Episode 300 - It's Our 300th Episode!

The brothers celebrate a milestone as this is the 300th episode of Two Brothers One Bible. They also discuss Ephesians 6:5-9

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And welcome to a historic episode of Two Brothers One Bible Fly. That sounds really good. How do you like this tongue? I got a joke on it. Well, the reason this tongue is playing, Peter, is because of a very huge milestone that we're gonna celebrate today. It's very majestic to be. Ladies and gentlemen, today's episode is the 300th episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast from Columbia, Tennessee. New Song Baptist Church. And then when the burnoon trying to throw everything in there.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Can you have like an eagle flyby there, man?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

That would be really good, wouldn't it? Yeah. Well uh welcome to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. This is the 300th episode. Peter, your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Well, first let's introduce ourselves. Oh, I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. You know, Robert, it's just coming up August would be uh three years. We'll start three years. And uh it's just amazing. Um, you know, when when we first talked about it, it was just like, hey, let's let's see.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Right. It was it was kind of a thing that, you know, how far will we go?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

You know, when we talked about, you know, how how many episodes, when we talked about how many listeners, we we had no idea. No, we didn't. And and I would I would just honestly say that every time we sit down and and do this, I I'm just more in love with scripture. Me too. Um me too. I I'm just thrilled with the number of people that listen. And um I I just can't believe 300 episodes, and I don't know how many more we're gonna do, but this is this is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

This is fantastic. Yeah, we've uh we've gotten a number of listeners. Uh people listen all over the the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

And uh and we thank you for that. For you as a listener, we appreciate that. We always invite you to share the show. Uh uh send us any kind of feedback. Uh, wish us a happy anniversary. Yeah. On on their 300th episode. If you do that, you will receive a $5 bill.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

What?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I don't want to do that. Yeah, I need $5.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

You better take that away.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Okay, yeah, we'll take that away.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, that's it's not gonna happen. Um but almost 10,000 downloads.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Almost 10,000. We're getting very, very close to that. So that's an exciting other goal.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

That that we're meeting. But again, uh the whole idea was just you and I just got together and we said, let's give this a shot. Right. We got some stuff together, and here we are almost three years later, and 300 episodes later.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And uh it it's all by the blessing of God.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Absolutely. And and you know, the the core message has always been we are two guys that just love the word of God. Amen. We're just coming together and talking about it, and uh we just love digging into it and sharing our insights and our thoughts, and uh so our hope is we tend as a society to just quickly go through scripture. We make it like a checklist.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

And so uh this morning my wife and I were in Deuteronomy, the the first three chapters, and you know, you kind of go with a pretty clip, you know, and like you said in the last episode, it's just such a difference. You we can read Ephesians, but like like stop and look, why why is that word there? Why didn't he chose this word? Or what does that verb mean? So when we slow it down, there's such a richness in there, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

And that's I think that's the the benefit of this whole podcast, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah, well, and that's why in our last episode we thought, well, we'll just go from verse one to verse nine, and we only got to verse four. So because there's so much in there.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Sure, we just got to talking about stuff. So uh again, uh thank you so much for making this the 300th uh episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. And we're going to continue our study in Ephesians. Uh we're gonna start in chapter six and start in verse five, and we'll get to wherever we get to. That yeah, I like that. Our goal is to get through five through what, ten?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Nine. Nine, okay, five through nine. Let's try that. Right. Okay. All right. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

All right, so that is the word of the Lord. So we get right into to verse five after we've talked about the fathers and the children and all that stuff, and then he addresses slaves and servants. Uh, and he talks about obeying your earthly masters. Right. Now, again, this is a different word from submit. Sure. It's obey. It's obey. And uh and it with sincerity of heart as you would obey Christ. So this literally means this this masters, earthly masters literally means masters according to the flesh, according to the Greek word. And the Greek word is katasarka.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Wow, look at you.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah, I've been practicing that one.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, yeah, I I could say. You know, we we obviously in the 21st century, we when we hear the word slave, we kind of bristle. Yes, we do. Uh it it it brings up negative thoughts and bad connotations. And and so, but for Paul, who's writing to this world uh at his time, there was more slaves in the world than there were free people. How about that? And so this was a very common thing, and this is the way people dealt with their debts. If that they owed someone money, they would put themselves into slavery until their debt was paid off.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

And so they sometimes it was a forced slave thing. Sometimes people were bought, but sometimes they sold themselves to to you know take care of a debt. Exactly. Right. You know, I think the best thing for us is not to get caught up on the slave master issue. Everything he says is just as applicable if we change the word to employer, employee.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Or boss, you know, when we see see, you know, uh Boss and worker. Boss and worker.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Exactly. Yeah, that I think that's exactly what this is. Because what what Paul is doing, when you change the words like that, uh it really reframes the whole thing. It reframes work as worship.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

