The title of my sermon this morning is Serving the Lord Christ.
Serving the Lord Christ, and my title is taken from verse 24 where the Bible reads,
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for ye serve the Lord Christ.
Serving the Lord Christ.
Now when we think of serving Jesus Christ or serving God, the things that would often
come to our mind would be reading our Bible, praying, going soul winning, going to church,
singing hymns unto the Lord.
And obviously those things are all great things that are service that we do unto Christ, but
serving Christ goes beyond that and it involves the activities that we do every single day.
The things that we do from the time that we wake up in the morning to the time that we
go to bed, our everyday life on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that is also or should be serving Christ.
Because look what the Bible says beginning in verse 17,
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, meaning anything that you say or anything that you
do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Then if you jump down to verse 23 it says,
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, heartily means from the heart, as to the Lord and not
unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for
ye serve the Lord Christ.
So verse 17 says something very similar to what verse 23 says.
Whatever you do, do it heartily, do it unto the Lord, do your best.
So this provides kind of a bookends here.
Verse 17 and verse 23 are bookends and then in between he's explained to us some of the
things that we need to do heartily.
Some of the things that we should do in the name of the Lord Jesus and things that we
should do as unto the Lord and not to men.
Let's see what those things are.
Verse 18, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
Brothers, love your wives and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is while pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged.
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service
as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
So if we're going to talk about serving Christ and actually get the context here of what
it means to serve Christ in this context, you know what it has to do with wives submitting
to their husbands, husbands loving their wives, children obeying their parents, fathers not
provoking their children to anger or discouraging their children and servants being obedient
to their masters in the flesh.
Those are the things that the Bible is telling us in this chapter are service unto Christ.
So it's not just praying, reading our Bible, soul winning, going to church or singing hymns.
No, it's our everyday life that pleases Christ and that glorifies God if we're doing it right,
if we're doing it heartily, if we're doing it as unto the Lord.
Here's how you start doing these things as unto the Lord.
You start realizing that they are unto the Lord.
It is serving Christ.
When you serve your husband, you're serving Christ.
When you serve your children, you're serving Christ.
When you love your wife, you're loving Christ.
When you go to work and do a good job, you are serving Christ.
You need to let that sink in and live your life that way.
Think about that and not just think, oh, well, serving Christ, that's what I do on Sunday
morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, or that's what I do first thing when I wake up
in the morning.
I serve Christ.
I pray.
I read my Bible.
I worship the Lord every morning.
Hey, we ought to do that every morning, but you better keep serving Christ at 9 a.m. when
you clock in at your job and keep serving Christ when you get home from work and keep
on serving Christ seven days a week because everything that you do, if you do it heartily,
if you do it right, if you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, it's all serving Christ.
That's what the Bible's teaching here very clearly.
And the Bible says in verse 24, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of
the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for
the wrong which he hath done, and there's no respect of person.
So if you screw these things up, God's going to punish you.
If you do these things right, God's going to reward you.
These things are very important to him, and they matter.
Not just our church life matters.
Our entire life matters.
Everything that we do matters seven days a week.
What am I saying?
I'm saying that you can't be a bad worker at your job and be a good Christian.
I don't care how many times you come to church.
I don't care how much soul-willing you do.
I don't care how many hours you spend reading your Bible or praying or fasting.
If you're a bad worker on the job, you are not serving Christ well.
You're a bad Christian.
Bad worker equals bad Christian.
Think about that when you go to work on Monday morning.
If you're the guy in the office where everybody is thinking,
oh man, he's such a slacker, he's lazy, we got to light a fire under him.
Everything he does is sloppy.
He's just in a hurry to get home.
That's a bad testimony, and you're a bad Christian.
You need to get right with God.
You say, oh, but when I get off work, I go soul-willing.
Hey, you need to be clocked on with Jesus Christ all day long,
including at your job.
And not just say, oh, well, I'm faithful to church.
Oh, I read my Bible for hours.
Yeah, but you failed on the job.
God said you're going to be punished.
And the Bible says there's no respect of persons with him.
I mean, he doesn't look at you and say, oh, well, you're Pastor so-and-so,
or you're Brother so-and-so, or you're Deacon so-and-so,
or you are such a godly Christian.
I don't care that you're a bad husband or a bad wife or a bad worker.
No, no, no.
It doesn't matter who you are.
If you fail in these areas, you're a bad Christian.
I'm saying that if you're a bad wife, you're a bad Christian.
If you're a bad husband, you're a bad Christian.
If you're a bad son or a bad daughter, you're a bad Christian.
If you're a bad parent, you're a bad Christian.
Why?
Because you are mistreating Jesus Christ.
Because when you mistreat your wife, you're mistreating Jesus.
When you mistreat your husband, you're mistreating Jesus.
