Lord of Your Life - Colossians 3:18-4:1

0:50For some of you, the answer might be because my wife made me come. Hopefully not. But we just need to make one thing clear that we are not here just to check something off at the beginning of our week. We're certainly not here to try and earn any favor with God. We just sang about that. There's nothing that my hands can do to save my guilty soul. There's nothing that my hands can do to save my guilty soul. So it's not like if you come to church and house, you are earning favor with God.

1:27And if you're a believer, it's not that As long as you start your week off right by going to church, then you can live the rest of the week however you want. That's certainly not true, and we certainly can't earn favor with God. If you're a non-Christian, then there is nothing you can do to make God send you to heaven. There's no deed you can do, there's no righteous act that you can do to make him send you to heaven. All you can do is trust in Christ and come to him in faith and beg for forgiveness. If you are a believer, then there's nothing you can do to add to the righteousness that you already have in Christ.

2:12We gather as people who are already forgiven. We gather as people who have already been bought by the blood of Christ, who are no longer condemned. We once were lost, we once were blind, but now we found forgiveness in Christ. And when he paid for our sin, he paid the full price. He didn't pay most of the price, and now you've got to go to church the rest of your life to pay the rest. Right? That's not how it works. He paid the full price. So why do we meet together? Why are we here? Why are you here?

2:49There's several answers that we could say, right? The first one is he commanded us to meet together. So we meet together. Another answer is that he commanded us to. Spur each other on to love and good deeds. All of us, even after we become believers, we need to be spurred on. Maybe we've encountered difficult circumstances and we need to be spurred on to keep going, to keep being faithful. Or maybe we're just lazy, but we need to be spurred on and we need to spur each other on to good works. But there's a third reason that I want to remind you of, and that is that we are desperate to hear from the Word of God.

3:41God has been so good to us, and He has forgiven us. He has changed us. He has saved our guilty soul. But He's also equipped us through His Word, the Bible. And God's Word is the only secure place we can go, the only inerrant place that we can go to learn about Him, to learn about what He wants from us. And so we're desperate to hear from His Word. We meet together in love, we meet together in fellowship to encourage each other, but we also meet together because we're desperate to hear God's Word. And so, today, if you're going to pay attention to what we read and what we study this morning, you will be challenged and you will be blessed because that's what God's Word does for us. Colossians 3, verse 18. As I read this passage, I want you to keep your ears perked up and see if you can find a repeated word or a repeated idea that kind of goes throughout this whole passage. So, Colossians 3:18. See if you can figure it out. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

4:56Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

5:53Pray with me. Father, help us be humble as we come to this passage. We pray that it would cut us to the heart. Your word does that often. It cuts us to the heart. And I pray that as it does, we wouldn't put up our defenses, we wouldn't explain away or make excuses, but that we'd come to you knowing that you are a merciful and gracious God. That we'd come and ask forgiveness for where we failed, and that we would come and ask your help for the future to obey.

6:38Give us clear minds this morning and give us hearts that are desperate to hear your word and desperate to apply it and change. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the repeated idea that I was hoping you found was that Jesus is our Lord. Did you guys see that? Jesus is the Lord. When we became believers, we began to serve a new master. We were slaves to sin, but like we read earlier in the scripture reading, God has transferred us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his Son. And now Christ is our Lord, and we willingly serve him. And this isn't surprising.

7:30By the time we get to here in the letter of Colossians, we're at the end of chapter 3. We're going to finish chapter 3 and even get a little bit into chapter 4 this morning. But by now, you will have seen that Christ is worthy to be treated as our Lord. He is the Lord, He is preeminent over everything. It is in Christ that we have redemption, He is the head of the body. In Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. In His body, we were reconciled. We know from chapter 2 that in Christ we died, and in Christ we were made alive. Everything has been changed because of Christ. And so, all of this points to this reality that we encounter in chapter 3: that Jesus Christ is our Lord now. He has changed everything, He is our Master now. Look at chapter 3, verse 17: Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

8:39He is the Lord of all and the Lord of our personal lives. And so, now, as we come to the end of chapter 3, he's going to apply that idea specifically to our life. And by specifically, I mean he's going to go through group by group by group by group and say, okay, how does this person think about the Lord in their life? How does this person think about living in service to the Lord? How does this group, and so on? He goes group by group. Today we will see three domains in which Christ is Lord. Three domains in which Christ is Lord. He is the Lord of your marriage. He is the Lord of your family. And he is the Lord of your work. The Lord of your marriage, the Lord of your family, and the Lord of your work.

