Latest / Simply Christ Podcast / The Study of the Book of Colossians Part 17 - Simply Christ Podcast

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The Study of the Book of Colossians Part 17 - Simply Christ Podcast · Simply Christ Podcast

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to the Simply Christ podcast hosted by Leon Martin, along
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with Aaron Keaton, Melvin Martin, Andrew Schrock and Dan
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Blatz. Let's get right to it.
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All righty, here we are on another Monday morning looking
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forward to or a bundle of evil Rug X.
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We're talking about mornings, aren't we?
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The evening looking at the word of God here.
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So before we do that though, I am going to open us up with the
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word of prayer. Thank God, thank you for this
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day. Thank you that you love us.
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Thank you for your grace, your mercy.
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Thank you for your plan of salvation.
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God, we thank you for the word. Pray that you would open it up
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to us today that we could see it and hear it and represent it
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accurately. And God, I pray for the
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potential listeners that they could have open minds, open
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hearts, and that we could be humble and know and be open to
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the fact that we could be wrong or just biased in some ways.
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So God, I just pray for your blessing about this in Jesus
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name. All righty Yeah.
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So just want to thank everyone for being on this webinar again.
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We're going to be for the next hour.
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I'll be on there discussing the word out of Colossians chapter
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3. We're going to start in verse 23
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and and A and a tear into it right there as we go.
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We were talking a little bit about Andrew and I before,
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before we started the live part here.
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He said he was doing some some grading work.
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We get a pond. Is there?
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Is there a lot of pond work in Ohio there?
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That's. Like there's not a lot of
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natural ponds, so you if you want some, you have to dig them.
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Yeah, there's, there's just, I guess it, I don't know if it's
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part culture or what, but the rich cool guy has to have a
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pond, you know, So like it's classy, classy and cool to have
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your own pond. So there's a lot of ponds in
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Ohio, but a lot of them are just private.
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A lot of private hand belt like man made pawns and so a lot of
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people want them, but there's a lot of people that want them
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that they can't really afford them too.
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So it's kind of a little bit hard to make money doing pawns
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so. Good thing they're expensive.
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They're expensive to put in too. Probably really, but I get a
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kick out of it. Like in Iowa, we don't have, we
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have very few natural pods. I mean, we have streams and we
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have like marsh and kind of sloughs and stuff like that, but
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not really pods. But then you go Southern Iowa or
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Missouri, there's pods everywhere.
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That's right. I think a lot of them are
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natural there. I guess I don't know.
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Yeah, we have. We have a lot of ponds here in
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Kentucky because we have a thick clay, heavy clay soil.
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So it's easy to make a pond. You know, you can dig a hole
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pretty much anywhere and people use them a lot for their
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livestock and cattle. They so they can get in and cool
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off because it gets pretty warm here.
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And we also have county water. So like I have to pay for my
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water just like city water. It comes from the county off of
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water tower. So I have to pay for every
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gallon of water I use. So then a lot of these farmers,
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they'll dig a pond so for their livestock, so they don't have to
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pay for the water to water the livestock, so.
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Why don't you dig a well? What's that?
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Why don't you dig a well? Because to dig a well here is
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kind of like taking a chance at the lottery.
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It's our our waters table is way deep and it's hard to dig a well
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and it costs a lot of money because you got to go way down
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so. So even even though because
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Melvin, you don't live in town, so you but you have you have
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city water basically. But is, is that like the whole
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way across? Like even if you would go out to
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where LD lives in places like that.
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Yeah, it doesn't matter where you live, anywhere in the
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county, it doesn't matter if you live back in the sticks.
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They they got to give get water to you just like electricity.
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And so, yeah, I pay for every like I just filled my swimming
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pool with water. So I I have to pay for that so
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much a gallon. Yeah.
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How is it in Canada like that Do do you have pods and stuff or?
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We live out in the country, we're on a farm and we have our
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own. Well, there's a pond on the, on
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the yard that as far as I can tell, has always been there.
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I, I would imagine it's a natural pond, but I can't be
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certain. And right where we live, it's
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very sandy soil. But if you go 20 minutes away
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from here, it's very, very clay type of soil as well.
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So it depends. But friends of ours just dug a
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big hole 27 feet deep and last fall and it filled right up to
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the brim and they're swimming and playing in it.
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That's interesting. I remember when Randy was down
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in Kentucky there, Melvin, he was saying like there when it
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rains a lot where where it comes in five inches at a time or
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whatever the, the aquifer or the soil is really porous.
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So it just goes down through like there's not a lot of
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surface streams or water. No.
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So like right under my house here, there's a big cave system.
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We have a lot of caves around here.
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And so I don't know how far down it is, but like the water walks
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off from behind my shop, around my shop, through my driveway,
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over to the neighbor, and it just goes down in the ground and
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it disappears. And somewhere down there,
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there's a cave below my property, below my neighbor's
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property. So that's why it's hard to
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think, well, you can dig down, maybe hit water, you know, at 75
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feet or whatever, but you're in some cave and the water isn't
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good, so you got to go way down. And it's just tough to dig wells
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around here. What world?
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That's interesting how countries like that are stuck together I
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guess. So how can?
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You dig a Yeah, sorry. How can you dig a pond then if
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it's sandy like that and the water just disappears?
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That I don't know, Dan, I think he's asking you.
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No, I'm asking you. You're asking me?
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Oh, it's not Sandy here. It's Clay here.
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I thought you said it's Sandy and the water just disappeared.
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No, that was that was Dan that said that where he lives.
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No. Where I live here, it's clay.
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You can dig. No.
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You said you said wonder were you talking?
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Yeah, Melvin, you said that water dissipates really quickly.
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I said a cave. There's a cave system below.
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Oh. Not sand.
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Not too many so you got still can be ponds pretty easy.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean.
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You know they're so they're waiting.
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There your caves are down father like.
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Below. Yeah.
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Sorry. And, and so there'll be a like a
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head of a sig hole looking place that the water runs into and it
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goes down through there. I there's I saw that one kind of
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beside your driveway where the water is.
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It just looks like a little sinkhole.
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Yeah, the sinkhole fell through, but the soil itself around it is
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clay. That's right.
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Just don't dig a pond right there then, huh?
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Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
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Don't dig it above a, don't dig it above the sinkhole.
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It'll be tested to because it's already started, but it won't
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work. That's fascinating.
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In Iowa, we could get water wherever.