When you mouth off to the boss, it's like you mouthed off to Jesus.
This is what the Bible teaches over and over again.
You do these things as unto the Lord, as unto Christ, as if you were raising.
Mom and dad, as if you were raising baby Jesus in your home.
Is that how you treat your kids?
Do you treat your children like you would treat the baby Jesus
if you would have been born into your home,
if you would have been the Virgin Mary and chosen by God
to carry the Lord Jesus Christ in your womb,
or if you would have been Joseph chosen to be that stepfather
to raise Jesus Christ in your home?
That's how you ought to treat your own children.
Treat them the way that you would treat Jesus.
And I know that they're not Jesus.
So therefore, they misbehave.
Jesus never sinned.
Jesus never disobeyed.
Jesus never did wrong.
But still, we are to treat one another as Christ.
You say, well, you know, if Jesus were my boss, I'd be a great employee.
No, you wouldn't, because Jesus is your boss,
and you're not a good employee.
Oh, well, if I were married to Jesus, marriage would be easy.
Wrong.
You are married to Jesus, and you are not doing it right.
You can't just sit there and say, well, if, if, if.
No, Christ said, that's how you do it, as unto me.
Now, go to Matthew chapter 25.
Lest you think that I'm getting carried away with this passage,
let me tell you, this is a principle all throughout the New Testament.
The way that we serve Jesus Christ is by serving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
OK, Jesus Christ is not here this morning physically in bodily form.
Now, he's here with us in spirit, because any time two or three of us
are gathered together in his name, there is Jesus Christ in the midst of us.
But it's a spiritual presence.
Bodily, Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
And I believe that heaven is a real place,
and that Jesus Christ is literally seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
That's not just a figure of speech.
OK.
Spiritually, Christ is here, but bodily, he's not here.
So therefore, we can't take his coat and hang it up for him.
We can't wash his feet.
We can't serve him food.
We can't help him find a seat.
But you know what?
We can do that unto other people.
And if we do it unto the brethren or unto the sisters in Christ,
then we have done it unto him.
In fact, our only opportunity to serve Christ is by serving people,
because Jesus Christ is not bodily on this earth for us
to go and physically literally serve him.
Look at Matthew chapter 25, verse 34.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
come ye blessed of my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat.
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.
I was a stranger, and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me.
I was sick, and ye visited me.
I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee?
I don't remember doing any of those things for you.
And the King shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you,
inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.
Notice it doesn't say when you did it unto the greatest of these my brethren.
You see, it's easy to be humble in the presence of great men.
It's easy to be humble in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
We're all going to fall on our faces someday, and it's going to be pretty easy to be humble in His presence.
We would all fall down and worship Him in a heartbeat and be humble in His presence.
It's easy in the presence of great men or great women to be humble and to stand in awe.
But let me tell you something.
The true test is what we do unto the least of the brethren or the sisters.
So you say, well, my husband is just a bad husband.
Well, you know what?
It sounds like he's one of the least.
Since you don't think he's that great, I guess the opposite of that would be the least.
That means that the more you serve Him, it's like you're serving Christ.
You should be even more enthusiastic to serve your deadbeat husband.
And you shouldn't look at your husband that way.
I'm using a little bit of facetiousness here.
I'm being a little bit silly.
But the point is, you should be even more eager to serve your husband that's not a great
husband because Christ really looks at that as you serving Him when you do it for the
least of His brethren.
And you say, well, my wife is that.
Hey, provide for your ungrateful wife.
Show love and affection to your ungrateful or lazy wife or whatever.
You know what?
You're doing it unto Christ.
And I'm not saying that you should look at your wife that way either, but I'm just using
kind of extreme examples here just to point out the fact that these things are not conditional
upon how good the person is.
In fact, the worse they are, treat them even better.
They're still your brother and sister in Christ, so you're still doing it unto Christ.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, the Bible says.
It doesn't matter how great your parents are.
It doesn't matter how godly you think they are or how much they go to church or go soul-winning
or whatever.
You know, I can't even count how many times I've seen a child look down on their parents
because they think they're more spiritual than their parents because they go to maybe
a red hot soul-winning church or they go knock doors or they listen to hard preaching or
they read more Bible.
So then they start looking down on their parents.
But you know what?
If you're disrespectful to your parents, if you don't love and honor and obey your parents,
I'm not impressed by your Bible reading, I'm not impressed by your soul-winning, I'm not
impressed by your church attendance.
You are dropping the ball when it comes to serving Christ because serving Christ happens
seven days a week and it happens in your home and children are to obey their parents and
if you're a bad son, bad daughter, you're a bad Christian, period.
If you're not right with your mom and dad, you're not right with God.
You say, well, my parents aren't God.
Yeah, but you better treat them like they're Christ.
