that way of thinking this morning, and I want you to understand that what we read this morning from the pen of the

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Apostle Paul, this is the words of Jesus. Because it is the words of God, the inspired word of God as Paul writes, he writes under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit. So we take up this morning and we consider slaves of Christ.

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What does it mean to be a servant of our King who is worthy of all servitude and obedience?

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Ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 5, would you stand with me? We're going to cover verses 5 through 9. Paul continues this household code, if you will, and what it looks like to be transformed by the power of the gospel in our interactions in the home.

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So he says, verse 5, slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would

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

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

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

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Let's pray. Father, help this text to reside deeply in the heart of Providence Baptist Church.

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Let it work its way into our thinking and into our actions, into our attitudes, into our affections.

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Let it just drip into every part of our soul.

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We pray that we would be slaves of Christ. We desire to do his bidding in every endeavor.

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Bless the preaching of your word today. Holy Spirit, we pray that you are among us and that you would use the word to sharpen us and to shape us into the image of Christ, to draw dead sinners to yourself, to bring glory to Jesus.

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Oh Christ, we pray that you are exalted in this message and in the way that we respond to it.

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We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Back in the month of May, we started in Ephesians 5, this big section on the

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Christian household. And what we said then was that our home life, our relationships in the home for the

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Christian, they flow out of a regenerate heart. In other words, you can't be a Christian in the church and then go to your house and you're not a

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Christian at your home, right? Wives submit to their husbands, husbands honor their wives, children obey their parents, fathers don't provoke their children in wrath.

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And then we see this relationship between masters and slaves. And you can't be a

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Christian in the church and in the home, but then not to be one in the workplace.

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So all of this continues in our text today. The relationship here in our text between slaves and masters is included in these household codes because this was the reality of the ancient world.

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The gospel addresses every person in any given situation that they find themselves.

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Now let's address, if you will, maybe the elephant in the room. Some people, they want to hear

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Paul just blast slavery and condemn it as evil, rebuke slaveholders.

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This is just not Paul's strategy in the text. S .M. Ball put it this way. Paul did not condemn slavery outright, yet what he did do was tactful, wise, and led to the ultimate demise of slavery in the ancient world.

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He accented the full inheritance and citizenship of slaves in Christ's eschatological kingdom.

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So similarly how the gospel comes into a person's heart changes them from the inside out, so too does the gospel come into an institution here like slavery and eliminate it from the inside out, if you will.

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Of course we also need to deal with the reality that our own country has a bleak history when it comes to the institution of slavery.

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So what I want to say about that is on one hand we need to unequivocally say, unapologetically and unambiguously say, slavery in America was wrong.

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On the other hand, we need to not be quick to condemn everything about our forefathers because they found themselves on a different side of this issue.

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So if we think about the issue of slavery, we look at it even in our text, it's complex on a number of levels.

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And so for a person to respond to that by saying, look, I'm not going to listen to anything Jonathan Edwards said or George Whitefield said or even someone like Thomas Jackson said,

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I'm not going to listen to anything they ever said because they were on the wrong side of slavery. Well, I would say that would also be quite foolish for you to do.

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Another comment I want to make is this. The church must absolutely refuse, now listen to me, you must absolutely refuse to be lectured on morality or cancel culture from a 21st century society that is so wicked and depressed.

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That is, you can't advocate for the murdering of unborn children, the mutilation of children, the normalization of lust and greed and transgenderism and homosexuality and then try to stand on your 21st century pedestal and look down on generations that have gone before you.

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So you can't listen to 21st century try to lecture you on morality. But the big picture

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I'm trying to communicate right now is many people seek to dismiss the Bible because instead of Paul just saying to the church at Ephesus, free all the slaves, instead he teaches slaves how to obey their masters and he teaches masters how to treat their slaves.

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But this is the wisdom of God and it is the power of the gospel. In other words, the gospel comes into a situation right where a person is at, it transforms them by grace and it teaches them right where you're at, how it is, what sort of conduct is expected now.

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And it reminds you that one day we will all stand before Christ and we will give an account for the life that we live in whatever situation it is that we find ourselves.

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And one thing that Paul does in this text is he reminds here, reminds us that all

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Christians, look at verse 9, all Christians are slaves. All Christians are slaves.

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Verse 9, masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven.

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In other words, earthly slaves and earthly masters have a true master in heaven.

