Beacon Sunday Service: March 2, 2025

And then I'll read Titus chapter 2, verses 9 to 10 for us. And it reads, urge slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything to be pleasing, not contradicting, not pilfering, but demonstrating all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in everything. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we are thankful that you've gathered us today to worship, to rest, to be equipped, Lord, and I pray that you would fill our hearts with gladness and joy, regardless of what kind of weeks that we've had and what concerns that are in our hearts, help us to come and find rest in Christ. And I pray that you would feed your people through the preaching of your truth. Would you cause us to leave here reminded of our goal, our purpose in this life?

And I pray that you would really cause our hearts to be filled with encouragement and strength. So we pray that you would be honored in this place through the preaching. Help us to be sober, to be alert, and uh to have hearts that are softened and receptive to your truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. We're in Titus chapter 2, verses 9 to 10. And uh just we're in our sermon series through the short epistle. And today we're gonna be looking at the Christian work ethic. Okay, the Christian work ethic. We will be walking through God's expectations for the Christian, and especially in the stewardship of his work, his field. Okay. Now, we are all employed in one way or other here, or you will be employed at some point in the near future.

And whether you are in-person, remote, hybrid, or an independent contractor, part-time or full-time, you have a stewardship of work, and you have a field, and this includes all mothers. And if you are a full-time mother, you actually may have the most taxing and the most underappreciated job, because motherhood is beyond a full-time job, and the hours are ridiculous, and you ain't getting no breaks. All right, so this applies to everyone in here. Titus chapter 2, verses 9 to 10 is most, is also arguably the most missional and the most evangelic, uh, evangelistic section of this epistle. So if you're a Christian, your work is your mission field, whether you like it or not, whether you are there for missions or not, that is your mission field.

So how you work matters. And how you work is not just about your performance and then compensation. It's actually more about your witness, because you have eyes watching you, and you have a witness, either good, bad, accurate, inaccurate, consistent, or inconsistent. And that shouldn't be too hard to understand. Um, you spend the bulk of your waking hours uh at your job. So today, the passage we're looking at is a continuation of Paul's instructions to Titus. And Titus had received instructions that were to be passed on to all believers of Christ in the churches at Crete. And so these are detailed expectations as well as exhortations for all Christians. So earlier in chapter two, if you have your Bible open, just kind of remind yourself by scanning down.

We looked at what God's expectations were for the men of the church, right? The older and the younger. And then we looked at what God's expectations were for the women, uh, the older and the younger. And last week we looked at what all Christians, especially the leadership, were to model in the midst of an environment hostile to the Christian faith. And today we get to chapter two, verses nine to ten, and there is actually a good chance that you might be the most offended, most shocked by this one, more than the gender stuff, more than uh the persecution stuff. This might cause you to be like, wait a minute. So that's a little forewarning. So we're gonna be looking at God's expectations of all slaves.

And the understanding of slavery in the scripture is a little bit different from our current understanding of it. And though there are some obvious differences, the word slavery is actually synonymous to the word employment. So we'll be unpacking this as we look at these two verses. So here's the outline of the sermon today. Can we switch this on?

Okay, so let me read the two verses again. Urge slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing, not contradicting, not pilfering, but demonstrating all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in everything. So what were all Christian Cretan slaves urged to do? And urge is a pretty strong word, right? It's not like a weak word, like request, it's urge. Okay. Slaves were to be subject to their own masters. And what exactly was meant by this? We're gonna be looking at first an answer to that question. Secondly, we're gonna be looking at what this subjection tangibly looked like in the day to day the relationship that the slaves had with the masters.

So how are they to be subject? To what extent? So if you notice in this verse, it's almost bookended with the instructions in everything. Hopefully you guys see that. It appears two times, right? One's toward the beginning and one toward the very end. So was Paul serious about this word everything? I mean, men are evil. Are we to really be subject to our masters in everything? And it's important to understand what he meant if we're to make appropriate applications to the day-to-day uh Christian lives we're living today, right? And at that, and third, at the end of this section, Paul gave Titus the why for the slaves. Okay, why are they supposed to be subject to their masters? And that'll be our third point.

So, one, what are slaves urged to do, two, how are slaves to be subject, and three, why are slaves to be subject, and just a way of reminder, this will include everybody in here. Okay. So, first, what are slaves urged to do? Um, there are four pretty important words we need to define and understand here in this little clause. And there's an urging that is meant to be taken seriously. So just slight tangent. Remember that with every passage of the Bible, the goal is to discern what the author means, and to discern what God desires through the scriptures that he wrote through human authors. So what the author means is far more important than how the modern reader feels about whatever is written, right?