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Sometimes it's not real good, but we could get water like a
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lot of our older wells are, you know, 30 to 100 feet deep, You
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know, now, of course they'll go to 3 or 400 feet sometimes or
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whatever, but or even 600. But yeah, there's.
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I got 2 wells behind my chicken barns.
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They put two of them there and they're both 30 gallons a minute
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wells. Oh wow, 3034 gallons a minute. 2
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of them and then I got another one up on this side for the gym
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and for us that's also like close to that all within, you
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know, 60 feet or something. That's crazy.
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That would be like a gold mine. Here to fuck it.
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Yeah, all righty, let's talk about some real water.
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Verse 23 is and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the
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Lord and not unto men, knowing that the Lord that of the Lord
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ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the
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Lord Christ and of course this comes on the heel back up a
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little bit to the believers. This was written by Paul to the
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believers, and he just got done instructing us how to relate
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with our wives or the husbands, with their wives, the children,
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the fathers, the servants, all that after he got done talking
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about how that the church deals with each other in different
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things. And then he kind of, yeah, I, I
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guess I kind of look at this as a kind of the start of the
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summary, closing summary, maybe whatever you do, you do it
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heartily as to the Lord, not unto them.
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Because just a little bit ago he said in verse 17.
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And whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do it all in the name of
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the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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So verse 23 and 24, there's a reason that that I see here that
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he wants us to do everything that we do heartily as unto the
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Lord and not unto men, because I think it it actually clears your
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motives, clears the reason that you do stuff because if you read
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the the whole the the sentence is actually several verses here,
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but 23 and 24. It includes 22 as well.
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Knowing that the Lord of the Lord, you shall receive the IT
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heard like he is the one we're actually answering who he is the
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one that we're doing this for. That's why it's important that
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we do that as to the Lord of not unto them.
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Yeah, I mean, to me it's pretty common sense.
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If you're hiring somebody, how much rather would you hire
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someone that fears God and knows that they're answering to God
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based on their actions and the way they treat you as a master
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Here he calls the employer a master.
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If I'm hiring somebody and I know they fear God and they're
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doing it as unto the Lord, then I'm probably not going to get
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ripped off too much. I'll probably don't have to
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constantly tell them to keep working or why you sitting
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around or why you not focused and all that.
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If you're you have the fear of God and you know you're going to
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be judged by God, you're rewarded.
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The guy giving you the reward at the end of the day is not just
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me giving you a paycheck necessarily.
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Of course, that's your reward now, but evidently God's going
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to hold you to how you acted at work at some point.
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And he's saying you're basically working for God, whether you're
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you're a slave like a worker or laborer or whether you are free
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or whatever you do it as in the Lord.
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And it's also free in this aspect that you don't have to
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feel the burden of making your boss rich or like feeling upset
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because you know this boss is not treating the money the way
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you know, you work so hard and doesn't appreciate it the way
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you feel like you should appreciate your labor and your
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dedication. Well, it's nice to know that
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you're not doing it for the guy. He says you're not.
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He says you're working for God. You're doing it as under the
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Lord. So it kind of takes away that
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judgment and that animosity or whatever we might sometimes feel
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towards the people we're working for.
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Kind of in a similar situation. He just after he had said first
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time to that to do everything as on the Lord is then right away
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says, wife, submit yourself and your own husbands and then also
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about the husbands to the wives. It does me good to know that I'm
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pleasing God to do the right thing with my spouse, not even
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if she doesn't appreciate it. So this helps us in a bad
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relationship, whether it's your employer or your spouse to know
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that doing it, doing the right thing before God is where the
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real reward is AT. And I'm going to be rewarded
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either good or bad based on my how I handle it.
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And that's quite freeing, especially if you're stuck in a
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bad relationship for you to do the right thing is doing the
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will of God. It's not whether she responds
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according to where you think she should.
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Your job is to do as unto the Lord, be a good husband or a
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Good Wife, and you reward. God's going to reward you even
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if your spouse doesn't. Yeah, that's, that's good.
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I I didn't really think about it on on that, on that angle.
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That's good, Melvin. Yeah, I I maybe go a similar
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angle, but maybe a little bit different.
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When I think of doing whatsoever you do hardly as unto the Lord,
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when you do things hardly unto man, they might not appreciate
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it, right. I mean, it's just that simple.
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Some people, no matter how good a job you do, they, they're not
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very appreciated with what you did.
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Now there's not a lot of those people around, but sometimes it
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happens where if you're doing it heartily unto the Lord like that
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to me. And when I think of that, I
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think of purpose like it gives you purpose when you're doing it
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unto the Lord, especially because in the next verse, you
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know he says, knowing that you will receive a reward of
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inheritance, right? And so that's purpose in my mind
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is what the word comes to my brain when I think of that.
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And so when you do things heartily unto the Lord, then it
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will automatically bless and be a blessing to man, right?
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Where the other way around, if you're just doing it for two
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men, it's it's going to be empty like it's going to be, it's not
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going to have a fulfillment like it and purpose like it will when
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you're doing it as unto the Lord, knowing that someday you
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will have an inheritance coming there.
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And I wanted to also talk about that a little bit because in
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first Peter it says blessed be the first Peter 1/3 and four it
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says blessed be the God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ,
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which according to his abundant mercy have forgotten us.
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Again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled.
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And that fadeth not away and and is reserved in heaven for you
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who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
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ready to be revealed in the last times.
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So there is an inheritance that is waiting for us someday and
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will be revealed to us in the last times.
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And that that gives me like, like you were saying, Andrew, it
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gives me hope and it gives me a purpose to work and do my job
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here or whatever that may be, whether I'm working for someone
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as a employee or if I'm working for a customer, if I am my own
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business. And so that should be our focus.
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And I think that's what he's trying to get across here.
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That's good. Damn.
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Yeah, this, this verse, it was the, this was the first book I
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ever taught as a Bible study to a small group.
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And I remember this verse in particular really standing out
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to me because I was just coming out of a phase of this deeper
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Christianity, kind of Christianity where you're always
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looking for the next level. You're looking for some divine
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Providence, some great leading. Everything has to be an answer
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to prayer. And you can't make a move unless
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something opens up. And you know, this is the will
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of God for me. That's the will of God for me.
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I have to know, I have to know very specifically what I ought
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to do before I make any moves, right?
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And then I came to this verse and he just gave us all these
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things, servants, masters, wives, husbands.
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And now he just says basically, what are what?