9:32In each of these, Paul is going to look at a different relationship. First, he'll look at the husband-wife relationship and what that looks like in the Lord. And then he'll look at the child and father relationship and what that looks like in the Lord. And then he'll look at the slave and master relationship and what that looks like in the Lord. None of us are slaves or masters. A lot of us are fathers. A lot of us are children. A lot of us are wives and husbands. None of us are slaves and masters, but I think you'll see as we go through that the principles are certainly applicable to our life in almost every way, but especially even in our workplace as employers and employees.

10:17But Paul is going to answer the question: what is different about those relationships now that you are a Christian? What changes? And surprisingly, his answer is: in one sense, nothing changes. In those relationships. But on the other hand, the answer is also in a way that everything changes. So let's look at what that means. Let's look at the first one. Christ is the Lord of your marriage. Look at verse 18, chapter 3, verse 18. Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. So this is our first pair between husbands and wives, and the first command is for the wife. So if you are a wife, listen close. Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Wives, submit to your husbands. Many of the couples in this room have already worked so hard on this. This is a difficult command, isn't it? Many couples in this room have wrestled with the idea that's portrayed in this verse. Is this right? Of course, we know it's right because it's in scripture.

11:35But it is still hard work to create this dynamic in your marriage. All the time in our marriage, we want to one-up each other. All the time in our marriage, husbands and wives, we want to act arrogantly. We want to act in defiance. So this goes against our flesh. But, wives, what he's saying to you is that you can't let this attitude creep into your heart. This bad attitude where you're secretly harboring constant thoughts of superiority over your husband.

12:18Instead, you watch your heart and you take careful evaluation. You examine your attitude, you examine your actions, and you submit to your husband. You respect his leadership. If this is a brand new command for you, if you haven't ever looked at this carefully, or maybe even if this is an offensive command to you as a woman, if this startles you and takes you by surprise, I just encourage you not to move on from it quickly. It might be different than what you expected, but don't dismiss it. This is what the Lord has commanded through the Apostle Paul. This is part of Scripture. And so don't just assume this is not for you or this is for another time or another place. This is from your master through the inspiration of the Bible. And so instead, let this command expose your hearts. Listen as I read from Hebrews 4.

13:19This applies to everything we're reading this morning. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the divine. Vision of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, in discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. It's saying that God knows who you are, he knows what's going on in your heart, and he is able to penetrate all the way down to the depths of that through his word. And his word exposes us, just as one day before him, when we stand, we are going to be naked and exposed, and he will know all of our deeds. Even now, the word of God can cut to your heart and expose what's in it. Remember that as we go through all of these commands. But wives, let this command expose where you are unwilling to yield any ground.

14:30Challenge your heart and ask, How can I submit to my husband? How can I respect? How can I adopt this respectful attitude? Am I willing to let my husband lead our family like God wants? And if so, what can I do to support his leadership? We know from elsewhere in Scripture, and even in the next verse, we know that. That this does not imply that women are any less important than men or less in essence. We know that it does not imply that they are in servitude to their husband. He uses a different word for children and for slaves than he does for wives. It does not imply that women are to blindly follow their husbands into sin because the husband isn't their chief master, their chief master is Christ, right? And so we are following him.

15:32Instead, Paul is addressing the heart and the will, and that wives should work for submission and work to support and respect their husbands' leadership. And Paul goes on to say why this is so important. Look back at verse 18: Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Jesus is your Lord. This is the idea that I want us all to see as we go through this text: that Jesus is our Lord. He is our master. And you are in Christ. And this is what fits in the Lord. You are in the Lord. And this is what is fitting with being in the Lord.