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This is King Jesus to whom we all must give an account. So as we begin this sermon, here's the question

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I want you to ask and then let's roll into the outline. Are you a slave of Christ? So point number one, slaves of Christ, number one, revere

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Christ. It doesn't matter your situation that you're in, it doesn't matter if you're an earthly slave or an earthly master, if you're an employee or an employer, are you a slave of Christ?

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Slaves of Christ revere Christ. Verse 5, slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would

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

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Lord and not to man. Okay, don't forget that all this household stuff flows from Ephesians 5, 18.

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Ephesians 5, 18 says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit.

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So Christian slaves, Christian masters, Christian children, Christian parents,

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Christian wives, Christian husbands. We are filled in the Holy Spirit and we're to be full of the spirit and this transforms our interactions in every relationship.

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You can't be a Christian in the church and not the home or a Christian at church and home but not work. Being filled in the spirit, that is having the law of God on our heart affects all of our relationships in the world.

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Friends, regeneration is a complete and total overhaul. It drastically transforms your inner life in such a way that it transforms your outer life.

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Let me put it to you this way, what we do, are you listening? What we do flows out of who we are.

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Ephesians 1 -3 says who we are, we're chosen, we're adopted, we've been brought from death to life, we're members now of the body of Christ, we're members of the local church and all of this has a profound impact on how you now live in the world today.

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So Paul reminds slaves here of their duty to revere Christ. Slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would

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

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Lord and not to man. So they're to have a sincere heart. They're to remember that who they are is really not slaves of an earthly master, but really who they are is slaves of Christ.

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Okay, let me bring an application to this. I had a pastor one time who used to say, if you don't like your job, change your employer.

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Now what did he mean by that? He didn't mean just switch jobs. He meant switch who you're really working for.

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Okay, that means tomorrow when you wake up and you go to school or you go to work, whatever it is that you may be doing, remind yourself that whoever your supervisor is, whoever your boss is at work, whoever maybe the owner of the company may be, that's not who is really your master.

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But it's who? It's Christ. Christ is your master in heaven.

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So this means we don't worry about eye service. You know what eye service is, right? If Brother Jacob is my employer, when he walks around, he comes in, he looks, he's checking on me, what am

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I doing? Oh yes, yeah, I'm here. I'm working. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And he turns his back.

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What am I doing? I'm back on Facebook or whatever it may be. Some of you, I guess really technically one of you, but this applies to homeschool as well.

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One of you will be going back to school tomorrow. And I'm not trying to call anybody out.

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One of you will be going back to school tomorrow. And when you're at school, you could be a, you could be, you could do eye service.

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That means when the teacher looks at you, you can say, oh yeah, I look, Mrs. So -and -so, Mrs. So -and -so, I'm Coach So -and -so,

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I'm doing my work. When they turn their back, you're back doing whatever it is you want to do. This applies obviously to those in here doing homeschool as well.

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When your mama is looking at you, you're on task, you're doing what you're supposed to do. As soon as she turns her back, you're taking an eraser and throwing it at your brother or sister.

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I speak from experience. You could do this at work as well, right? You could do this wherever it may be.

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But the point is that Christians, as Christ being our master, we are not, we're not merely verse five, sorry, verse six.

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We're not merely doing these things in way of eye service. We're not just letting them look at us and then us doing things in front of them.

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Rather, even when their back is turned, we're serving in the way that we're supposed to because we're serving ultimately

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Christ or the idea of people pleasers, right?

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People pleaser is worried about pleasing people. It's not that Christians are not concerned, by the way, about pleasing people, right?

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Like if your goal is to just make everybody angry, that's a problem too. But the idea here is our first and foremost concern is

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Christ. We're not trying to be a teacher's pet or be a brown noser or whatever it may be. Above all else,

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I want to please Jesus. And if Christ is pleased, then I will be okay with the fact that others may not be pleased.

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My classmates may not be pleased if I please Christ. My teacher, my employer, my boss, they may not be pleased if I am pleasing

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Christ. I don't want them to be unpleased, but if it's a choice between pleasing

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Christ and pleasing them, it's not a choice at all. I desire to please Christ.

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So be it. I read a great quote this week from Spurgeon. He said, if something you do for Christ should bring you dislike or disapproval and threaten to deprive you of advantages, do it anyway.

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He says, you look at a situation and you say, if I do this thing, it won't please these people and it will rob me of earthly advantages.

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It will cause me to miss out. I may miss out on a promotion. I may even miss out on a good grade.