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What is it that you're doing? Do it unto the Lord.
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Like you don't need to find some mystical, super spiritual way to
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know what you ought to be doing. Whatsoever you do, do it
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heartily in in first Corinthians, I believe it is
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Paul says to whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or
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whatsoever you do, do it all unto the Lord, right.
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And so here it's a very similar type of verse.
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It doesn't matter where you're stationed.
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It doesn't matter what your position is.
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It doesn't matter what you're doing currently.
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You can do it right now as on the Lord.
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You don't need to wait for some divine Providence or some
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handwriting in the sky, and you don't need to wait until you
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become a certain kind of a minister or start some kind of a
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ministry or be a missionary. Like right now, whatever you're
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doing, you know, servant, husband, wife, children,
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fathers, all of you right now can heartily serve the Lord and
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he will reward you for you will receive the inheritance because
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you serve the Lord Christ. And so this opens the door wide
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up to anything that you have before you.
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There are some people that get very, very direct guidance to a
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specific field, a specific trade, a specific ministry, but
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by and large, that's just not the case.
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Just start doing whatever you're doing under the Lord and the
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doors open up, right? So you're not waiting around
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looking for God's will to fall into your lap.
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You're doing what's in front of you heartily as unto the Lord.
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And, and then on top of that, like he's given us this great
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recipe for a really, really good life.
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You want to have good work ethic, follow these principles.
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You want to propel through the ranks at your job and become the
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best employee, maybe become the owner eventually, or to start a
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business. Follow these principles.
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You want to have a great marriage, do these things, and
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you want to be a good son or a good dad, and on and on it goes.
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And then on top of all of that, you do it heartily and you
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receive the reward of the inheritance.
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Because we serve the Lord Christ.
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That's how gracious He really is.
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He's giving us the recipe for a really good life based on
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Christ's work and our response to it.
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And then he says on top of that, you're going to receive the
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reward of the inheritance. So it's, yeah, it's pretty
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beautiful passage. Amen.
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Very good. Yeah, it really is.
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And, and I do agree with what Melvin said, it gives you
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purpose because if you're, if you're working for that next
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dollar or working to finish this job or doing whatever, if you're
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looking at it that way or versus looking at it like, Hey, this is
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something that that God has blessed me to do.
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You know, it's something that I can do.
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It's something that, that, that God is pleased with.
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Doesn't that just give you a much better reason to get up in
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the in the morning for sure. I think the other thing that
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some people struggle with is what Dan touched on.
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And it's like, man, am I doing what God wants me to do?
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Am I not blessed? Am I not am I not in the will of
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God? Why am I struggling financially?
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I'm working hard and work is tough and I don't enjoy it and
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it's just man I I wonder what God is this really what God
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asked for me. I was looking for the verse and
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I can't find it, but there's a verse that says there are you a
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servant care not for it. Are you free if Jeff is a busy
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opportunity to be free, take it rather and it's kind of that's I
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think that's a good kind of also to keep in mind as you're going
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through this. This is not saying if you're.
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Some slave or year at some job that oh, that's where God has
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you right now and you just need to put your nose to the old
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grinding stone and suffer the rest of your life.
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You know, if you can be free, use that rather like that was
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saying. It's a very good point is that
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the doors will open when you do right now what you're doing as
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under the Lord and all of a sudden you'd be surprised what
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happens. Yeah, yeah.
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Amen. Verse 25 for he that blew a
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throne shall receive for the rogue, which he has done, and
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there is no respect of persons. So I mean the opposite of what
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we were just talking about. You'll receive the wrong no
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matter if you think you're good, if you think you're bad, you
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know, respect of persons. There anything else on that,
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Andrew? I just kind of recaps.
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What I think we're already kind of touched on it.
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It's just it's just again, basic gravity law type, basic
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principles that if if you do bad, you receive the bad, even
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in this life, that's the reality.
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I mean, if you go 90 miles an hour past the police officer,
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he's not going to say, OK, let me see who is that?
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Now maybe some police officers might, but if they're a good
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police officer, you're not going to be a respecter of person and
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say, you know what, I'm going to let that guy get away with it.
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God's a really good police officer.
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He's a really good just guy and says he's not a respecter for
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person. If you're just a, an idiot at
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work and irresponsible and you don't have any pride in it, you
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don't do it as under the Lord. You're just doing it for
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yourself and you don't respect your, the guy you're working for
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and you're just negative and you don't bring positive and
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excitement and ambition and optimism to the business.
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Then that's the reward you're going to receive even evidently
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in eternity. So it's, it's quite, I think
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it's quite important. I wish I would think about this
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more when I'm working. Yeah, So you're right.
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It's just kind of opposite to me, like you're not going to get
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an inheritance. Obviously you're going to get
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what you deserve and that is wrong up for the wrong that you
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have done. You're going to need to be
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judged by that or whatever that looks like.
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I don't know for sure. It doesn't really say and that
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doesn't matter. But The thing is, in my mind, a
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lot of people think that when they're working for someone,
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because this is obviously in the context of the servant, which
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today we see that kind of more so as an employee.
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But when you're working for someone and you're just working
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for the money and you're just trying to get through the day or
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you're trying to get as much money as you possibly can,
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you're going to goof off or, or be slow at whatever, you know,
23:08
purposely goof off on the job. You're actually stealing from
23:13
your employer in in a reality. And a lot of people don't think
23:17
about that. And that's just one of the
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thing. There's many other examples that
23:20
we could use, but to me, that's kind of what he's talking about
23:23
here. And a person like that, an
23:25
employee like that is just not going to get very far at the
23:29
workplace or even in life in general.
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So yeah, it's like Dan, you were saying this is all things that
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he's pointing out here that are good principles that that godly
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people follow that the new man. We're still talking basic about
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the new man, so. Yeah, they have.
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Yeah, I would say this, this topic doesn't really get talked
23:54
about a whole lot in circles where we understand grace.
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It's, it's almost like we don't want to go there sometimes
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because we're saved purely by grace.
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There's no merit of our own works whatsoever.
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But I talked to somebody recently who almost seemed to
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think that grace erased all consequences.
24:12
I don't think he would say that, but he was living with some of
24:15
the consequences of the way he'd raised his kids.
24:18
And, and it's pretty ugly and, and he just feels like, hey,
24:22
it's, it's all grace, you know, it's God receives me based on
24:25
grace. And I'm like, absolutely he
24:27
does. But you can mess up your family
24:29
still. You can lose your children to
24:31
the world that you can ruin your marriage.
