 Hey, good morning everyone welcome to a new week, and I hope you all are doing well Let's begin this time the word of prayer Louie do you mind leading us and prayer please? Prabhakar, maybe you can lead us please Dear heavenly father, we praise you acknowledge your holy name. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity father As we're entering into the new week father leaders in your own way give us wisdom and knowledge Whatever you want to teach us father best pastor Paul as well father and his marketplace ministry We learn many things father and today give us your Holy leadership so that we can learn and attend Quantity and quality knowledge. I did get each and every member of class to enter your throne of praise I ask this prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ amen Amen, amen. Thank you Prabhakar Okay, so last week We completed on chapter 8 and we looked at people Processes performance and rewards and we looked at how You know as organizations we had to deal with people there are certain processes in place There are certain Performances and rewards that have to be acknowledged and Remember that the whole the whole thing of an organization is about people, right? So we need to ensure that people are passionate interested You know looking forward to working whether it's in the corporate or whether it's ministry also right because many times in ministry we may You know monotony sets in and we may get bored and we feel that hey, you know, this is not what I want to do But as an organization we should ensure that you know people are You know getting that fuel that they need to towards fulfilling their goal And so we looked at all of that in chapter 8 This week we'll move to chapter 9 and I know that last week I think Kennedy had asked a question regarding retirement and ministry But I just realized that we do have a chapter on retirement. So We will look at that later on as well. So I don't know if Kennedy is here. But anyways, so let's go to chapter 9 Now this chapter we just go a little quick, right? We'll just look at some important points, but not all the points Workplace relationships now all of us, you know pre-covid Probably working if those who are working in the corporate sector. We are giving 40 to 50 hours in the workplace Right. So probably spending more time in the workplace than With family, right because Monday to Friday we go to office there for eight hours or even more at times. So And so we're dealing with people again And we cannot live an isolated life. We cannot say, you know, I don't want to talk to anybody I will come I'll do my work and go that's not possible, right? In a workplace, we will have to have relationships with people. There are interpersonal relationships There are conflicts. There are misunderstandings. There are You know people with different temperaments and so this chapter we look at how We can maintain good workplace relationships, right? and This applies even to ministry, right? Whatever we are learning here is even for those in ministry as well. It is translated applied in our lives first very very very important thing to remember In relationships is love Maintain love That is the basics of human relationships, right? Jesus summed it up so well when when you know the disciples he told the disciples if you love your neighbor It's like love God love your neighbor you fulfilled all the commandments So let's read first Corinthians 13 very common verse first Corinthians 13 4 to 7 First Corinthians 13 versus 4 to 7 First Corinthians 13 4 to 7 Love is patient and kind it is not jealous or considered or proud Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable love does not give a record of wrongs Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth Love is never gives up on its faith hope and patience never fails. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you Right. So the basics of a good relationship is love right now sometimes You know, we've got all these things targets to achieve. We've got you know Things that I had deadlines meetings quality quantity You know work related things and through all of this right We forget We must not forget that we are dealing with people and we must walk in love right remember that You know when we are sitting in an office remember that people Around us our people Who are going through the same kind of things in life that we are going through right? Each one has their own story each one has their own personality each one have their own Challenges, maybe each one have their own difficulties and you know, and so we as As people of God must remember to walk in love. I remember this one time. I think I was Very young right we're working in the corporate 21 22 and Not really, you know too much into the Lord, but I remember working in this office and this guy would Always be upset. He wouldn't talk to anybody Right and he would come into office. He would you know, he would just sit in his place He wouldn't he would go out on his breaks alone You know, he wouldn't he wouldn't talk much. He just be on his own every time and And so I was new to the team. So I used to ask my team members Why does this guy not talk to anybody? He's part of our team and he wouldn't sit with our team The whole team is sitting so he would choose a place somewhere else And since he was you know, a tenured person, maybe about five six years in the company nobody really bothered about it But I was really bothered about it. I was wondering why is he not, you know, sitting with our team and why is he No He would come for the team meetings who just sit. He wouldn't even talk anything He just go off. He would never come for our team outings or team lunch And nobody in our team really bothered about it. He said no, he is like that itself I remember just going to him one day and saying, hey, you know, why don't you come here? Why don't you sit with our team? Why don't you, you know, talk to us and, you know, be with us. We are a team And he said