A Daily Walk

Announcer: Pastor John Randall says how we do our job speaks volumes to those who are watching.

John Randall: When you show up at the job site, or you're going to the office, or you're going to the classroom, perhaps your conditions are not favorable. Maybe your boss is not a believer. Maybe her life is deplorable. But regardless, you still have the responsibility to live a Christian life before them.

And therefore, you, me, we should be the best employees there are. We really should be, of any company. I'm not saying you're going to have employee of the month twelve months running, but I'm working towards it. It should be my desire. Because imagine if that is you, and every month it's just you, and that's good. That should be the goal, to be the best employee they have.

Announcer: At various points of our lives, most of us will be in the workforce. And whether you're a janitor, a doctor, a school teacher, God wants to use you in a wonderful way. Today on A Daily Walk, Pastor John Randall will show us how to demonstrate the presence of God in our lives on the job. It's a highly practical study framed around 1st Peter chapter 2. But before we get to that, let's see together what Peter has to say about liberties.

John Randall: In John chapter 8, Jesus said it this way in verse 31, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. If the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed." Real freedom, true freedom is found in knowing the word and in knowing Jesus. And then in 2nd Corinthians 3:17, Paul said, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Oh, we are free in Christ. We have been liberated.

Now when we talk about Christian liberty, it can refer to several things. Again, the gospel of Jesus Christ provides liberty. We have been freed from the bondage of sin and death. But the Bible also speaks of a Christian's liberty in the context of what a Christian should be involved with and what a Christian should avoid being involved with. Christian liberty. Peter gives a warning here concerning the tendency in human nature to use liberty in Christ as a license to sin.

He said don't do it. Don't use your liberty that you have in Christ as a cloak for vice. When he uses the word cloak, it's the idea of Christian freedom that is masked for ungodly license. It gives you the appearance to cloak the real intention of the state of affairs, offering a false reason or a false motive, an excuse, or explanation. In the book of Jude, Jude warns about such people that actually come into the body of Christ who do this very thing.

He tells us in Jude chapter 1, in verse 4, he warns the believers. He said, "There are certain men who have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation." What are they like? He said they are ungodly men. What makes them ungodly? Here's what makes them ungodly: they turn the grace of God into lewdness, and they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They come in stealthily, and they use Christian terminology, say the right things, and do the wrong thing. They use it as a cloak for vice, and they make excuses in the process.

Paul said something along these lines as well in Romans chapter 6, verse 1. He said, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" I mean, think about that. If God is glorified by being gracious, they said—and it is true, God is glorified in the way that he shows us grace—then why don't I give him more opportunity to show grace? How? By sinning. Doesn't that seem to work out for everybody?

If I sin, God gets the opportunity to be gracious. So he can be glorified in this, and I'll have a powerful testimony. No, that's a misunderstanding. You want to beef up your testimony? Go live in sin and then come back and tell everybody how gracious God was because now your testimony is legit? As if one testimony is more powerful than the other. Let me just pause there. I'm not ranting, I'm just sharing with you for a second.

You want a powerful testimony? Here's the powerful testimony: I got saved, I've lived with Jesus a pure life, my whole life I've walked with him since I was a child. That's a powerful testimony. And it's just as powerful as, "I used to do drugs, I used to rob people, I used to beat up people, I blew up a few buildings, I did this, I did that, I was incarcerated for 25 years and then after that I got out and I went back in and then I came back out, and now I'm born again and God is using me all over the world." Whoa, powerful! Not any more powerful than the person who's walked with Jesus their whole life. Listen, it's easy to sin, it's hard not to. So that's a powerful testimony.

Never underestimate your testimony. But the point is this: shall we sin that grace might abound? The answer to that is no, certainly not. Strongest negative you can be using in the Greek language. No. Paul said it this way in 1st Corinthians chapter 10, I think it's wise, he said, "All things as a Christian, all things are lawful for me." In other words, I have liberty. "But," he adds, "not all things are helpful for me. All things are lawful, I have freedom, I have liberty, but not all things edify." And so I don't want to use my liberty as a cloak for vice, which some people do, and it's a mistake. It's sin to do that.

It was William Barclay, I thought he said it in a profound way. He said, "Any great Christian doctrine can be perverted into an excuse for evil." He said the doctrine of grace, it can be perverted into an excuse for sinning to one's heart's content. The doctrine of the love of God can be sentimentalized into an excuse for breaking his law. The doctrine of the life to come can be perverted into an excuse for neglecting life in this world. And he went on to say there is no doctrine so easy to pervert as that of Christian freedom.