The Bible said to serve them and be obedient unto them as unto Jesus Christ himself.
What does the Bible say in 1 Timothy 5?
You don't have to turn there, but in 1 Timothy 5, 4, it says, but if any widow have children
or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents,
for that is good and acceptable before God.
Let me just drive in this one phrase of that verse, learn first to show piety at home.
What does piety mean?
Piety means godliness, right?
Piety means right living.
It means that you are living out your Christian religion.
That's what piety means and the Bible says, learn first to show piety at home and to requite
your parents.
So if you're a teenager and you're at home mouthing off to your parents, disrespectful
to your parents, lazy around the house, you're not doing any housework, you're not pulling
your weight, you're not doing your fair share, but then you want to go out and you're going
to win the world to Christ, you know that's a joke because you need to learn first to
show piety at home and to requite your parents.
Hey, I'm for church, I'm for soul winning, I'm for Bible reading, I'm for prayer, but
you know I'm also for Christians living like Christians and doing good works and starting
in the home, starting as a wife, starting as a husband, starting as children, starting
as parents, starting as workers on the job, doing a good job.
Why don't you let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father which is in heaven and you know if you're a slacker on the job, nobody's
glorifying God on your behalf.
Nobody is going to sit there and see your good works and glorify your Father which is
in heaven.
They're going to think, you know what, this guy's lazy, he's got his head in the clouds,
he's not serious about his job and you know what they'll say about you, well he's so heavenly
minded that he's no earthly good.
Because you know what, you sometimes might think that the spiritual activities are the
things that directly relate to serving Christ but the Bible said whatsoever you do, day
in day out, whatsoever you do, whether you're cutting grass, whether you're running pipe,
whether you're digging a ditch, you do it heartily.
Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
This is Christianity.
This is serving the Lord Christ.
It's a daily thing, it's all day every day.
You know what it's about?
It's about being a nice person.
It's about being a good person.
It's about living a life that has a good testimony.
It's about putting other people first.
We need to not just check off a list of, you know, how to be a five star Christian.
You know, church, read the Bible, pray, soul winning and tithe, I'm a great Christian.
Not if you're a bad husband you aren't.
Not if you're a bad wife you aren't.
Not if you're a bad employee you aren't.
Not if you're a bad child you aren't.
And not if you're a bad parent you aren't.
You are, I'll give you one star Google rating on your Christianity.
If you're failing at your main jobs in life, physically speaking.
See, God didn't take us out of the world.
He left us in the world.
He wants us to be kept from the evil.
We're not going to go live in a monastery somewhere and think that serving Christ means
to go get in a corner somewhere with a bunch of beads and chant over and over again.
Right?
Jesus, Son of God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
And just keep repeating that over and over.
Hail Mary, full of grace, swing those beads all over the place or, you know, our Father
which art in heaven.
And just, you know, chanting in a monastery, hey, that's not what being a Baptist is about.
That's not what being a Christian is about.
We don't just go somewhere and lock ourselves up somewhere and say, oh, look at me, I'm
serving Christ.
I'm serving.
Did you serve your brother in Christ?
Did you serve the church?
Did you serve your wife?
Did you serve your husband?
Did you serve your children?
Did you serve your parents?
Did you go to work and clock on and do your best and work hard and be a good example for
Christ?
That's what it means to be Christian and to do good works.
How about the good works that you do at your job 40 hours a week?
That's serving Christ.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6 is a parallel passage with Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians 3 said, Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
That means you show up at work on Monday morning.
This is me clocking in.
I'm clocking in in the name of Jesus Christ.
I represent Jesus Christ.
I am an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
I am plumbing for Christ.
I'm doing electrical for Christ.
I am landscaping for Christ.
I am programming for Christ.
I am painting for Jesus Christ.
I'm clocking in.
I'm doing it in the name of Jesus.
What does it mean in the name of?
It means representing him.
It means by his authority.
It means you're doing it on behalf of him.
You're doing it because he's not here to do it.
So you're doing it on his behalf representing him.
He was in this world and he said, I'm the light of the world.
But he said, you're the light of the world.
He said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world.
Well guess what?
Bodily, he's no longer in the world.
He's seated at the right hand of the Father.
We are here representing him.
We are here on his behalf.
We are in the name of Jesus Christ.
And when you get home from work, you walk in and you know what?
You say, I am here representing Jesus Christ in this home.
I'm going to lead as Jesus would lead.
I'm going to serve as Jesus would serve.
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord
for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may
be well with thee, that thou mayest live long on the earth.
And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
This is a parallel passage from Colossians 3.
It deals with the same things.
In chapter 5, we dealt with the husbands and wives.
Now we're on to the children and parents.
And then we're going to get on to the workers.
