Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60628/colossians-318-to-41/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Colossians chapter 3, we're going to start in verse 18, and we're going to read into the fourth chapter and catch the first verse of Colossians 4. So we'll be in Colossians 3, 18 through 4, 1.

[0:11] So if you're physically able and desire to do so, I need to turn my mic on, I see I keep forgetting that, and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God with one another from Colossians chapter 3, starting in verse 18.

[0:26] It simply says this, this is a great way to start a text to get a pastor in trouble, right? This is a great way, there's two passages that really get a pastor in trouble.

[0:37] As soon as he starts reading them, this has a parallel passage in Ephesians 5, but it's this. Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

[0:51] Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart. Slaves, in all things, obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

[1:10] Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

[1:21] For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. Masters, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.

[1:37] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. God, we thank you for the privilege and the opportunity you have given us together, together as your people. Lord, we thank you for your word.

[1:48] We thank you for the power of reading your word in a corporate setting. We pray now, Lord, as we have heard it and read it, Lord, now that you would speak to us. Lord, speak to every heart.

[1:58] Speak to every mind. Lord, shape us, mold us, and draw us to become all that you are calling us to be as your people, for your glory and yours alone. We ask it all in Jesus' name.

[2:10] Amen. You may be seated. If you remember when we started the book of Colossians, we saw that the theme of the book of Colossians was the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

[2:28] That he is supreme above all things, and he is sufficient for all things. I believe it was the very beginning of this series of messages going through the book of Colossians, which Lauren was referring to in her video there, which we have seen throughout Colossians.

[2:42] We do not need Jesus plus anything. The problem that the Colossae believers had was that they had heard the news of the gospel. Many of them had responded to the gospel, and they had heard the news from a layman.

[2:55] Remember that? It had been an individual, a pastor, who had heard the message proclaimed by Paul, who had responded to the message which Paul proclaimed, and then took that message back to the church at Colossae, or actually took it to the city of Colossae, and a church was formed out of his witness.

[3:10] Now, that's a good place to stop and say this. More people come to Christ based on the witness and the testimony of an average believer than they do of a pastor. I think the latest statistic that I read is only 15% people attend because of an invitation from a pastor.

[3:28] The reason is because in our society, most people expect pastors to do that. But when you do it, when a non-pastor does it, when an average person does it, it means something, right? It is unfortunately seen that when a pastor says something, and people know of his occupation, well, the only reason you're saying that is because you're trying to build your congregation, or trying to call us in, or you're trying to do that.

[3:46] And that's simply not the case, but that is the reality. Now, let me give you another stat that I read this morning that really just astounded me, and I think we need to stop right here. The latest thing put out by the North American Mission Board was that 47% of millennials, okay, 47% of millennials, that could range in your varying of time.

[4:05] Either those born in 1980, that would make me like the oldest of the millennials. I'm like the grandfather of the millennials, okay? I was born in 1980. To those born to the late, to 1999, that could be from 80 to 99.

[4:20] Or, most people get it from like 85 to 99, okay? So there's your aspect, from 35 to 21, 22. So the 20 to 35-year-olds range.

[4:30] About 47% of millennial believers think that it is wrong to share their faith with someone else for the purpose of that person coming to Christ.

[4:42] They think that it's wrong to try to persuade someone to leave their mindset and accept Christianity. Now, what has dictated that is, now we refer to that, it has also been this great uptick in hate speech.

[5:00] That it is hateful or mean-spirited to try to tell someone they are wrong. Every time I read the Word of God, it tells me I'm wrong. Okay, I'm just being honest with you. Every time I read the Word of God, God says something that offends me.

[5:14] And it hurts me. And it kicks me. And it prods me. And I'm thankful it does. Because only when knowing I am wrong can I then be led to be right. So we need to understand that. There is power in your story.

[5:25] Don't let the world ever tell you there's not power in your story. It is not hateful. It is not mean. It is not arrogant. It is not dishonoring to try to tell someone about Christ and intend for them to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.

[5:38] As a matter of fact, that is a very loving thing to do. And we'll see why here in just a minute as we finish out this sermon. But anyway, we've looked in the book of Colossians how it is based on the supremacy of Christ that He is supreme.