16:13It's interesting that Paul doesn't give his usual theological defenses here. We see this command throughout Scripture. And each time Paul gives it, he says, like in Ephesians, his defense is that it is parallel to Christ and the church. Just as a church submits to Christ, wives can submit to their husbands. Or when he talks about in the church, women not taking authority over the men in the church, he gives a theological defense by pointing back to Adam and Eve and says, This is what I'm basing my reasoning on. And he points back to the deception in the garden. But here, he doesn't do that. He just says, it fits. This is what fits with being in the Lord.

17:01Yes, you submit, but you do it in a manner that fits with the Lord. And so he's not talking about the kind of fitting in, like when we talk about peer pressure. You know, that's a phrase we always use, right? I need to fit in. I need to be fitting in. He's not saying, this is what all the Christians are doing these days, so you should submit to. You should fit in. No, it's not that kind of fitting in. Instead, he's saying, this is what fits with the new reality of who you are. It's the same idea that we saw in the clothes in chapter 3. You remember the clothes? He's saying, you have been made a new man.

17:38And so you take off the clothes from the old man, anger, wrath, and malice, and slander, and you put on the clothes that fit, that belong with the new man. You do what is fitting. So, since your reality has changed, and there are things that don't fit anymore and things that do, make sure that you. As a wife, are acting in accordance with what fits in the Lord. You adopt the attitude that is fitting in the Lord. Next, he turns to husbands. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

18:18Husbands, love your wives, cherish your wives. Have a loving heart, a loving attitude towards your wife. Have loving deeds and actions toward your wife. Love your wife. God defines love for us in 1 John. I know that some of you, that's your first thought when you hear about love, the way that God defines it. I'm just going to read it. This is 1 John 3:16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.

18:57By this we know love. This is what we know. This is how we know what love is: that he laid his life down for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And so we know what love is by looking at what Christ has done. He is the grand definition for us of what love is, that we, like him, can be willing to lay. Down our life for our brothers. Over here, he says, Love your wife.

19:38But John also spreads this, not just this willingness to lay down your life for the brothers, he spreads this out to include every good deed. He says, we know what love is because Christ laid down his life, and we should be willing to do the same. But also, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. So he says everything. Yes, you have that attitude of saying, I'm willing to die for my wife.

20:11But that doesn't mean that in the meantime, you don't need to love in every other way. You love indeed and in truth. That's your call. We work hard to love. We find the things that show our wives affection, and we sacrifice our own desires to make it happen. We have self-sacrificial love for our wives. Paul himself makes it more specific. Look at verse 19 again. Husbands, love your wives. And he goes on to say something specific: do not be harsh with them. So, part of loving your wife is a refusal to ever be harsh with your wife. And, brothers, I know that many of you, all of us, we fail in all of these things. Things.

21:01Wives, husbands, children, parents. All of us fail in these things. None of us are perfect, but let's seek to get better. The word for harsh comes from the word bitter, and it can mean that. So he could just be saying, don't treat your wife in a bitter way. It's the same kind of idea, right? A harsh way, a bitter way, or even just generally a wicked way. Don't treat your wife poorly in a wicked way. Don't be harsh with them.

21:32This is something else, just like we talked about with the wife, this is something else that doesn't fit in the Lord. It doesn't belong. Harshness with our wife. That doesn't make sense. And we know this because it's in the clothes that we already talked about. We take off the clothes of anger, wrath, malice, and slander. We take off those harsh clothes and we put on compassion. We put on kindness. Above all, we put on love. Those are our new clothes. And this is the character that fits with your new status. So make sure you're acting in a way that's fitting in the Lord.

22:18So first, to husbands and wives, we see that Jesus is the Lord of your marriage. Second, Jesus is the Lord of your family. Jesus is the Lord of your family. Look at verse 20. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. So, kids and teenagers, I'm talking to you. All right, this applies to you. If you, listen to this, if you are a kid or a teenager and you are still living under your parents' roof, I want you to raise your hand. Okay, don't be embarrassed. Don't be shy. All right? If you're a kid or a teenager, you're still living under your parents' roof. Okay. Gentries, I see you back there. You didn't raise your hand.

