Key Truth: In Christ, our life at home and at work provides daily opportunities for us to grow in our love of God and love of neighbor unto God’s glory and for the life of the world.

Introduction:

Do you view your family life/work life as a field of opportunities or as a set of restraints?

“[Paul] doesn’t give detailed advice or counsel. He doesn’t hand out official ‘Christian’ counsel on how to raise our children or get along with our spouses. What he does is replace our understanding of our already culturally defined roles with a Christ-defined role. Every aspect of our family and work life is redefined in relation to Christ rather than to what we have grown up with as wives to husbands, husbands to wives, children parents, parents to children, slaves to masters, masters to slaves.”

Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ

Family Life in Christ

Ephesians 6:1-4

“The discipline and instruction in which parents are to bring up their children, Paul writes, are ‘the Lord’s’. . . . behind the parents who teach and discipline their children there stands the Lord himself. It is he who is the chief teacher and administrator of discipline. Certainly the overriding concern of Christian parents is not just that their children will submit to their authority, but that through this they will come to know and obey the Lord.”

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Ephesians

Children, do you believe that God has given you your parents so He can bless you through them in Christ?
Parents, do you believe that God has entrusted you with your children in order to use you a blessing for their good in Christ?

Work Life in Christ

Ephesians 6:5-9

“The gospel works anywhere. Nothing can hinder it, whether physical imprisonment (which Paul was at that very moment experiencing 3:1; 4:1), or the social chains of slavery (which undoubtedly some of his hearers knew at first hand). In our own time the gospel has advanced in many countries in the world in the face of violent opposition and persecution. Nothing, ultimately, can thwart the power of the gospel. Here, then, we have apostolic teaching on how the gospel of grace functions in a social order we find intolerable.”

Sinclair Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians

How does the way you work reveal who you are truly serving?
Is the way you work bringing grace and peace to those you work with?
What do your coworkers hear you complain about?
What do they hear/see you celebrate? 

Application:

Ephesians 6:1-9 teaches us that 

• In Christ, our life at home and at work provides ample opportunities for us to grow in our love of God and love of neighbor unto God’s glory and for the life of the world.

Benediction:

Ephesians 6:23-24