no, no, I don't I prefer not to talk and he just brushed me off But I remember I felt very bad, right? I'm not talking in the spiritual sense. Like I felt God's presence. No, no Just in the naturally, right? I felt bad for this guy and I said, I mean, I can't help him in any way but But I said, okay, I want to know what why does he do this? And so I would go every day and I'd say, hey Come I'm going for tea break. You come with me. He would say no So every day and finally he got bored of saying no, he felt bad I guess because he told no to me like 10 times. He said, okay, wait, I'll come with you one day And so during that time just to 10 minute break, we began to talk and he began to share things about his life and how he lost his brother through who committed suicide and after the hearing that news his mother just collapsed and few days later she died and a happy family just all of a sudden lost his mother lost his brother and Going through so much trouble and He didn't feel love. He didn't feel accepted and I remember, you know, just just talking to him, right? We didn't share anything about God but just, you know talking to him and Couple of weeks later, he just came and he started sitting with the team. He opened up. He started talking to people and, you know, he started opening up. I Realized that, hey, all he needed was somebody to go and he wanted somebody to hear his story. That's it So in when it comes to relationships with people in the office Yes, there are deadlines that are, you know, things that we have to do Tasks and, you know, all of this but don't forget that we are dealing with people Love them Two, when you have an opportunity to bless somebody, do it. Proverbs 3, 27 and 28 Let's read. Proverbs 3, 27 and 28 Proverbs 3, 27 and 28 Proverbs 3, 27 and 28 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due When it is in the power of your hand to do so Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you. Amen Amen. Thank you very much. So here again, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due. Now You know, I'm sure you've seen on the internet, right? You've seen those videos where it says random acts of kindness where you go to people and Especially the homeless, they go, they just offer them pizzas or something to eat and their faces light up. They're so, so, so happy you know When we Have an opportunity to bless somebody. Now, I'm not talking about only, you know Buying something for someone or a material thing, but just a random act of kindness I can really bring somebody into You know in the workplace can really be Can light up somebody's day, right? It can be a helper It may be a simple thing as, you know, maybe offering a coffee You know, I remember this one time You know in the IT place, IT sector, we had these cafeterias And so sometimes you the line is so long and we have a 10 minute break So we need to get what we want and quickly rush back to the to our workplace to the job to our work for desk and so It's one time long back. I just remember this and I was standing and the line was too long I wanted to get a juice or something. I don't remember the line was too long, you know, as I was standing there I began to walk back. I said, okay, it's not going to happen. I need to go back in 10 minutes and this young man, I probably in his Early 40s, I guess he said I don't know him, right? He's in a different team He said, hey, what happened? Why are you going? I said, no, I got to go back because I I think I have only two three minutes left and I the lines too long And he said come He he gave me a place in front of him and then just You know the next two people and I went or And I remember looking at him and and I was so happy the whole day. I was like This man helped me, right? He was able to give me a spot And he helped me get this You know get a place in front of him. He didn't have to do that You know and and so when we bless people when we have the opportunity to It brings good workplace relationships Right be sensitive to people's feelings Emotional and intelligence matters, right? So there's something called as ecu I'm sure you've heard of that ecu and ecu So emotional intelligence is Knowing how to respond to people's feelings and I think we all know that You know when people are hurt going through difficult times Maybe sometimes, you know your boss comes and he's Got up in a weird mood and he's just upset Don't go in a rage and say so if he gets angry, what should I do about it? No I understand that even though he's a boss. He's a person He goes through emotional problems. He goes through You know ups and downs in life Doesn't mean because he's a boss. Everything's just working fine in his life probably has more things in his mind than us Right. So be sensitive to people's emotion Cheer people up in your team An encouraging word is definitely something that can cheer people up in your team Now another important point is don't forget to say please and thank you Right, uh, or sorry Let's read Colossians four and verse six Colossians four and verse six Yes, anybody Colossians four verse six Uh, Colossians four six Big differences in your speech the goal is to bring out the best in others in a cover in a conversation Not put them down not cut them out amen amen now when we Begin to say please and thank you and sorry and Express our emotions uh The message is presented In the right way It demonstrates kindness Demonstrate gratitude appreciation Humility sincerity willingness Now here's the big problem In ministry Sometimes, you know, we may you know go up the ladder people may you know recognize us. We've tried to we start becoming famous Then what happens is I've seen this where people don't want to say thank you don't want to say sorry. You don't want to say please Then I said I I'm I'm here Because you know, I'm popular famous And this is a very very wrong attitude right no matter how high we go uh The lower are you know, we should lower ourselves. We should humble ourselves The higher