Seven Ways to put Jesus First - In the Workplace - Part 5

If you have been a part of the church for any length of time, and you have been here for the last few weeks, you would know that we are in week five of a seven part series called seven ways to put Jesus first. I you have not, then that is okay also, because each week is a standalone message, but if you missed any of them and you want to catch up; you are welcome to download them for free on the internet. But the whole purpose of this series with a kick off in two thousand and fifteen with a challenge saying; “I do not want this to be just another year, I want this to be a significant year.” And to me, the most significant thing that we can do in our lives is to strategically put Jesus first in everything. You see the whole premise is simply this, when Jesus is first, and then our lives are most blessed.

 When we put God first, what we do with the first, determines what God does with the rest. When the root of the tree is good and healthy, then the rest of the tree is good and healthy. And by faith we can look at our lives, and by faith we can make adjustments to our priorities, so that by faith with everything we do, we want Jesus to be first. And I am absolutely convinced, the more we do that, the more we look back to say; “best decision I ever made.” We looked over the last couple of weeks; week number one was first in our heart, which means first in our decisions. Which simply means is as we live through the day, there is always the question in my mind; “Jesus, what would you do?” Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight. So, that was the hard one, then we get really practical, and we looked at: “What about putting Jesus first in our day?” We spoke about a fifteen minute start of the day. With the first thing in the morning, saying; “Jesus. I am starting with you.”

 Whip out the Bible, out with the coffee, and you start the morning by putting Jesus first, connecting with your heavenly father. And I have challenged you to take this series to work at making it into a habit into your live. This is the greatest habit you can have, putting Jesus first. We go on after that, we looked at putting Jesus first in our week, which is what you are doing right now. Sunday, the first day of the week, this is the bride of Jesus. And when we prioritise His bride, you could have been on the beach, you could have been fishing, but you chose to put Jesus first in your week. And when Jesus is first, our lives are most blessed. Last week looked at a really practical, hard hitting rubber hits the road kind of one; we looked at first time in our finance.

Money is a huge part of our lives, and when we put Jesus first in our finance, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you also. The greatest financial strategy in the world, honour Jesus with the first part of your finance, and I trust that is going well also. And then we come to today, I was not always a pastor, actually went to university and studied to become an engineer. And I remember, graduating from university, starting my first engineering job, I worked in a factory up in Johannesburg, right in the middle of the factory, the instrument and control department, there my office was. And I remember, I was brand new as an engineer, brand new in the work place, and I was passionate about Jesus, knowing that one day called me to be in the ministry.

 I spent a lot of my time doing church things, most of my friends were church people, and then I went into the factory. And this was the time, in the workshops in those days, you walked into the instrument workshop, everyone has their tools, and there were always pictures of semi naked women on the walls. And when you talk to any of your colleagues, it seems to be a challenge to put as many swear words as possible as they could get into a sentence. That was the challenge. And these were the days were you could still smoke anywhere, and everywhere, and everyone did. And this was the more crude you can be, the more popular you were. And I remember thinking to myself; “O no, this is so far away from my churchified world here. Here is my life of faith, and my church world, and my church was such a big gap. How do we bring these two things together? How do we take our faith into the workplace?

 I know many of you might have a different scenario, but it might be similar in some ways. You might have a boss from hell, you might have a tough working environment, and you might have something that seems so far removed from what it is like to just float in heavenly places. So we are going to look at today the habit of how do we put Jesus first into our workplace? To kick us off, I want us to look at what the word first means. Normally, first means priority – wise. “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” In other words, make that your first priority. But as you look in scripture, there is another way that the word first is used also. I am going to read to you three examples.

 Example one, when Jesus was naming His twelve disciples, he said, Matthew chapter ten verse two; These are the names of the twelve apostle, first Simon, was also called Peter and his brother Andrew. And He mentioned all the others. Another example is 1Corinthians chapter twelve verse twenty eight; “And in the church has appointed first of all apostles, then prophets and third teachers, then workers of miracles. “ In 3John verse nine; “I wrote to the church but Diotrophes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.”  You see, in these contexts, the word first is not used as priority; the word first is used for leadership. It spoke about Simon, first Simon and as we know when the Holy Spirit came upon the church, Simon stood up and preached.