So with a passage like today's people get hung up and instinctively defensive, and you'll soon see why. And a passage like today at face value will cause most of us to object. No, I'm not gonna do that. So it's actually important to contextually understand what these four words meant, okay? And they are underlined there for you. So we need to discern first who the slaves were, who the masters were, what did it mean for a slave to be subject to his own master? What does everything mean? And I'm sure it's not gonna take us long to come up with objections, exceptions, and like what ifs in our hearts. Okay, so we're gonna be looking at these words a little bit out of order. So let's look at the word slave first.

The instructions in Titus chapter 2, verse 9 were to be directed toward all Christian slaves. So who is Paul referring to when he wrote the word slaves? The Greek word is doulos in the singular. It's a word found frequently in the New Testament. It's used 124 times in the New Testament. And the word slave today, is it a positive or not a good word? It's not a good word unless you're making a mediocre music video, like I'm a slave for you, that kind of stuff, right? But it's not a good word. Um it's very negative, incendiary. It comes with a ton of baggage for people today. So many translators have actually translated the word dulos into something more neutral, like bond servant. Okay, and bond servant is just a nice way of saying slave, but the word dulas really means slave.

One whose primary purpose is to obey his master and to be useful to his master. So, in a worldly modern day sense, the word slave feels super offensive and insulting. And even in those times, it wasn't necessarily a desirable thing to be, but it is not like a heavy trigger word like it is today. So in the Greco-Roman world, slavery was very common. They were saying almost a third of the people were slaves. So slavery was sometimes voluntary. Like I would go be your slave, so I could be afforded different protections and stuff like that, benefits. So slaves in that time could own property. They could achieve social advancement, and they could be released, or even they could purchase their freedom.

It definitely was in a position of status or honor, but it was not as like visibly evil, abusive, or as violent as modern day hearers of the word slavery would understand it to be. So as I had mentioned, we can think of the modern day word employee. Okay, it's very similar, but just with fewer rights and benefits. So there were no like labor laws, there were no unions. Okay, so you just didn't have the protection. But of course, slavery was often involuntary. And the master of biblical times can be understood as a modern day employer, with less accountability and more authority. And the word for master in the Greek is the word despotis. Can you repeat after me? Despotice. Okay. And we get the word uh despot, which denotes a person who has like absolute authority and power.

And masters were back then, they're just as sinful as they are today. Sometimes they were very cruel, they were a very abusive. And in the Greco-Roman world, the masters did have the right to legally pursue imprisonment or even the death of his slave. Modern day employers cannot put you to death, right? Even though they might want to. But they could do that back in the time of the Bible. Many masters could be very self-serving, abusive, and harsh. But there were also many who were good and considerate, as it says in 1 Peter 2 18. Okay. So masters came in all shapes and sizes. Some masters were good, some were crooked, some were warm, many were harsh, some were outright cruel. I've had a few non-church related jobs.

And I once had a Christian boss who would frequently lose his temper and berate the employees and throw the employees under the bus. I've also had a non-Christian boss, a former baseball player, he was a catcher at USC, who was really warm, very generous, extremely gracious. In some ways, my Christian, my non-Christian boss was more Christian than my Christian boss. So bosses, supervisors, masters, they come in all different shapes and sizes. And the exhortation in Titus didn't differentiate between the two. There was not one set of instructions for slaves serving good and considerate bosses. And there wasn't another, there was not another set of instructions for those who are under abusive and evil masters.

Okay? So 1 Peter 2.18 also reads servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, a fear of God, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked. So the Christian slave was to be subject in everything. Okay? What does the word everything mean? All things, right? No matter how wonderful or how unwonderful the master. And the word everything, of course, would exclude actions that were blatantly sinful or like illegal. Okay, but no slave, either then or now, was to submit to doing anything illegal or evil, right? So the word everything here, generally understood, would be all things not in violation of God's commands. Okay. So be subject, it's just one word in the Greek.