we go The more we should humble ourselves And there are times Where I've seen uh, you know a couple of people that I know have said that you know my pastor He actually uses bad language I was shocked He said yeah, this pastor he's he's used bad language on me. Um He's got upset. He's used bad language and he's not even said sorry. He's not even said apologize for it He just acts that everything's all right And it made me realize that how important it is to Remember to walk in humility Right no matter how Famous or how well we're doing in the ministry Uh, walk in humility say thank you say sorry say please Uh, apologize when we have to Nothing wrong and sometimes You know once we come to that place of leadership We feel that saying sorry is is a is a sense of uh, you know Failure no, it's not By saying sorry when you are wrong is Is just bringing you to a higher place of maturity right so Be be able to say that paul is writing to the Colossians. He's saying be gracious in your speech Uh, right so be gracious uh, and and uh, you know say thank you welcome. Please these all make a big difference now, uh, maybe some of us are in Smaller settings, you know, maybe rural settings and ministry ministering to uh, you know towns and villages That's all right Don't feel that okay. They they they it doesn't matter for them. No, no, no If you say it they will begin to say it Right if we say it They will begin to say they will be they will learn from us They'll realize hey You know pastor saying sorry so even I should be able to say sorry to people around me Or you know, they're saying thank you and please and when he doesn't really need to And then they the team the the people in the organization begin to follow those things Right, uh next point Be an encourager even to those who don't like you Let's read first Thessalonians 515 First Thessalonians 515 Yes anybody Go ahead First Thessalonians 515 Okay, I'll read see that no one pays back wrong for wrong But at all times make it your aim to do good to one another And to all people right see that no one pays back wrong for wrong Be an encourager even to those who don't like you Now in the in an organization in a company, uh, there will be people who don't like you They don't like what you stand for Right Maybe you're standing for certain truths And they they tell you hey you have to do this only then the team will win You don't have to do it now when you don't do it people Your team may dislike you they may dislike who you are who you stand for but as a believer in The organization as a believer who believes in the lord jesus christ Be an encourager Right when you get an opportunity You know that this person doesn't like you go ahead and encourage them Right and and you know, there's another verse that says if you love those who Do wrong to you. It's like You know putting burning coals on their head. They'll be wondering why is this person You know even caring about me when I don't care about them Right and so being an encourager will really help your team Uh saying good job well done. These are things I remember We have this very young girl in our church And she's from the northeast And she's a pastor's daughter. She came to church. It's about three years back And she plays a little bit of guitar. So I auditioned her And she plays really well. So she I told her, you know, you can start playing in church But she was very nervous. She said see I'm used to Singing northeast songs Uh, you know their language. Sorry. I don't know the name of that language But but I can't sing in English. I can't lead in English. It's it's very difficult for me And so I said, why don't you try because we are anyway is a small church now And then, you know, you can try it's okay to make mistakes So she I gave her to lead worship and the first Sunday she led, you know, she got really nervous. She forgot the songs and She kept stopping in between looking at me and thinking, you know, why You know, she felt really embarrassed through the whole ordeal But somehow she was able to finish the four or five songs and she said pastor, don't give me again It's you know, you saw me today. I was so nervous. I forgot everything And I said, no, you did a good job. I mean all you need is a little bit of practice All you need is a little bit of, you know, preparation and then you can do better. So So I told her I gave her some suggestion. I said, okay, why don't you write down right worse chorus worse bridge And write down the you know the the way you want to sing the song and so that way you'll know Okay, these this is the structure of the song Intro and that there's an outro and and so I explained to her these things and then I made her lead again. So She led again and it was much better and I said, okay, great. Now you keep doing this keep learning new songs and You know, she kept doing it and all over the course of about three years She's become a wonderful worship leader. She's really good Uh in the way she leads worship and you know, she's so confident now and so sometimes Just these simple statements, you know, you can do it It's you know, just encouraging people is really good, right? It can really build them up Now another very important point To remember in an organization is to know your boundaries in socializing Especially corporate socializing Right. Let's read Proverbs chapter 5 18 to 22 Proverbs 5 18 to 22 Yes, can anyone of us please read Proverbs 5 18 to 22 Yes, could anyone please read Proverbs 5 18 to 22 So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married Pretty pretty and graceful as a deer Let her charms keep your faith keep you happy. Let her surround you with her love son Why should you give your love to another woman? Why should you Prefer the charms of another man's wife? The Lord sees everything you do When whenever you go he is watching the sins of the wicked are a trap They get caught in the net of their own sin Amen. Amen. Thank you very much Right. So now As I mentioned in the beginning of