23:17All right. All right. So if you were somebody who is just supposed to raise your hand, you can put your hands down. I want you to repeat after me. Okay, nice and loud. Okay? Kids, I want you to repeat after me. I'm going to go like this, and that's when I talk. And then when I go like this, that's when you talk. Okay? Are you ready? Nice and loud. Don't be shy. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. Children, obey your parents and everything, because this pleases the Lord and both. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Okay. I want you to do it one more time. This time I want you to emphasize. I want you to do it louder. Okay, now that you know everyone's doing it with you, all the other kids. I want you to do it louder, and I want you to emphasize that very last part. Okay, so copy after me. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Really loud on that last part, okay?

24:15Obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Okay, that was pretty good. So, kids and teenagers, I want you to think about what that means. That the Lord sees you. Have you ever thought about that? This pleases the Lord. He sees you, He's looking at you, He sees what you're doing. You actually have a chance to bring the Lord pleasure by the way that you obey your parents. Did you know that? Keep listening, kids. Did you know that when you obey your parents, the Lord sees from heaven and He is pleased?

25:01Think about it. That changes how you are supposed to obey. That changes things. Keep listening, kids. I know this is a long time for you to listen, but keep listening, okay? It changes things. We're about to see with slaves and masters that there is a way for slaves to obey that is just being a people pleaser. And there's a way for a slave to obey that's sincere and is influenced. Of the Lord's eyes. And so I want to challenge you, kids and teenagers that are still in your parents' house. There are two ways that you can obey.

25:43You could disobey. That's not a way to obey. But there are two ways that you can obey. One, you can obey in a way that's really negative. You can obey in a way that just does enough instead of trying to truly obey the heart of your parents' instruction. But that's not good, is it? Kids, are you still listening? That way to obey, that's not good. It's good to obey. But I think you can see that God wants more than that. If Jesus actually is watching and it pleases Him for you to obey, then you should want to obey in a way that's different, in another way to obey, joyfully obey.

26:31Teenagers, especially, listen to this. When your parents give you a command or give you an instruction, or when you're tempted to break the rules, you can actually make a choice in that moment to please the Lord. Isn't that amazing? To please Jesus Christ. Isn't that a better way to obey? To intentionally obey, to obey with joy? To obey with a sincere heart. If you're thinking, if the question comes, I don't really want to do what my parents just told me to do, sometimes you will disobey. Sometimes you will obey, but you're going to do it with a nasty heart. But sometimes you can obey, and you can say, I don't want to do what my parents want me to do, but I want to please the Lord. And so I'm not just going to obey, I'm going to obey with a sincere heart. I'm going to work hard to obey.

27:31And while you do, don't miss the word in the middle. I want you to, kids, repeat after me one more time. This is the last time. Okay? This is the last time. And I want you this time to emphasize the word everything. All right? Copy me. Are you ready? Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Right. So you can't skirt by this and just say, I don't really want to do this, but I'm going to, I know the Lord's looking at me, so I'm going to obey. But then when it's something that you really don't want to do, you say, ah, never mind. I don't want to obey that one. That's not how it works, right? He's saying, in everything, you want to have this heart. You want to work on your heart, kids. You want to work on your heart and ask God to help you to be obedient in a way that pleases Him. Next, we see a command to. Fathers. I'm not going to make you repeat it. Fathers. But children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. The word for provoke means to make resentful, to make bitter.

28:49And I think it's this similar idea, maybe, to how husbands are supposed to treat their wives. They should not be harsh with them. I think he's conveying a similar concept. Don't provoke your children. He's saying that fathers, a wise father and a father who is living before the eyes of his Lord, is not only going to watch out for the content of the children's instruction. Yes, as a father, you are supposed to watch out for the content that is filling the ears of your sons and daughters. But that's not the only thing you're supposed to watch out for. He's also saying, watch out for the manner in which you deliver your instruction. It might be great instruction, but watch out for the manner in which you deliver your instruction. Fathers need to spend the thought to consider how they speak and interact with their children. Are you doing it in a way that is provoking them, that discourages them?