It is a translation of the Greek word hupataso. Can you repeat after me? Hupataso. Hupatasso. Hypatasso. It's a passive imperative word, which means it's a command that is usually obeyed passively. Okay? It's obeyed by reaction or response. So hippotasso is a common word meaning basically to submit or to put oneself under. So it was like a military word depicting soldiers arranging themselves under their leader or subordinate to their leader. So if your superior says it, what do you do? You does it, right? You have to obey. Okay, there's no challenging people in the military. So no questions asked. And of course, even that it's within reasons and not in violation of any laws. So if we were to say, be subject to your bosses in everything, there's gonna be a little bit of a pushback in your heart.

Okay? That's normal. So believing and trusting in the sovereignty of God means that in God's good and pleasing and perfect will, he has not made a single mistake. Amen. So no person in your life is there by chance. Right? Every person in our lives has been placed in our lives on purpose for a purpose. So it says in 1 Corinthians 14, 33, our God is not a God of confusion and chaos, he's a God of peace and order. Have you guys read that before? He's a God who ordains structure. He's a God who has wisely constructed hierarchies. So in his sovereignty, God has ordained people above us, people below us, and people lateral to us. Right? Every human being that's been created in God's image is equal in worth and equal in value, but different in function.

So think of a family. Who is more valuable? The mother or the daughter? Don't answer that. Like, but there is a right answer. Who's more valuable? The mother or the daughter? The father or the son? Ladies, don't answer that. Okay. Who's more valuable? Who has more authority? The mother or the daughter? Don't answer that either. Okay. But is that authority good or bad? In and of itself, the authority is good. Right? And of course, sin can corrupt and pervert all things, but hierarchy and authority, in and of itself, was always meant for good. So hupataso to be subject was commanded of children. Okay, they were to be hupatasso to their parents. Ephesians 6, Colossians 3. Citizens were to hipatasso to their governing authorities.

Romans 13, Titus 3. Wives were to hupataso to their husbands. Even Jesus, God himself, demonstrated hupatasso to his human teachers, to his earthly parents, and to the perfect will of God eventually. Right? All Christians were called to hopataso to one another in the church. So you cannot be unwilling to be submissive to God's order and design and call yourself a Christian. Amen? You can't do that. You can't, because then you're challenging God's sovereignty. You're challenging his authority. A slave was to hopataso submit himself to his own master in everything. A Christian employee, slave, even more so, who trusted in a sovereign God, he's to hippitasso to his master in everything.

Do you have a person in your mind? Okay, what does that mean? Pay attention. A Christian worker is to be more concerned about his submission to his employer, Christian or non-Christian, there's no distinguishing, right? He's more concerned about his submission than about his personal rights, then about his pay, or even about whatever he considers to be unfair. That's the biblical instruction. Okay, now it's like, oh, you're feeling uncomfortable, right? Not liking your boss, may I dare say, is not a biblical reason to leave your job. Not liking your job is not a biblical good reason to leave your job. So granted, he's not doing anything illegal or he's not like subjecting you to anything inappropriate.

All slaves are to be subject to their masters in everything. So that's radical teaching. That's pretty hard stuff, right? If you were to come up to me and say, I don't like my boss, and I told you this, you'd actually be you, you'd feel very unsupported by me. But that's what's being taught. Such instructions were not just radical for today. This is actually radical, even for the context of Paul's writing decree. But radical was also the example of Christ to everybody who would follow him. Right? So, what are all Christian slaves urged to do? They're supposed to subject themselves to their earthly masters and everything. Now, in your hearts, the what ifs and the objections and the points of clarification are starting to form.

Okay, so hold on to those thoughts. Let's dig a little bit more. Because you might be like, well, well, but what about? Well, if, you know, so you have that. So, second point, how are slaves to be subject? So, what does this tangibly look like? And they're underlined there for you. Paul listed out four things to be pleasing, to not be contradicting, to not be pilfering, and to demonstrate all good faith. It reads really pretty. Okay, let's unpack this. What does it mean for a slave to be pleasing to his master? The Greek word for pleasing is you aristas. It's almost like you're insulting somebody. You aristos, right? Repeat after me. You aristas. You aristos. It's almost a redundant word. You means good.

Aristos means good. Make sense? In regard to pleasure. But you means good. Aristos is very pleasing. So the word you aristas literally means good good or good pleasing. And if you have the ESV or the NASB, they translated you aristos as well pleasing. Okay, because it's it's like has a double meaning. And of the nine times this word is used in the New Testament, most of the usages are in reference to being satisfactory and acceptable to God. So it's a good good, good pleasing, as if you were offering the best of the best to God himself. So to be you aristos to a human master is a very high calling and almost a command to which we may gasp and almost say, what? Huh? You are trying to please your earthly masters as if you were trying to please the God of the heavens with the same diligence, with the same fervor, with the same integrity given to a to a God whose eyes are always watching you.