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I may even miss out on social prestige. If I do this thing, it will please Christ, but it will displease man.

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And I'm going to miss out. And Spurgeon says, do it anyway. Why? Because we're not people pleasers.

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Above all else, we want to please Christ. So listen, pointed application here.

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If your employer, or your friend, or your coach, or your teammate, or even a family member, or whoever it may be in society, compels you to renounce

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Christ, or to do something sinful, or immoral, or something that would bring reproach upon Christ, or reproach upon this local church, it's a very simple answer that you have for them.

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No. Why? Because I revere Christ. I'm not a people pleaser.

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Christ is my King. And if that loses me, praise with men, or a raise, or promotion, or prestige, or worldly accolades, or some sort of earthly advantage, so be it, because above all else,

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I am a slave of Christ. I see the inestimable value of Christ.

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I see His worthiness. Do you see Him? We'll stand before Him. We'll appear before Him. We see

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His glory. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is on His throne. He is worthy, and I will serve

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Him above all. And this mentality and heartfelt desire is the mentality and desire of every

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Christian. Whether you're slave, or free, whether you're master, or boss, whether you're employee, or employer, whether you're student, or teacher, whatever situation of life providence has placed you in.

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And I remind you of something we mentioned last week in verse 6. It says that they should be doing the will of God from the heart.

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Slaves of Christ revere Christ by doing the will of God from the heart. Listen, many who claim to be in allegiance with Christ can do the outward obedience.

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Here you are this morning, you can come to church, you can give, you can maybe serve on a committee, or whatever it may be.

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You can do these outward things. You can keep yourself outwardly from scandalous sin, whatever it may be.

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But the slave of Christ doesn't merely do these outward things, but verse 6 says, they do the will of God from the heart.

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Our hearts are changed. The law of God is written upon our hearts. This doesn't take away from outward actions, rather friends, it gives the outward actions a foundation.

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Because now the outward actions are flowing from a heart that wants to do the will of God, that loves

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God, and desires to honor Christ. So the slave of Christ reveres Christ.

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Secondly, slaves of Christ respect authority. Slaves of Christ revere

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Christ. Secondly, slaves of Christ respect authority. Slaves, obey your earthly masters.

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We may expect Paul to say, rebel, flee, ignore.

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But he says, obey. Now that is one of the toughest words. First of all, Americans, I feel like we don't like that word anyway.

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Obey, right? However, in 21st century culture, that's a very tough word.

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Obey. But here's a reminder I'm trying to tell you this morning. Being filled in the

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Spirit does not erase authority or hierarchy. We see that with husbands and wives.

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We see that with parents and children. And we see it again here with masters and slaves. Slaves of Christ understand that our position in Christ does not burn down the structures that exist in society.

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Christianity is not anarchy, right? Christianity does not introduce no authority left in the social structure.

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I can't write to the IRS and say, hey, by the way, I have no king but Christ. I owe you no taxes.

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That's not going to work. Turn over for a moment in your Bibles. Go to the right to 1 Peter. Similar, 1

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Peter chapter 2. Turn there. 1 Peter chapter 2.

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1 Peter chapter 2. Slaves of Christ revere

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Christ. Slaves of Christ respect authority. We understand authority.

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1 Peter chapter 2, verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.

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Yeah, it's interesting, right? Every human institution. Even the

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DMV, right? I have to be subject to.

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Whether it be the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

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Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover -up for evil, but living as servants of God, or that is, slaves of God.

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Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

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It's notable that we see Christ Himself subject Himself to human institutions in the sense that He stood before Pontius Pilate as King of kings,

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Lord of lords, and yet He submitted Himself to Roman execution. But the point here that I'm trying to make is

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God has given law and order and structure to society. Now, I'll follow this up in just a minute, but I do want to mention a premise.

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Even a tyrant is better than anarchy in a society.

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And I'll give you an example. As wicked as a ruler as Saddam Hussein was, and I'm grateful that he was toppled, what happened is there was no replacement.

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And when Saddam Hussein was toppled, left a power vacuum and anarchy.

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And in many ways, wound up being worse than even the reign of a tyrant.

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The point is, the gospel does not erase institutions. Rather, it shows us how we live within them.

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Now, I do want to say this very clearly and unapologetically. I have a caveat to mention.

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There are prudent and necessary times to stand against unjust authority.

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There are times when it is most loving to God and most loving to our neighbors to defy tyranny, to defy tyrants.

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And we need wisdom and prudence and we need to encourage one of those. There are those when those times are appropriate.