29:53That word can be disheartened or make them lose motivation. So you. Your wisdom, fathers. You know your children. If you pay attention to your kids, you can see when they have lost heart. Many of the fathers, probably all the fathers, have crossed this line before, and you know it. And you can tell when you've been too harsh with your kids and you have discouraged them or made them lose heart. When that happens, don't treat it as a victory. Don't treat it as, yeah, I got my way, right? Instead, say, oh, I want to give this instruction. I want to help them learn. I even want to discipline them, but I want to do it in a way that doesn't crush them.

30:40Now, kids, I know what you're thinking. The next time your dad is about to spank you, there's a plan forming in your mind to turn around and, with angel eyes, say, Father, do not spank me, lest I be discouraged. But don't do that. You're not allowed to do that, okay? Paul is not condemning a father's discipline of his children. We know that from scripture everywhere. Discipline is commended, not condemned. Fathers are supposed to discipline their children, but instead, Paul is saying to wake up, fathers, and be careful. Are you constantly disciplining? Or do you also take the time to show love? Love, to encourage, to edify, to laugh with your kids. Are you being too harsh with them? Maybe you're not harsh with your wife, but maybe you are harsh with your kids.

31:43So consider, use all of your wisdom. Think hard about it. Don't be lazy about this. Think hard about it. Think, are you crushing your children? Yes, discipline, but also, yes, be gentle. Pay attention to your disposition toward them. That's the command for the fathers. So let's keep moving. We've got some more to do. We've seen that Jesus is the Lord of your marriage, and Jesus is the Lord of your family. The last one, Jesus is the Lord of your work.

32:20Jesus is the Lord of your work. Verse 22, bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service, as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Isn't that amazing? For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters treat. Your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So, first, look at verse 22. Bondservants or slaves, obey in everything those that are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Most of your translations, probably all of them, have switched to the word master.

33:24Does there say master anywhere in the text? That's actually just the same word for Lord. Most of the translations have switched to maybe make it less confusing, because now all of a sudden you've got a slave and his Lord. A slave and his master, but he keeps just saying Lord. And so the slave is serving the Lord and serving the Lord. You see? Slaves obey in everything those who are your earthly Lords. So a slave has two Lords, the Lord and their earthly Lord. And when the slave thinks about their earthly Lord, when they become a Christian, that doesn't mean that now they don't need to obey their earthly Lord. Yes, they've been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Yes, they've been given this new status in Christ for eternity. They've been given an inheritance, but still they need to obey the Lord. Their masters.

34:32In fact, Christian slaves should be the most obedient slaves of all. He says, not just outwardly obedient. Look at what he says, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. So slaves should no longer do the minimum. Instead, they should be sincere. They should be hard workers. They should no longer allow their hearts to be disobedient while their bodies are obedient. No, the Lord sees the heart as well. So they fear the Lord, and out of that fear, out of that sincerity, they obey in everything. And not just when their master is looking. That's what he says. Not by way of eye service, but honestly and truly. So even when their master has turned his back, they're still working hard.

35:32I remember one time when I was growing up, I was in the kitchen and we had made a mess. My dad and I, my mom wasn't home, and my mom was coming home. And my dad said, Jeff, you need to sweep up this mess. And I said, okay, I obeyed, and I went and got the broom, and I was sweeping with one hand. I don't know what I was doing with my other hand, but for some reason, maybe I had. A drink or something. I don't know, but I was sweeping with one hand. And my dad came to me and looked at me sternly and said, Son, sweep with both hands.