But it's the same things, pretty much in the same order that Colossians dealt with
because Colossians 3 is a parallel passage with Ephesians 5 and 6.
So we get a little more detail in the book of Ephesians, but it's the same subject matter.
It still has to do with serving Christ in whatever we do, whatever area of life.
Children obey their parents and they are to honor their parents.
They are to treat their parents with respect.
They are to requite their parents or repay their parents, meaning that your parents have
diapered you, fed you, clothed you, and taught you, and so you owe something to your parents.
I owe something to my mom.
I owe something to my dad and so do you.
We all do.
And the Bible says we should requite our parents.
We should honor them.
We should love them.
We should, when we're children obviously, obey them and so on.
Fear them, the Bible says in Leviticus chapter 19.
So here he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may
be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.
You know, my grandma just passed away a few weeks ago.
She lived long on the earth.
She's 96 years old and she had a pretty good quality of life all the way up to the end.
I mean, she was very sharp even just a few years ago.
She was very sharp and she lived a long, productive life.
You know what?
She never had anything negative to say about her parents.
She always had good things to say about her mother and father both.
She honored her father and mother.
It was well with her.
She lived long on the earth.
But the Bible says, Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Now what does that mean, provoke not your children to wrath?
Well, this is where parallel passages can come in handy because if we can kind of compare
Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6, it gives a deeper understanding.
You don't have to turn there, but Colossians 3 said, fathers, provoke not your children
to anger.
So that helps us to see, okay, anger and wrath are pretty much the same thing.
Wrath is just a more intense word.
Wrath is just a stronger form of anger.
So when the Bible said, provoke not your children to wrath, he means provoke not your children
to anger.
That's what it says in Colossians 3, 21.
And then in Colossians 3, 21 it said, lest they be discouraged.
So the Bible is explaining in Colossians, what is the negative consequence to provoking
your children to anger or provoking them to wrath is to cause them to be discouraged.
You know what that means?
When you're just constantly on your children's case all the time and they can never do anything
right, or you have an unreasonable expectation, or you're just rude and angry and bitter all
the time toward your children, you know what?
Is that how you treat Christ?
Is that how you treat the baby Jesus if he spilled his cereal?
Because you know what?
I know Jesus was perfect and without sin, but it's possible that he could have spilled
something because that's not a sin, right?
Things can happen.
I'm sure he wasn't goofing off at the table or anything like that because a lot of accidents
are due to what?
Negligence and being silly and ridiculous.
But you know what?
Jesus still used the bathroom.
Jesus still had to be fed.
He still probably had to wear a bib when he was fed.
And you know, I don't think that the song is accurate, the cattle are lowing, the baby
awakes, but the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.
Jesus wept, amen?
I'm certain that baby Jesus cried because babies are supposed to cry.
Crying is not a sin.
Now when you're crying and feeling sorry for yourself, yeah, that can be sin very often
when you're having a pity party for self.
But when you're weeping for other people, when you're weeping for your sins or you're
weeping unto the Lord or a baby crying because it needs to be fed or because it needs its
diaper changed or it just wants its mom, that's just a normal reaction.
You know, we shouldn't try to eradicate, you know, my goal is to have a baby that never
cries.
You're a sick parent.
And you know what?
We ought not train our children as we would train a dog.
Why?
We're not supposed to provoke them to wrath.
We're not supposed to provoke them to anger.
We don't want to discourage them, right?
We don't want to just put them down and make them feel like garbage all the time, right?
We want to do what?
We want to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
No, discipline's important.
And I'm all for discipline.
And I'm for corporal punishment.
The Bible says he that spareth his rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth
him be times.
We should correct them and sometimes we need to verbally correct them.
And sometimes we need to rebuke them sharply.
Sometimes they need a sharp rebuke verbally.
They need discipline.
But you know what?
Let's make sure we don't provoke them to wrath.
Let's not provoke them to anger.
Let's not just be bitter and mean and angry and rude and all these things that would be
a bad example and things that would not be as unto Christ.
We need to be a godly parent if we want to be a godly Christian.
If we want to be a godly Christian, we've got to be a good wife, be a good husband,
be a good son, daughter, worker, whatever.
Let's keep going here.
Verse 5 of chapter 6 says, servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to
the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ.
Now what does that mean?
Singleness of heart.
It means that when you're at work, you don't just have your mind on everything else.
You go to work and your heart's not in it because you're thinking about everything else.
You're thinking about everything else you're going to do.
Your mind's everywhere else.
You're not serious about the task at hand.
And you know how some people get, they go to work and they're physically there but they're
not there in spirit.
Their heart's not in it.
They're daydreaming.
They're looking around.
They're bored.
They're not.
Now if you have a job where you have to do some waiting, obviously, yeah, do something
else.
Fill in that time.
Think about something else.