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There are times when those in authority over us will compel us to go against God and conscience and we must resolutely say no.

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Yet, the point I'm trying to make in our text this morning is that we see Paul does not compel the slaves within the church at Ephesus to flee their masters, to overthrow their masters, but to obey their masters.

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That's because slaves of Christ respect authority. So, slaves of Christ revere

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Christ, respect authority, and thirdly, recognize kingdom priorities. Verse 8, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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

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Slaves of Christ revere Christ. Slaves of Christ respect authority.

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Slaves of Christ recognize kingdom priorities. First of all, they recognize that the kingdom has, you're going to love this word, a potentate.

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Number one, the kingdom has a potentate. The kingdom has a sovereign. The kingdom has a monarch.

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The kingdom has a ruler. The kingdom has a king. That king is Christ. Verse 9, He's the great potentate.

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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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Paul addresses masters by reminding masters that they have a master in heaven.

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The Greek word used here for master and also in the text of the Lord, it's the same Greek word. Maybe some of your translations, when

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I say master, it says Lord, or maybe when I say Lord, it says master. That's because it's the same Greek word being communicated.

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Kurios. That's like, we use the English word Lord like that. We can use the word

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Lord by referring to the Lord, or we can use the word Lord like Lord of the manor. But Paul reminds masters that they are not the ultimate master.

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The kingdom has a potentate, and that sovereign is King Jesus. So let me give an application now.

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I talked about employees. I talked about students. Let me give an application on the other side.

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Are you a supervisor? Are you a boss? Are you a teacher? Are you a police officer?

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Are you an authority over someone else? You need to remember this truth.

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The application is, you are not that person's ultimate and final authority.

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Only Christ has that authority. And you need to be reminded today, if you supervise someone, or you lead someone, or you're a husband or a father, or you're working, whatever the field may be, you need to realize that one day you will stand before Christ, and you will give an account for the authority that has been stewarded to you.

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This reality does not cause you to lay down your authority. You're like, well, okay, well then

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I won't be authoritative at all. If I see my employees goofing off, I won't even say anything, because Christ is their ultimate authority.

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No, no, no. You don't lay down your authority. Rather, it causes you to now steward your authority, the authority that has been stewarded to you.

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You now want it to be righteously under Christ's authority.

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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.

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And there's no impartiality with Him. Our true Master is in heaven.

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Let me just remind you, go to Ephesians 1. This is such an important text. Ephesians chapter 1, remember this.

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When it says that our Master, the Lord, is in heaven, Jesus, remember verse 20 of Ephesians 1.

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It says that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above.

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All rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

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And He has put all things under His feet and has gave Him His head over all things to the church, which is

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His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Friends, Christ is King. Christ is in authority over all.

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He is in authority over every teacher, over every employer, over every police officer, over every president, over every demonic power.

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Christ is King over all. He has authority over all. And you need to be reminded from this text that all of us, whether employee or employer, will give an account to Christ who is our

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Master. The kingdom has a potentate. The kingdom has a

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King. That King is Christ. Secondly, the kingdom has a price.

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Verse 8, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back.

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Do you believe this text? Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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Lord, whether he is slave or free.

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Friends, this is applicable to slaves, masters, and everyone else.

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We are reminded in this text that above and beyond anyone else, the

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Lord knows our situation. Friends, I remind you, it is

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God's providential hand that has determined where it is that we are born, and who our parents are, and what our jobs are, and where our health level is at, and every circumstance surrounding us.

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God sees it, God knows it, and God will reward the good that you do in it.

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That's what the text says. Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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Lord, whether he is slave or free. The kingdom has a price. Alright, let's play crazy for a second.

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You're driving down the road. You're coming down Perry Mountain, and you see a Tesla broken down.

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You get a little bit further down the road, and you see a man on the side of the road, and he's frustrated, playing with his fancy cell phone.

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You pull over. It's Elon Musk. My Tesla broke down.

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My phone won't connect to Starlink or whatever it is. And he says,

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I need you to give me a ride to Memphis. Okay, you can weigh your options.

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Memphis is a good trek from here. It's about three hours. However, Elon Musk is,

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I would almost say, one of the richest persons in the world, but I actually think he is the richest person in the world.

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Would you give part of your day to take Elon Musk to Memphis?

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That'd be an interesting conversation. But beyond that, you'd probably be pretty well assured that you would be rewarded, you would be compensated, and then some for your labors and your efforts.

