Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: What we are doing in every moment is saying whether it's dishes or diapers or drafting tables or drug counseling or district managers. All of that is part of our messaging of who we are in Christ and what I want you to know about him.

Every moment, every occupation, every career, all our work is lived before the face of God and therefore is part of our witness of eternal things to others. Work is worship.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares a lesson from Ephesians chapter 6. Dr. Chapell highlights the ways in which the work that we do is an opportunity to reflect Christ while also being an act of worship in itself.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. While you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's commentary on the book of Ephesians, which he wrote for the Reformed Expository Commentary series.

Dr. Chapell reveals how when we lift our eyes beyond ourselves to share Paul's expansive vision, then we, too, will join his doxology for God's amazing grace that transforms the world. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson: Work Matters.

Bryan Chapell: The National Football League reports that according to the preponderance of evidence, Tom Brady, last year's Super Bowl winning quarterback, knew that his staff had deflated the footballs giving him an advantage in the frigid weather of the Super Bowl. You and I know it's being contested, but what if it is true?

What a sad thing that would be, that a man who seemingly has everything this life could offer—fame and fortune and great ability and numerous Super Bowl rings—would be willing to taint it all to cheat just to get one more win. Why?

Maybe an answer comes from an interview some years ago in 2005 when Tom Brady was being interviewed by CBS News. At that time, he had three Super Bowl rings, a $20 million home surrounded by a moat, a supermodel wife, and of course all the acclaim that could seemingly be given to an athlete. He responded in the interview this way:

"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's got to be something else out there for me? A lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what it is. I've reached my goal, my dream, my life.' But me, I think there's got to be more than this. This isn't—this can't be all there is." The interviewer asked, "What's the answer?" Brady replied, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew."

How sad to have so much and still believe that because that doesn't satisfy, what the answer must be is just a little bit more. One more win, one more million, one more who-knows-what, and cheat if you got to get it because that's what will satisfy.

What he exemplifies, if it turns out to be true, are those old words by Augustine: that our hearts are ever restless until they find their rest in God. What's true of our rest is true of our work: that our work doesn't even matter to us, not ultimately, unless it matters to God.

We pursue things, we pursue reputation and income and the promotion, and find out after we have consumed it, it's like trying to be filled up on cotton candy. Tastes good, looks like a lot, but you taste it and it just disappears.

The glory of the Scriptures and the wonder of what God is communicating to us is his saying our work truly does matter to God. When what we do is done for him, it matters to God, and that ultimately gives us a sense of the significance and the satisfaction of it. As young people are planning this day what's ahead—occupation, education—just remember that what honors God is ultimately what satisfies.

What Paul is saying here, reminding us why does our work matter? Well, first because work is worship. That's why it matters to God. Our work is worship. Four times in this brief passage, the Apostle is reminding us that when you work, you are working as unto Christ.

The end of verse 5: slaves or even bondservants, you are to obey your earthly masters as you would Christ. Verse 6: work as bondservants of Christ. Verse 7: rendering service as to the Lord. Verse 9: masters, do the same, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven.

Over and over again, the work that you do, while it may seem to be for an employer, a company, or an institution, ultimately what you are doing as a believer is you are serving the Lord. You live before the face of God. If man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, then the work that we do is ultimately with the intention of glorifying God in how we do it and what we do.

Recognizing that what we do is before the face of God is saying every moment, every job, every mess is an opportunity to honor God and therefore work is worship. It's actually what Paul is doing in this entire book. He reminded us from the very beginning that his goal was to say: how do you live a godly life in a pagan society?

As we have moved through this book of Ephesians, he's said: okay, here's how you honor God in the church, but here's how you honor God in relationships. Here's how you honor God in your generosity. Here's how you honor God in your speech. Here's how you honor God in your marriages. Here's how you honor God in your parenting. Here's how you honor God in honoring your parents. Here's how finally you honor God in your work. Every dimension of life is an opportunity for glorifying God, and that at the end means work itself is worship.

The reason we may reject this passage is because of that first word I teased about. Does this really apply to us when the Apostle is talking about slaves and masters? If we're thinking in American society of only our history, American chattel slavery, then clearly we can be distressed that the Apostle might seem to be endorsing or at least not criticizing that kind of slavery in what he's talking about here.

We have to be honest and say in the Roman world, there was certainly cruel slavery and the Apostle would never endorse that. He's not endorsing it here. But you would have to recognize that in the ancient world, a bondservant was a variety of things that we don't recognize in our society—an apprentice, an indentured servant, a serf on a field, a farmworker.