24:35
You can lose your job and be poor.
24:37
Like there's a lot of things you can mess up in this world
24:39
because God didn't remove the sowing and reaping principle in
24:44
this world. He didn't.
24:45
He didn't. Remove the.
24:47
The consequences and rewards of this world, but it sounds like,
24:51
like Melvin already said, that it also extends into the world
24:54
that is to come. Romans 1410 That is, why does a
24:58
judge thy brother, or why does thou set at naughty thy brother?
25:02
For we shall all stand in before the judgement seat of Christ.
25:05
And then Second Corinthians 59 For we labor, whether present or
25:09
absent to be, may be accepted of him.
25:11
For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ,
25:14
that everyone may receive the things done in his body,
25:17
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
25:20
And so I don't see any way around this, like some of the
25:24
grace teachers will say that this is not the case.
25:27
Like we, all of our rewards in heaven will be based on Christ's
25:31
work and none of our works will ever come into play.
25:34
It doesn't seem to be saying that.
25:36
It sounds like we will be rewarded and we will perhaps
25:40
lose rewards based on how we respond to the grace of God
25:43
that's given us. So nothing, nothing changes as
25:46
far as just because I'm accepted based on no work doesn't mean
25:50
I'll get anywhere in life with no work.
25:52
You know, like it just doesn't work that way.
25:55
Yeah, So the, I was going to, I'm glad you brought that up,
26:00
Dan, because I was going to say, well, what about the guy that
26:02
says, well, I thought that Jesus takes took care of all the, the
26:06
wrongs. You know, I won't be judged on
26:07
my work. And you know, I, I guess, you
26:12
know, the, what we're talking about here is the, the natural
26:15
response to bad work is, you know, if you do something wrong,
26:21
the, the, the result of that is usually negative.
26:25
You know, if you, if you don't do something right, the result
26:27
is usually negative, whether it's in this life or whatever.
26:30
So it's not, I guess, I mean, you can correct me or clarify or
26:34
do whatever with this. But if you do something wrong as
26:37
a Christian, God is not going to hold that over you.
26:41
Jesus won't hold that over you and say, well, you know, you
26:43
could have entered heaven except all of here.
26:46
That was not, you know, that's not what we're talking about
26:49
either though, is it? I think what he's talking from
26:53
the way I understand at this point is that the, the blood of
26:57
Jesus Christ washes away our sins.
26:59
So sin is not the problem in heaven.
27:02
It's a reward, It's a prize problem, inheritance problem.
27:06
So we, we all inherit the Kingdom of God, but what we do
27:11
and what we have in that Kingdom, I think it I think
27:15
there's a levels of responsibility and people were
27:20
in charge of based on our maturity here.
27:22
I think based on the things we've done here will reward us
27:25
different positions in the next life.
27:28
I think there's a whole multitude of things and rewards
27:31
and and jobs that we were able to do in the next Kingdom based
27:40
on our actions now as believers. You know, doing the right thing
27:45
is not what's going to get us to heaven, but it's going to get
27:48
us. Got some rewards there.
27:51
Yeah, that's a good clarification.
27:56
All right. Chapter 4, verse 1 Masters, give
28:01
unto your servants that which is just an equal, knowing that ye
28:05
also have a master in heaven. So now it's now it's the
28:11
business owners turn to get to get their advice.
28:17
And I remember this being an issue in my office when I
28:24
started in business, some of the, the people that, you know,
28:29
my kind of leaders thought I was, I was paying too much to
28:36
some of the guys. And you know, they wanted a
28:38
lower starting rate. You know, they were looking at
28:40
the finances and everything and seeing the whole, all the wax
28:43
and I'm like, no, I want to make sure that no one could ever
28:47
accuse me of not paying somebody properly for a good job done.
28:52
I would rather air on the other side and charge my customer a
28:55
little bit more because if someone does a premium job and
28:59
does, you know, shows up on time and does their work, they're not
29:03
laying on the clock and you know, when they're done, they're
29:06
done kind of a thing. To me that should be rewarded
29:10
properly. Because a guy I used to work
29:13
for, he was a maintenance guy at a big corporation and they would
29:17
get the, their service orders headed down from the upper
29:20
cross. They would say that hey, the air
29:22
conditioning in this room needs to be fixed.
29:24
And that should be a 7 hour job. And if, if they could walk over
29:30
there and plug the thing in and sit around for six hours and 59
29:34
minutes, they would, they would never finish that job before the
29:38
allotted time. Because he said if we do the
29:41
next time it'll be less time. And then they get rushed and
29:44
they get pushed. So they would milk that entire 7
29:47
hour period, even if it was a fuse or a breaker every single
29:51
time. And that is exactly the opposite
29:53
of what we're talking about here, isn't it?
29:56
That's crazy, Andrew. And your thoughts on first one?
30:00
Yeah, it comes back to what Dan was saying about how he
30:04
beautifully covers every aspect of our lives and how we respond
30:08
as believers. So whether you are a husband, a
30:11
wife, a child, a daughter or son or a father or mother or or a
30:18
worker or an employer, a master, if you are a Christian, you
30:23
should be the most desired person to be around which
30:30
whatever, what, whichever one of those you are, us as believers,
30:35
we should be if we would follow this, everybody here in the
30:39
world would go, hey, you want workers find Christians.
30:45
That's the way it should be. Sadly, it's almost the other way
30:49
around. I don't know where it started
30:52
that Christian think that they're somewhat entitled that
30:55
somehow they don't, they don't need to pull their full weight
30:59
and some other privilege in some way.
31:02
I don't know where that started, but some of the Christians that
31:05
I've worked with are their mindset is that it's somehow
31:09
almost like it's just carnal material things and that guy's
31:13
got all that money and he's so carnal minded and he's just, all
31:18
he can think about is money and and then they just kind of take
31:22
advantage of him. They don't respect him, the guy
31:24
they don't. They take advantage of it
31:28
however they can. Maybe not exactly cheating, but
31:31
to me dishonest and. It's it's it.
31:35
We bring a disgrace to the name of being Christian, or the name
31:40
of Christ actually, when we're not representing our Lord in a
31:47
positive way like that. And then he just covers this one
31:50
like a master, your boss don't be where the employees can say,
31:56
yeah, he's a Christian, but you know what?
31:58
He's not fair. He's not fair.