But I'm saying when you're supposed to actually be engaged, when you're supposed to actually
be working and you're just thinking about everything else and you're just half in, half
out all the time, we need to do our work and singleness of your heart.
What does that mean?
That means whatever I'm doing right now is the most important thing and that's what I
ought to be focused on.
So if I'm in church, I'm supposed to be focused on being in church.
If I'm at work, I'm supposed to be focused on being at work.
If I'm reading my Bible, I'm going to focus on reading my Bible.
If I'm spending time with my wife, I need to focus on spending time with my wife.
If I'm spending time with my children, I want to do that in singleness of heart.
Whatever we do, we want to make sure that we do it heartily as unto the Lord.
Because anything that's worth doing is worth doing right.
And if it's not worth doing right, maybe it's just not even worth doing.
But if it is worth doing, then it's worth doing right.
And so we need to have singleness of heart, fear and trembling.
What's the fear and trembling?
Is it because our boss is so fearsome?
Now you might have a fearsome boss and I've had a boss that really made me fear and tremble
before him.
I didn't even have to tremble before Christ because his wrath was serious.
I didn't even have to think about the wrath of God.
Okay.
He had wrath.
Now many people don't have a wrathful boss.
And I hope you don't have a boss that just cusses you out and screams at you all the
time.
But if you do, you better treat him like Jesus Christ.
You better do your work as unto the Lord and not say, oh, my boss.
No, you shut up and be a good worker.
I don't care what your boss said.
I don't care what he did.
He's your boss.
If you can't work there, then go work somewhere else.
But if you're going to work for him, you better show up and give him 100% and do your best
as unto Christ.
But even if you don't have a fearsome boss, maybe you work at one of these jobs where
they give you a bean bag to take a nap on in the afternoon.
They come and measure your chair to make sure it's all ergonomically correct so you can
be comfortable.
And they're giving you naps and they're bringing in a massage therapist to massage your shoulders
while you work.
They're having special barbecues and sporting events to build solidarity for the team and
everything.
Maybe you work in Silicon Valley in one of these kind of jobs, Google's headquarters
or something.
But you know what?
Even then, you better be running scared.
You say, why would I run scared?
My job is so relaxed.
Yeah, because you know what?
Jesus is watching.
And so you better work hard for him because he'll reward you if you do well and he'll
reward you if you do evil.
If you do poorly, he'll reward you with a swift kick in the pants.
And if you do well, he'll bless you and reward you for the good work that you've done.
We need to take our everyday life seriously and not think, oh, well, church and Bible,
that's the important stuff.
No, no, no.
Everything in life is the important stuff.
And this is what I'm trying to get across to you.
And you know what?
I've seen a lot of people have the wrong attitude about this where they're so serious about
the things of God, quote, unquote, and they don't realize that everything in this earth
is the things of God because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
And everything that we do should be done as unto Christ.
You say, well, I just really want to win the people at my job unto the Lord.
I just want to see people get saved.
You know, one of the best ways you're going to get them saved is by being a great worker
and earning their respect and letting them see your light shine.
Even when you do get the opportunity at an appropriate time, let's say you're on a break
or you're at lunch or you're getting together outside of work, man, they're going to be
all ears.
They're going to listen to you and hang on every word.
Why?
Because they respect you.
That's going to be a lot better than, oh, let's just shut the machines off and talk
about Jesus for a while on the company's time.
That's not the right way to win people to Christ because you know what?
You need to get serious about running that machine because that's the task right now.
And run that machine as unto Christ and don't think to yourself, well, you know, I'm just
serving God 24-7.
Okay, well then quit your job and quit stealing money from him and just go serve God 24-7.
But you can't sit there and just be going to your job and giving it halfway because
you know what?
You're a bad Christian.
There, I said it.
You are failing in the Christian life if you're failing at your job or in your family life.
Those are important things.
These are the everyday things that Christ wants us to do.
And isn't Jesus the one who said that, you know, loving God and loving your neighbor
as yourself is more than all burnt sacrifice and offerings that you could offer unto the
Lord?
So it might seem more spiritual to bring, you know, a thousand burnt offerings down
to the temple and offer them unto the Lord back in the Old Testament.
But he said actually loving your neighbor as yourself and especially loving your wife,
loving your husband, loving your children, working hard at your job, those things are
all pleasing to Christ as well.
In fact, they're more pleasing to Christ.
And you always know that you're doing the right thing when you are doing your best at
your job or in your family because you know that that's what God wants you to do.
The Bible says in verse number 6, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants
of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will, doing service as to the Lord
and not to men.
So this is repeated over and over again.
Verse 5 said it's unto Christ.
Verse 6 said as the servants of Christ.
Verse 7 said as to the Lord.
Three verses in a row he drives this in.