Listen, when the Bible says that we are free, when God has liberated us, it means that he has liberated us from a life of sin. I don't have to do that any longer. I used to, but now I'm free not to. Not "I am free so I can go back into it and live like I never was free." That's a misunderstanding of the grace of God and a misapplication. You don't understand what you're saying. God didn't free you so you could go back to it. He freed you so you didn't have to go back to it.

And that is what Peter is saying. Don't use your liberty, your freedom as a license for vice. To get involved in something and say, "I'm a Christian, but God's good, forgiveness, hey, I love to be forgiven." Of course we do. And God is gracious. But there were Christians that Peter was writing to that felt that their freedom in Christ now made them free from the laws of the land. Moral laws were no longer applied. Some felt they could take advantage of their freedom in every respect, and some of them even gave themselves over to all kinds of sensual indulgence by casting off every moral and civil law and this newfound liberty they had to plunge them into depths of greater depravity. Like, no, that's not right. That's a misunderstanding.

Peter saw this danger, and so he said don't use your freedom to go back, but instead be good examples to those around you. Titus, when Paul wrote to Titus in chapter 2, he said something very similar. He said to Titus in chapter 2, verse 7, "In all things show yourself to be a pattern of good works. In doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you." Again, saying very similar to what Peter said, to what Paul had said. You see that it's consistent. It's a consistent message. It's the same message. Live in such a way so that you're above reproach.

They won't have anything evil to say of you. They'll see you as a good witness. Whether that's in a political situation that you're in, I submit to the governing authorities, I recognize that their authority comes from God and I do my best to live a peaceable life before the Lord. But not only in the area of civil authority, but also in a Christian's life vocationally.

Look at verse 18. It says, "Servants," now he changes the subject, he's looking at another opportunity wherein you could be an example in the midst of this world. "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief and suffering wrongfully." Now some of your translations may read "slaves." And of course, in the first century, there were many slaves, estimated some 50 to 60 million slaves actually in the Roman Empire, one-third of the population like in cities like Corinth and Ephesus and Rome were made up of mostly slaves.

And at one time, they all wore a particular garment, but then they changed that because they didn't want them to see how much power they actually had, how much manpower they had, so they had them wear a different garment. Some of them were treated well, some of them were professionals, they were brought into the family, they were welcomed in. Others were treated like garbage, they were treated like something could be thrown away, a piece of property. But many of these slaves had gotten saved. They became Christians, and now they discovered the truth of God's word that they were free.

Because the Bible says there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ. And slaves, although employed by a master, were free men in the Lord. And yet they were still to be faithful where they were at. Now today, of course, we don't have slavery in this context, and no man should be a slave, and no woman should be a slave of anyone. The Bible speaks against that. But it is important to understand this application for this text would be better applied for us in terms of employer and employee relationships.

Servants, employees with your employer, be submissive to your masters with fear. There's a reverence, there's a respect. And then it says not just to the good or the nice boss, the gentle, kind, but also to the harsh. When you show up at the job site, or you're going to the office, or you're going to the classroom, perhaps your conditions are not favorable. Maybe your boss is not a believer. Maybe her life is deplorable. But regardless, you still have the responsibility to live a Christian life before them.

And therefore, you, me, we should be the best employees there are. We really should be, of any company. I'm not saying you're going to have employee of the month twelve months running, but I'm working towards it. I mean, it should be my desire. Because imagine if that is you, and every month it's just you, and that's good. That should be the goal, to be the best employee they have. And there are places that God sends you that I'll never have the opportunity to go.

There are people that work next to you that I'll never have a chance to sit down with them at lunch and share Jesus. I won't have the opportunity to invite them over for whatever and share with them the gospel. But you're with them every single day. I don't know if you know this or not, if you don't know this, I want to share this with you. Right outside those doors right there, there's a massive sign. You could walk by it and not see it, maybe you have. It's huge, it would be hard to miss.

But here's what it says: "You are now entering your mission field." It says that out there. It does. Take a picture after, standing by it, so you remember. You're entering your mission field. We walk out those doors, that's the field. That's the field. Jesus said the fields are ripe with harvest, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his field. That's where we go. We go out from this place in order to sow the seed of the word of God. And that's our mission field. Do you look at your workplace like a mission field? No, actually, no, I do not look at it like that.

