Working

March 9, 2008 message by Pastor Rich Doebler.

Colossians 3:22-4:1 (NIV) 22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. 1 Masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

You might wonder: Is this passage really relevant for today? What does being a slave have to do with our society?

Are any of you slaves here today? Are any of you slave masters? Of course not! But then again...

We still have a system where some have to follow orders. Where some make decisions and others are supposed to act on them. You still hear comments like, "My boss is a real slave-driver."

The social structure has changed since these words were written. But the relationships are still similar. Slaves were the blue collar workers of first century Roman society—the era in which Paul wrote these verses. It wasn't just laborers who were slaves: doctors, teachers, and other skilled craftsmen were often slaves. Before Christ was born, by some estimates, more than half of Italy's population were slaves.

The relationship between first-century slaves and their masters, was often quite comparable to labor and management today—the relationship between bosses and employees.

You can catch a bit of this feeling of the slave-driver in this scene from an assembly line in a candy factory.

Video clip from "I Love Lucy" illustrates the feeling a lot of people have toward their job and a "slave-driver" type of supervisor.

How many of you absolutely love your job all the time? You can't wait to get up in the morning because you're so eager to get to work! Your boss is your favorite person in the whole wide world! Not only do you volunteer for overtime, you beg for extra hours. You'd rather be at work than on vacation.

A school board election in Mississippi County, Arkansas, a couple years ago produced no winner. Not one! No one came out on top. Why? Because not one person voted in the entire election! Not even Carl Miner, who was a candidate for school board—and who was, in fact, the only candidate on the ballot. His mother didn't vote for him. His wife didn't vote for him. His friends didn't vote for him. He didn't even vote for himself! Which makes me wonder: was Carl so bad, or was it the job? To be fair, he did go to the polls, but he arrived late and it was closed.

Some people feel that way about their jobs—it's a lousy job they don't want, and so they do lousy work. If they were voting, they would vote for a different job. They're counting the days till they retire—crossing dates off the calendar. Or they live for the weekend...or for vacation. They're miserable in their job, but they're stuck with it.

Work can be a huge source of frustration or challenge. Along with work comes other stress and chaos: you work to pay the bills, put food on the table, buy the things that make you happy, pay off the credit card you used to buy the things that make you happy. Work and finances together cause a lot of stress and chaos.

How would you like to be Bill Gates? This past week he learned he'd slipped from being the richest person on the planet. Now he's only the third! He's only worth 58 billion. What's worse, in the last month he lost about $10 billion in Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo. If they had not done that, Gates would still be on top. [March 6 (UPI)]

I don't need to lose $10 billion to experience financial stress! Just a $377 car repair can do it for me. One study found that 70% of married couples reported some kind of money problems." The shock for me was that the number was so low. I was thinking more like 100%. [http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/SuddenlySingle/MoneyIsntTheCulpritInMostDivorces.aspx]

There's stress about spending, about earning, about working, about the job, about finding significance and purpose. Some people feel trapped in their job—unfulfilled and bored. The rat race has turned into a rat trap. Locked in a routine, stuck in a rut, trapped in debt, can't afford to quit. No way to escape the bills.

When I was a kid in the 50s, I heard Tennessee Ernie Ford's song about the coal miner who felt so trapped in his job that even death couldn't get him out of it: Sixteen Tons.

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

Picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal

And the store boss said, ""Well, bless my soul""

(Chorus:)

You haul Sixteen Tons, whadaya get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Other more recent songs describe how people feel about their job:

Dolly Parton: Working Nine to Five.

Workin' 9 to 5—what a way to make a livin'
Barely getting' by—its all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind—and they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you crazy if you let it.

9 to 5—for service and devotion
You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion
Want to move ahead—but the boss won't seem to let me
I swear sometimes that man is out to get me

Johnny Paycheck: Take This Job and Shove It.

Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reasons
I was working for

You better not try to stand in my way
As I'm a walking out the door.
Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more

Not everyone hates work. A few feel quite happy with their jobs. Here, for instance, is a poem, supposedly written and then lost by Dr. Seuss:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://crazy‑jokes.com/pictures/dr‑suess.jpg&imgrefurl=http://crazy‑jokes.com/pictures/cartoons_329.shtml&h=122&w=141&sz=63&tbnid=ZoZGiwoD7gsJ:&tbnh=122&tbnw=141&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=2

Recent research "has found that fewer than half of all Americans are satisfied with their jobs, a steady decrease on the six out of 10 who said they were satisfied twenty years ago." http://www.management-issues.com/2007/2/26/research/job-satisfaction-keeps-falling.asp

Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: "...two out of every ten employees does not see himself in his current job a year from now." http://www.management-issues.com/2007/2/26/research/job-satisfaction-keeps-falling.asp

Another study found that 25% of employees are just "showing up to collect a paycheck." Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer's business goals and objectives... 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers... http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=2582

When it comes to how we handle work, does it make any difference if we're Christian? Should someone who follows Jesus have a better attitude about his job? Should a Christian have a better work ethic? Does the Bible have advice for people on how to get along with a difficult boss or how to handle the challenges of a stressful job or a boring job?

Turns out, this Book is a very practical book. Not only does it show us how to have a relationship with God and how to prepare for eternity, it also shows us how to have a relationship with a boss or with our employees. It shows us how to live in this world.

(For workers) How to make the most of your job:

1. Obey your boss.

Submit to his/her authority. Honor the position even if the person is undeserving. Follow instructions and do your best to help your boss succeed.

Why? Not to make a good impression on others; not to win favors from your supervisor (e.g. get a promotion).

No. Obey your boss because of your reverence and devotion to the Lord! Compare Eph 6.

2. Work at your job with all your heart!

Don't do a half-hearted job. Work with all your heart. Don't give a mediocre effort. Put your whole heart into it. Don't mope around with a bad attitude. Work with all your heart.

Why? Because ultimately you're working for the Lord—you're his slave or his bond-servant (verses). In the final analysis you're not serving men; it is the Lord Christ you are serving. Which leads to the final point...

3. Make the Lord your boss. (He really is!)

Your reward for your work ultimately is not a pay raise, not retirement benefits, not a year-end bonus, not vacation incentives, not a trip to Hawaii. Your boss cannot give you enough to reward you for being the person he's called you to be: honest, diligent, faithful, committed, full of integrity.

Your ultimate reward is an eternal inheritance from the Lord! We need a long-range perspective...an eternal perspective— "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4)

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." (Eccl 9:10)

(For bosses, supervisors, managers) How to get the most out of your employees:

1. Do not wrong your employees. Just as employees should not cheat their employers, the opposite is also true (v25).

Do not cheat those who work for you. Do not short-change them or take advantage of them.

Instead, treat them with respect; honor them as God's children, created in his image.

If they fail to do the job, there should be consequences (v25: repaid for the wrong); but if they do the job, there should be financial rewards.

2. Give your workers what is right and fair (4:1).

In a perfect world, there would be no need for unions, arbitration settlements, labor mediations.

Why? Because the boss would treat each employee fairly—and each employee would work hard to do his or her part make sure the company succeeded.

The challenge is that we don't live in a perfect world. It is the nature of people to complain: union complains about management; companies argue with the unions; employees complain about their boss and vice versa.

Jesus' example of man who hired people at different hours...workers complained because the boss was so generous (at least with others...but it made them feel cheated, even though they weren't). Comparing ourselves to others often leads to complaining: griping is often more about jealousy or envy than it is about real grievances.

3. Remember your place. You may be the boss. You may be on top of the heap. You may have 100 employees underneath you. But you also have a boss—a boss in heaven!

Bob Dylan: Ya Gotta Serve Somebody!

(v25) There is no favoritism: rank, privilege, wealth, advantage mean nothing to God—no one gets a pass because he's got a certain position.

Have you made Jesus the Lord of your life? Are you serving God as your Master? Whether you're a worker or a boss, how you work on the job or get along with others, begins with submitting to God's authority.