36:13And I remember I said something disobedient: like, Dad, why? I'm going to get the job done. I was a teenager. And like a patient father, he explained that I don't just need to get the job done. I need to work with a sincere heart. It matters how I get the job done. I work hard. I work with a sincere heart. I think I was still whiny about it, but I did finish the job. And the lesson stuck with me. I don't remember a lot from my childhood, but that's one of maybe five things I remember from my childhood.

36:47Then that one stuck for some reason. And Paul is talking about that attitude. You work with a sincere heart, a heart that fears the Lord. You work hard all the time. And he goes on to say, why? Verse 23, whatever you do, work hardily as for the Lord and not for man. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. It's amazing. He's telling the slaves that every time they obey their earthly Lord, they should be thinking. About how they are obeying their heavenly Lord.

37:35They are serving the Lord Christ when they obey their master. Slaves should be faithful. They should be obedient. And when they are, when they're serving their masters, the true master they're serving is Jesus. And so they work hard. They do this because they are going to receive the inheritance as a reward. That's what they're working because of. They're receiving this inheritance from the Lord. They know that this time is coming where they're going to be face to face with the Lord. And so now, in the meantime, they work hard, knowing that they're going to receive this inheritance. So no matter what they are doing, that's what he says, whatever you do, do it, knowing that you are serving before the Lord's eyes. He sees you.

38:31Whether your earthly master sees you or not, your heavenly master sees you, so you obey. And knowing that when you do serve before the Lord, you will be rewarded. God sees the slave. The Lord sees the slave and has expectations for that slave when he receives a command. And the Lord will reward the slave. And so the slave always works with the Lord on his mind. It's an amazing passage, an amazing idea, isn't it? Again, none of us are slaves or masters, but the principle certainly applies as employers or as employees that we can work hard for him. We can serve the Lord when we obey a command.

39:22Scott Cardone was recently telling me about the rotations that he has to do for medical school. And I wouldn't like to do it. He seems to like it. But what he has to do is he gets to go see patients. And he even listens to them talk. He talks with them back. He investigates, tries and figures out what's going on. And if he's confident, he can even give them a diagnosis. He can tell them what he thinks is wrong. But he's not a doctor yet, I think. He's a doctor in training. And so there is always this third person that Scott has to go and report to. And he has to go and tell the doctor who's already done all this what the patient said, why he diagnosed them the way he did, what he suggests for treatment, all of this. And so even though the interaction is between Scott and his patient, there's this third person there that Scott always has to give an account to, that he's always working with the patient with this doctor in mind, knowing he's got to be perfect for this doctor. In the same way, there is a third person in the relationship between the slave and the master, and the slave constantly obeys and is good for his master because he's got to give account to this other master that he's got.

40:48If he was only serving his earthly master, then he could serve by way of eye service as a people pleaser, but he's not. So he needs to obey sincerely. And not only will he be rewarded for this, look at verse 25. There's also consequences if he doesn't do it. Verse 25, the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. The wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

41:19He could be saying something like, just because you're a Christian slave, there's not going to be partiality in your master. If you disobey, you're still going to get punished. He could be saying something like that, but this likely refers back to the center of this text, the Lord himself, saying there's no partiality with the Lord. So the righteous slave can know that the unrighteous slave is going to be punished. If he's serving with all of his heart and his other slave, his friend, a slave, is serving as a people pleaser and he's working a lot harder than this one, well, he can know that the unrighteous will be punished. There's no partial pleasure. Partiality in the Lord.

42:03But the unrighteous slaves should remember that God can see them, and there's no partiality in him. And they need to understand that. So Paul finishes off this last pair. This is our final line. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Or lords, treats your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Lord in heaven. So the slave is supposed to consider how the Lord sees everything he does. And that means he's supposed to be super obedient, even behind the scenes. The master is also supposed to consider that the Lord sees everything that he does. The Lord is watching. So the slaves are obedient, but the master must be just. This is what's fitting. He must be fair. He must be just. The master is also a slave.

