WISDOM FROM THE WORKPLACE: HOME-WORK BALANCE (PROV 31:10-31)

Sermon by Mrs Koh Wan Yee

Scripture passage: Prov 31:10-31

Although this passage is about the wife of noble character, it is relevant to anyone who works and needs home-work balance and also relevant to whoever lives with someone who works.

To read this chapter as a list of accomplishments will already exhaust us mentally- who can keep up? So what does this passage teach about home-work balance?

1) It’s not how many things you manage to achieve in and out of the home, but the attitudes and emotions by which you do them. The wife in Prov 31 was described as being well-meaning without malice (v12), hands-on (v13), eager (v13), adventurous (v14), going about her work “vigorously” (v17), careful and meticulous (v16,18). She show lots of initiative and she is diligent,self-driven, self-motivated, and shows warmth and sincerity in community service (. She looks after her family and herself well -being well dressed and elegant, clothed with strength and dignity (v22, 25). There is no complaining, no bargaining for rewards. She goes about the work like it’s her calling. There is nothing in this passage to suggest that she was born like this- she must have willingly and humbly learnt under others, and worked hard to become competent in all she was doing.

One attitude that is not found in this passage is sacrifice- not a word of that is mentioned here. And it’s no sacrifice at all- the time and energy you put in, the choices that you make.  This happens when you consider what you do as God’s calling for you and it’s your choice. Don’t use the idea of “sacrifice” to send you family on a guilt trip.

Reflection Question: What are the choices that you have taken within the home? Which of these continue to be areas that bring frustration and heartache? Bring them to the Lord in prayer.

2) It’s about the attitudes of those who live with her. She is treasured like a rare ruby (v10). Her husband trusts her without reserve (v11, The msg). Imagine how devastating it would be when you come home after a hard day to be questioned with suspicion about your actions and people you met and money you spent. Instead her husband is proud of his wife and obviously speaks well of her, at the same city gates where he too is respected (v23, 31). He sees her activities as extensions of her personality- instead of talking down her work as “just a little hobby to keep busy”. There is no comparison needed about who makes more money or who spends more time with the children. Each person has a special part in the family. 

Reflection Question: What is your part in the family? How will your family remember you- your jokes, the meals you cooked, the clothes you sewed? When you come home from work, do they stand up and greet you? (v28)

3) It’s about what sustains these attitudes. Will passion, interest, competence sustain these attitudes? And for how long? The reason for her success is not her charm or her beauty, but her fear of the Lord (v30). As fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it explains why she speaks with wisdom and faithfully instructs her children too. The Bible has many passages that shows that work is God-given, and it’s for our satisfaction and character development. Work was not meant to demean people or as an excuse for avoiding home and whatever issue you are trying to avoid there, nor as escape from broken heart, or to satisfy your self esteem needs or sense of self worth.

Reflection Question: Are you addicted to your work? God satisfies all your needs –if there is any emptiness, fill it with God and His promises, not work.

WISDOM FOR THE WORKPLACE:BIBLICAL RESPONSES TO DIFFICULT SITUATIONS (PSALM 139)

Sermon by Dr Ong Siow Heng

THE CHANGING WORKPLACE

1. Unusual hours and Long hours of Work: always under time pressure
2. The Transition between Work and Family (personal time and space) doesn't happen anymore because work intrudes into our personal space. At work we are competitive, we have bottomlines to meet which brings out the worst in us and yet when we hit home, we are to be supportive, nurturing, helpful.

There is no place int he Bible where God promises us Job Satisfaction. He promises though that joy can be found in Him. If you do find job satisfaction, that is a bonus.

LESSONS FROM PSALM 139

1. V 7-10 : God is always on our side even through the hard times. The hard times are meant to train us in perseverance. V 12 : However bad the intentions of others in the workplace, it is but a shadow and can cause us to be paralyzed by fear. But God promises us that He has triumphed over evil. He has the big picture of that is going on at the workplace.
2. V16 : God knows our past, present and future. God promises us that He knows the big picture, while we worry and fret, God invites us to take comfort that He has everything in His hands.
3. V 1-6 : God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. God forgives and God forgets by choice.  Isaiah 43:25; 1 John 1:9.

We are part of the walking wounded: people who have suffered from the envy, the greed of others, the strife in the workplace. How may we respond?

1. Take comfort that the God who has triumphed over evil walks by our side daily.
2. Take comfort that He has the big picture and he knows all that is happening.
3. Remember the graciousness of God who forgives and forgets and imitate His graciousness to those who victimize us at the workplace.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIONS

1. Name the evil that surrounds you at the workplace. How do you also contribute to the evil in the working environment? Am I a perpetrator of evil or a victim of evil?
2. How can we be conscious of the presence of God who walks with us daily at work? E.g. start the day with prayer and meditation... etc.
3. Who are some people that you know God invites you to forgive? and also to forget with His help?

Footprints in the sand

CAREER & CALLING (EXODUS 3:1-11)

Sermon by Ps Helen Hoe

Intro

“What I want to be when I grow up” – it keeps changing

-         what’s your first aspiration as far as you can remember?

-         You know what’s mine? 

When we talk abt career & calling, some hesitate praying, or go before God with a paper completely empty: God what shall I do with my life?  mid life career change or fresh graduate.