32:01
You know, you don't want that. But that's been renamed that
32:04
believers, like anybody looking for a job or they find out the
32:07
owner's a Christian. That should be like, Oh yeah,
32:10
you know. Yeah, that's right.
32:13
That's right, Melvin. Yeah.
32:15
I think it's just I'm not thinking so much about the money
32:18
side, but Even so like as be a boss or master that you know
32:24
your people want to work for you or enjoy working for you,
32:28
because I like what he referenced there.
32:30
He says, knowing that you also have a master in heaven and so
32:35
you know God, we how do you view God is I guess what comes to my
32:40
mind like do you view God as this taskmaster that has this
32:44
whip and is looking to, you know, condemn you or or to bash
32:48
you or to say, well, you know, you, you should have did this
32:51
different or whatever you you know, you took you too long or
32:55
you should have been faster, you know, whatever.
32:57
So, but how do you see God? Would you look?
33:01
Through the scriptures. You know, God is, so he gets, He
33:06
does get angry, His anger gets wax hot against sin and he does
33:09
not tolerate sin, but he is a merciful and gracious God
33:14
towards us, obviously, or we wouldn't have given us his only
33:17
begotten Son to die for our sins because we had a problem, you
33:21
know. And so when you look at it from
33:24
that point of view, I think it just shifts your whole mindset.
33:29
I think too many times as a master or as a business owner,
33:32
like you were saying, Lee, and those people coming to you and
33:35
saying, look, you're paying your people guys too much.
33:37
They were looking at the dollar like they were looking at the
33:40
bottom line. Now, I'm not saying you should
33:42
ignore your bottom line, but the simple fact is, is that that's
33:46
not what you totally look at. If you're doing according to
33:50
what this verse says, you're looking at the whole picture and
33:53
seeing the person that is working for you as a person, as
33:57
God sees you. And I like as a human being, a
34:00
soul, a living soul, not just someone that can make you lots
34:04
of money or whatever the case may be.
34:07
So I think it's it shifts your mindset when you look at it and
34:12
just the way he's teaching us here.
34:15
Yeah, that's, that's actually really good, Melvin, because a
34:19
good master, you know, God didn't just, he doesn't have us
34:23
to extract value from us, right. We are seeing sons and daughters
34:28
because he loves us. He guides us, he keeps us, you
34:30
know, he trades us. Like right now we're reading the
34:33
word. He gave us an operator's manual.
34:35
He doesn't just let us in the dark, you know, fighting, try to
34:38
find a way. He actually, he's actually there
34:42
for us. And if you look at the way you
34:45
were describing Mel, that's what a good boss would do, a good
34:49
owner of a company would do is, is not just extract money from
34:53
his employees, but actually help them get a life, help them have
34:57
a life and help them raise their family.
34:59
And, you know, sometimes it's paying him a check.
35:01
Sometimes it's writing a check for them when they're off for
35:03
two weeks because they have they're fighting cancer.
35:05
You know, sometimes it's going to their, their employees as
35:08
kids as you know, graduations or whatever it is, you know.
35:14
Yeah, He's just finished telling us that God will reward those
35:18
that are faithful. You know, he's going to give to
35:21
those that have done good. And so it's I think it's
35:24
imperative. See, The funny thing is about
35:27
obeying God in these respects. It can feel very backwards, but
35:31
it always also benefits you. So you start serving your
35:37
employees and they just have a way about them and they want to
35:41
work for you. You know Peter says to to mass
35:44
to servants to serve your masters, not just to the good
35:48
and gentle gentle, but also to the fro words.
35:50
So we as Christians, even if you have a boss that's ornery and
35:53
cantankerous and yells at people and all that, Peter says serve
35:57
him like unto the Lord like just serve him anyway.
36:00
But if the master is like Boaz in the book of Ruth, he shows up
36:06
on the job site and he says, the Lord bless you and the his
36:09
employees turn to him and say, and the Lord bless you also.
36:12
And it's like almost like liturgy at church, right?
36:15
Because they're so excited that they belong to this place of
36:18
work where the Lord is blessing the master.
36:20
And the master pays attention to each one of them, so much so
36:23
that he paid attention to Ruth and her feeble attempts at
36:27
collecting grain. She's a brand new to the culture
36:30
and and he's paying attention to all his individual workers, like
36:33
Leon mentioned already. And it you end up benefiting
36:36
from it again, you know, you know, I'm obviously I'm not
36:40
recommending and I don't think the Bible is recommending that
36:42
you pay your workers above and beyond what they're worth.
36:45
He says just and equal, like pay them what they're actually
36:48
worth. Like take a look at the median
36:50
income and then maybe go a bit above it, right?
36:52
Like make sure that they're doing well, that they don't look
36:54
around and feel like I'm getting the, the lower end of the deal
36:57
constantly, right? So equal to their ability and
37:02
also equal to the cost of living.
37:04
I would say we're not in any way recommending socialism or
37:08
communism where everybody has to get paid a minimum wage.
37:12
It's a, it's a very counterproductive way of trying
37:14
to raise the pay when you, when you equal everybody out.
37:18
And, and now in Ontario here, I think the minimum wage is like
37:22
almost 18 bucks an hour. And so gas station workers and
37:28
restaurant workers and the drive through workers, they're all
37:31
getting paid almost 18 bucks an hour and they have no
37:34
opportunity to rise to that spot.
37:36
Like it would be much better that the entry level job would
37:40
be 7 or 8 or 10 bucks an hour. And then the employer has the
37:44
opportunity to say, this guy, he's been here 3 days and he
37:48
already does more than such and such.
37:49
I'm bumping him up to 15. I'm bumping him up to 18.
37:52
And and it would give the opportunity for employers and
37:55
masters to be more generous, to be more observant.
37:58
But now it's so everything's just brushed all with this Gray,
38:02
plain, ugly brush. You all get the same, everybody
38:04
gets treated the same. It's, it's, it's a very ugly way
38:07
of doing it. And the master in heaven doesn't
38:10
treat us that way. You will receive for what you
38:13
have done. You will be punished or have
38:16
rewards removed for what you failed to do.
38:19
And it's a just and equal thing. So masters, when you have a
38:22
servant, pay them justly and equally according to what
38:25
they're worth and according to what they need to make a good
38:28
living. And so an air on the side of
38:31
generosity, as Melvin already said, or Leon was saying to.