[5:50] That is, He is above all things. And the sufficiency of Christ that He is sufficient. He is all that we need. Now, if He is supreme and if He is sufficient, then it is very becoming of us to tell others about Him.

[6:03] It is very becoming of us to share that with those we come into contact with. And the way that we do that is based upon our life and based upon our story and based upon our walk and how we live based upon our relationship in Jesus Christ.

[6:16] So Paul takes the first half of the book of Colossians and he talks about doctrine. That is who Jesus is. He talks of the position of Christ, the power of Christ, the purpose of Christ, of who Jesus is.

[6:28] That's all that doctrine is. It is great teaching. And he takes the second half of the book of Colossians and he speaks of application. Because doctrine without application is useful information. You can know all the truth in the world, but until you put that truth into application, it really does not matter.

[6:43] Until you put that thing into practice, it really has done you no good. We call that useless information. I probably have more useless information in my head than the average person and I don't know why.

[6:54] I tend to just gather these obscure facts and just hold on to them for the sake of being fun. But I don't put those things into application and therefore they're not benefiting me at all. But the truth of scripture is there to tell us that Christ is supreme.

[7:09] It is to tell us that Christ is sufficient. And then Paul says that if he is supreme, if he is sufficient, then how shall we live or what should our life look like? And he begins to transition into the application of these doctrines.

[7:24] And probably the most basic of those applications is the passage we have before us today. And that speaks of the influence of Christ. If Jesus is supreme, if he is sufficient, that is, if he is above all things and he is all that we need, then he should influence our lives.

[7:44] I want you to see this morning, the influence of Christ over three aspects of your life. And I'll go ahead and give them to you, okay? I don't always do this, but I'll go ahead and give them to you. We see his influence over the family, the factor in our fellow man.

[7:56] The influence of Christ over the family, the factory, and our fellow man. And this really is the thing that society is looking for. We do not clean society up.

[8:06] We do not straighten society by having better programs. We do not straighten society by having better education. We do not straighten society by having better intentionality about things. It is really the influence of Christ over those who follow him and those who claim to know him that really transforms society.

[8:23] Because when Christ begins to influence the family, things change. When Christ begins to influence the factory, or that is, your work, things change. When Christ begins to influence our treatment of our fellow man, then things change.

[8:39] And really one of the most detrimental things that Satan has ever done is to diminish the influence of Christ over the life of the believer. To try to convince us that Jesus is a part of our life, which may be necessary, but not necessarily that important.

[8:55] Rather than living with this all-consuming passion that Jesus is our life. And he has total control and influence over every aspect of our life.

[9:08] He is everything. And his influence should resonate within every aspect of our life. Now this is a message for the believer. And as believers, we need to stand up and take notice because Christ was leading, or God was leading Paul through the Spirit to author this message to a group of believers referred to as the church at Colossae.

[9:29] And he is speaking to them and giving them direct application of Scripture. Now when we read this passage, now we need to be careful. Okay? And the reason I say we need to be careful because there are certain parts of passages, especially when we get into the New Testament, that tend to be offensive and we tend to reason it out.

[9:46] Now, I'll kind of stay behind the pulpit so that if you throw anything at me, I have somewhere to duck. But just listen to me, okay? Hear me out. When we begin to speak of the family relationship, people try to say, well, that had a time and place in that time.

[9:57] As in, when we read the book of 1 Corinthians, and when we open up the book of 1 Corinthians, and it says, let the women remain silent in church. Now don't throw anything at me. I'm just, all right, just stay with me, okay? But let them go home and ask their husbands and let the husbands teach them these things.

[10:10] A lot of people say, oh, well, that was fitting for the church at Corinth. That was something that needed to happen there because all these things were happening. And then when we open up the book of Ephesians and we read, speaking of the aspect of the wives and the husbands, we say, oh, that must have had application in the city of Ephesus.

[10:25] The problem is, is now we open it up in the book of Colossians and we see the same message being proclaimed to the church at Colossae. So what we have here, now stay with me in my reasoning, okay? Paul three times speaks of the influence of Christ over the home.

