Study the Word

Guest (Male): With some food for thought on decision making, here's pastor Tom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: I make quick decisions. You can ask my wife. I can make quick decisions, but I want to make the right decision. And listen, you can make good decisions based on what you know. You can't make good decisions based on what you don't know. You can make good decisions based on what is true as of today. You can't make good decisions based on what's going to happen tomorrow or next week that you don't know is going to happen tomorrow or next week. It's understood that experience is needed to make good decisions, but to get experience you must make decisions.

And then to make matters worse, while we're free in our choices, we can't choose the outcome. With that said, there are some things we can do that will make a difference. And we'll hear about it as we continue in Colossians 3 on today's study the word with pastor Tom Keller. Before getting to that, pastor Tom starts us off with a story. Marvin and Shirley were childhood sweethearts who had married and settled down in the same neighborhood where they grew up. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and decided that they wanted to walk down the street to their old elementary school.

Once inside, they found the old desk they shared where he had carved in the desk, I love you Shirley. On the way back home, a bag of money fell out of an armored car and practically landed at Shirley's feet. She quickly picked it up and decided to take it home until they decided what to do with it. When she gets home, she counts the money and it's $50,000. Marvin says, honey, we've got to give it back. Shirley said, finders keepers. And she put the money in the bag and hid it up in the attic. The next day, two FBI agents are going door to door in the neighborhood looking for the money and they show up at their home.

They say, pardon me, but did either of you know about or hear about some money that fell out of an armored car yesterday? Shirley says, no. Marvin quickly interjects, she's lying. She hid it in the attic. Shirley said, don't believe him. He's getting senile. So, the agents sit Marvin down and begin to question him. Sir, to test if he really is senile. Sir, please tell us the story from the beginning. Well, Marvin said, when Shirley and I were walking home from school yesterday, the agents immediately looked at each other and said, let's get out of here.

Now, that wife didn't quite get under her husband's authority on that issue, did she? And in Colossians chapter 3, Paul has been detailing the responsibilities of those under authority and in authority in key relationships verses 18 to 20. It says, wives submit to your husbands as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents for this pleases the Lord. So, verse 18 says, wives submit to your husbands. Verse 19 says, husband, love your wives. And verse 20 says, children, obey your parents.

And it is of note that Paul intentionally uses the word for child here that points to children regardless of age. Any offspring, any age. There are actually 13 different words in the Greek language for child. And obviously, Paul could have chosen any one of those. He could have chosen a word that would have referred to an infant or a young child or a teenager, but he didn't. He intentionally chose the word that includes all offspring of parents regardless of age. In the Greek, it's child is technon. And it means offspring. It applies universally and without regard to sex.

Universally meaning as a brother or a father irrespective someone is your father irrespective of their age. Someone is your brother irrespective of your age. You are a child irrespective of your age with this definition of technon. So, it says children, offspring of any age obey your parents. And in Ephesians, there's a promise that is added to all those offspring who choose to obey their parents. Ephesians 6 verse 1 to 3. Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is a right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise.

If you honor your father and mother, listen, things will go well for you and you will have a long life on earth. Things will go well for you. What a promise. And since this is a God ordained and therefore never failing principle, we should expect to find the same truth given in the Old Testament and we do. In Proverbs, we find these admonitions. Proverbs 1:8 says this, my child, listen when your father corrects you. Don't neglect your mother's instruction. Proverbs 6 verse 20. My son, obey your father's commands and don't neglect your mother 's instructions.

Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you. In Proverbs 13:1, a wise child accepts a parent's discipline. A mocker refuses to listen to correction. That was interesting, but just as in the Greek, Paul had 13 words to choose from. Solomon had 13 different Hebrew words for child that he could have used to describe child here, but the word Solomon chose, the wisest man that ever lived next to Christ was the word bane.

And Strong says that it is an offspring, a son in the widest sense of the word just like again like brother or father. Did you get it? It's ageless. It doesn't matter the age. So, listen again in that context to these scripture verses. Listen through the eyes of a 30 year old son or daughter, a 40 year old son or daughter, a 50 year old son or daughter. Listen. If you can put the first one up, Proverbs 1. My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don't neglect your mother's instruction. Proverbs 6. My son, obey your father's commands and don't neglect your mother's instruction.

Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck. Proverbs 13. A wise child accepts a parent's discipline. A mocker refuses to listen to correction. Ephesians 6 1 to 3. Children, obey your parents. Children of any age, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you and you will have a long life on the earth. You know, we've taught this many times.