The master, your boss, is to feel good good about your work. It is referring to an excellence that overachieves. It's a go up and above and beyond. So the master doesn't only approve of the work of the slave, but he delights in it and he glories in it. So the actions of the slave brings joy to the master. So all slaves were urged to be subject to the to the expectations of all of their own earthly masters in all things by even over-delivering on his expectations. To be good, good, to be well pleasing. You're like, what? He don't deserve that. Okay? Well, we see an example of this in the life of Joseph before Mrs. Potiphar tries to take him down. Okay. So Genesis 239, 2 to 6, and Yahweh was with Joseph.

So he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that Yahweh was with him, and how Yahweh caused all that he did to succeed in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and he attended on him, and he appointed him overseer over his own house. And all that he owned, he gave in his hand. You guys have read the story before. It's one of the most popular stories in the Bible. So this is a very familiar story. Joseph was so good, good, so excellent, so you aristos in his work.

That what did Potiphar do? He appointed Joseph over the management of his entire house, of all of his property, all of his money, probably. That's high trust, right? But let's keep reading. Now it happened that from the time he appointed him overseer in his house, and over all that he owned. Wow, Yahweh blessed the Egyptians' house on account of Yahweh or Joseph. Thus the blessing of Yahweh was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field. He was his personal manager and he was thriving. So Potiphar, he left everything he owned in Joseph's hand, and with him, he did not consider himself concerned himself with anything except the food which he ate. All he was like, hmm, what should I have for dinner?

What shall we eat for snack? That's all he could stress about. Now it's interesting. Now Joseph was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. So the blessing of God was upon Joseph, and through Joseph, God blessed Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard. Now that's a prayer request. Lord help me to bless my boss so much that you bless him like Potiphar. You're like, no, he don't deserve it, right? That might be in your heart. Everything Joseph touched was gold, not only in the house, but also in the field. Potiphar entrusted everything to Joseph, and Joseph always over-delivered. Joseph was super duper good. You guys tracking? Now you might be thinking, well, of course, God was with him.

And Joseph was a very good looking, beautiful, well, well-built human being, right? And the text literally says he was very pretty to look at in the face. So it's like, well, if I was pretty to look at in the face, if I was handsome, if I was well built, if I was beautiful in appearance, then I would curry the favor of my bosses too. And if God was with me like he was with Joseph, then of course I would be good, good. That might be what you're thinking. Now, you probably don't have a pretty face like Joseph, but God is with you in a way that Joseph never experienced. You have an advantage. God never indwelt the person of Joseph. But every Christian has the indwelling of God himself. So God's desire and his expectation of you is for excellence, to be well pleasing in your work, always looking to overdeliver.

Not for the sake of a promotion, but for the sake of being a good witness for Jesus' sake. Now, on a Sunday, you might say, Amen. But when you go to your job, if you try to do this, people are gonna look at you like you're a fool. Your Christian family members might tell you to quit your job. Right? So this is radical stuff. How else are slaves to be subject to their masters and everything? By not contradicting. The word is anti-legantas. In other translations, the word antilagontas is translated as not argumentative. Okay? Or not talking back. So this aims to instruct all slaves to steer clear of everything that makes them look defiant or stubborn or disobedient. So slaves who are anti-legantas are typically very slow to do what they are asked to do.

Because you're like, dude, boss, you don't understand how much work you've already given me. So I'm just gonna ignore what you just said. That's what anti-legantas is, right? They drag their feet. Any request from the master is usually met with some kind of objection. Or they'll do what they're asked to do, but very passive aggressively, to make sure that the master knows that they're not happy about it, to make sure that the coworkers know that they're not happy about it. They'll talk behind their master's back. Do you know our boss? He's a bad guy. He's so lazy. He's always throwing us under the bus. And sometimes they'll even plot something vindictive or plan an escape from the master. That's why I'm saying, like, leaving your job because you don't like your master is not a biblically good, okay, reason.

So Christian slaves were not to be this way. Christian slave wasn't only to be well-pleasing to his mental either. Well, what if your master is incompetent? What if he's a liar? What if he's irresponsible? Even then. What if he underpays me? He's not paying me enough for this. Even then. So here's 1 Peter 2.18 again. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are what? Crooked. Some translations say evil, but it's not that strong a word, crooked. So if God hasn't made a single mistake in your life, and if in his sovereignty he has placed you under an incompetent, deceitful, irresponsible master, you still do your best to not to be well-pleasing and not contradictory or argumentative.