Three thousand were saved and Simon Peter led that early church. First Simon. What it says in Corinthians is, as Jesus was establishing the church, first apostles. Because the apostles need to go and plant and establish, they are the architects to get something happening, they lay the foundation upon which the prophets and teachers can come and build, they go first, leadership. Diotrophes, that man loved to be first, in other words, he loved to be seen as the leader, it was an issue of his heart. The point is this; when it speaks about first, it is not just priority, first is about leadership also. And we are talking about this morning, is how do we put Jesus first in the workplace? What I want to suggest is it is all about answering this question. Who is the boss? Because you might think you have the boss from hell, but you do not. Actually, you have the boss from heaven.

What we are going to see in the scripture today, and what this challenge is all about, is learning to recognize that no matter what it looks like on earthly level, we as believers and followers of Jesus actually by faith recognize that Jesus is our boss. And if you are the boss, you have a higher boss that you answer to also. And I want to challenge us today that this habit of putting Jesus first in the workplace, is all about; “What does it mean Jesus, to work for you and not for man?” And So that is what we are looking at, and I want to focus on a key scripture this morning, in Colossians chapter three verse twenty two, chapter four verse one.

It speaks about slaves and masters. You might say I am not a slave, no you are not, but, in the context in which Paul was writing, they did not have bosses and employees, they had slaves and masters. And if this was relevant to a slave, who was the lowest form of low, how much more can we learn from it? Maybe you are not a master, you are not, but, if you are in authority, then I think we can learn something that Paul writes also. Verse twenty two, it says; “slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. And do it not only when their eye is on you, and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, not for men. Since you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favouritism. Masters, provide your slaves what is right and fair because you also have a master in heaven.” 

Yikes, this is God’s word to us. So, let us start off, what if you have a boss, in your mind, picture it right now. There it is, I see him, or I see her, in my mind’s eye. Well, verse twenty two; it speaks about; “with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” If you had to do an audit quickly of how you are doing at work, would you say that you are working with sincerity and reverence? Verse twenty three says; “as if you are working for the Lord.” Well, if you are working for the Lord, you will work with all your heart. Are you giving it your all at work, or are you doing just enough to get by? Are you working for a salary, or do you realize that you are working for an eternal reward? I am going to let that sink in; it is the Lord Christ that you are serving. Who is your real boss at work? You see by faith I am challenging us today, to recognize whatever face your boss might have, I want you to superimpose whatever picture you have of Jesus onto him or her right now.

I want us by faith to realize today, when I step into the factory or the office tomorrow, I am going to work for Jesus. You see, when it is Jesus that we know we are serving, we do work with a sincerity and integrity, we work with the respect and reverence, we work with all our heart, and not just the bare minimum. We work for a reward from God and not just a pay check. We serve the Lord in the work place. And what about if you are the boss? Maybe you have people working for you, maybe you have the authority. In a believer in Jesus, when they understand this, when we put Jesus first at work, we realize actually, you are not the big boss.

I remember hearing a story once about a pastor who led a huge church, and some he interviewed once said that you can lead such a big church, and you have time for all these other things. He said, you do not understand, I am not boss. I have a senior Partner, the Holy Spirit, and He tells me what to do. He understood he is not the boss; we have someone much higher whom we work for. I heard a story once about the CEO of a large company, and every day he would tell his secretary you need to book from this hour to this hour, or from this time to this time, I have an appointment, I cannot remember the exact, I think it is with the COU, so she puts it in her diary every day, and eventually she started getting curious, day after day, he has this meeting with the COU, eventually she asks who is this guy?

He said he is the chief officer of the universe. I might be the CEO, but he is the He is the CEU. He knew he might be the high powered executive, but he still needs the help and direction of God to help lead that company. Maybe you have authority with the company where you are, but actually, we have a boss who is much greater. And when we realize that, we begin to treat those who work for you as you would want God to treat you. And you would want God to provide for you. You would want God to treat you fairly; you would want God to treat you in the right way. And when we understand by faith, actually that is what I want from you, that is what I need to give to others.

Who is the real boss, of course the real beauty of Jesus is when we look at Him, it should build up our faith because here we have Jesus, the Son of God, who created the heavens and the earth, He comes to this that He has created, He is equal with the Father, and He chooses by faith to submit Himself. He is almost like an employee with a boss. He submits Himself to the Father’s leadership. Let me just read these verses to you as an example, in John chapter ten verse thirty seven; “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.”  He says He is working for his Father; “Dad, I will do what you want me to do, that is what I am going to do.” He recognized He was under authority. In John chapter twelve verse forty nine, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. “

That is amazing, the Father commanded me, “Son, this is what I want you to do.” He had such a sense that he was not on His own mission; He was on a mission of the Father. In John chapter fourteen verse thirty one; “But the world must learn that I love the Father, and I do exactly what the Father has commanded me.”  Jesus, the son of God, by faith submitted himself completely to His Father. That same spirit, the same Holy Spirit, who was inside of Jesus, empowering Him and leading Him and directing Him, that same spirit, is in you and me. When we as believers of Jesus Christ, and we have accepted Jesus that same Holy Spirit is going to empower you.