43:01The Lord also has a Lord, and that Lord can see him all the time. So the master can no longer cheat his slaves. The master can no longer be unjust or trample on their dignity because God is watching and they should seek to please him. They should seek to do what's fitting in the Lord. Well, we move through these quickly. Might not have felt quick, but it did feel. Me. And it was a lot of commands. We've seen that Paul went through three sets of relationships: right? The husband-wife relationship, the children-father relationship, the slave-master relationship. And in each of these relationships, there is this third person that's involved. It's the Lord. He sees everything.

43:51And he cares about our relationships. We can no longer, as Christians, we can no longer let ourselves think about these relationships without thinking about the Lord. Do you ever consider that? You can no longer think about the relationship between a husband and a wife without thinking about the Lord. So wives submit and husbands love. The Lord cares about how children and fathers interact. So children obey, and fathers don't be harsh. Don't provoke. And the Lord cares about how slaves and masters interact. Slaves are to obey. Masters are to be just and fair.

44:38And so as we come to the book of Colossians and we see all of these things that have changed for the Christian, if you've forgotten this, go back and read the book of Colossians. He says that everything has changed for the Christian. Christ is preeminent overall, and he has reconciled you to himself, and so everything is. Changed for you. You have died, if you're a believer. You have been raised again. And so the question is: the question that this passage answers is: okay, if I'm a Christian and I am under the Lord's authority, do I still follow the patterns of authority in my life? Does being under Christ's authority change the way that I interact with these other authorities? And the answer is, again, like we said at the beginning, nothing's changed in one sense. Yes, wives still submit. Children still obey. Slaves still obey. Nothing has changed. But in another sense, Paul is saying that everything has changed.

45:48Everything has changed. There's submission and love in marriage because everything is about Christ now. He is our Lord. There's obedience and gentleness between a father and his children because there is obedience to the Lord. There's obedience and justice in the slave and master relationship because the Lord sees them. And so now whenever we submit or obey any rightful authority in our lives, we are actually submitting and obeying to Christ Himself. So everything has changed. And now maybe you are in this room. Especially young adults.

46:32And you're thinking, I'm not a husband, I'm not a wife, I'm not a kid, I'm not a dad, I'm not a slave, I'm not a master. Woohoo! None of this applies to me. There is something specific for many of us, and we can take those and apply those right away. Apply those specific things in your life and work hard for it. But Paul has also given us these general principles to apply, hasn't he? These are worth meditating on because it changes the way that we think about our relationship with God. It changes the way we interact with other people. First, in verse 18, he told us to do what is fitting in the Lord. Do what is fitting. Pay attention to what fits, what belongs, what manner of life belongs in the Lord. Put on the right clothes and do what is fitting. Second, we do what is pleasing to the Lord. That was in verse 20.

47:42Though as Christians, we don't have any divine wrath stored up for us anymore. We've been fully forgiven when we trusted in Christ. We can still act in a way that displeases him. And so we should strive to find out what pleases him and do it. And third, so we can. Live in a way that's fitting. We can live in a way that is pleasing. And we can live sincerely before his eyes, just like the slave and master. We can consider that he's looking at us and serve with a sincere heart.

48:16Everything is different. We are blessed to have Jesus Christ, the preeminent one. We are blessed to have him as our Lord. And though our earthly circumstances might not have changed very much after we became a believer, though the authority structures in our lives haven't changed, still everything is different now that we're serving the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we're grateful for this passage. We're grateful for being, we're grateful that you have given us Jesus Christ as the head of the body, as our Lord, as the preeminent one.

49:06He is the Lord of creation, and we come before him. And we pray that as his people, we would constantly have in our hearts and in our minds the reality that he is our Lord and He does see us. I pray that this would cause us to obey sincerely and in fear of the Lord. But I also pray, Lord, that this causes us to obey joyfully, knowing that the eyes of our loving Lord are upon us, knowing that he sees everything we go through, and knowing that when we do obey as believers, when we do obey with a heart full of joy, and a heart that knows that the Lord sees, I pray that we would be encouraged to obey all the more.

50:04Lord, cut us to the heart, expose where we are unwilling to follow your word. Help us be convicted and help us have a desire and an excitement to change and remember that you are our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.