38:35
Yeah, I think that's good. I was, you know, as some of you
38:38
know, I'm down here in Cancun right now doing some doctoring
38:42
and stuff and the organization that we're going to, they are
38:46
that way very much like poster child for this kind of thing.
38:49
The, the people there are happy, the, the nurses are happy,
38:54
they're patient, they're most kind.
38:57
The doctor is intelligent and he sits down, he takes the time to
39:01
explain. And even their dentist in house,
39:04
same, same way, just very, very nice people, all of them.
39:08
And I was asking the dentist about, about that.
39:10
And I said, how, how is it? Oh, he said, this is a great
39:13
company. He said it is a privilege to
39:15
work here And in my practice. He said for a while when they
39:20
were starting this up, he was a practitioner there and he had
39:24
his own tools and stuff. And he said, but then later now
39:26
he's a salaried employee and the company owns his equipment.
39:30
And he said it is nice. He said, if I need something,
39:33
they buy it for me. If it's something that I need,
39:35
they don't cobble, they don't try to, you know, hold off or
39:37
whatever. And I was the the blessed
39:41
recipient of a well run, happy place.
39:46
So I mean, that's, that's kind of what we're all talking about,
39:49
isn't it, though? I think it brings glory to God
39:51
because it's a Christian organization.
39:53
Very, very plainly so. And I could without any
39:57
hesitation say that I felt that it was a godly place and the
40:00
employees were that way they needed as well.
40:03
So it. Was definitely, definitely a
40:05
good challenge for me. It's not really how I grew up
40:11
and I still struggle with getting focused on the things
40:15
that are not going right. Getting frustrated with what
40:18
just broke and somebody did a stupid move and got my machine
40:24
stuck for no reason, or that cable broke for no reason or
40:29
that chainsaw smashed for no reason or like dumb stuff that
40:34
happens. And I so quickly get upset, you
40:37
know, and bring a negative atmosphere.
40:40
So I don't know where all the balance is of trying to create a
40:49
work environment where the employers are mindful or you
40:53
don't just like, oh, you just, oh, everybody's so great and
40:57
happy. But you know, how do you how do
41:00
you then keep employees? Let's say you have employees
41:02
that are just careless. How do you what's the Christian
41:08
master way to deal with that then in a good.
41:12
This could be mistaken as a let your company just kind of go
41:16
down and let your employees do whatever they want.
41:18
But I think when he says just and equal, it's, it's just that
41:22
like if they're not equal to the job and if they can't do the job
41:26
well, they're not learning and they're not willing to
41:28
contribute. There's got to be a time and
41:30
place for for punishment or for discipline of some sort, or even
41:34
just letting them go and say, look, you don't fit the team.
41:37
And our team is very motivated. We have good morale and we need
41:41
to keep that up, right. So.
41:44
Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you, Dad.
41:46
I think that's that's really good.
41:49
The other thing that I would say that I have discovered that if I
41:53
am gracious and they and the, the employees know that, that
41:59
I'm like, so they break something, something happens and
42:02
I'm like, oh, you know, stuff happens, no big deal, we'll get
42:04
this replaced. Don't worry about it.
42:06
It's, it's, you know, it's part of the job.
42:07
Whatever. We broke a $600.00 Starlink here
42:11
recently. The the employee was he was
42:13
distraught about it because he knew that I had my best, his
42:16
best interest in mind. It just it was for for me and
42:20
maybe I'm lucky or something, but it would never was an issue
42:23
where I had guys that that abused my equipment because they
42:27
like me. You know, I'm not saying you
42:30
know, I'm not saying that you couldn't have a bad one that
42:33
wouldn't, but that would definitely would be 1 to get rid
42:35
of. He doesn't fit your company at
42:37
that point. Nice.
42:40
Sorry I was just going to quickly say my son works for my
42:42
old childhood. Our teenage friend and his shop
42:45
is the most meticulous shop you I've ever seen.
42:48
Like every weed eater has a place to hang.
42:50
All the mowers are perfectly clean on on Friday and Saturday
42:54
he brings people in just to clean.
42:55
Every one of his trucks, every one of his trailers, it all gets
42:58
washed and swept and clean. But the whole environment of the
43:01
company is like this team environment.
43:03
Every morning they all get together.
43:04
They have this powwow where they discuss the day and they, they
43:08
all feel like they're really contributing.
43:10
And he'll, you know, he'll reprimand them at times and they
43:13
feel it because they really want to please him.
43:16
They, they want to earn his respect and he lets them know
43:20
very much when they have earned it, right.
43:22
And so it, it creates this environment of the employees
43:26
want to do well. And then every now and then you
43:28
get one sour one in there that's just complaining about
43:30
everything and, and all that. It happens there too.
43:33
And they have to let some of them go, right.
43:35
But creating that environment and then making them feel like
43:39
they're part of that, I think is is pretty key.
43:43
Yeah, I was just going to say for the most part, I've had
43:45
really good help or it's like you were saying, Leon, but I've
43:47
also worked at places and I've had very rare somebody just
43:52
really didn't respect anything. And I think I probably
43:54
contributed to that a lot. I'm very disorganized and that
43:58
just frustrates a lot of people. And I get it.
44:00
Like I'd much rather work for a business like Melon was.
44:03
I mean, Dan was explaining there.
44:06
So it kind of goes, oh, what? There's different personalities,
44:10
like some guys there, everything like and that's a very easy
44:14
positive place to work. It's not all chaotic and
44:17
everything. Well, naturality in the logging
44:20
business is already was chaotic because you didn't know when
44:23
it's going to rain. Are we working tomorrow?
44:25
I don't know, yeah. Yeah.
44:29
No, that's a good discussion. I think that's that's good.
44:34
Absolutely all right, let's continuing prayer.
44:37
I'm going to read kind of this sentence and if you want to
44:40
comment on the whole thing you can or just whatever part of it
44:44
continuing prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving with
44:49
all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of
44:53
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
44:57
in bonds that I may make it manifest as it as I ought to
45:02
speak. You know some of that's pretty
45:06
specific, but the one thing that that I that stuck out to me in
45:10
this thing. And then you could go Andrew.
45:13
But the fact that he prays that that he would have them pray for
45:19
him that the door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ
45:22
would be open. That's the heart of a minister,
45:26
the heart of the the gospel right there, isn't it?
45:31
Yeah, I just find it so interesting that a guy like Paul
45:37
that has been in the 3rd heaven, God wrote the majority of a New
45:43
Testament through the Spirit to him.