In our mind, nagging feeling that he is going to ask you to do something that you will say “no way!”  Scott Wesley Brown: So afraid of answering altar call, wrote a song:  Please Don't Send Me to Africa, by Scott Wesley Brown O Lord I'll see that the money is sent

God, Please don't send me to Africa  

Ex 2:11-14

Moses saw the plight of his own people. He tried to intervene, stood up for them. He went from being in line to the throne of Egypt to taking care of sheep. In man’s eyes, what a flop!

40 years later, when God appeared to Moses and called him to bring God’s people out of Egypt, Moses’ very first response was: “who am I?”

(1) When we look at calling, most of us grapple with the issue of identity---Who am I?

a) Who am I ?: Forty years earlier he might not have asked this question, "Who am I?"

• He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
• He was trained for the throne.
• He figured God had placed him in this unique position for a purpose

After 40 years in the desert, He went from a self-centered, confident person to one who think nothing of himself. Finally he came to that place where we too, often find ourselves: “yes God, I heard you. Here am I …., sent someone else.”  (4:13) I believe that encounter has a familiar tone. We may not respond to God with the same answers, but when we are faced with a dilemma, at a cross road, need to make a decision, God called us either through people or other means, we based our decision on a personal assessment of ourselves.

• Sometimes we feel exalted or confident. 
• Sometimes we feel very low, esp when we’ve tried & failed so often.

Who am I? Am I up to the task? Am I the person for this? Do I have what it takes?  If our answers are yes, chances are higher that we take up the challenge. If no, then most probably we say “no”. But the question that we should be asking ourselves is not so much “who am I” but WHO GOD IS. 

II. WHO I AM DOESN'T REALLY MATTER, IT IS WHO GOD IS THAT COUNTS.

b) Who God is?         

God is completely independent; that He relies on nothing for life or existence (Isaiah 40:28-29; John 5:26). God doesn't need anybody or anything - life is in Himself. Because of that, God becomes whatever is lacking in our time of need.

• When we are in darkness, Jesus says I am the light;
• when we are hungry, He says I am the bread of life,
• when we are helpless, He says I am the Good Shepherd.

When we know the God who is with us, our respond is then to step forth, to trust and obey. 

Notice that God did not take away Moses’ apprehension or remove any of his securities by assuring him that he got what it takes. Instead, God assured Moses that "I will certainly be with you."

God's reply is intended to take Moses' focus off of where it is (himself) and on to where it should be (God).

What Moses needed to do was trust God, God already provided a precise action plan:

-         To bear simple testimony of God’s revelation of himself to the Israelites (3:14)

-         To go before the Pharoah to convey a message

-         To do what God commanded, on the assumption that God himself would produce the results

Who we are doesn't count, it is who God is that matters. It is not a matter of your strength, your qualifications, your abilities, If the God who calls you, the God who says He will be with you is the  “I AM WHO I AM”, then that is enough, that is sufficient for any task He has called you to perform. The challenge is whether we trust him and obey by faith. To do that, we need to find ourselves in the presence of God.

(3) The starting point of the calling: coming into the presence of God

Coming into the presence of God

By appearing before Moses in the burning bush, God is inviting Moses to come into his presence. Serving God begins with coming into the presence of the Lord, hearing him. Moses used his time alone with God to unload all his hang-ups. And that is an example for us. WE can be real before God; there is nothing we cannot bring before Him. We can even come to him and say “Lord I don’t want to”. For when we come into his presence, heart to heart, having him to ourselves and he has us to him. That is the place where ministry begins. Moses reaction was “I can’t, therefore I won’t”. God brought him to the point where ultimately he would say:  “I can’t, but He can, therefore I will”

Responding to God’s call

What does this mean for all of us? How do we respond to what we have just heard? You may respond in the following 3 areas: 

1. Our interaction with people: Don’t be too quick to write off people. When we look at Moses, a person with all these insecurities, weaknesses and inadequacies, so defensive and so unwilling. Pray that God gives us his eyes, his heart in our interaction with people. Don’t be too quick to persuade people to take up a task, pray together, seek god together
2. Spend time seeking God: Talked abt God’s calling, its not just to full time. Could be a call to stand up for a cause (in politics, in office); mid career change, or it could be serving him full time. Many of which often require us to step out of our comfort zone. God gave us a mind, think. But don’t just use logic (evaluate your situation, yourself, table of pros and cons etc) Don’t be too quick to say “I do ” when you see a need. Have a heart to heart talk with him; do not fear, not necessarily send you to Africa. Clarify your call, make sure you hear him right.
3. You are more than an instrument : Talk about call, links it to fulfilling a purpose of God, like being an instrument of God. Yes & No. The land of Canaan had belonged to Israel since the day God promised it to Abraham; but God is moving Israel there now because of the compassion of His heart. The actions were ordained long ago, but the timing is prompted by God's heartfelt love for His people.
• Notice the connection: I have come down to deliver them . . . I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people. If God was going to do it, why should He mess around with Moses? Why not just do it Himself?
• Because it is always God's plan to work with and through people. Because in the process of that, he is at work in our lives, bringing us to perfection.

Phil 1:6:      He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. 

• Moses was not just an instrument through which God delivered the Israelites, God shaped him into a man of God.

 God’s call: not just a challenge to do something, eg, to commit life to missions or ministry. First & foremost, to commit our lives to Christ.

 Man challenges to go, to do this, do that.

God said, "Be still and know that I am GOD."

Many times God in His love, strips us of what we are, in order to make us what He is.

It is out of his love for you and I that he invites us and calls us. Below is the video link to "You are Mine"