Welcome to Bible at the Beach. Glad you can join us. We'll be in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 9 today.
I always pray, Lord, give me the eyes to see what you want to say. Give me the ears to hear what I need to hear.
Give me the heart and the courage to change the things in my life that I need to change.
And in that spirit, let's read Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 9. It says,
Children, I want you to be wise, listen to your parents and do what they tell you, and the Lord will help you.
Now what's going on here? Well, life is a lot easier when you start with the foundation of humility.
Humility is a presupposition. It's a foundation of foundation, a way of thinking.
It goes a little bit like this. I don't know everything.
That's the presupposition of humility. And so it's easier if you learn a younger age, hey, I don't know.
I don't know everything. And so I'm in a process of learning and I'm in a process of growing.
Now, how do you distinguish between, you know, humility and wisdom?
Well, as you practice humility, you actually get wiser because a humble person can learn from the mistakes of others,
can learn from the lessons of others, and can learn from the life of others. That's how wisdom is accumulated.
The stupid person makes all the mistakes themselves without learning anything from anyone.
Now, have I been stupid in my life? More times than I can count.
The wisdom that I've gained in my life has come through using these wonderful instruments on both sides of my head.
They're called ears. And to the degree that I listen and I learn, I usually do really, really well.
To the degree that I don't use these two God-given gifts, these ears on the side of my head to listen and learn, I don't do very well.
So really, humility is the foundation for actually doing well in life.
This isn't about hierarchy. This isn't about rules. And this isn't about dominance.
This is about gaining a strategic advantage in life because you learn to listen and you learn to learn.
And then through that, you actually develop critical thinking. And as you get older, you develop better and better critical thinking.
Critical thinking allows you to distinguish between what's right and what's false.
And so humility is the foundation of critical thinking. It's much easier if as parents you teach this to your kids.
Versus them thinking that they know everything and they learn not to listen. They learn not to use their ears.
And then they think they know everything. And then the life in front of them is just going to be filled with mistake after mistake without any reflection, without actually doing very well.
So that's what's going on here. God's trying to teach us from the beginning to be humble, to listen, and to learn.
He says, For the commandment, honor your father and mother was the first of the Ten Commandments with the promise attached.
You will prosper and live a long, full life if you honor your parents.
And again, what was going on here is the presupposition of humility, listening, learning, and critical thinking.
And without that, life is much harder and it's much more difficult.
He says, Fathers don't exasperate your children, but raise them up with loving discipline and counsel that brings the revelation of the Lord.
So what he's saying to fathers here is not to exasperate your kids. How do you exasperate your kids?
You exasperate your kids when you tell them to do something without explaining why.
The stupidest thing that you can do as a parent is say to a child, because I told you so, without some explanation.
Now if a kid's being obstinate and stubborn or a little bit funny and they're needling you by saying, well, why, well, why, well, why?
Well, then there's a there's a place to say, you know, because I told you so.
However, usually parents, fathers in particular, get there too quick.
Children need to be taught, here's why you do something, here's why you don't do something.
That is the counsel that he's talking about here.
He's saying you you clarify to them, this is why you do something, this is why you don't do something.
That's discipline. And then in that process comes insight that is then passed along to the child.
Tell them why you do something, why you don't do something.
Here's the insight to it. And it says literally here, that's what brings the revelation of the Lord.
So a child's job is to listen and learn and a parent's job is to teach and explain and give counsel
and to explain things as to why things happen in life the way that they do, why things happen the way that they do.
He says in verse five, those who are employed should listen to their employers and obey their instructions with great respect and honor.
What's going on here? Always give it instructions for how things are supposed to function in the workplace.
By the way, if you're an employee and you think you know everything, go start your own company.
But if you're going to choose to work for someone else, then again you need to listen and you need to learn.
You need to accumulate those lessons and then in the right time go out and do your own thing.
What's disrespectful is to choose to work for someone and then act like the boss.
Well, you're not the boss. If you want to be the boss, go start your own company. It's pretty simple.
Again, humility. If you choose to work for someone, choose to have the humility to bless them,
bless their company and bless their business until you get the courage to go start your own company.
It says serve them with humility in your hearts as though you were working for the master.
So again, all of these themes, they're not themes about hierarchy.
They're themes about humility, kids learning from parents, parents teaching their children, employees working for employers.
There's a presupposition of humility that Paul's trying to teach here.
He says in verse 6, always do what is right and not only when others are watching.
Basic integrity, basic integrities, who am I when no one's looking?
A person with integrity operates like this. I expect this out of myself.
I expect this out of others. It's very simple.
If you expect this out of others and this out of yourself, you don't have integrity.
And it'll be just a matter of time before people don't have any respect for you.
A wise person, a person with integrity expects this out of themselves personally and then whatever with everybody else.
They just hold themselves to high godly standards on a consistent basis so that you may please Christ as his servants by doing his will.
Serve your employers wholeheartedly and with love. By the way, you reap what you sow.
If you think you're going to give a half effort to an employer, then you're going to go start your own company and then someone's going to turn around and give you that effort.
No, no, no, no. That's not how it works. You reap what you sow.
You have to give a hundred percent when you work for someone, then maybe someday the favor will be returned to you.
So you're doing it unto God, but you're also doing it because you want to reap what you sow in your life.
Be assured that anything that you do is beautiful and excellent. You'll be repaid by the Lord.
Sometimes you're repaid your value on earth. Sometimes you're not. Sometimes you're not.
So God, God has an excellent scorecard by which he dishes out his reimbursement.
Be assured that anything that you do is beautiful and excellent will be repaid by the Lord, whether you are an employee or an employer.
And to the caretakers of the flock, if you're a pastor, I say, do what is right with your people by forgiving them when they offend you.
For you know there is a master in heaven that shows no favoritism.
Now, if you're a pastor, if you're a shepherd, are people going to do things that are offensive to you?
All the time. I was just riding my bicycle over here to video. Nice, quiet, beautiful day.
Had a truck cut me off, pull me over, say a bunch of disrespectful things to me that I didn't deserve.
I didn't do anything wrong. And what did I do? Nothing. Kept riding my bike.
You don't have to be a shepherd, a pastor, a leader, whatever you want to call yourself for five minutes to not have to learn how to be kind,
how to be quiet, how to not respond, how to pray for and how to bless others.
It's a part of every day life when you're leading other people.
Again, you have to keep your standard here and let other people determine what their standards.
Just make sure that you expect way more out of yourself than you do for others.
Over time, that'll be what other people respect about you.
So because God shows no favoritism. So all of this is based in humility, learning, working for an audience of one.
Just some good old fashioned work ethic and some really deep wise lessons in here today about humility and wisdom.
So I hope this has blessed you today. Thanks so much for joining Bible at the Beach.
Until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.