Do you know the four attributes of a Christian in the workplace? Do you know why these attributes are key to you fulfilling your destiny as a follower of Christ at work? Well, stay tuned. We're going to answer that one. How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm Os Hillman, and I've been helping leaders like you answer these questions and more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGIF Today God Is First .Welcome to our podcast, we're going to talk about these four attributes of what it means to be a Christ follower in the workplace. You know, maybe you've never even thought about that idea. I hadn't until I was posed this question by the New York Times. And uh, so what came out of that was a real understanding and teaching about what it means to live for Christ in the workplace and what makes us different than a non-Christian. That's really the question that I was posed by the New York times. So, a few years ago I was asked when they were doing an article on Christians in the workplace-- imagine that-- the New York times doing an article on Christians in the workplace. Well, that's what they were doing. And they called me and asked me a question and then interviewed me three different times. They wanted to do a story on Christians in the workplace and so they called me a third time and asked me a very interesting question. They said, “OS we've got this article ready to go. But you know, several people just wanted to know what makes a Christian different than a non-Christian in the workplace? And I thought, well, that's a really good question. As I began to ponder that question, I felt like God showed me four key things. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's get right into our teaching. Today's podcast is entitled four attributes of Christ at work and why they're important to your destiny. Well as I mentioned to you, I had this interview from the New York times reporter. He had already interviewed me two times and he came back a third time and he says, “Our employees are wanting to know what defines a Christian in the workplace. And so as I began to ponder that and seek the Lord about that, I felt like God showed me four attributes of a Christian in the workplace. The first attribute is found in Daniel one 20 it says that Daniel and his three friends did their work 10 times better than anyone else and I feel like excellence is first base. If you don't do your work with excellence, then you're not going to be considered by others and you're going to bring shame to the name of Christ in how you do your work. I think that Jesus probably was very excellent at making his tables and that's why you and I are to do our work with excellence. We find in the old Testament that Bezalel was the man who designed the ark of the covenant. It says that he was selected by Moses and that he had the spirit of God and did his work with skill, ability and knowledge, and all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. They are to make them just as I commanded you. So we see there that in the Old Testament, God is instructing Moses to have Bezalel, you know, design it just the way he wanted it. He instructed him in how to perform the work. And so this is the first time we hear of anyone being filled with the spirit of God and it was a craftsmen. Proverbs 22:9 says, “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings. He will not stand before unknown man.” Proverbs 22 nine Leonardo DaVinci said, I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. Oh my. What? A statement. That is. If DaVinci felt that way, what does that say about our work? Well, number two is integrity. In Psalm 51, David is lamenting about his sin with Bathsheba and he says, “God wants integrity.” God desires truth in the inner parts. He wants that to be pure and Holy. And he says, you know we are to be the same person on the outside as we are on the inside. Are you the same person at home versus the person that is in the marketplace or are you different? And so it's important that we have integrity. You know, we all make mistakes, but one of the things I've discovered over the years is that whatever you uncover, God covers. You know, that's the grace of God in our lives. But what you cover, God uncovers. That means that if you try to hide something, the more you hide, the bigger the stakes go up. And we've seen that in politics and government and just see how people try to hide their sin. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Sometimes your talent takes you beyond where your integrity can keep you. So the greater the success, the greater the integrity test. And if you don't have integrity now, you're not going to have it later. When you scale the mountain of success compromise will always lead to deceit. And if you live a life of compromise, you're going to find that your judgment is really weakening because you're living in deceit and compromise. When we live in compromise, we lose confidence in the faith dimension of our lives and we struggled to hear God's voice. It affects all parts of our life when we live a compromising life. Number three is servant leadership. In Matthew 27 Jesus says that whoever wants to be a great among them must be servant of all. And of course, Jesus was the servant of all. In that first miracle that Jesus did, it was the servants who saw the miracle of turning water into wine. That's often the case. Those who are servants, they are up front and close to what God is doing and they get the opportunity to see what God is doing. Number four is miracles. Acts chapter five says that the disciples did many miraculous signs in the public Colonnade where the people could see them. And that's a very important one. You know, the truth is that there are many non-Christians that do one, two, and three better than Christians that I know, but the fourth one is one is not going to be done by non-believers. And so it's important that we live a life of excellence and integrity and servant leadership and miracles. And so I want to encourage you with that to take an inventory of your life and determine whether God is pleased with where you are in these four areas. I want to mention about something new coming up that you're going to want to know about. Over the last few years I've been pondering about how we can we best serve men and women in the marketplace. And, you know, we've done teaching programs and we've done various things, but what could we do that would really satisfy the needs of men and women who were desiring to live for Christ in the marketplace and be successful in their business enterprise? And so we're going to be sharing something with you soon about this. If you want to be on the waiting list to be informed about this when it comes out, please go to our website, www.becomeGodschange agent.com and there you will get a free download of My Top 10 Biblical Truths for Succeeding in Life and Work, a free gift to you just for going there and signing up on our waiting list. We'll be sharing about this in the days ahead, but we're not ready to share quite yet. So let's keep going in the teaching and talk about the five dimensions of faith works. You know, Esau, represented the flesh life. He despised his own birthright for porridge. And he allowed his brother Jacob to get the birthright by tricking him. And it became a real conflict between these two brothers. But he represents the “Egypt” life. Egypt is always symbolic of the flesh, the carnal life. It's the world system. If you yield to sweat and toil for outcomes, it's really the life of sin. Then there is the principle-based religion where you use a 10-step program or