this class we spend about 40 to 50 hours or in the workplace That's very easy To let our guard away, right or to drop down our guard Now as believers In the workplace We need to make sure that we set certain boundaries in our life Right now there will be times when you know, I'm talking about corporate sector I'll also bring in the ministry aspect as well. Now in the corporate there'll be times you'll have team outings Or team picnics, whatever And so your whole team goes and there's alcohol There's drinking and there's you know, all kinds of things that are happening Now nobody is there to tell you anything your wife and children may be at home And here In Proverbs it says the Lord sees everything you do Wherever you go, he is watching So we need to set certain boundaries If there's something if there's alcohol You know, there's alcohol party or there's drinking and all that happening. Don't indulge in it Don't involve yourself in it set certain boundaries Right. Say hey, uh, sorry. I'm not going to do this. I won't be part of this Right. Oh, and then there are times and we've seen this plenty plenty of times Where in the corporate sector, you know people Who are married? They you know, they begin to like other women in the company And so for 40 50 hours every day an office They're there in the entire week They they you know, they they were working together colleagues And so it's very likely that a guy may like a girl or a married woman may like an unmarried man And all of these things happen, right? There are plenty of all of this Now remember as believers, we should know our boundaries Know our socializing boundaries stay away from drinking stay away from womanizing You know, stay away from flirting with people Especially, you know, men and women begin to flirt with each other, which is wrong Stand your guard. This is a true You know, this this will really mark your true character in your strength Right. There will be times you will have to walk away from situations Right now, let me bring in In the ministry setting Now in the ministry, we may keep saying, okay, God loves you. God loves you But we may end up in a pit of our own because we have ended up, you know Using women in the ministry or women using men in the ministry now this Could be fatal in the eyes of God Right, this could just cause a whole big damage a big mark Not only to ourselves, but also to the ministry that we are in seen plenty of ministries where pastors have been caught red-handed or pastors have been, you know womanizing with church members and Or or, you know, this whole thing happens when pastors start, uh, you know Uh They they begin to meet with young men and women and they start counseling them And and so then it all starts off there Right place of vulnerability. So know your boundaries In a corporate setting. So some of the things that we follow in apc is So for example, if uh Uh, if I want to if a girl comes up to me and says I want to talk to you This is some problems that I have now remember That you're married, right? So so the first thing I say is I'll call my wife and we both will sit and talk Right. So now Those who come to church, they know that, you know, if They want to talk to pastor I mean if they want to talk to me regarding anything if it's a girl or a woman in the church They know that they have to first, you know, uh that Pastor will call his wife as well. So what they do is they go directly to Uh, you know, my wife and they begin to talk to her Which is better, right? That way they and so there are times that, you know, they would want My opinion as well. Uh, so then we both sit together. So that way we protect ourselves Right. Uh, and so there are many things that we do as a ministry Now don't The the foolish thing to do is to say, okay, no, I am in the ministry. So nothing will happen to me. No You know Peter writes that wonderfully he says Be alert Be aware Because the enemy is like a roaring lion Trying to devour anyone in its path Right. So just because we are pastor or team leader and all of that in the church Does not mean the enemy is going to overlook us. No, he's going to come All guns blazing trying to bring us down. So you and I are to know our boundaries Right. We should know our boundaries. Um, I remember this happened. I think in 2013 This happened in another place. Uh Yeah, it's happened in India. Uh, uh, it's another ministry I leave the ministry unnamed but, uh This whole problem happened where this very good pastor and the church is growing about 300 400 people And this pastor would you know, uh, women and girls would come to, you know, take advice and You know, so the wife was new that okay as the ministry grows pastor will be busy. Uh, and so He would always be outside. He would just come home late evenings and everything seemed okay, but later on Um, a few women in the church began to complain saying that, you know, he would Uh, you know, involve in, uh, you know, physical acts as well. He would, uh, you know, there was a lot of Engaging and flirting and, uh, you know, trying to overpower women and all of these things And the wife got to know and she was heartbroken And she just didn't know where to, you know, probably she didn't know where to hide at that time and, uh, Uh, and so the entire ministry was dented Uh, things had to be put in place. It was a really difficult time. So he had to take a break The wife and the husband had to, you know, go through a whole, uh, series of counseling and all of it And it was a very difficult time. So especially, especially those in ministry Know your boundaries Right? It's a true place of strength and character Right? Uh, God honors those who honor him. So, uh, the more we honor him in his life, God will honor us. Right? Next point is honor your boss. Let's read Proverbs 2718. I'll read that. If you care for your orchard You'll enjoy its fruit. If you honor your boss, you'll be honored. Now, it's so wonderful Every aspect of the workplace Is mentioned in the Bible. It's