[10:38] Now do not shut me out and do not say that I am being a legalistic. Do not say I'm being chauvinist. Just listen to the message as God calls us to hear it.

[10:50] He speaks of the influence of Christ over the home. Ladies, let me just be upfront with you. You now have, and I mean married women and singled women, you now have the opportunity to set back and take the responsibility off your shoulders.

[11:11] Men, get ready. It falls on yours. Ladies tend to get offended at this. The reality is, is I want to release you from some things that maybe has never been yours to carry all along.

[11:27] Okay? The influence of Christ over the home. Wives, be subject. This is where I always get in trouble, okay? Because the word could be submissive as well. And we don't like the word submissive, right? I don't like submit.

[11:37] Don't anybody ever tell me to submit. Well, the problem is, is we are to submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, okay? So we're all called to submit. So we need to stay there. And we ought to be subject of Christ. Paul refers to himself as the slave of Christ.

[11:49] So there's nothing wrong with that. Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Now always in paraphrase, right? The parallel passage to this would be Ephesians 5, 22, through Ephesians 6, 9.

[12:00] And it's almost identical. Everything we have here in Colossians 3, 18 through 4, 1 is repeated verbatim with a little bit more explanation in Ephesians 5, 22 through 6, 9. There's a little bit more information given there which we will apply to the men as we get to it in just a moment.

[12:15] But what we need to understand is the best commentary on Scripture is Scripture. Don't ever try to let society dictate to you what Scripture says. Let Scripture always dictate what Scripture says. And what it says here is that the wives ought to be subject to their own husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

[12:30] Which means as you are trusting the Lord as your Savior, as you are following Him as your God, as you are leaning upon Him and relying upon Him to be your only hope, I know this is hard to say, that as it is fitting that you're trusting in Him, then trust that He has something in mind in your family as well.

[12:47] You ought to be leaning on Him and calling on Him. Sometimes that trust comes by way of prayer. Sometimes it, Lord, you need to work on my husband. I'm not disagreeing with that. Lord, you need to do this. Lord, you need to take care of that. As you can do it in the Lord, to be subject to, now we need to be careful here, it does not mean to be the slave of.

[13:07] Right? I knew one gentleman at one time, I'm not going to say his name, he had a number of daughters and he had one son. He told me, he said, Pastor, I really believe the Bible calls the women to be submissive to their husbands, so I've been teaching my daughters how to submit to me.

[13:22] I've been making them do things for me all along and I'm like, wow, you got that completely wrong and I'll pray for you, you know, and really was calling his daughters to do things he would never call his son to do and just really just kind of shook me.

[13:34] That's not what that is, right? He said, I'll sit in a chair next to the refrigerator and make my daughter come get me a drink out of the refrigerator. I was like, wow, it's going to get you in trouble. You know, I have one daughter and I would never do that for once.

[13:44] She'd beat me up and I would just, you know, I have to step back and I'd be ashamed because my daughter just blackened my eye. But that's not right, right? We need to see the other half of the passage. As is fitting in the Lord. That is out of love and out of concern, out of sincerity, out of genuineness, right?

[13:59] And to be subject to means to give someone else the responsibility of. So right here, husbands, pay attention. For anyone to be subject or to submit to means that they're not carrying that weight. They're not carrying that burden.

[14:11] Just as they are trusting the Lord to be the provider and the sustainer and the keeper and the guardian of their soul, they are now going to trust the husband to carry that responsibility. Now we need to confront these things because it says, husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

[14:26] We see the greater parallel in this is that the influence of Christ on the husband, Ephesians 5 says, that the husband will love his wife as Christ will love the church that he gave himself up for her that he might purify her and cleanse her of all spots.

[14:38] That is, the husband is to love his wife enough that he would die to himself for his bride. That he is to give of himself. Now, when we parallel that with the book of Colossians, it says, and don't be embittered against her while you're doing it.

[14:51] That is, husbands don't say, well, I'm going to sacrifice to my wife though I don't like it. I'm going to love you. I'm going to do it because I love you and then be mad about it. It says, no, you die to yourself.