You work for Jesus.
Who do you work for?
Where do you work?
What do you do for a living?
So you're manufacturing, but who do you work for?
You work for Jesus, right?
Who do you work for?
All right.
It doesn't matter where.
It doesn't matter what.
Sorry to put you on the spot.
It doesn't matter where you work.
You say, oh, I work at so-and-so the plumbing.
Yeah, but who's your boss?
Jesus.
When that becomes real to you, then you'll do a good job.
And you know what you're going to find?
You're going to start getting rewarded.
You're going to find that God's going to bless your job.
And you're going to find that you'll start getting the raises and the promotions.
You say, oh, my job's never going to give me those things.
Yeah, but God can work miracles.
You know, you might look at your boss and say, my boss is such a tightwad.
He'll never give me a raise.
He'll never increase my pay.
He'll never give me any kind of a bonus.
But you know what?
Maybe God will just put you in a totally different job or whatever.
But God's going to reward you, period.
He must reward you because he has to keep his word.
And he promised that he'll reward you.
Look at Jacob.
I mean, Jacob spent 20 years working for a boss that treated him poorly, that ripped
him off, that lied to him about his wages.
And what happened?
He had a dream where God spoke to him in the dream and said, you know what?
I've seen the work that you're doing.
I've seen the way Laban's treating you.
And he told him, I'm going to reward you.
And what happened?
When Jacob left, he had all the wealth.
He had taken most of the wealth from Laban, and he was more successfully financially than
Laban was.
Why?
Because God was the one that requited him.
God blessed him.
And that's the way it's going to work for you and me as well.
You know, if we work hard, we're going to be blessed.
It doesn't matter whether you're married to Laban, if your husband is Laban, or if your
wife is Labena, or if you're raising a little Laban, or your dad's name is Laban, or your
boss at work is Laban.
You know what?
He's Christ, as far as you're concerned.
That's how we should treat people that are in these positions in our life, parents, children,
bosses, what have you.
Verse 8, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of
the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your
master also is in heaven.
And remember this from Colossians 3, neither is there respect of persons with him.
Flip over, if you would, to 1 John chapter 4.
While you turn to 1 John 4, I'll read another verse, 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore
ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Timothy 5, you're going to 1 John 4, but in 1 Timothy 5 it says, let not a widow be
taken into the number unto threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well
reported of for good works.
And then he begins to go into what those good works are.
Well reported of for good works, if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers,
if she have washed the saints feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently
followed every good work.
So when he's explaining good works, he starts out with if she brought up children and if
she have lodged strangers.
And notice it doesn't say if she brought up strangers and lodged children.
You know, a lot of women are more interested in bringing up strangers and lodging children.
No, they're to bring up children and lodge strangers.
What does that mean?
Lodging children would be that's where they sleep at your house every night and you feed
them at bed and breakfast, right?
And you send them off somewhere else.
No, no, bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You say, oh, I could get so much done if it wasn't for these kids.
Those kids are what you're supposed to be getting done.
That's your job.
That's the main thing.
Well, if it just weren't, you know, that'd be like if I said, you know, man, if it just
weren't for preaching three times a week, I could really pastor.
You know, if it weren't for really, if it weren't for reading my Bible, I could really
study and learn something.
It doesn't make any sense.
You know, if it weren't for my job, I could really reach my potential in life.
You know, if I didn't have this job to go to every day, that makes no sense because
that's the thing.
So you say, oh, these kids, I don't get anything done.
Get the kids done.
Bring up children.
You say, yeah, but I want to go out and win the world to Christ.
Bring up children.
And look, I'm for ladies' soul winning.
I think ladies ought to go soul winning.
I think ladies are commanded to preach the gospel.
I think every man, woman, boy, and girl should preach the gospel, amen?
I think every man, woman, boy, and girl should preach the gospel.
I think that everybody should be capable of giving the gospel, be able to win somebody
to Christ.
I think everybody should get out there and knock some doors and win people to Christ.
Hey, we emphasize that at this church a lot.
There's no question about that.
But let me say this.
You don't put your children on the back burner, put your wife, your husband, your job on the
back burner so that you can go out and win souls.
You know what?
You need to get your life in balance.
And you need to win souls and you need to go to church, but you also need to take care
of your carnal responsibilities in this life.
And I don't think the Lord is impressed at all from some wife neglecting her husband,
neglecting her children, and going out and doing a bunch of great works for the Lord,
quote unquote.
She needs to do some good works at home.
She needs to learn first to show piety at home.
And I'm not going to go out and preach and travel and run around at the expense of my
family.
Now hey, obviously my main job in life is not to be a house husband or a primary caregiver
to my children.
Obviously, as a man, my main work is done outside the home, right?