There were those who were mindful of estates, there were treasurers of cities, all who had that bondservant label. The Apostle is basically just recognizing the society in which he lived. We have trouble identifying with it.

Recognized in the ancient society, there were very few people who had money at all. Most people, city or rural areas, lived on subsistence wages, if even that much. If you lived in a rural area, you basically lived on a serf-like existence on the fields of the one man who had a lot of money and owned the estate.

If you were in an urban area, you performed menial tasks, either as an indentured servant or an enemy who was now made a slave as a servant, or perhaps you were just doing carpentry work, subsistence work, a shopkeeper. Very few people had money. Very few people had respect. Very few people had power.

The world that's being turned upside down by the Apostle as he is speaking to both ends of the social ladder, to those who are slaves and those who are masters and everybody in between, and saying: you all live before the face of God. The work that you are doing is to be done as to Christ.

It is the Lord Christ that you serve. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. In saying that, he is at the very same moment ennobling the life of the servant and holding accountable the life of the master. Both have to live as though they are serving God in everything they do, in their relationships, in the way they treat each other. That is what they are being held accountable to do.

If work is worship and all are accountable, ultimately that means that each is in every moment bringing glory to God or devaluing their relationship with God. We ultimately recognize that we are being called to be priests before God. That means everybody in the church has this responsibility of worshipping God in what they do.

That is made so clear in a passage I want you to look at if you'll look at 1 Corinthians 12, where the Apostle Paul is going through the church and saying this in very clear terms. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 20. Paul, looking at all the different people in the church, says, "As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor can the head say to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable." And the conclusion, verse 25: "That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another."

No division in the body. We're the ones that typically say, "Now that's the holy job, that's not the holy job." Whereas the Apostle is saying everybody, all the different members have different callings but one purpose, which is to bring glory to God as the body works together.

When the reformers of the Protestant Reformation began to understand that, just as there was a wall that used to divide the people from the priest in the ancient churches, they actually began to say that can't be right. If there is no division in the body, then there is a priesthood of believers that includes everybody in the church.

That wasn't just made up. That's actually reflecting the words of Scripture. Not only Paul—the Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 2:9, speaking to everybody in the church: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You are a royal priesthood."

The Apostle John makes the very same point in Revelation, in the first chapter and the sixth verse, saying Christ has made us a kingdom of priests to serve our God. There's not just one priest, there's not just one pastor, there is a kingdom of priests.

Everyone living before the face of God. Everyone saying: my job is to bring honor and glory and dignity to the name of Christ, that the fame of Jesus, the name of Jesus, the honor of Jesus might be known to all about me. That actually is my calling in occupation as well as in what happens in a Sunday morning service.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians to declare God's plan that the gospel of Jesus Christ would reach the world through weak and sinful people like you and me. He writes that God has redeemed us to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

When we lift our eyes beyond ourselves to share Paul's expansive vision, then we, too, will join his doxology for God's amazing grace that saves individuals, empowers the church, and transforms the world. Yes, such grace really is possible, and Pastor Bryan's commentary on the book of Ephesians clearly teaches the details of this amazing truth.

As a thank you for your support of our ministry here at Unlimited Grace, we would like to send you a copy of Dr. Chapell's commentary, which he wrote for the Reformed Expository Commentary series.

You can request your copy of the commentary on Ephesians when you donate online at unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: Martin Luther explained the impact of what it would mean to think that every person was a priest in the life of the church. He said it this way: "If we can only accustom ourselves to this view, the entire world would be full of service to God, not only the churches but the home, the workshop, the field."

"A poor maid would have the joy in her heart to say this: 'Now I'm cooking or making the bed or sweeping the house. Who has commanded me? My master or my mistress. But who has given them authority? God has. Very well then, I'm not serving them alone, but God. My service is equal to cooking for God.'"

Oh, that would be intimidating. What if you believed you were preparing the meal for God today? But the reality is if every moment is an opportunity to reflect service to God and direct glory to him, then this priesthood of believers that we are, this kingdom of priests, this nation of those who are called to serve him together are actually serving him with an awareness that every person is to bring glory to God in every occupation of every day.

What would that mean if every person was a priest? It would mean every position is a pulpit. Every home, the Holy of Holies. Every office, an altar on which we are presenting ourselves to glorify God. That would mean that every task is a testimony, every mess a mission, every educational choice, every occupational choice is lived before the face of God and an opportunity to proclaim him.

What we are doing in every moment is saying whether it's dishes or diapers or drafting tables or drug counseling or district managers. All of that is part of our messaging of who we are in Christ and what I want you to know about him.