[15:03] You love your wife. You raise your wife up and be happy while you're doing it because that's your burden. One of the greatest detriments that society has ever done is to belittle the position of men.

[15:18] Now, again, I'm not being chauvinistic in this. I understand this. But any of you that have lived for any amount of time can know that really the belittling of men is something that is played out in front of our television screens.

[15:30] We can see, we can turn on the Andy Griffith show. I remember just the other night, I love Andy Griffith. I love that show. A sheriff without a gun, right? Andy didn't need a gun. He wasn't scared.

[15:41] Everything was fine. And I remember watching the Andy Griffith show just the other night and you know there's Opie in the house and there's Aunt Bea. Of course, Aunt Bea is quite a bit older than Andy and somebody had asked a question and Aunt Bea really wanted it to happen, really wanted to do it, but she would never agree to it until Andy said it was okay.

[16:00] Now, think about that. That's her nephew, right? She could have smacked him on the head and said, boy, we're going to do this. But at that point in society, it was his responsibility. It was his home, right? Now, we fast forward a little bit now and men are seen as dumb, unsincere, disconnected, out of the way fathers and unfortunately, many of us have lived up to that.

[16:22] We are belittled, we are looked down upon and many of us live up to the expectations society has set for us. I believe it is the church's responsibility to call men to a greater standard. I believe it is the church's responsibility to point men to the reality that scripture says, it is your shoulders that the responsibility rests upon and it is you who is supposed to be carrying the burden of the home because it also says, fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.

[16:47] Now, I'm all about some discipline of children, right? We understand that, but that means I'm also not supposed to exasperate them, I'm not supposed to push them too far. And I'm not telling you I do these things right, I'm telling you when I read this, I go, oh man, oh me, I have fallen, I have fallen short.

[17:00] I need to step up my game a little bit, right? Because the responsibility rests upon us to do these things in a sacrificial way inside our home. And the reason we do it is because of the influence of Christ.

[17:13] Christ has called us to this. Christ has called us to the responsibility. Christ has called us to love. Christ has called us to carry that weight. Christ has called us to be there. This has been his plan all along. In the beginning, God created them male and female.

[17:24] He created them. And he gave those responsibilities and those roles. It is not saying that God put rank and order. There is no rank and order. No one has done more for the equality of the sexes and the races than Christianity.

[17:36] Understand that. But rank and order is something that has been established from the very beginning in Scripture. And it was done for the betterment of all. Because great dishonor has happened in many homes because ladies have had to carry responsibility which was not theirs to carry because men checked out and men stepped out.

[17:53] Either physically or intellectually. Or, men tried to lead but weren't able to lead because of another aspect of society. I'm not telling you that it needs to be something where you are, and I know somebody can come to me and go, well, pastor, what about this scenario?

[18:06] What about this scenario? And each one is unique. I get that. We're not talking about servanthood, masterhood, slavehood. There's not but one master and we'll get to him in just a minute. But under the lordship of Christ, husbands, if we love our wives as Christ loved the church and we die to ourself and we do it happily with joy, then we'll have no problem maintaining that order in the home.

[18:30] The responsibility rests upon the husband. It says, children, obey your parents, right? Children, be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. It says in the book of Ephesians, this is the first commandment with a promise that you may have a long life and inherit the land, right?

[18:44] It is one with a promise that God says that children, if you'll be obedient to your parents in all things, it is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart. What I want you to see here is that if Christ is supreme, he's supreme over the home as well.

[19:00] It means God has a blueprint, God has a plan, God has a design for the home and if he is supreme and sufficient, then we need to go to him and say, Lord, how do we need to run the home? And we need to accept our responsibility and we need to carry that weight and I believe also that men should carry that weight in society as a result of what they're carrying in the home.

[19:23] I really believe it is a great gift. I remember a number of years ago, a number of years ago, we had a church where I was pastoring before. We had a father-daughter dance and we called it a night with a princess.