Ask the Lord to change your perspective on it. To see it as opportunity because, listen, ultimately being the best employee is because you don't just work for that employer, not just for the person that signed your check. Who do we work for? Ultimately, I work for Jesus. And so my work is to be done as unto the Lord. So no matter what position he puts me in, I want to glorify the Lord. You say, "I hate my job." All right, maybe God has another job, but for right now, you're there.

So see it as opportunity to be a light and to be a witness. "Well, my boss is really mean." Notice what Peter says: not just submissive to the good and gentle, but also the harsh. If you've got to talk to HR, talk to HR, but I'm just saying you may have a not very nice boss. And it's been so great, Thanksgiving's been so good, but now it's almost Monday, and you've got to go back. And you're not sure how your boss is going to be. Did they have a good Thanksgiving? Did she have a good—if she didn't, if he didn't, it's probably not going to be good. I don't know how it's going to be like. So you're kind of bracing for impact when you walk in. You're like, "Hey, how was—" "Okay, it wasn't good." All right, we're just going to—you know, you just kind of adapt to the surrounding.

What do you do if you've got a harsh boss? Here's what you do: you pray for them. You pray for them. I used to have a very harsh boss. And he was critical, and he was mean, and he didn't say nice things. And he was shorter than me, and I realized it could be that. I feel bad too, you know. But he just would say just terrible things and just criticize everything that I did. And he would have me do things that just intentionally that nobody else wanted to do just to try to, I don't know, break me down, I don't know, exercise his authority over me, whatever. Some people can handle authority and some people cannot. And you say, "I know, I work for somebody like that."

Well, anyways, what I just—I was getting frustrated at first. And I was like—I was young back in the day and I thought, you know what, let's go. I mean, in my mind, in my mind, that's what I was thinking. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of this. One more thing, just say one more thing, one more thing, and I know where your car's parked. I'm not going to do that. You think those things. This was a long time ago, guys, this was a long time ago. Like 30 years ago. So it's been a long time. I haven't thought that in a while.

But here's the thing. What was crazy is the Lord started ministering to my heart and said, "John, I want you to pray for this guy. Every time he says something, just start praying for him, not out loud, but just in your heart." And I came to realize I started praying for this guy and the things that would come out of his mouth I realized, you know, his marriage is a mess. You know, this guy, his kids are out there. And it just shows up. This guy is so frustrated, he needs Jesus. That was the problem. And I just started praying, and I want to tell you, a change happened. Guess who it happened with? With me.

That's where the change started. It starts with me. God was changing my heart. God put this guy in my life to teach me something about his love that I didn't know, to change me. And so I would encourage you to do that, not just to the good and gentle, but also to those that aren't that kind, that may be harsh. And Peter even says it here, look at verse 20: "What credit is it if when you're beaten for your faults you take it patiently?" In other words, you did something that you knew you weren't supposed to do and then you got corrected for it or written up for it. "Persecution!" No, you blew it. You did the wrong thing.

On the other hand, when you do good and you suffer and you take it patiently, hey, that's different. That's actually commendable before God. That's something that God takes notice of and blesses. If you go to work and you're lazy, you're a lazy worker, "I'm a Christian." Well, you're a lazy one if you're not showing up on time, if you're trying to cut corners, if you're trying to do things that are underhanded or whatever and yet claiming to be a Christian and then you get written up and think, "I'm just being persecuted." No, you're not being persecuted because you're a Christian, you're being persecuted because you showed up 30 minutes late and said you were witnessing at the gas station. That doesn't work.

"You're fired." I'm going to write you up and then after that you're going to be gone. Don't use that as an excuse. Don't be lazy. Be a hard worker, demonstrate that. On the other hand, if you're doing your job and you're showing up and you are being persecuted because you are a Christian, and you love the Lord and they know about your faith, and it's not like you're broadcasting it. Listen, if you're hired to do a job, do the job. If they didn't hire you to be a full-time evangelist, then do what you're called to do.

And then on your lunch break, evangelize. Invite them over for dinner, take them out for—I mean, whatever. Look for opportunities off the clock, in other words, if given that opportunity to share your faith. Let the way you work be a demonstration of your faith and then look for an opportunity to bring the words after the fact. That's a great way to labor in those kinds of places. And God will give you those opportunities. But to be evangelizing when you're supposed to be working and then being called out for it, don't blame the boss, that's on you if you weren't doing your job.