Now, this is in the general and not necessarily the specific, and not especially regarding like the exceptional stuff, right? If they're trying to get you to do something really bad, you don't do it. Okay. But generally speaking, where you don't really have a case or anything concrete that you could take to the HR, don't be contradicting. That's hard, especially if you're going through something at work. But what's it say? Trust in Yahweh with all your heart. Have you guys memorized this verse before? Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. You know what that means?

Don't try to take control of your own faith. Turn away from evil. Trust in the Lord. And unless there's a grievous sin coming forth from the master or the boss, slaves are not to be anti-legontas. Amen. Radical teaching. And you're like, dude, I feel so deflated because I don't like my job. Well, we're not done. Okay? So here's slaves are also not to be pilfering. Basically, this means stealing. There's nothing new under the sun. Slaves throughout all of human history have sought to better themselves in one way or the other by pilfering from their masters. Slaves regularly literally had access to their master's homes, their master's belongings. The funny thing is a short letter to the epistle to Philemon.

If you guys have ever read, it's just like 25 verses. It's regard to this. Onesimus was a runaway slave who had wronged Philemon, who was a church leader. He had stolen from him and then he ran away. But apparently Onesimus was a bad criminal because he got caught and then he got thrown in jail. And of all people that he meets in jail, it's Apostle Paul. Okay? And that Paul sends back Philemon or sends back Onesimus to Philemon after Onesimus gets saved. And he says, Yes, Onesimus needs to pay you back for what he has wronged you, but I will repay it on his behalf. So then Paul was willing to do it, right? So slave uh theft from slaves was very common. In Philemon 18 and 19, it reads, if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account.

I, Paul, am signing this with my own hand, I will repay it. Hey, but Philemon, not to mention you owe me your even your own self as well. So you better do it, you better let me pay you or else. Okay. So he probably told Phile uh Onesimus never to seal again, and that's Christian common sense. Should Christians ever steal anything? No. Not even any illegal downloads. Nothing copyrighted. If Christ has saved you, stealing is no longer acceptable. Amen. Now, how do modern day employees pull for from their masters? It might not be necessarily like a pilfering of office supplies or an embezzling of money, because sometimes that does happen. But modern day employees can also pill for time. Right?

Here's a question. Are you working when you're supposed to be working? Or are you leisurely surfing the web, playing games, or taking a nap, and then getting paid for it? Christian slaves are never to pilfer from their masters. We are to be a people of integrity, especially if you're working from home. There are times where the job is easy and you've finished all the tasks entrusted to you, and you're still at work, but you have time. So here's a question. Are there well, are there ways that you can be good good? Are there ways you could be well pleasing? Are there things that you can do to overachieve, to bring joy to your boss? Not to get noticed, but simply to be a good steward and a good witness.

Is that motivation enough? Many church people will say, no. You don't know my boss. So there's objections, right? Lastly, on this list of how slaves are to be subject and everything to their masters, slaves were to demonstrate all good faith. The Greek word is pistis, which basically means being trustworthy and reliable. So they can be trusted in all things and are dependable. Does the boss trust you to show up on time? Does the boss trust you to get things done on time? Or is he debating whether or not to have a conversation with you? Right? You want to be someone that your boss never has to think about. Can you be trusted even to care for a new slave that comes in? You're like, you know what?

I want to trust him to this guy. Because he always takes care of everybody that's new. So that's the how are slaves to be subject. And here's the why. The so that in the middle of verse 10 gives us the why. Why are slaves to be subject? So that they can make the doctrine of God even more beautiful. So the word for adorn there in the Greek is cosmeo. And we're doing a lot of Greek because there's a lot of lists, and whenever there's a lot of lists, we go into the original word, right? But the Greek word is cosmeo, and that's where we get the word cosmetic. An attractive, pretty woman, she's pretty even without makeup. Agree? But when you put cosmetics on an already pretty woman, what happens?

