TOUCH your workplace

TOUCH =(Transforming Others Under Christ’s Hand)

10 Christian values every workplace need

1. Love – kindness at work
2. Encouragement – Impulsive and Intentional Encourager
3. Forgiveness
1. See others from God’s perspective Matt 9:36, Matt 5:44
2. Leave the offence at the Cross Eph 4:32
3. Operate out of will and reason Isa 1:18
4. Rebuild and Restore Isa 58:12
4. Balance
1. Vertical God-ward relationship
2. Horizontal people-ward relationship
5. Accountability
1. Recognize the lines of accountability (top-down, bottom-up and lateral)
2. Recognize your need to become vulnerable
3. Replace tolerance with loving accountability (speak the truth in love)
4. Respond appropriately
6. Excellence – excellent work leads to credible witness
1. Prepare
2. Persevere
3. Practise at every opportunity
7. Communication – relevant message meets needs and challenges growth

(message is what we communicate, style is how we communicate)

1. Listening style
2. Voice style (someone shouts, you speak softer)
3. Words style (choice of words need to be ‘salty’)
7. Promise Keeping (trustworthiness) - promise only that which:
1. Is consistent with God, His word and will
2. Is in the best interest of the recipient (meet the real need, not the request) eg. give food rather than cash to the poor who ask for food
3. You know you can deliver

9. Stewardship – God gives us opportunities, abilities, resources & relationships to do His will
1. Time (opportunities)

i. Make time for God and to be with God

ii. Let God teach you how to measure every situation by eternity

iii. Use every circumstance to build the Kingdom of God

2. Abilities

i. Accept your responsibility to develop your God-given gift

ii. Use your talents to build His Kingdom

3. Resources

i. Acknowledge that God owns it all

ii. Invest your resources in godly investments

4. Relationships

i. Look at others through the eyes of Jesus

ii. Invest yourself in building relationships

10. Integrity – blameless with no compromise to worldly ways

5 Steps to TOUCH@workplace

1. Pray
2. See the needs
3. See the workforce – the 4 soils
4. Use your resources (email, screen savers, bulletin boards etc)
5. Take your stand
1. Assemble
2. Establish a regular meeting
3. Develop a written plan (mission, program, review)
4. Act on your plan

Drawing Near to God

James 4:8 “draw near to God and HE WILL draw near to you”

Key ingredients for drawing near

1. Submission – surrender to God’s will [FAITH]
2. Humility – daily walking in this surrendered attitude [OBEDIENCE]

Seek God for who He is and not for what He does only. (compare Moses vs Israelites)

Jesus esteems us highly for He paid the ultimate price for us.

We will hunger for what we feed on.

- let us guard/protect our hunger for God by feeding on more of the things of God such as reading and obeying the Word of God, praying in the Spirit, listening to songs of praise and worship etc.

Two presences of God

- His omnipresence

- His manifest presence (we need to seek God so that His manifest presence is evident) Note: His manifest presence can be His still small voice

Hindrances to true intimacy

- Wrong view of God

- No fear of God

- A religious spirit (one who uses God’s Word to execute his own will)

- Being used of God in service does not guarantee knowing Him intimately (Luke 13:25-27, Matt 7:21-23)

True Worship

- Is to obey God

- Worship is a life of obedience every day to His heart’s desires

True Humility requires

- Obedience to God

- Total dependence on Him

- Proper view of ourselves

Intimacy with the Holy Spirit (Communion means)

- Fellowship (companionship)

- Sharing together thoughts and feelings

- Partnership

- Close Mutual Association

- Spiritual intimacy (the deepest level of relationship)

Tongues – language of intimacy for

- Personal edification

- Intercessory prayer

Building our inner man through

- the Written Word (logos)

- obedience to His Spoken Word (rhema)

- praying in tongues

God does not respond to our need, He responds to our faith!

How to get FAITH

- Faith comes by hearing (& obeying) the Word

How to grow FAITH

- Faith like a seed, sown and expected to yield a harvest, grows from faithful obedience

Intimacy with God is directly proportional to our faith which in turn is directly proportional to our obedience.

Hope is a blueprint ( a vision) or a divine picture given by God and needs to be seen supernaturally. (eg. The stars of Abraham)

Faith gives substance to the hope (promises) of God (Heb 10:22-23, 6:19)

(eg. we see a chair, a blueprint (hope), but we need to sit on the chair, substance (faith))

Conclusion: the 2-sided key to draw near to God is Faith and Obedience (Trust & Obey)

LET US DRAW NEAR TO GOD DAILY.

Spiritual Growth

To grow in the Lord
we need:
1) to have faith
Faith is like the anchor for a mountain climber to have a foothold.

2) to hunger for the Lord
Hunger for the Lord is like the hook which is thrown upwards and forwards so that the climber can move up.

Light in the Bible

Light (noun) is phos (Greek) from which we have the word phosphorus - which means 'light bearing'

Light is useless when the eye is absent or impaired

We are sons of light (Luke 16:8) because of the new birth as we have received the spiritual capacity for God's revelation

Light used to describe
1) glory of God's dwelling place (1Tim 6:16)
2) nature of God (1 John 1:5)
3) impartiality of God (unchanging nature - James 1:17)
4) the favour of God (Ps 4:6)
5) God as the illuminator (Is 60:19,20)
Jesus as the illuminator John 1:4-5,9
6) illuminating power of the scriptures (Ps 119:105)
7) guidance of God (John 29:3)
8) salvation (1Pet 2:9)
9) righteousness (Rom 13:12)
10) witness for God (Matt 5:14,16)
11) prosperity/well-being (Is 58:8-10)

phoster (Phil 2:14-15) means 'light-giver'
light enters the eye - we need to look to Jesus as our master with singlemindedness of the eye which acts as the lamp of the body

urim and thummin ('lights' and 'perfections')
- for perfect guidance from God

lampo (candle-light) in Matt 5:15

Purpose Driven Life in a nutshell

4 'ships' on a Mission (evangelism)
Worship
Fellowship
Lordship - discipleship
Stewardship - service

Prayer for the local church

Heavenly Father, we ask You to bless our church _____, that we may all grow in faith and love for one another.
Help us to walk in unity one with another in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.
Enable us to avoid the bait of the evil one in luring us to break that unity through taking offense and harboring a critical and complaining spirit.
Remind us to remain under cover of the leadership which You have appointed over our lives.
Please build strong disciples in all of us that will in turn help others to grow.
In Jesus' Precious Name we pray. Amen

The Psalms and the Pentateuch

The Psalms are classified into 5 books:
Book 1: Psalm 1 - 41 The Sovereignty of God (cf Genesis)
Book 2: Psalm 42 - 72 The Redemption of God (cf Exodus)
Book 3: Psalm 73 - 89 The Sanctuary of God (cf Leviticus)
Book 4: Psalm 90 - 106 The History of God (cf Numbers)
Book 5: Psalm 107 - 150 The Word of God (cf Deuteronomy)