[19:39] Probably one of the greatest joys that I saw and one of the gentlemen is in here this morning who done it was I gave a command to the men. I said, man, I want you to find someone, some little girl who may not have a dad present in her life and bring them to the father-daughter dance as well.

[19:55] And, you know, be there. Show them that because they need that. They need to see that and it also happens with boys too, right? You need to be there. Men, we need to be there. We can't check out.

[20:05] It's not our time. It's not our responsibility. If Christ is supreme, then it is our time now to carry that and show it to the next generation below us. So we see his influence over the family. Second, we see his influence over the factory.

[20:16] And by factory, I just mean your work. Now, we need to understand this. When Paul is writing, he is writing a direct reference to the slavery of that day which was very prominent. Now, we need to understand biblical slavery because biblical slavery was something much different than what we have in concept as North American slavery.

[20:33] Many people served as slaves, as doctors, teachers, some of them even as lawyers. There are many professions which were entered into as slaves. And by a slave, you mean I will be your family doctor.

[20:45] You can be my master, but you're going to have ownership over me or I will be your tutor for your children. That was something that was very common in Roman time. Yet, there was still maltreatment or mistreatment of slaves at that time as well.

[20:58] There was a lot of things that happened that should not have happened. But one thing that we need to understand, one thing that seems to have gotten us in trouble, especially as, particularly as Southern Baptist, if you ever read Southern Baptist history, or can get us in trouble, is that it seems as if the Bible endorses slavery or doesn't necessarily oppose it.

[21:18] Now, the reality is the Scripture never endorses slavery, okay? We just need to be clear in that. The Scripture also never sought to disband the slavery of that time because that was more of a civil movement.

[21:32] That was something that if, think about this, when the church was formed, it was a very small majority or small minority of individuals inside a vast Roman Empire. And if they had went in and writing these letters and said, we need to abolish slavery and said, we're going to kick slavery out of the Roman Empire, I mean, there were millions of slaves literally at that time.

[21:52] The church wasn't fitted to take on those civil affairs, right? The church wasn't fitted to take on that. What the church sought to do, now hear me out, was to change the hearts of the individuals inside the church and to let Christ begin to influence the heart of the slave and the master.

[22:09] We'll see it in just a moment. And they trusted that the influence of Christ over individuals would eventually lead to the abolishment of slavery. And if you read of the abolishment of slavery in England or Europe and then eventually as it made its way over to America, you will see that that is exactly what happened.

[22:26] It took some time. But the influence of Christ over the heart of the individuals is what led to the transformation of society through civil works or through legalistic matters.

[22:37] we see that here it is trusting the influence of Christ. Christ needs to influence your heart before he will ever change your society. We pray often that God would change things in the world and God would change society but the reality is until God changes me, he's not changing anything.

[22:54] But when God really gets a hold of his church and really gets a hold of his people and Christ begins to influence our hearts, then we can expect society to change because it is his influence over us.

[23:09] So we see that the direct writing here, Paul is writing to slaves in particular but we see the application has to the entire workforce even of today. Verse 22 says, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men but with the sincerity of heart fearing the Lord.

[23:27] We know exactly how Paul saw slavery. Later on we read the book of Philemon or Philemon however you want to pronounce it and we see the slave that had run away and come to Paul and came to Christ as a result of being around Paul and Paul sent him back to his master and Paul was sending him back a new man and this is exactly what Paul is writing to is those slaves, either those slaves who were just servants or those slaves who held really prominent positions who had come to Christ, Paul is writing to them and he tells them now that in all things they are to obey their masters, not with external service as those who merely pleased men but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord.

[24:07] So here at this time in particular but also let's bring it to the factory or the workforce of today. That means let's carry that application out to its final end. That means that in our work, whatever it is we do, we ought to live a life of obedience in our work, not so that our boss may see it, not so that it could run us higher up the ladder, not for an aspect of self-promotion or self-exaltation, but rather we ought to obey and do the best we can because we're not doing it so men could see us.

[24:39] We do it so it says in verse 23, whatever you do, do your work hardly as for the Lord rather than for men. We do our best and we work our hardest because it doesn't matter who sees it, it doesn't matter who's around it, it doesn't matter how much acknowledgement we get.