She turns heads, right? The pretty woman becomes radiant. Her highlights are featured. And then she goes from attractive to stunning with good cosmetics. Nothing's changed about her person, but the already pretty woman glows because of the makeup. So the doctrine of God in and of itself is a wonderful and a beautiful mystery. It's already beautiful if you look at it. The gospel of God is glorious truth. But when it is actually lived out by those who say they believe it, this glorious truth becomes stunning, paralyzing, life altering, too good to be true, what am I missing? Kind of news. One of the brothers at my previous church, he was born and raised in the Philippines. And he grew up occasionally going to church and then learning in Sunday school classes.

But because he was raised in a very nominal Christian home, Christianity was limited to just religious information, very impractical to his day-to-day life. And then he came to America for college, and then he landed a job where he just happened to work with a bunch of Christians. And five of those Christians were from my church. And these guys, they invited him out for church, and then he eventually accepted. Initially, the stuff that he was hearing, he said, I've already heard this before, and it was not not anything new. But as he observed the love and the care and the way the Christian faith was lived out amongst these five coworkers, he became very intrigued. Here was a group of Christians who actually were living out what they believed.

And eventually he ended up coming out more often to church. Soon enough, convictions grew stronger. He repented of his worldly lifestyle. He was actually a ranked pool player. But he gave that up. And he accepted Christ not just as a religious savior, but as the Lord of his life. And then he got baptized, and then he became an active member at Purian. And that was about 12, 13 years ago. And now he's a very mature brother who faithfully serves a church. And for a number of years, he served as one of my Sunday school teachers. But he was so good at what he was doing, we asked him to actually stop doing that and then host a Bible study at his house. And currently he disciples a bunch of young husbands and a handful of single brothers.

So his calendar is very packed with church ministry. How packed? I reached out to him this week to see to just to make sure I can share this story and to get the facts straight. And then I said, hey, let me take you out to dinner. And in the process, he told me, alright, but we scheduled it for April 12th. Not because of my schedule, but because of his.

But now those same life, those same doctrines were life saving and life equipping gospel. And again, why? Five Christian common, they're not even leaders in the church, just ordinary Christians tag teaming him and gang evangelizing him. Not always just with their words, but how they worked. So your workplace is a mission field. Have you forgotten that? Repeat after me. My workplace is a mission field. And you don't spend five hours a year there. You spend most of your week there, right? You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. And man was created to till the soil for the glory of God, right? And while he was tilling the soil, he was to glorify and magnify the God in whose image he had been created.

The soil was only to produce thorns and thistles. There was supposed to be no satisfaction from the soil. The soil was supposed to be tilled for daily bread, right? It was supposed to be tilled so you could eat. A fulfilling career is a modern day phenomenon. The field, the soil was never supposed to be anybody's goal. The soil was always the means. Are you guys following this? This is the danger of America. You're thinking that the soil is the goal. The soil is where you get your status. The soil is what produces your lavish luxury and your comfort. The goal was never the soil, it's the glory of God. So here's a question. Why are you at your job?

So that you can eat. Amen. You're working so that you can eat, but while you're working, your job is to magnify Christ, not to build your resume, not to purchase a future home, not to I don't know, accrue miles so you can travel and enjoy life. Your goal, if you are a Christian, at your job is to magnify Christ.

Dang, you're just like ruining all my dreams, Pastor Peter. No, but that's what the Bible says. So in your mission field, here's here are some questions. Are you regularly preparing for and engaging in spiritual combat? If I were to say, hey, we're gonna go to Zimbabwe next week, you guys would prepare. You guys would pray, you guys would like strategize, you guys with vitamin fortify yourself, you guys really would be like, we need to be very good with our one week there in Zimbabwe. But when you're going week in and week out at your job where you don't even have a language barrier, are you preparing for spiritual combat? If in Zimbabwe you met a rude person, if you met a mean person, would you care?

No. You would be like, okay, but let me love you anyway. Right? You mean person are in my life on purpose for a purpose? So let me love you with the love of Christ. You would never complain about that person behind their back, right? That non-Christian co-worker is part of your mission field. Remote work, here's a side tangent, but I don't really like remote work because it can be a trap because you're isolating yourself from the field. It will be akin to me trying to evangelize to my friend who's living in Korea from here in LA. So remote work, I'm not against it, but there's a trap there. Where you can pilfer, where you can forget why you're working. Are you making progress in silencing every anti-Christian critic?