 And you are going to notice it, as you walk into work tomorrow, to the factory, or whatever it is, as you look at your boss and you are tempted to grumble and grieve, you are going to remember; “Holy Spirit, help me to put You first. You are the boss, and you are the one I am working for. “ And when we get that right, it changes everything about the way we work. What I want to do, and I know it is a bit corny, I am going to look at a famous passage in scripture. Many of you have read it before, or heard it before, and the reason why it is so famous is because it is such a beautiful example of Jesus’ attitude and how He worked.

 And I want to give you out of that, and here is the corny part, the three p’s of peak performance. I told it is corny, but hopefully you might remember it. Because I think this habit of putting Jesus first in the workplace is going to come down to an attitude of faith that we carry on. And I am going to trust as we carry with us as we go into the workplace. Philippians chapter two verses five to sixteen:

 “ ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness.⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himselfby becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” What I love about this passage is it speaks about the thinking that was inside Jesus, which led to the promotion of the Father. Here is the key verse; it says therefore, God exalted Him.

1.      Attitude number one, first P. What it means to put Jesus first in the workplace, it means we adopt a promotable attitude. This passage is all about the promotion of God in our lives. Now, I believe that God wants to promote you. He wanted to promote Jesus, and I believe He wants to promote you and I. He wants to promote you maybe in the company, or He wants to promote you in terms of influence, He wants to promote you in the Kingdom of God, or whatever sphere we are involved in, but there is a particular attitude God looks for when He promotes someone. There are three parts, the first part said that Jesus did not consider Himself equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing. I think that one of this attitude, this promotable attitude is when we let go of this thing called entitlement. And it is so pervasive today, this attitude of entitlement means we think that the world always owes us. The world owes me a job, the world owes me a holiday, owes me this and it owes me that. Jesus, who was owed everything, He did not consider it equality with God something to be grasped, He lived open – handed. I think that part of that attitude that God wants to promote is when people live their lives, not about what they can get and grab, but what they can give and how they can serve. Younger generation, this entitlement thing, you have to let go. Actually, the world does not owe me anything. God has called us to work, and to serve and to humble ourselves. It is an attitude of non – entitlement, it is an attitude, verse seven, “But made Himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness.” This thing about servant heartedness is absolutely crucial in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was so strong with His disciples, they were wrestling with each other about who is the greatest, who gets the promotion. Jesus said; “Do not be like the world.” Matthew chapter twenty verse twenty five says: “Whoever wants to be greatest among you must be the least.” The servant, the greatest among you will be the least of all. And Jesus modelled that, even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. An attitude of servant heartedness means we don’t do the least, we do not do the minimum, and we look to be the maximum. We look to be helpful; we look to give our all. That is the attitude, when God seas it, He says; “Ah, I can promote that.” Non – entitlement, servant heartedness. And that passage carries on, and says: “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Humility is such a powerful thing, up till Jesus; humility was never a popular thing. I mean, why be humble, why not just promote yourself? Why not tell everyone how great you are? Jesus came and showed us a different way. He said why not trust the Father to show how great you are? You serve the Father, humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking about yourself less. In other words, you stop putting the focus on yourself all the time, and you focus on others. Put the focus on God, reflect the glory, you do not try and grab the glory. And when God sees these three things, that attitude of non – entitlement, that attitude of servant heartedness, that attitude of humility, and God says; “Here is someone that I can promote.” I only worked at the factory for three years, and that third year was by far the worst. Because at the end of year number two, I was so passionately ready to leave the secular working environment and get into ministry. I knew the call of God in my life, and I would sit at my desk in the middle of the factory, penning out future sermons, church outlines, everything. That was what in my heart was. I would not do much engineering, and that was the problem. I remember sitting and doing the bare minimum to keep out of trouble, praying God when are you going to get me out of this hellhole so that I can really serve you. And I remember God speaking to me, it was one of those clear times, not an audible voice, but I just knew this is a word from God. And I felt God say to me; “Brent, when they are ready to promote you here at the factory, then I will promote you in the Kingdom of God. That was like, oh, that could not have been worse. It took me a whole year. Because as an engineer we had to do projects and get stuff working. But the project does not finish when it works. Then there are drawings to update, manuals to update, handover sheets to do, there is a whole lot of extra effort that goes into this. But do you know what? To me, it worked it worked, let us move on. And what happened over the last few years is as an engineer I did a lot of projects, but not really done them as well as I should, or handed them over as well as I should. It took me a whole year, not just to do my normal amount of work, but then to go back over every single projects I done, to catch up the drawings, to catch up with the maintenance procedures, catch up with the hand over files, putting everything in place. It took a whole year, but the day came, once I finally got everything done, I received a phone call in the morning from a company that offered me a very prestigious new post. And in the afternoon, I received a phone call from the pastor saying; “I want to see you tonight.” That was when he invited me to go into full time ministry. The very day, it came to pass. In God’s eyes, there is no difference between secular, sacred, actually God id working on us all the time. It is not about our work, it is about our hearts. And maybe right now, you are in the similar position to me. Your heart is just not in it, just doing the bare minimum, to get some money so that at least I can live. God is so intimate with every area of our lives; God is looking for a promotable attitude. An attitude that will serve, an attitude that is not grasping or entitled, an attitude that is humble.