Children, always obey your parents for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3 2. And we've talked about this before and when we talk do youth retreats, when we do the marriage series, but you know, life is filled with choices, decisions. And many of those are just left or right, A or B, up or down, stop or go. You know, moral, ethical, the Bible guides us in those. But when it is simply an an up and down, left or right, both moral, both ethical choices, how do we come to make the right decision? How do we do that?

Well, the Bible says that this is one way to get under God ordained authority in this example under the authority of your parents. So, when I have a decision to make, I would go and I practice this with my parents for wow, 40 years, 35 years. When I had a decision, my wife and I or I would go to my father, my mother and I say, we have a decision to make. I'm just curious what you think about the choice. And with some notable exceptions, I would just do what they said. Now, when I tell people that, they will look at me and say, well, you just can't make decisions.

I make quick decisions. You can ask my wife. I can make quick decisions, but I want to make the right decision. And listen, you can make good decisions based on what you know. You can't make good decisions based on what you don't know. You can make good decisions based on what is true as of today. You can't make good decisions based on what's going to happen tomorrow or next week that you don't know is going to happen tomorrow or next week. It is kind of like this. You know, we get to that fork in the road.

There's an A or B, a left or a right, both moral, both ethical. And we have a decision to make. So, how do I process that? Well, without this principle, I start thinking about it. I think about all my past experiences. I might go to the internet, Google, do some research. And based on all my research, I head off in that direction. Now, the problem with that, if you really think it through, the problem with that, if that's how that works, then the smartest people get all the blessings. God would never set up the system so the smartest people get all the blessings.

God always sets the system up that those who obey get the blessings. That's what he does. So, when I make a decision left or right, A or B, and I'm going to go left or right and I I'm reducing this to filthy lucre to just money to make the point. But I think at the end of one of those, the A or the B, at the end of that fork in the road, there's a blessing left or right. And I want to get to that blessing. And what's really cool is I think, now listen, I think the blessing is already at the A or the B and I need to figure out which way to go.

Did you ever think that maybe God instead, because it is just a left or right in A or B, that God will move the blessing to the decision that you followed based on the godly authority. We think my key is to find where the blessing is. No, my my responsibility is to follow God's principle. And if I do, he is bound. This is the first of God's 10 commandments that ends with a promise and this is a promise that if you do, yours will be a long life full of blessing. And that's what we want.

If you do, yours will be a long life full of blessing. Could it be that simple? Does God make anything complicated? Now, if your parents tell you to do something immoral or unethical, of course you don't do that. But outside of that, huge, huge principle. Again, Colossians 3 20. You children must always obey your parents for this is what pleases the Lord. So, let's go on. Colossians 3 20 to 21. It says, children, always obey your parents for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children or they will be discouraged. Dan spoken children two weeks ago and I had many of you tell me what a wonderful message it was.

I really appreciated what he said about expectations versus hope. Don't have expectations for your children, but hope because if you have expectations, you look to your child. If you have hope, you look to God. That's genius. You know, may I encourage you not to expect your children all to fit into a certain mold or that why can't you be like your brother? Why can't you be like your sister? Now, if it's ethical or moral behavior, that's different. But if you're trying to button hole your child into being a certain way, there's a fable called the Animal School.

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of the new world. So, they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer, all the animals took all subjects. The duck was an excellent swimmer, better in fact than his instructor, and made excellent grades in flying. But he was very poor at running. Since he was low in running, he had to stay after school and drop swimming to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet were so badly worn that he was only average in swimming.

But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about except the duck. The rabbit started out at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup and swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustrations in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground instead of from up in the trees. You also developed Charlie horses from over exertion and got a C in climbing and a D in running. The eagle was a problem child from the beginning and had to be disciplined severely.

In climbing, he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but he insisted on using his own way to get there. At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, could also run, climb, and fly a little, had the highest average, and was valedictorian. Let your children be who made them. Raise up your child according to their bent, the way they were natured. Colossians 3 22 says this, slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you.

Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done for God has no favorites. Now, let's see if we can settle one thing once and for all because this is a million dollar question. Can we legitimately transfer the same teaching in verse 22 dealing with slaves and masters into our culture regarding employee employer relationships?

I've always wondered that. Colossians 3 verse 22 again by itself. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Well, let's take a look at the Greek. In Greek, the word for servant is the word doulos. And Strong says that it is a slave involuntarily or voluntarily. Vine says that it is quote a general word for servant, listen, frequently indicating subjection without the idea of bondage. Strong says it can mean involuntary or voluntary subjection.