[24:55] Friend, listen to me. The influence over the factory is that the Christian ought to be the hardest and the greatest work of worker because he knows his payment is already posted, it's already coming because it says that you will have his inheritance.

[25:12] Wherever God has put you in the workplace today, wherever he has put you, he has put you there to be his ambassador in that place. If you're in retirement then he's put you there, but wherever he has put you, he has put you there to be his ambassador and the greatest way he testifies is through your work.

[25:29] Now I know it's hard. I haven't always been a full-time pastor, right? I've had jobs. I had a number of jobs. I still have one job. I'm not necessarily, it's not necessarily my thing, but I try to do it the best I can.

[25:41] Maybe not always the best I can, but I ought to do. But I understand, I know it's hard. I used to catch grief a little bit. I used to catch kind of ridicule and people would mock me and make fun of me. Oh, who are you trying to please or who are you trying to butter up to?

[25:52] I understand it. I get that. But the reality is, every time someone mocked, every time someone ridiculed, every time someone said something, it gave me an opportunity to testify not to the greatness of my boss, but to the greatness of the one who I was working for.

[26:08] The reality is, is that the influence of Christ over the workforce is that whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.

[26:20] You don't have to doubt if your reward is coming. It has already been posted. It is coming. You will receive the reward of the inheritance. The reality is, is that if every individual, every believer who's trusted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior took this influence into the workplace, the workplace would be radically transformed.

[26:37] It would. The workplace would be radically transformed because in all things we're to obey those who are our masters on earth, not with external services, those who are merely pleased men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

[26:51] We do the right thing, not because we want to be noticed, but because it is the Lord who is watching us. And we do it with sincerity. That's a hard thing.

[27:01] It's a humbling thing, right? Because the temptation of the flesh is, I'm just going to take care of me. I'm going to do what I can do. But the reality is, the scripture calls us to do it for his glory and not ours, and to do it heartily.

[27:15] That is, with joy, knowing that the payment has already been posted. We see his influence over the family, we see his influence over the factory, and finally we see his influence over our fellow man, over our fellow man.

[27:30] The reality is, is that while I shared that statistic with you that some 47% of millennial Christians think that it is offensive to share faith in Jesus Christ with someone of another faith for the purpose of persuading them to come to Christ, they find that offensive.

[27:43] A greater majority of millennials than any other generation also feel that racial reconciliation is an important matter. Now, there seems to be some disparity between those two statistics, because the greatest racial reconciliation that I've ever seen is when people really accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

[28:04] Even though it hasn't always played out that way, it's the way that it should play out. Because, as Paul would say, there's no longer any Jew, nor Greek, nor Scythian, nor slave, nor bondman, nor free man, but we are all one in Christ.

[28:19] And we see the reality here as our treatment of fellow man, the way we look at those around us is greatly influenced because of the superiority or the supremacy of Christ.

[28:32] He is the greatest one of all. He is above all. Right? He is overall. He says, in verse 24, it is the Lord Christ whom you serve. We work hard because we don't serve men.

[28:44] We work hard because we serve the Lord. Our families are changed because it is the Lord Christ whom we serve. The way we respond to those around us changes because it is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

[28:57] For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. It simply says this, that those who do wrong, it doesn't matter what status they have in society.

[29:08] It doesn't matter where they're at in the world's eyes. Those who do wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong without partiality. God shows no favoritism. God doesn't see us different because we are here.

[29:19] God doesn't see us better because we're Americans or we're there or where we're at in society or where we happen to have been born or whatever our race identification may be. There is no partiality.

[29:32] What we see is this fair judgment that goes across the board. He says in chapter 4, verse 1, Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.

[29:51] Now, if there was anyone in society that thought that they had a right to look down on someone else, it would have been those who owned their slaves. They were masters, right?

[30:03] They had people who belonged to them. They literally purchased them off the auction block. They purchased the right to their life. And they had a right to look down upon them because they were property. And they would have looked down on them because they were just as anything else that they had purchased or bought or they could afford.