2.      Philippians chapter two verse twelve says: “¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.” Point number two is compliance. Compliance means that we work with God and not against God. This attitude is all about our attitude toward authority. It is not popular to have a heart that submits to authority, it is more popular to stand against authority. This is talking about the fact that actually we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God who works in us. Do you that in your factory, or school or work, God is at work inside of you. He might be using the boss from hell, He might be using your colleagues who are just horrible, but He is using them to work in us, to will and to act according to His good purpose. And it comes down to our heart. Do you have a heart that submits to authority, or do you have a heart that resists every step of the way. A compliant attitude knows that only when we are under authority will we ever truly be in authority.

3.      Philippians chapter two verse fourteen: “¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”^[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain. ¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸ So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” Point number three is a positive attitude. Let us be honest, we have stuff that we complain about. Anyone here not complain against Eskom lately? Do everything without complaining and arguing. How many have stuff to complain about at work? I know in your company right now, they are retrenching, they are cutting, there is so many reasons to grumble and complain. There are so many reasons we have to argue and fight. The Bible says do everything without arguing and complaining so that you may become blameless and pure. Sure enough with God you shine, the stars outside right now look through the windows, and they are dirty. Anyway, they are shining just as brightly tonight. But the problem is you cannot see them now. Because the environment now the sun is so bright so that you cannot see them now. You just do not notice that the stars are shining. But at night, you will see them clearly. In exactly the same way, this is the perfect environment for the children of God to shine. If we were living in heaven right now, where everything worked, and everything is perfect, and you have the boss, and the angels singing in the office, then, do you know what? No one would see you shining for Jesus. But God places us in dark places with colleagues who are dark, with environments that are dark, so that we can shine for Jesus. That is why we are there. In one of the ways is we shine the brightest, and you simply make a decision, I am going to choose to stop complaining, stop arguing, and I will be the one to speak life. I am going to speak hope; I am going to speak the fact that I have discovered something in Christ. He is my reward, He is my sufficiency, we have no electricity, but I have Jesus, the power of God. We can make a choice, it is an attitude of adjustment, we repent of just being like the world, gloomy and dark, I am going to choose to stand up for Jesus, and shine for Jesus in the work environment. So, when everyone else is complaining and grumbling, we can say but, and we can speak life and hope. This is what God has called us to do. When we take those three attitudes, an attitude that is promotable, as attitude that is compliant working with God, an attitude that is positive, that begins to build the respect of those around us. All those people who seem to be so far from God, well God has put you there for that very reason. So, when the day comes that you pluck up the courage to say; “You need to come with me one day, you need to hear some of the stuff that I have been hearing.” When that comes, the respect in their heart will say maybe I will. They will know there is something different about you. The challenge today is simply this; who really is the boss at work? Who are you doing it for? When by faith you realize Jesus, you are my boss. You are the one I work for. I am not doing it just for earthly money; I am doing it for an eternal reward. I am not doing it for him or for her; I am doing it for Jesus. Let us put Jesus first in the workplace.