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So listen to this. Now listen, I'm not saying the chief motivation for the Christian is not to serve the

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Lord in order to receive temporal blessings. I'm not trying to say that. Christ is our motivation. Love to God is the fire that burns our engine, but listen to me, if Elon Musk knows how to give good gifts to those who serve him well, listen to me church, how much more does our sovereign

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King, holy and righteous, full of grace and love and truth, how much more will he reward the good that you do in the situation that you are in?

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Listen, I'm telling you, young mothers, and I hear you, I hear your babies too, I hear you every week,

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I know you're wiping noses and you're wiping bottoms, right? You're doing laundry, you're cooking, you're cleaning, you got all these things that you're doing, and sometimes, let's be honest, your children don't appreciate it, and sometimes your husbands don't appreciate it.

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Shame on us, but I wanted to tell you above all, God knows, God sees.

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And you must believe any good that anyone does, he will receive, or in this scenario, she will receive, packed from the wall.

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Friends, your labor is not in vain. Dad, you're waking up early, you're working, maybe you don't have to work outside in this heat, but even just walking outside, it's 5 o 'clock in the morning, it's hot, it's an oven, you're working all day, you're around people with a different worldview than you have, you come back to the house, there's a leak you have to fix, there's grass you have to mow.

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Let's be honest, sometimes your children don't appreciate it. You buy them a bicycle, and they're complaining because it's blue and not red.

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Sometimes your wife doesn't appreciate your labors. You're leading your family at night, you're exhausted, you're trying to lead them in family worship, and here it is, there's a question at the end of family worship, and you're like, here it is, all my labors, here they are, little

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Susie's about to ask me how to be saved. And she says, daddy, can you eat a unicorn?

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And you're just like, does anyone know? Does anyone care?

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Is there any good being done? And I'm just trying to encourage you, moms and dads, grandparents, uncles, whatever situation that you're in, listen to this, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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Lord, whether he is slave or free. I'm calling the church to faith in these kind of promises.

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I'm not, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying if you have a good day tomorrow, that Tuesday you're gonna open your mailbox and there'll be a check for $25 ,000.

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That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying God knows your situation. The Lord Jesus knows your situation.

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It's by his providence that you're in that situation. And it can be hard, but I'm just trying to encourage you. Don't quit, don't quit.

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God knows. And if you're in Christ, God is for you in Christ. Don't give up. It won't be long and we'll see

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Jesus and we'll be with Jesus. And you got your hands to the plow and your neck is kind of like, I'm gonna look back.

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Don't look back, keep going. God knows. He's for you in Christ.

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And he will reward you and then some for those that are trusting him in faith.

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Slaves of Christ recognize kingdom priorities. We understand the kingdom has a potentate.

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Christ, our King, we understand the kingdom has a prize. Our King will pay us back and then some for the good that we've done.

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I don't know where you're at in your life. Some of you, I know your situation better. I don't know your doctor bill or your bill of health or the bills that you have to pay, your season of life, your difficult circumstances, but I'm just trying to encourage you this morning that our

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King knows and our King is generous and he is gracious and his people will never regret.

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You listen to me, mamas? Dads, the people of Christ will never regret a single act of faithfulness.

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You'll never regret it because Christ is worthy. Be faithful where you're at and know that the kingdom has a prize.

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Okay, I'm gonna give you a bonus point. This is not the third blank, but here's a bonus point. It's because it fits. The kingdom also has a punishment, right?

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So there may be some in here. I've tried to encourage you, but maybe there's some in here. You're outwardly appearing faithful while actually you're doing unfaithful things.

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At your job, you're doing unfaithful things. In your home, you're doing unfaithful things.

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Maybe in some sort of scenario or recreation outside the home, you're doing unfaithful things.

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If God knows the faithfulness that his people are doing, you better rest assured he also knows the unfaithfulness that those who pretend to be his people are doing as well.

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And if God is ready and willing to bestow prize and reward and grace upon grace upon those who are following him, you better also be sure that he is most ready and willing to dole punishment upon those who are pretenders.

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So you need to consider he will punish the evildoer, the hypocrite, the self -righteous, and your sin, not might, not maybe, not could, but will.

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Your sin will find you out. If you find yourself in this scenario, you must repent and seek the mercy of Jesus in faith today.

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The kingdom has a potentate. The kingdom has a prize. Thirdly, the kingdom has a people.

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Verse 9 says it this way, 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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There is no partiality in Christ. In other words, his people are all his people.