And I think that's what Paul's talking about here.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Sure, and he picks up that same thing when Colossians, you know, saying, Everything that you do with your hands, do it unto the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Do it unto the Lord, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

He's laying the groundwork here in Ephesians.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Absolutely. So uh you uh this is an illustration this guy put it down. Imagine a servant sweeping a floor in a wealthy home. No one notices, no one praises, but she whispers, Lord, I do this for you, and suddenly the task becomes holy. Yeah. Now that's a different way of looking at it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh when you think of work as something that I'm doing for God, that changes your whole perspective.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, there's there's several stories about that kind of stuff. And and I've had some personal stories that that reflected that where people have the the bigger concept. Uh there's one uh about their building St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. And so a guy goes through and says, You know, what are you doing? He says, I'm I'm laying bricks, and the other one's like, I'm I'm putting glass in. And then he asks this third guy, What are you doing? He said, I'm building a great cathedral for God. Oh, yeah. You know, and so it's a matter of perspective. It sure is. And so if we saw everything we did, whether it was using the stapler or doing the most meaningful thing or the most important thing, but we're doing it unto the Lord, it changes so host focus of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

The thing is, when we work at a job like that, it's so easy to get caught up in the negatives of the job. Right. You know, I don't want to staple these papers, I don't want to fill out this PowerPoint presentation. I am sick of these Zoom conferences where I have to give an account of why this didn't happen or why that didn't happen. Right. But if we try to reframe that in working for the Lord, that will change our attitude at work. Yeah. Yeah. And it'll change and that change at work will be noticed by your coworkers. Um I you know, I was a postmaster uh for a number of years, and I did not always follow that.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And I should have. Uh, but but you the one thing I never did, I I never corrected an employee on the workroom floor ever. Right. Uh because I just didn't think that that wasn't right. No. And so I would bring them in the office and jump up and down the screen. No. I would bring him in the office and talk to him there. Yeah. Because that's that's just the way to do that. And that's reframing work into worship. Because we're I'm we're trying to do this unto the Lord. And I think that's what he's saying here in in verses six and seven.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, you know, and I, you know, every even in the slave master context and in the in the boss employee context, you're you're gonna have encounters. There's gonna be dumb rules. Oh, yeah. You know, and and in your situation, you had people telling you what the dumb rules were. You know, you were just the guy to make sure that your people follow the dumb rules. And you could even say when you're saying you're not following the dumb rule, I think it's a dumb rule. You know, and and good chance in six months they're gonna change this dumb rule because they're gonna realize it's dumb. But right now, this is the dumb rule we got to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

This is what we gotta do. As long as they're paying us, we gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, and that really is the bottom line. It is. Is you're doing this job for money. This is how you provide for your family. But Paul elevates this whole thing and saying, look, you know, the majority of your time is consumed in this work environment. This is the place where you can showcase who you are as a Christian.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh, good point. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

If you choose to think about it that way. But if you're gonna act jerk and be stupid and smug and sarcastic to people and and you know, find places where you can hide and loaf off, and then you say, Hey, you want to go to church with me?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, it's like brushing your teeth and drinking orange juice right after that. It just really does not Did you see that face? Did you see it? Yeah, yeah, that's what it's like. I've done that. No, it's not good. Yeah, it's not good at all. But you know, that's exactly how people see us. If they see us at work and we're not leading an example that we are going to church or we're followers of Jesus, we're never gonna win them. Exactly. Uh and and they're never gonna they're gonna say, Well, my boss, he he acts like he goes to church, but he's a jerk.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah. Well, in fact, it was some of your employees that invited you to come here to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Exactly right. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

And so you looked at the nature of their character. And it's like, do I want to go to church where they go to church?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

That's right. And and I almost said no.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I can't blame you, but they offered you money.