45:47
You'd think that he's just got this close relationship with
45:50
God, that he knows every step. I mean, he knew when he was
45:53
going to die. He knew when he knew a lot of
45:55
things that we don't necessarily know.
45:57
God doesn't really tell us, but he knew that his day was up when
46:00
he was dying and the Spirit would tell him not to go speak
46:05
there or not go do this at that point.
46:08
But yet he had this mentality and he knew that praying to be
46:14
successful in the ministry is significant.
46:17
I think that's interesting. I think that it's interesting
46:21
that God changes the trajectory of our ministry based on us
46:26
asking for wisdom to speak when we need to speak and to give us
46:30
opportunity, open doors to utter and manifest exposed, bring out
46:37
the gospel and the mystery of Jesus Christ.
46:40
I, I just find that amazing that he's not like, well, you know, I
46:45
got it. You know, the Spirit has moved
46:46
from my life. He talks to me.
46:48
I got this. No, he's in prison.
46:50
He's in bond. He's asking for prayer,
46:53
direction, guidance, and an open door to minister the gospel.
46:57
I, I, I, I like that. Yeah.
47:00
That's really good, and not because he he doubted God's
47:03
ability, but because he knew the value of prayer.
47:06
He's humble. He's so humble, very humble.
47:08
Exactly 100%. Yeah, I that's what kind of
47:12
stood out to me, too. It's just that it's reminding
47:15
us, all of us here now, to continue in prayer.
47:19
That prayer is such a huge thing.
47:22
Even for myself, that is a good reminder because there's one
47:26
thing that the devil hates and that is when we pray.
47:29
And so he's going to try and do whatever he can to keep us from
47:33
praying or remembering to pray. And so it's just a good reminder
47:39
for us that we pray and then he says and watch in the same with
47:42
Thanksgiving. Keep alert in in your prayers
47:48
and praying with Thanksgiving and then that he's just wanting
47:52
them to pray that you that God would open doors.
47:55
You would think that, like you were saying already, Andrew, to
47:58
some degree that you would think that Paul, God had a specific
48:03
plan for Paul was to take the gospel out there.
48:06
You'd think that he wouldn't, you know, be wanting or needing.
48:10
Prayer to for the Doors. To open because God, you know,
48:13
has a plan. But he's saying, look, guys, and
48:16
you know, the reason that is, is I think in my mind, I guess is
48:20
because the devil is trying to intervene or, or, or people are
48:24
trying to intervene in God's plan, so to speak.
48:28
And, and we need to be praying that the doors would open.
48:33
So it's just a, it's a good reminder for all of us, I think,
48:38
to keep in prayer about things, all things in our life, but also
48:43
remembering to pray with Thanksgiving.
48:47
Amen. Yeah, First Thessalonians 516
48:51
rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give
48:55
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
48:59
you. So if you're wondering what the
49:01
will of God is there it is wrapped right up in a nice
49:03
little package. Pray without ceasing, rejoice
49:06
evermore, do all the things that you do with Thanksgiving and
49:09
praise. In early in the book of Acts,
49:13
they continued steadfastly in prayer.
49:16
We all are the early apostles in chapter 6 of Acts, they wanted
49:22
to give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of
49:26
the word. So they elected the early
49:27
deacons to serve tables and whatnot.
49:30
So this is this is part of a minister's duty and job, but
49:33
he's now asking them to stand with him in prayer.
49:37
Pray with all with us, right. He says he wants you to pray.
49:41
Join me in praying this way. And it's it's a way that the
49:46
average person working at their day job, serving their husband
49:50
and children, doing their duties at home, enjoying the ministry
49:55
of the utterance of the word of God across this globe.
49:58
And I it's one of those areas where I think probably we.
50:02
All feel a little. Sheepish at times and you just
50:04
feel like, man, I can speak, I can preach, I can do things.
50:08
But spending time waiting and watch and prayer it, it's not so
50:12
glamorous. It's not, it doesn't seem to be
50:15
something that we jump up and down to go and do.
50:18
And it should be something that would be near and dear to all of
50:21
us. We all have this natural outcry,
50:26
I think, when there's difficulties that emerge, when
50:29
life gets really hard and tests come upon us, there's our cry
50:33
that goes up to the Father. But it ought to be in times of
50:36
praise and it ought to be in times of need for open doors
50:40
like this, right. So it's, it's there was one more
50:45
thing I wanted to say. Oh yeah, that whole watching
50:47
concept. Clearly back in the day, Paul
50:51
and his men are travelling from state to state, place to place.
50:54
And they're, they're attacked on all sides, many times their own
50:57
countrymen and robbers and all kinds of people are trying to
51:00
get their stuff and, and hurt them in some way.
51:03
So they would set a watch, you know, you watch the first 3
51:06
hours, you watch the next three and the next three and the next
51:09
three. So somebody would take a turn
51:10
watching. And what they're doing is
51:12
observing the enemy. They're, they're keeping their
51:15
eyes open for any potential attacks that are going to come.
51:20
And we ought to be living that way when we pray, that we would
51:23
be alert, wary and watchful and protecting those that are around
51:28
us. We should be as men in
51:30
particular, obviously wives and mothers as well, but men in
51:33
particular should be watching in prayer that they would be
51:36
watching over their children, making sure that they see the
51:40
attacks and the enemies coming before the children are
51:43
suffering for it and that they would take precautions and that
51:46
kind of stuff, right? So it's a, it's a very alert
51:49
kind of language, yes, with Thanksgiving and praise, but
51:53
also watching the enemy. So one eye is towards heaven,
51:57
giving thanks and praise and, and glory all the time.
51:59
The other eye is kind of keeping an eye on the enemy that's
52:03
prowling, looking to destroy, right?
52:05
Very good. That's good.
52:08
I got a big thought too, so it's wild to me and a big challenge
52:15
for me with this whole concept. I think I'm Calvinism is
52:21
probably one of the things I, I really hate Calvinism.
52:25
I think it makes God in some monster, but I feel like I'm a
52:28
little bit Calvinistic in this aspect.
52:34
It's so easy to just kind of think if God wants it to happen,
52:37
he'll he'll do it. Like already kind of
52:40
predetermined God's in charge, but you know that he's limited
52:44
based on us. Our will isn't that crazy, but
52:50
our request making it known and giving opens the doors for him
52:55
to open doors. Like he is not going to infringe
52:59
himself or infringe. Like, I don't know, that's
53:01
right. Words like he's not going to
53:03
slide over into our rights and take away our will and just kind
53:07
of pull it his way. He's waiting for us to ask for
53:10
an open door to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ.