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The rich are his people, the poor are those who are in Christ I'm talking about. Rich Christians are his people, poor

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Christians are his people, slave Christians are his people, free Christians are his people, male

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Christians are his people, female Christians are his people, the parents, the children, all those born again by grace and trusting

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Christ as their only suitable and all -sufficient Savior make up the people of God.

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And there's not a category of Christian in that sense. This is the beauty of the local church, by the way.

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This is the beautiful tapestry, if you will. And that is people of all shapes and sizes, people of all ethnicities, some people who love sports, some people who've grown that I'm even using a sport illustration, some people who are very good at technology, some people who have trouble checking their email, some people who work out, some people, in whatever situation.

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You get the point? Poor people, rich people, all sorts of people, and we come together and we're one body in Christ and there's no partiality in Christ.

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You're not a lesser Christian or a greater Christian because of your skin color or because of your gender or because of how much money you make in the year or how little money you make in the year.

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And while structure and hierarchy and authority are God -ordained realities in our world today, it does not cause us to rank higher or lower in the family of God.

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Think again about the reality here in the church setting, in the public assembly of the church.

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Listen to the text. That is, you have Paul addressing husbands and wives together and parents and children together and slaves and masters together.

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Paul addresses the slaves personally here. That's because the kingdom of God has a people.

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He doesn't write to the masters, hey, tell the slaves this. No, no, he writes to the slaves because this is a people united to Christ to make up the great family of God.

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In your outward circumstances, there may be master and slave, but when it comes to the church, we're one body together.

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At work or at school or in society, there's structure, there's authority, there's boundaries.

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But none of this takes away from the fact that whenever I see another Christian, no matter if they are a world leader or a very poor person or a very rich person or somebody who is of note in this world or somebody who no one in this world knows, they are ultimately my brother and sister in Christ.

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And that dictates my interactions with them. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that He who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there's no partiality with Him.

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Let me give you some real applications. If you've ever done this, I hope that you'll change and repent, maybe even make it right if you can.

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If I hire a Christian plumber, for example, and I say, well, he's a

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Christian, I'll expect this man to work for me for less because he's a

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Christian. I'll expect this man to come over and labor at my home for less because he is a

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Christian. That's wrong. Rather, in a sense, what

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I want to do is I want to be even more generous with him.

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Why? Because I know that his master and my master is in heaven who shows no partiality.

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It's very sad at times, and even in the church, we will take advantage of people because they are

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Christians. How could you do that, believer? How could you take advantage of a brother or sister in Christ because they are a

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Christian? Don't you know that their master and yours is in heaven? And we will give an account.

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Friends, we should be the most generous people with our fellow brothers and sisters in the

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Lord because these are the King's people. These are the

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King's people. You think about just a moment how it is if you treat my children in a certain way.

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You'll have to deal with me. You honor my children, hopefully because you love them, but also by honoring my children, you honor me.

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Well, what is it that we're saying about our King and our Master if we dishonor the

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King's people? Why would you want to treat the subject of our King harshly?

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Why would you want to treat the subject of our King impatiently? In a sense, how you treat the

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King's subject is how you treat the King. This applies to our relationships in the local church.

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By the way, it also applies to husbands and to wives and to parents and to children and to masters and to slaves.

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This applies across the board. How we treat the King's subject is also how we treat the

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King. No matter our place in society, it is our desire to treat those in the local church who they may be in a higher social status or a lower social status, we want to treat them with impartial love, grace, generosity, concern for their well -being both physically and spiritually.

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This is what it looks like to be a slave of Christ. We recognize the

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Kingdom has a potentate. Christ our King. The Kingdom has a prize. He will reward for the good we've done.

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And we recognize that the Kingdom has a people. Slaves of Christ revere

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Christ, respect authority, and recognize Kingdom priorities.

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So the question we'll conclude then with is this.

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Are you honoring your Master? Friends, are you revering

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Christ, respecting authority, recognizing Kingdom priorities? This is

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God's plan for the Christian life. Will we submit to it? We cannot walk around saying,

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Christ is King. Christ is worthy. But then when we hear the Word of God preached, not seek to actively submit ourselves underneath the

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Scriptures and seek to take the Bible and to apply it tangibly in our lives.

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Don't say Christ is King. And then not live as though this reality is true.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And we pray today that Christ would be honored not just in the heralding of the

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Word, but even in the way that we respond. Give us the faith we need to respond.