Do your co-workers know that you're a Christian? If they do know that you're a Christian, are they silently using you as an excuse not to believe in Jesus? What an offense that is to our Lord. If they know you're a Christian, is the way you're working destroying that person's willingness to follow Christ? You can contribute to it for sure. Are you showing yourself to be trustworthy in everything? Are you being a good witness to fellow slaves? To employees, even, if you're if you're a boss, to your bosses, if you're a full-time mother, you're kind of a slave to your employees in some sense. But if your job, if your mission field is as a full-time mom, you have sinners with you all the time. And things are more caught than they're taught.

When they look at your life, mom, do they see a replica of Jesus, or do they see somebody who they want to escape down the line? Be a missionary mom. Are you willing to make sacrifices to be a more effective missionary? I have another brother at Berean. I didn't uh get his permission, but I'm gonna say it anyway. He hated his job. He stayed there 10 years. Because during those 10 years, he was trying to win over somebody to Christ. He hated his job. But he stayed, it was his cousins, it was his cousin's uh accounting firm. So he stayed, getting massively underpaid, working for his cousin, because his non-Christian cousin trusted him fully. And he was like, I can't quit because this is my witness.

If you were to go to Zimbabwe, would you not make sacrifices? Would you not save? Would how much money you can earn be the primary reason why or why you don't go? And are you actively looking for more opportunities to share? Sometimes you may actually forego a better field to stay in your current field for the sake of ministry. Right. There's nothing wrong with changing your job. As long as your motivation is to honor Christ. So now this is like you're putting your money where your mouth is. In the early church, a Christian who has a slave was to have the following mindset. First, he's to understand his primary allegiance and service was to the Lord. Yes, he's working for his earthly master, but ultimately and more importantly, he's working for the Lord.

Amen? So Colossians 3, 22 to 23, slaves in all things. Obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just with eye service as men pleasers, but with integrity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do, do your work to be good good. Ask for the Lord, not for men.

Even for pastors, my job here is not for the church, not to be liked at the church. It's to resemble and honor Christ in all things. Many of the epistles open with the apostles introducing themselves as a slaves of Christ. You'll notice this. Peter introduces himself as a slave. Paul introduces himself as a slave. Jesus' own half-brothers, James introduces himself as a slave. Jude introduces himself as a slave of God, slave of Jesus Christ. That was the most common way a Christian regarded himself in the early church as a slave of Christ, more than as a son of God, more than as like a bride of Christ. They address themselves, introduce themselves as slaves. So first and foremost, Christian slaves.

We're slaves of whom? Christ. And what does that mean? And I'm going to close with a reminder of who we are and ultimately whose we are. We are the due loss, the dulloy, slaves of Christ. Amen. If you're a Christian, that's what you're identifying as. What does that mean? One, you are inalienably possessed by Jesus Christ. You are possession. He says do it, you do it. You are owned by Christ. Secondly, you're unqualifiedly at the disposal of Jesus Christ. You are created to be useful to him, even if it means you're deaf. Three, owing and unquestioning obedience to Jesus Christ. And the operative word is unquestioning. If God says do it, you do it. And lastly, you're constantly in the service of Jesus Christ.

Do slaves get breaks? No. Do they get any holidays? No. Hey, no slave ain't getting no PTO. Because he's not even getting the pee. Right? There's no time off. There's no pay. We are first and foremost slaves of Christ, and it's his desire that while we are here on earth, in the event we are slaves to somebody around us, we're living like the way he told us to live. So the problem today is many who profess and believe in the name of Christ, they don't even have a desire to obey Christ. True or false. Many Christians, they don't even have a desire to obey Jesus. So clearly, there's not going to be a desire to be a good Christian worker. Right? You're not caring, you don't care about your heavenly master.

Of course you're not going to be caring about your earthly boss. But if you are committed to pleasing Christ, you cannot but look to find ways to please your earthly master as well. And that's a good litmus test. So the Lord Jesus, our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords, has entrusted us for a time being to the mission field that is our work. Amen.

And my prayer is that we're well pleasing, good good to our master and savior by being faithful and good good to the earthly masters he has appointed for us in this life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. You may be the second in all of Egypt. Not because of any strategy. Did Joseph plan anything in his life? No. He just was faithful, rose to the top. Daniel, faithful, rose to the top. Lions, hungry, but their mouths were shut because he was simply faithful. We walk by faith, not by sight. We work by faith and not by sight. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we pray for your help to really let these truths sink in.

We are not our own. We have no rights. We have nothing do us except to joyfully surrender and serve our Lord Jesus Christ. So we pray for reminders for your help. Help us, Lord God, really to serve you faithfully and reflect you in all the missions fields that we've been called to be in. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.