unknown 11:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Okay, we're kidding. That's for those of you who have never been to New Songs. That's all it took. So uh let's get on to uh verse six and seven. Not only to win their favor, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Boy, that really changes your attitude. Doing the will of God from your heart, yeah. Wow, that really changes your perspective. And you know, the thing is not to win their favor, it's it's really important to do the right thing when no one's watching. I think that's what Paul's talking about here. Yeah. He's talking about, you know, do always try to do the right thing even when nobody's watching.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, in verse five, when it said sincerity of heart, I put that's the key to the whole thing. It really is the sincerity of the heart. And then when he picks up in verse six, he says, you know, to to win their favor. But the for me, the what really jumped out was when their eye is on you. Because we all know there's there's this two sides to us. Right. So there's that side of, oh, they're watching, I better do this right. And then there's that side of like no one's looking, I'm gonna do this the way I want to do it. And it's kind of like my granddaughter recently took her her test to get her license to drive. And so I know she was driving by the book, you know, hands on the wheel and signals and everything. Right. She gets her little license, and you know, she's back to doing what she did when she had her learner's permit. But that's all of us. Oh, we all do that. You know, and so what Paul's saying here in verse six is do the same thing whether they're watching or not. And and in today's reality with the amount of cameras out there, oh yeah, people on their cell phones, cameras just watching you, you don't know who's watching and this could be the turning point of people identifying what your character truly is by what they're seeing you do or not do.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Exactly. So verse seven, serve wholeheartedly as you are serving the Lord, not people. And then verse eight, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. So uh that that's those I read those two together because they kind of go together. Uh serving wholeheartedly and the reason for serving wholeheartedly is in those two verses.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, and it takes me back to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 25, when he talked about, you know, when I was hungry and when I was thirsty, when I was in prison, when I was naked. And they said, I don't I remember that happening to you, Jesus, at all. And then he said, When you do it to the least of these, you do it unto me. And so that I think reflects those same thoughts is that we need to just treat others like we would be treating God.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Amen. That's exactly it. Yeah, I love that. All right, so let's see. Did we get to verse eight? We did did we talk about verse eight?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Well, let's let's talk more about seven. Oh, I just go to seven. That wholeheartedly. I just love that word. Yeah. You know, and and so it's not only giving in a hundred percent, but you know, how we do our jobs, you know, there's there's been times where I told my son, take out the trash. There'd, you know, he'd drag the bag. There'd be a hole in the bag, and there's a trail of stuff, and it's like or you know, go cut the grass, you know, and there's tough it's everywhere where he just missed it. Right. That's not wholeheartedly. No. You know, and so we know this. It's not just a parent-child thing. It we do it too. Sure. You know, and so he's saying, look, do it freely, do it willingly, do it cheerfully, do it to our best, whether someone's watching or not. Yeah, that's good. Even someone didn't tell you, but you see it needs to be done and you just go and do it. Right. And that's because we're just serving the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

And it just changes your whole perspective. Absolutely. When you use it, when you think of it as serving the Lord, that that's really an important part. And uh Hank just shared this with the teens. Uh-huh. This is a verse because we we had a Wednesday night uh class, and Hank wasn't here on that class, but this was the verse that he chose. And after Tessa read the verses to the guys, uh, I said, We chose this verse because it's the teens' time to clean the church building. So we got up after that, and and I helped him. I said, Okay, you go do the the boys' restroom, you do the girls, you grab the trash, you get the mop, let's get all this stuff. And and we're doing this for the Lord. There you go. We're not doing this just to make the church building clean. Right. We're doing it for the Lord. And and I I think that was a great message. I really thought I loved the way they they they really were getting into it wholeheartedly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it goes on to verse 8. It says, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. So, you know, if the reward's coming to you from the Lord, yeah, uh that's a great payday.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, and you know, the thing is the Lord's not looking at your deeds alone. He's looking at your heart. Absolutely. He always looks at the heart, he looks at the big picture. He he knows our innermost thoughts. And so, you know, you're gonna get rewarded either way. Right. According to what you're doing and how you do it.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Right, exactly. Yeah, so he's gonna he you are gonna get rewarded either way. Yeah. So that takes us to verse nine, and masters treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Wow, this it's a great point that he makes because you know, if you're in the position of being a boss, be a godly boss. Amen. You know, I understand the role, uh, but there's what ways to do it. Just as we talked about parents, how they parent their children. Right. And so be a good boss, be a godly boss, be an example boss. Let them see how you want it done by doing what needs to be done. And and then, you know, Paul really takes the same thought that he captures in the book of Philemon when he's addressing, you know, Nesimis running away and and taking back. And it's look, we whether whether you're on the top of the totem pole or the bottom, you know, God is still the God of both of us. And so we need to make sure that uh we act accordingly.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

That's exactly right. I got tickled because the the song came right in right when you were done. We have to act accordingly. That was such a performance, baby. That gets us all the way through the first nine verses of chapter six. And this is episode 300, Peter. Uh thanks for uh doing this with you.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Can I show the send the fireworks now?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Would you send the fireworks now? Thank you. Thank you. Please be singing. Thank you. That's the eagle. That's the eagle. Oh, thank you so much for listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Lee. I'm Peter Sears, and we will do episode three of one in our next podcast. How about that? Amazing. Thanks so much for listening, and God bless you.