But I don't want to get out of balance or go overboard where I'm just running around
saving everybody else and then my family goes down the toilet.
And you know, do you think I'd be the first preacher that that ever happened to?
No way.
Now look, I travel.
I go on missions trips.
I go preach in other parts of the country.
But I keep it within reason.
I keep it within a level where I can still spend time with my family.
And whenever I go preach somewhere, 99% of the time I take one of my kids with them and
have some special one-on-one time with my children because my family is important.
Look how many men of God in the Bible.
They were great men of God and their children went bad.
Think of an example.
How about Samuel?
You know what the Bible says about Samuel?
The Bible says that he was constantly traveling a circuit throughout the entire nation of
Israel, preaching everywhere throughout the nation of Israel.
I wonder if that might be part of why his kids turned out wrong because he's never there.
He's never around.
So it's great to go out and serve the Lord in the sense of winning souls.
And look, it's not like we haven't had plenty of sermons on soul winning.
It's great to serve the Lord by praying and reading your Bible and going to church and
singing hymns and discipling new converts.
But learn first to show piety at home.
And you need to make sure that you're serving Christ seven days a week and that even in
your carnal activities you are doing it unto the Lord.
Not half in, half out.
Doing things lamely.
You know what I'm talking about.
People are just halfway about everything they do.
They're not inspired.
They're uninspired, right?
They're lacking inspiration, meaning that they're just kind of like, ugh.
They just kind of sulk around and just do everything half-hearted.
No, no.
Do it heartily as unto Christ.
Did I have a turn in 1 John 4?
The Bible says in 1 John 4, verse 20, if a man say I love God, and people say that all
the time.
Oh, I love God.
But he who loveth his brother, he's a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
Oh, I love God.
But I don't love my wife.
Oh, I love God.
But I don't love my husband.
Oh, I love God.
But I don't love my children.
Oh, I just love God.
But I don't love my parents.
You're a liar.
a liar because if you can't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom
you've not seen?
So it's easy to talk about worshipping and serving and loving the unseen God, the invisible
God, but the way that we do that in our everyday life has to do with our fellow man.
Even if we look at the quote-unquote spiritual things, because I'm submitting to you this
morning that everything we do ought to be spiritual.
We ought to be a spirit-filled plumber, spirit-filled electrician, spirit-filled carpenter.
We should be filled with the Spirit.
It didn't say, hey, get filled with the Spirit three times a week.
We should live filled with the Spirit.
But even when we do the spiritual activities, like preaching a sermon, who are we doing
that for?
Well, we're doing it unto Christ, but who are we doing it?
We're actually literally doing it for our fellow man.
Like right now, who am I preaching to?
I'm preaching to people.
Okay, when I go out soul-ending and I knock a door, who am I giving the gospel to?
A person.
So when we do things, we do them for people, and when we do it for one of the least even
of Christ's brethren, we do it as unto him.
And he said, you've done it to me.
Can you serve food to your family?
I mean, look, if Jesus were your husband, would you tell him, hey, go pull a hungry
man out of the freezer.
Would that be dinner for your husband?
While you sit on the sofa, watching a soap opera with a tub of ice cream, and your husband
says what's for dinner, and he sends you to the freezer to go retrieve a Salisbury steak
with some little jam compote dessert on the side that you've never seen before.
Sounds like a gelled fruit, sugar, high fructose corn syrup solution with artificial color.
Is that what you'd serve Christ?
And you know what, when we have church activities here, by the way, you'll never see us serving
junk food here.
You know, when we have a church barbecue here, we serve organic ground beef.
Why?
Because that's what we would serve to Jesus.
You know, when we have ice cream after the service, we don't go down and buy the cheapest
five-gallon tub from Walmart of the most artificial chemical-laden ice cream.
You know, when we serve ice cream here, it's something organic or it's Haagen-Dazs, amen?
You know, it's something good.
Why?
Because that's what we would serve Jesus.
And to me, if I'm putting on a barbecue for the church, I'm putting on a barbecue for
Jesus.
If I'm cooking dinner for a family in the church, I'm cooking dinner for Jesus.
And every wife, when she's making dinner for her family, is making dinner for Jesus.
Guess who's coming to dinner?
Jesus!
Every night!
Every night, you sit down and you say, well, where two or three are gathered together.
Well, you know what?
That's my life because I have 12 people gathered together for every meal.
So we have way more than two or three people gathered together in our house.
So if we sit down to eat and we pray and give thanks to the Lord Jesus, and we love Christ
Jesus in our hearts, and we love each other as we should love Christ, then guess what?
Jesus is coming to dinner every night.
So what are you serving?
Are you serving something that you just throw together because you don't care because you're
too busy on Facebook or you're too busy on video games, which I think video games is
probably more the male problem.