53:15
Like it's not predetermined. It's not predetermined and
53:19
preordained of who's going to hear who's not.
53:22
And Paul's saying he's praying for open doors to make this
53:26
happen. In other words, somebody's going
53:28
to go to heaven based on our prayers and us responding.
53:31
It's not God. It's like, man, I was just
53:34
thinking about this while you guys were speaking.
53:35
Like man, I'm a Calvinist. Well, it's because God has
53:40
assigned us or left that part up to us to get the gospel out
53:44
there right, because in the end of Matthew there, I think it's
53:48
Matthew, it says go to you go you.
53:50
Therefore all nations teaching and baptizing that and name and
53:52
father son, the Holy Ghost. So he's left that up to us,
53:56
right, and so it's our choices. I think some of it isn't our
54:00
choices as well, like choices we make can and other people make
54:04
too, right? Can open or close doors that
54:09
need to be opened again. If we don't have a choice on how
54:14
we act and respond and react to things, the perverse, all this
54:19
totally worthless news, you know, I mean, it's telling us to
54:24
do these things that are right and not to do the things that
54:26
are wrong. But yeah, I, I think that's,
54:29
that's really interesting. I like to that like the, the,
54:34
the reason for the prayer that that Paul was requesting here
54:38
was very specific. I mean it, I'm not saying that,
54:43
that we should pray for other things, but his goal was to get
54:47
lost well, and to make it fast. And, and he asked and part of it
54:51
was it, what do you say as I ought to speak?
54:55
Well, we need to see how I should speak to make this
54:59
manifest to the people so that they could see the truth.
55:02
And, and that is, that is big time.
55:04
I mean, somebody's eternal life hinges on the fact that you
55:08
ought to, on how you ought to speak this.
55:10
It doesn't it, you said that prayer is hard, Dad.
55:15
Like it's not something that maybe is quite natural to us or
55:18
whatever in a lot of ways. You know, it's one thing for me
55:22
to pray for my family, my wife, maybe our church group or
55:27
whatever, but to think about those that are out on the
55:31
streets preaching the truth, you know, that, that the God, God
55:35
would, you know, clarify their message, you know, and tell them
55:39
how they ought to speak on this matter.
55:42
Just something I don't think about.
55:44
I, I, yeah, I'm not a good prayer.
55:46
I'm not a good prayer that way, but I I could be.
55:50
What an anti Calvinistic statement though right?
55:53
Like we are the church we've been attending.
55:55
It kind of leans reformed quite heavily and on Sunday he went
56:00
through Romans chapter 4. Most of it probably 70% plus was
56:04
really, really good very much clearly defined the idea of
56:07
faith. Romans chapter 4 one through 10.
56:10
So all the the righteousness imputed stuff, but he made a
56:13
strong argument for why faith is a gift.
56:19
And it just, it just kind of contradicted the whole message
56:22
because the whole idea is he used this illustration of an
56:25
airplane he had. We said, he said one of our
56:28
elders is a pilot and my wife is very scared to fly.
56:32
But if they get on the plane, the one that's confident in
56:35
getting to this his destination and the one who's scared they
56:38
might not get to the destination, they both end up at
56:40
the destination because their faith was in the plane,
56:43
regardless of how much or how little faith they had.
56:46
I thought what a great illustration.
56:47
But then I thought, if you had a scared person on the ground,
56:51
scared to get in the plane, what do you do to get them on?
56:54
In their illustration, he would say, well, God has to gift them
56:58
faith so that he forces them on the plane and then they're on
57:01
the plane. And now, wow, you know, I
57:03
believe, you know, it just doesn't make any sense when Paul
57:06
is saying, I want to speak as I ought to speak.
57:09
I want to be able to persuade people of the truth.
57:12
I want to convince them that that plane is worthy and it's
57:15
capable and the pilot is good. And I'm and you have every
57:19
reason to get onto this plane, right?
57:21
That's the that's what preaching and teaching and prayer is all
57:25
about, is providing that convincing argument, and the
57:29
Spirit of God obviously helps along the way.
57:33
Yeah. How many times does he say I've
57:35
become all things that he might save some like that he might
57:40
gain some that he might win some, that he might persuade
57:44
some. He's very strategic about it.
57:47
It's not he doesn't have his idea that well, if God wants and
57:50
then they're going to get it somehow or God draws all people
57:54
himself. He takes that responsibility.
57:56
Man, that that hit me just tonight.
57:58
He's regarding this like man, this, this is serious.
58:04
Yeah, he says in a second Corinthians 312 saying says see
58:09
then that we have such hope. We use great plainness of
58:13
speech. I mean, he's he's very clear
58:17
about this. And I, that was a good
58:19
illustration. Dad, I liked that about that
58:21
airplane, that that is true that the one with a little faith and
58:26
the pilot, they're going to go to the same airport, right?
58:28
Long as they stay on that plane. But who's going to tell that
58:30
scared person to get on the plane?
58:33
Yeah, that's that's a really good illustration.
58:36
I like that 100%. While we're going to cut it off
58:40
there, unless someone else has some closing statements, they
58:43
really want to talk about this yet.
58:45
You got about 30 seconds if someone wants.
58:48
I just know that I don't think there is such a thing as a
58:50
Calvinist. If they were, they wouldn't have
58:51
any kids. I'm glad that.
58:57
I wouldn't have been glad that they might.
59:00
I might be. I might have created a child
59:02
that was determined and made and created and formed for hell and
59:06
no way. Yeah.
59:07
Yeah, that's kind of foolish if you think about it.
59:12
Ben, what were you saying? I'm just very glad that even the
59:15
ministers at the church, they act and preach like, as if they
59:19
don't believe a word of that predetermined stuff.
59:21
So I'm glad for that. That's great.
59:25
All right. Praise the Lord.
59:26
I tell you what, guys, Keep the message simple and keep it
59:30
clear. That's what that's what.
59:31
That's what we're here for. Love those around us.
59:34
So, yeah. All right.
59:36
Hey, thanks for your time. And we will see you back next
59:39
week. Same time, same place and we'll,
59:43
yeah, probably not finish up the chapter but get closer.
59:45
So anyway, God bless you guys. Have a great week.
59:48
Tell someone about Jesus, of course.