such, you know, tools that can help us become better and change behavior. There's a place for that because we need to change behavior sometimes like the AA 12 step program that has been very helpful for those who have been alcoholics. But that's not where God wants us to remain. He wants us to really go to another level. And sometimes getting to that level means that we have to go through our Joseph pit and that requires character development. And sometimes the pit is the very thing that's needed for us to come to the end of ourselves, to really fully live for Christ through our life. And that's going to lead us into a Spirit-led life. Romans 8:14 talks about that “those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.” We're directed by the Holy spirit, and our relationship with God. And then there's Moses who was told by God that He wanted to relate to him in a different way. He told him to speak to the rock instead of striking the rock, which he had done so often before. And so he was teaching him about the keys of the kingdom in Matthew. It talks about when Jesus told the disciples he was about to leave, he says, “I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom to bind on earth and bind in heaven and loose on earth and loosen heaven.” And so this was a change. This meant that they were going to have delegated authority from Jesus to represent his interest on earth, to bring heaven on earth. And that's what the Lord's prayer is all about, to bring heaven on earth. So now he is speaking to Moses and says, “Instead of striking the rock, I want you to speak to the rock.” And so here the spoken word was being used for authority by Moses. The only problem was that Moses was really angry at the people for complaining about needing the water to drink was, which was a legitimate need they had. But he happened to have a bad day that day. And he decided that he would strike the rock instead of speak to the rock. Well, God honored him anyway because the people still needed the water. But it was at a great cost. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because of his disobedience. But the principle is still there, that God wants us to move in a new dimension with him in the marketplace. And this is what he did. It says there in Zechariah 4:6 “This is the word of the Lord, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord almighty.” So when God spoke to him at the burning bush that very first time he came to Moses and said, “Moses, what's that in your hand?” Moses responded to God and said, “Lord, you know it's my staff.” God turned to him and said, “I'm going to perform miracles through that staff.” But first he told him to put that staff on the ground and when he put it on the ground turned into a snake. And then when he told him to pick up the staff by the tail. You know, you never pick a snake up by the tail because he could bite you. But God told him to do it that way. And he did. And he turned it back into a staff. And that was a prophetic picture of Moses taking authority over the serpent. And in the scriptures, the serpent is always represented as the devil. And so, it says later on in the scripture that when he picked up that staff, that staff became the staff of God, not Moses’s staff. And so he was becoming a steward of the staff. And so then God says to him, “I'm going to perform miracles through your staff. Take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.” And that's exactly what God did. He made Moses a deliverer of the people to give them freedom to come out of the bondage that they were in. And this is a prophetic picture of men and women in the marketplace that we are called to use our workplace staffs to be deliverers for people to bring them out of bondage, to bring the Gospel into the marketplace. And that's what you're called to do. You're called to bring the gospel in the marketplace and to rub shoulders and to solve problems and become a person that performs miracles in your workplace. We need to understand our spiritual authority in our work life call. I mentioned to you that the keys of the kingdom are talked about in Matthew 16:19. And then in Mark 11:23, Jesus tells the disciples to speak to the mountain. There are times where you need to speak to your mountain. And so I want to encourage you to think about that as you go into your daily work and consider that God has called you to use the authority that God has given you and to model those four attributes. And so you have a personal brand in the marketplace and people know you buy that brand. You know, I often talk about perception versus reality. You know, sometimes perception is reality. Sometimes it isn't. So what message do you communicate? What perception of you do people have? Are you late or are you on time for meetings? Do you pay bills on time? Do you return calls when you say you will? And do you serve others? Do you live a life of integrity? Are you a generous person or are you a workaholic? Is that what your family thinks about you? That you're always working and not caring for their needs? Or are you a joyful person or do you go around, you know, with a chip on your shoulder? Are you a controlling person or a person who serves others and delegates to others? Do you serve God? Are you disorganized? You know, all these things can define us. They can make us into our brand. And I went encourage you that you take a look at each one of those things so that you are modeling Christ characteristics in you. Psalm 15 is a Psalm that I call the marketplace. Psalm Oh Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your Holy Hill. He who walks up rightly and walk and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. I encourage you to meditate on the entire Psalm 15 it's a great example of, uh, giving us the character that we want to model in the marketplace. So let's look at the three phase obedience cycle. I believe that there are three phases that most of us go through. The first one is a convenience phase, and if you're a business owner, that's best represented as my business, my way. It's really living as an orphan instead of a son. You haven't really understood the nature of God in your life. And then there's the crisis stage and that's best represented as my business his way. It's a place where obedience is motivated by a crisis. You know, it's the old thing where you get in a foxhole and you're willing to do anything to get out of it in a battle. God allows you to stay there until you're willing to be obedient. But here we want to move past that. We want to get to a place of conviction where it's best represented as his business, his way and his business his way. And that's intimacy with God and that's best representing us as sons and daughters of our heavenly father. And so take a look at that and see where you are. What best represents you in this diagram. Is it my business, my way? Isn't my business his way or am I living a life that expresses his business his way? Am I living as a son or daughter? In conclusion, Ephesians two tins as we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So, I hope that you'll be encouraged to live out those four attributes in your own journey. And check out our website, become God's change agent.com to get on the waiting list for some exciting things that are coming down the pike and also get your free download on my booklet, My 10 Top Biblical Truths for Success in Life and Work. I think you'll be encouraged as you download this resource. So take care and we'll see you next week in our next podcast. God bless. Visit our website to be on our waiting list for our upcoming program. www.BecomeGodsChangeAgent.com