I don't think there are many women who are addicted to video games, although it's starting
to be a phenomenon, that even women are addicted to certain like video games that are played
through social media, Bejeweled or whatever, Bedazzled or whatever it's called.
Isn't that what it's called, something like that?
Bejeweled or Farm Animals or Farmville.
And look, I'm not against a little good clean fun, but when you're goofing around on a video
game all day, and then your husband is eating some ready frozen meal because you didn't
do any real cooking, and by the way, maybe you can save your husband some money by doing
some real cooking too, since ready food costs a lot more than homemade food.
Homemade food is cheaper and more nutritious.
You're going to save money with the doctor bills because you're going to be healthy,
and you're going to save money at the grocery store by buying real ingredients, and it's
going to taste better, and you're taking your job seriously, and you're doing it unto
Christ.
And you husbands, when you go to work, do it as unto the Lord.
Why?
So you can love your wife, and what's one of the most important ways that you love for
your wife is by nourishing her.
Feed her.
What does that mean?
Bring home the bacon, amen?
You work hard.
You earn a paycheck.
You don't go in there and do just a half in job at your work, and then you're getting
paid minimum wage because you're not giving it 100 percent, you're not getting the raises
because you're just phoning it in every day, and then your wife has to do without.
What if Christ said, provide for me?
What if Christ said, hey, I'm in the ministry full time, I need somebody to provide my needs?
How much of a paycheck would you bring home to take care of Christ?
Because you know what?
Jesus Christ in his three and a half year ministry did not work a secular job.
He was not a carpenter.
He wasn't out doing secular work.
No, the Bible says that there were people who ministered unto him of their substance.
So when Jesus walked this earth, people gave him money, and they gave him food, and they
took care of him to support the work that he was doing.
Well, let me tell you something.
If you as a husband look at your wife and think, okay, I need to go out and work hard
to provide for my wife, ask yourself this, how would you provide for Jesus if Jesus were
relying on you to provide for him?
If Jesus said, hey, I'm counting on you, when you went off to work in the morning, hey,
I'm counting on you because I'm going to be out healing the sick and casting out devils
and preaching the word of God all day.
I'm going to be traveling to all the towns and villages preaching.
I'm going to need you to minister to me of your substance.
You know, would you go to work hard at your job?
And would you try to make as much as you could to provide something nice for Jesus, something
– and I'm not talking about being rich.
I'm not talking about decadence and over extravagance.
You know what I'm talking about?
I'm just talking about a good, clean, healthy meal is what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about food that's not made of chemicals and poison.
I'm just talking about a salt – I'm not talking about filet mignon.
I'm not talking about lobster and surf and turf and whatever.
You know what I'm talking about is just a good, clean meal, a clean house, a roof
over the head, you know, just the basics of life here.
We need to work hard as husbands, wives.
And you know what?
What kind of affection do you show your wife?
What kind of affection do you show your husband?
You know what?
You ought to show affection to your spouse as you would show unto Christ.
You know what?
This is the one who bowed down to Christ and washed his feet with her tears and wiped them
with her hair versus the Pharisee where he said, thou gavest me no kiss.
Now we don't practice this in the United States, you know, but anyway.
But if you go to other countries, people practice this.
I mean, look, when we were just over in the Middle East, the cab driver, you know, I gave
the cab driver a tip and he kissed me on both cheeks.
I'm like, what in the world is this guy?
You know, you know, the first time I met my father-in-law, he's kissing me on the cheek.
You know, you go to other countries, whether it's in Europe, Asia, different places where
they'll greet you with a kiss, right?
You know, the Bible says, greet one another with a holy kiss.
So they'll kiss you on the cheeks as a greeting.
And Jesus rebuked the Pharisee.
He said, thou gavest me no kiss.
But this woman kissed my feet.
You remember that story in the Bible?
What did he mean by that?
What's being taught there?
What's being said?
You know what?
It's affection.
It's respect.
It's when your husband gets home, give him a kiss.
Greet him warmly, not just, eh, eh.
You know, your husband comes to the door, you just, you open the door and just walk
away, don't say anything.
Greet him warmly.
Why?
Because if Jesus showed up at your house, would you greet him warmly?
Would you greet him warmly?
Would you shake his hand?
Would you give him a hug?
If you were in the Middle East or Europe, would you give him a kiss?
Yes, you would.
You would do it.
But is your spouse not worthy of that affection?
Are your children or your parents not worthy of affection?
We need to do everything in life heartily as unto the Lord.
Let's bow our heads.
Or we never dealt with 1 John 4, did we?
It's already done.
Alright, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for everything that you've given us, Lord, and we owe you everything,
Lord.
And so help us every day to serve you, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, help us to serve you in
the home, at the job, at church, at school, whatever we do, help us to do it heartily
as unto you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.