That is the point. And let me also add in—I'm not ranting, I'm just sharing right now—but if you are a Christian businessman, listen to me carefully, and you have a Christian business or a Christian businesswoman and you have a card and you publicize that you're a Christian, you've got your favorite scripture on there, and you rip people off, could you do me a favor? Take the scripture off. I mean, just take it off. It's a bad witness. In other words—actually, that's a joke kind of—but what I'm saying is, listen, if you're going to be a Christian, then be it.

I say that because people will come to me from time to time and they'll say, "I got this guy goes to your church and he ripped us off." I'm like, "I don't know who that guy is and I don't know what his business is. I'm sorry, you should probably report it to the Better Business Bureau, you should hold him accountable." In other words, guys, listen, whether you're working for somebody or you're the person who is in charge, make sure that we're living out our Christian life, our Christian faith in a way that pleases God and is a good testimony. That is what I'm emphasizing here today. That's important for us. That's our mission field.

Do I make mistakes sometimes? Yes. What do you do? I apologize. I'm sorry, I blew it there, and you're right. You own up to it, in other words. So Peter is saying to these believers, whether it's you've got the kings or the governors or the emperors or whatever, do your best to live a life that honors God with civil obedience, submitting to them, being an example. So when they come against you, and they were coming against the church intensely, that they withstood by their testimony.

And also if you work in a place, do your best with your boss, with your manager, whoever it is that's over you to live, to work in such a way that pleases God, that honors God. So that those who are unbelievers will see your example and they'll recognize what it means to be a Christian. And who knows, maybe you'll be the one that God has used in their life to lead them to Christ. Have you ever had that experience where you were on the job and you lived your life and you worked your job and you ended up getting the opportunity to lead somebody to Jesus? I think it's such a powerful opportunity and such a blessing to be able to do that.

And so Peter just says listen, if you're looking for an example, you say, "Well, what kind of example do I follow in this? Who am I going to look to?" Please notice this, he tells them verse 21, "To this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps: who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, he committed himself to him who judges righteously: who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd, the Overseer of your souls."

Hey, what kind of—what am I looking for by way of example? Who do I—what kind of example do I follow and emulate? The example of Jesus. He points to Jesus. I mean, you think about the life of Jesus. He came to this earth, he did good, he did what was right, and they crucified him. He suffered for doing what was right. But he didn't revile, and he had every opportunity to revile, he had every opportunity. At one point, you remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when all of the soldiers were coming to arrest him and Peter sought to defend him. Jesus said, "Don't you know that I could call down legions of angels right now if I wanted to?" One angel would be enough to wipe them out. But he said, "I could call down legions of angels right now." He didn't.

He didn't revile in return, and he bore our sins in his own body. Why did he do that? So that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness. And he's healed us by his stripes. Oh, there's the example to follow, guys. Are you in a situation right now, in your job, in your place of business, in your life where you're surrounded by some people that are hostile, that are difficult to work with? You've got a family situation that the dynamic is not healthy, it's actually kind of toxic, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to—what do you do? You follow the example of Jesus.

Announcer: Jesus is the ultimate example for us to follow in our daily walk. Pastor John Randall has just polished off 1st Peter chapter 2 as we continue through the Bible on A Daily Walk. His message called Living Out Your Faith can be heard again at adailywalk.org or through the Calvary South OC app. It's always encouraging to hear from our listeners. Even just a brief email letting us know you're listening and where means a lot. It's an opportunity to say thanks to God for what he's doing. Share a praise report or a prayer request today. You can email that to us at adailywalk@gmail.com.

Since Valentine's Day falls within the month of February, we've picked out a marriage strengthening resource from Bill Stonebreaker. While God's desire for us is that we have a good marriage that resembles his love for the church, Satan is opposed to marriage at every turn. This helpful little book will show you how to win the battle for a good marriage and identify spiritual warfare when it surfaces. That's Spiritual Warfare in Marriage, just five dollars at adailywalk.org. You can also call us at 877-242-0828. A Daily Walk is made possible through the support of listeners just like you. With your help, we're able to deliver God's good news all over the nation and world. Would you consider helping us in this venture to get the word out? People are being blessed and helped in their daily walk. Again, to make a secure donation, drop by adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. And check out the A Daily Walk devotional. These short videos are released each day at adailywalk.org and are both edifying and encouraging.

We've seen how we're to live on the job today on A Daily Walk. Next time, our focus shifts to how we're to conduct ourselves in our marriages. Pastor John Randall will share a word for wives with 1st Peter 3 in view. I'm Joe Ben. Let's be living for the glory of God in every area of our lives with Jesus as our example. This program is made possible through your generosity and brought to you by Calvary South OC.