Every moment, every occupation, every career, all our work is lived before the face of God and therefore is part of our witness of eternal things to others. Work is worship. Pastor Michael Wittmer wrote of the implications. He said this:

"I have three brothers who work in various businesses. I'm a pastor, and so one day a man told my dad, 'Well, you must be happy to know that at least one of your sons is doing something of eternal significance.' What an awful thing to say. Aren't businesspeople doing God's work? Didn't my father serve the Lord just as much when he plowed snow and filled potholes for the street department?"

"We need each other to do our callings as unto the Lord. The pastor needs my father to clear the roads in the winter and repair them in the summer so that he and the people can get to church. They both, pastor and people, need businesspeople such as my brothers to create jobs or there would be no money to have a church or to pay the pastor or to support the missionaries. Religious callings are unique and indispensable, but they are not better. All work is worship."

When we see that, we recognize I drive to work today to worship God. I go to campus today to take the ministry of Christ. This is not secondary, this is not beyond God's concern. I go on holy ground wherever I go because I'm a priest of God called to be his ambassador for the purposes that he has given me in this place, in this moment. My pastor can't go where I'm going. I'm going to be God's witness in that place. All work is worship.

What are implications of that? If all work is worship, it means that Sunday is for Monday. I know that sounds simple, but it's actually a stark reminder of the age in which we live. Recognize in Old Testament times, the worship was done at the end of the week, right on Saturday. So you mess up during the week, you don't do everything, and you compensate at the end of the week by offering sacrifices on Saturday.

But through the work of Jesus Christ, the sacrificing is done. The one sacrifice has been made for all. We don't show up on Sunday to compensate for what we did during the past week. We come to Sunday to prepare for what comes in the coming week. Sunday is for Monday.

If that's the case, you have a right challenge that you can give to me, right? You can say, "Pastor, if that's true, if Sunday is for Monday, give us something to work with." We came for a purpose. If you're to be preparing us, give us something to work with.

Of course, I have a challenge for you too. I can always say, "Well then, on Monday don't forget what you heard on Sunday." It works both ways because Sunday is preparing for Monday. And if that's the case, if Sunday is preparing for Monday, then we should see the Apostle Paul saying: I am preparing you.

Just in the most concrete ways, recognize that this letter written by the Apostle Paul was meant to be read in the church on Sunday so the people would be prepared for their work on Monday. And so he's going to write things that are preparing people for their work. If I'm going to give you something to work with, we just got to cover it. So you ready? Here we go.

What do you have to work with? Well, there is instruction to workers. Verse 5 at the beginning: slaves, servants, bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling. That wasn't a very good start. The fear and trembling is a colloquialism for giving people proper respect.

It's actually the language the Apostle Paul uses in Philippians 2:12: work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do his good purpose. In order to fulfill the work of God in you, you need to treat God with proper respect. And part of working for God is to treat employers, the masters, with proper respect. Why?

So that they'll listen to your testimony. So they'll believe that your life is different, your pattern is different, your ethics are different because you are respecting them in the way that those who would respect God are called to do. That's why Paul immediately follows after the fear and trembling, verse 5: do this with a sincere heart as you would Christ.

Work with integrity as though you were serving Christ himself. I know your boss is not always going to seem like Christ, but you are representing Christ to that person. Therefore to him, to her, and to employees around you, you are working for Christ's name's sake. That means verse 6, there's an implication: as you work, it's not to be by the way of eye-service. Not working just when the boss is looking, or ignoring what might not be seen, or painting over things so they can't be seen.

Kathy and I are in that process because just yesterday, our son-in-law graduated from his university in St. Louis. As a consequence, the house that we had in St. Louis, we're now ready to sell because my daughter and her husband are moving away. As we are going through that process of inspections, we found out that the person who inspected the home when it was sold to us a few years ago did not inspect the electrical system. He marked that he had.

There was no one who could see that he didn't, and the consequence is now when an inspector sees it, he says: "How in the world did this get passed? Your family has lived in danger for years. This needs to be corrected immediately." Because no one would see it, the job was sloughed over. Not only endangering us, but should that man have been a believer, dishonoring to God.

We don't serve chiefly for eye-service. We are to serve in such a way that we are honoring God in what we do, doing a job in such a way that people would say even when I didn't see it, you operated with integrity.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If this message has been an encouragement to you, you can find a collection of more valuable resources at unlimitedgrace.com.

When you visit, you will find today's message and many others from Pastor Bryan. Also, be sure to request a copy of Dr. Chapell's commentary on Ephesians. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace.

This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.