[30:18] But here we see that Christ is calling that individual to a different standard. Just because they happen to be your slave, you cannot look down upon them. You ought to treat them with fairness and justice. You ought to treat them with equality, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.

[30:31] Because see, in Christ, there are none who are above or below. We all stand shoulder to shoulder in Christ. The reality is, is that we live in a very privileged position in our society in a worldwide scale.

[30:45] But that does not mean anything around the foot of the throne, right? That does not mean anything around the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Just because of where we happen to be born or the family we happen to be a part of or the society we happen to be privileged to live in, doesn't raise us up to a higher standard.

[31:05] It doesn't raise us up to a higher position because in Christ, we are all equal. There is neither Jew nor Greek nor Scythian nor slave nor bondman nor free man.

[31:18] Which means, especially as believers, because of the influence of Christ, our brothers and sisters around the world who are living in greater despair than we will ever imagine, are just as important as us.

[31:31] Our brothers and sisters across the street who are living in greater despair than we can ever imagine, are just as important as us. The way we treat our fellow man is greatly influenced because of who Christ is in our life.

[31:47] We no longer have a right to see ourselves as more important or more privileged, but rather we treat all with justice and fairness, knowing that we too have a master in heaven.

[32:04] Dale Moody played a great part during the Civil War that many people don't realize. He wanted to join the Union forces but was discouraged because of that.

[32:17] He had a great work going on in Chicago. At that time he had started doing some work with the YMCA and by started I mean he had led to the foundation and building of a great YMCA building and this is when YMCA was more than a place just to go work out right or exercise.

[32:35] YMCA was really a place of great Christian influence. And he was doing a great work and he was president of the YMCA in Chicago and was influencing a lot of men and he even started doing the YWCA, the Young Women's Christian Association and leading other women to influence women in Christ.

[32:52] And there's a big camp outside of Chicago so he started going out there and ministering to the soldiers and he would go in and he would preach the gospel to the soldiers as they were there to train in the camps.

[33:06] We see his equality and his fair treatment of men and even when Confederate soldiers were brought in taking captive because it was also a prisoner of war camp. I believe it was called Camp Douglas.

[33:17] I could be wrong. But it was also a POW camp there right outside of Chicago so he would all often find his way into the camp to go preach to the prisoners. He would want to speak not only to the Union soldiers but also to the Confederate soldiers and he would share the same gospel with them.

[33:34] He came down and served on a number of battlefields. I think I told you he was actually in Murfreesboro at the Battle of Stone River and he was there serving. Probably one of the greatest influential things in his life that he shares is that shortly after the abolishment of slavery in the United States he attended an African American church in North Carolina.

[33:59] This church was composed entirely of recently freed slaves. And he remembered going in there and hearing this pastor preach to them. And I wish I could remember that pastor's name.

[34:12] And he shared the influence that it had over his life that that pastor stood up and he said when I get to heaven and I can't say it the way this pastor said it. I don't want to see Paul and I don't want to see John.

[34:25] I don't want to see James. This recently released slave said when I get to heaven the first thing I want to see is my master Jesus. And I want to bow to feet of my master Jesus.

[34:38] The reality is friend we were all slaves at one time. We were slaves to sin. And scripture says that our master bought us off the auction block of slavery and he bought us with his blood.

[34:53] And the first thing we're going to do when we get to heaven is every one of us are going to fall down at the feet of our master Jesus. And we're going to find out that falling down next to his feet with us are people that we might have looked down on in society on this earth.

[35:08] May our respect of fellow man be greatly transformed because of the influence of Christ over our lives today so that on that day we can rejoice that we fall down with a great diverse group of individuals and we proclaim how good it is to serve our master Jesus together.

[35:24] Let's pray. Lord thank you so much for this day. God I thank you for the opportunity we have had to come and to hear your word and to see your word.

[35:35] Lord I pray as we begin to sing this song. Lord that your word would not be lost to us. Lord we pray that the influence of Christ would resonate within each and every heart.

[35:46] We pray that you would draw us closer to you for your glory and yours alone. We ask it all in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

[36:02] Amen. Amen.

[36:32] Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.