So, I think we have to say that an employee today is in fact one who voluntarily places himself or herself in subjection, which Webster says means subjection to place oneself under someone's control or influence or authority. And a good employee does this. So, the Greek, I think, clearly allows us to carry this application into a employee employer relationship. So, let's make the application. Let's look at these verses again. Think of it in employee. Employees, obey your earthly employers in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you.

Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward. And the master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done for God has no favorites. What he says is you employees must obey your employers in everything you do, except of course where it would compromise biblical mandates and prohibitions like stealing or cheating or lying for them or in your setting.

Again, with those exceptions, quote, you employees must obey your employers in everything you do. Obey them willingly because of your reverent fear of the Lord. So, a question for you. Apart from not compromising your biblical convictions, do you obey your bosses, your managers, your supervisors willingly, willingly placing yourself under their control and authority? Always obeying, trying to please them all the time, not just when they're watching you. This same point is made in 1 Timothy 6. All slaves should show full respect for their masters so they will not bring shame in the name of God and his teachings.

If the masters are believers, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. Those slaves, those employees to work all the harder because their efforts are helping other believers who are well loved. And then Ephesians 6 verse 5, remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. So, both Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 say to work hard and not just when they are watching. A retired man became interested in the construction that was taking place in an addition to a shopping mall. Because he was retired, he could observe regularly and he was especially impressed by the hard work done by a conscientious operator of a large piece of equipment.

The day finally came when this observer had a chance to tell the man how much he enjoyed watching his hard work. Looking astonished, the operator replied, you mean you're not the supervisor? Work as under the Lord. The story is told of the first governor of Australia, an man by the name of Lord Hopton. One of his most cherished possessions was a 300 year old ledger that he had inherited from John Hope, one of his ancestors. Hope had owned a business in Edinburgh where he first used this ledger 300 years earlier. When Lord Hopton received it, he noticed that his ancestor had inscribed on his front page of this book, listen of this, oh Lord, keep me and this book honest.

Keep me and this book honest. Are you honest at work? When I first started, I worked at Car Village in Lebanon and we had about 10 employees there and we had a time clock and everybody was on the time clock. And I go through time cards at the end of the week just watching them. And I started to notice that everybody clocked out exactly at 59. 4:59, 5:59. They clocked in, but they clocked out at that time. And I thought, what are the odds of that? Everybody clocking out at 59. And I went out at 59 and I looked at the card and the card and the time clock would go 4 would go 3:58.

3:58. 3:57, 3:58, 3:50, 3:58, 4:59 4. Did you get it? The hour jumped at the last minute of the hour. And so they gained an hour in their time card. So, it went 3:57, 3:58, 4:59 4. And everybody was punching out on the 59 mark to get another hour. Clever. I took all the time back. My brother one time, my brother really was genius. My brother caught somebody stealing. And he brought them in his office and he had a a yellow tablet. And he wrote down he said, I have on this piece of paper. He didn't show him.

Opposite the desk, he said, I I have a list of everything that you've stolen. And he said, and I want you to bring a list of everything that you've stolen. And if your list doesn't match my list, I'm going to call the police. And the guy came back the next day with a list three times longer than my brother's list. When I first started here, I can't tell you how many people. I mean, I'm going to guess five different people came up to me and said, hey, I feel really bad now that you're my pastor, but I stole from you when I worked at Keller Brothers.

Or I remember one guy came up to me and said, he said, I have apartments. And he said, I wanted you to know that I rented an apartment to one of your one of your employees. And he's was there for five years and when he when he left, I have a room in the basement filled with space saver tires that he stole out of cars and put in that room. A sad testimony there from pastor Tom Keller. Sad, but not shocking, though it ought to be in light of God's clear commands. There's still more to glean from the scripture.

We'll do that next time on Study the Word. You can hear this message again online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call us at 717 273 5633. Have you been helped by the ministry? Let us know that. It would be so encouraging to pastor Tom and the team. Give us a call at 717 273 5633 or write to Study the Word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You can also email us through the website at ccleb.com. Study the Word is made possible through the generous support of listeners just like you.

And thank you for helping us reach out with the love and truth of Jesus Christ at a time in human history where people really need biblical encouragement. You can give online at ccleb.com or call 717 273 5633. We hope you'll visit us sometime here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. For our service times and more information, go to ccleb.com on the web. You can also watch our live stream there at ccleb.com or on our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Study the Word with pastor Tom Keller is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania. May God richly bless you as you study the Word.