Making a Difference in our Workplace

Faith in the Workplace Series : 

Making a Difference in Our Workplace

Luke 9:23-25

Brother Eric Chong

28 July 2019

Purpose Statement 

We choose to be in the process where we follow Jesus Christ and obey His commands hence influencing others to do the same. 

1. Follow Jesus Christ Our first and foremost calling is a calling to follow Christ and experience the great extent of His love hence being transformed to be more and more Christ-like. First and foremost, we need to follow Jesus. When Eric first started working, he didn’t understand how following Jesus has anything to do with the workplace and segregated church and work properly. He experienced heartaches and backstabbing in the workplace. His dreams came crushing down when the project manager told him in a site meeting, “I don’t need a coffeemaker in this meeting!” He told himself that day, “There must be more than just making money in the workplace and climbing the corporate ladder.” And on that day, he decided to be different and to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in his workplace and impact people’s lives. 

Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

Matthew 4:18-20 Verse 19 – “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Our greatest fulfillment in the workplace should be found in fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples of all nations. We must answer his call to reach out. 

But what can I do? The call to reach out is more than just (about) going to work day in day out. 

How can we reach out to others? We need to obey his commands and influence others. We need to be different. We need to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily according to the Father's will. We need to be the light and fill our lamps. The workplace is where we are called to be. For example, the school is the workplace of students, the office is the workplace of office workers, the home or neighborhood is the workplace of housewives. It doesn’t mean that money is not important but it simply means that we’re not driven by money. 

There is a promise in John 14:15-16 – “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.” We are not called to live a perfect life but a life which we follow Christ and obey his commands and by doing so being transformed into who we are. We’re called to live a life pleasing to him until we meet him again. 

2. Obey His commands hence influencing others to do the same 

(a) How can I best reach out to others in my workplace? 1) Recognizing that the Holy Spirit is the one that works through us (John 14:16). We do not need to do it in our strength only but we can rely on the Holy Spirit as our helper when we feel weak in our times of need. Eric related an incident in which his senior “honored his honesty” and helped him though the situation when he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to inform his senior that he had designed a structural beam wrongly, a fact he had initially tried to hide for fear that he would be reprimanded. The Spirit of God will prompt and help us when we want to obey God’s commands. 

2) We need to experience and enjoy the transformation in our life (Acts 22) If we have never experienced God before and never been transformed by God in our life, it’s very hard to obey something that we have never experienced before. We need to experience and enjoy the transformation in our life as we follow Jesus in our journey of discipleship. 

3) We lose yet we GAIN (1 Samuel 24 & 1 Samuel 26) We all battle to win. But we also know that when we go into battle, we lose something, we lose some benefits or perks or even relationships as well. We also know that when we lose, we will gain peace. In 1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26, we read that because David spared Saul’s life, he was blessed and went on to triumph and do great things and eventually became King. Sometimes we lose, but we gain. We lose relationships, but we gain peace. When people see us living a different life, they will be interested to know why we are different. We lose because we obey and follow the commands of God. The “danger” of professing your faith as a Christian in the workplace is that you become the target of jibes and “bullets” from colleagues when you “misbehaved” or did something wrong and become a stumbling block. Battle of Jericho! God told Joshua the incredible and implausible things he needed to do – circumcize the people right before battle, first send in the foot soldiers, then the priests with the trumpet and the priests with the ark, finally the foot soldiers behind, and circle the wall of Jericho for seven days. But on the seventh day, when the priests blew the trumpets, the wall came tumbling down and they won the battle. The battle that we’re in is not our own battle but it belongs to God. As we follow Him and obey His commands, we need to let God take charge and let God help us win this battle, with us being the instrument of success. It isn’t us who save lives but it is Christ who saves lives. We always need to remember to refill our lamps, with God being the fuel of our lamps. 

4) Allow God to take the centre stage in your work! (Joshua 6) In the story of the Fall of Jericho, the arrangement (or the order of procession) of the battle of Jericho was first the soldiers, then the priests, followed by the ark of God and lastly the soldiers. What was in the middle or centre? The ark of God! The ark represents the presence of God. They won the battle because they allowed God to take the centre of it all and allowed God to be the centre of their battle. Therefore in the same way, we need to allow God to take centre stage in our work and to be in control of our situations. 

Keeping God in the centre 

1) Start your day with the word of the Lord 

2) Say simple prayer before working 

3) Keeping God in mind by saying simple prayers at midday 

4) As you end the day thank God for the day and reflect on the day 

(b) How do I obey his commands? 

Questions 

1. Study Acts 22:1-21 and summarize what happened to Paul and how his life was transformed. 

2. Share an unpleasant experience in your workplace. Did that experience require you to act against God’s principles? How did you handle it and/or how can you handle it better? 

3. Share an experience where you are able to help someone in your workplace because you simply live by the principles of God. What did you learn in this experience?