so much to learn from Right? If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit. If you honor your boss, you'll be honored No, but you don't know my boss. My boss is the terrible person. He's this. He's that. He's that You know, he won't apply. He won't approve my leaves. He won't give me a raise. He wouldn't give me a You know, he won't consider me for You know A higher position. He he's like this. He's like that. He's always angry. He's always crying or he's Never talks. He does this. So we have a lot of complaints about our boss True maybe true But what does the Bible teach us? Honor your boss Right Remember that our boss may see my face bigger challenges than what we are facing Right treat him or her with respect Give them your best support Appreciate your boss Now there are times it's very difficult to appreciate the boss. How can I appreciate him? He's not doing anything right. How can I appreciate him? Right now don't appreciate the wrong that he's doing But appreciate him because he's there and God has placed him there as your leader as your leader Just appreciate him for who he is Right now the mindset is sometimes we look at a boss and we think okay numbers deadlines work Projects assignments all of this They forget he's a person Right. He has a family. He has children Probably he's married and he has you know children and family and He's going through his own set of challenges The Bible teaches us honor your boss treat them with due respect and Do not take things lightly Right now and this is in the corporate sector, right? Whether they have bad whether they're doing all things wrong. You still honor them now. What about in ministry? You got a senior pastor And you got 20 staff under you Right and just because the senior pastor is a good pastor and a leader don't Come to a place of taking things casually just because they're all believers Right. We must know that Paul writes to Timothy right and he says to Timothy Timothy Exort the leaders rebuke correct them teach them second Timothy 3 16. He says the word of God Is useful for rebuking teaching correcting And training and bringing and righteousness so Just because somebody's a believer don't take advantage Right. I remember this one instance that happened. We had a A manager who was a very good believer who goes to a very famous church in Bangalore and a wonderful wonderful man He was there only for a few months for us and then he moved up the ladder But I remember he would always, you know, he had this whole Little calendar with Bible verses and he would always, you know, he was very open to the gospel He would just go about go about sharing the gospel and he was not ashamed of who he was He was very open about Christianity and About Jesus and you know, he would literally Wherever he would get an opportunity he would share wonderful man But what happened was You know, there were there were times in the you know, there were deadlines and all of that And many a time some of them in our team would take him very lightly because You know, he's a believer. He would always, you know grace give grace to the people And I real and we began to realize that in the team there were people Who in the name of fasting prayer Bible study All these things they did not do their work Right They did not do their work and They would say oh, oh, you know So I had three days fasting prayer So I could not, you know Because I was fasting. I could not really have spending time. So he would initially say, okay. He's fasting. He's praying Or I had to go worship practice and I had in the bible study group and cell group and all these things That this one time, you know, we were we were having this bible study. We used to have bible study before the work starts and I remember we were having just a casual conversation And I told him He's much senior to me, but I just told him see bible also tells us to work and work in the right way So those who are not doing it they have to be, you know, uh They need to be corrected And I don't remember if I gave him any verse, but I did give him a few examples And he was yeah, he was like, yeah, why should I I should not take this as because I'm dishonoring god with my work then Because I'm showing partiality and he realizes holding and he became very stern and and and people stopped taking him lightly after that So in ministries, especially when when you have these Leaders above us who are believers don't take them lightly Right. Honour them. They are your boss. They are your leaders So respect their word whether it's ministry whether it's corporate night respect them Honour your boss even the one who is harsh There are bad bosses. There are bosses who are harsh rude Uh, trading us with no respect But we are to treat them with respect and when we do this we honor god Right. Uh, god is a god who will honour us, you know people you may not change Our bosses may not change the way they are the character. They may not change But when we honour them god changes us Right. He changes our whole Uh life everything he he raises up up to higher standards but Daniel Daniel honoured The the whole thing of Babylon. He didn't say hey Babylon is all about devils You know the word the name Shadrach Meshach and Abednego are three demon gods of Babylon They they three didn't you know say oh, how can you name me as a demon god of yours? We are Jews They didn't bother about all that but all they did was they honoured the rules the regulations of Babylon right and uh, and so You know god honoured them for because they honoured the people in the land their leaders What did Daniel do? Right he even though he honoured his boss, but he stood strong to his character His he set certain boundaries He said I cannot eat of the king's table because I'm a Jew and these are Not in line with what we with our teachings And the king honoured that after that Right and uh later on we see that even Joseph You know Joseph as well was You know honoured by god he he honoured the king the pharaoh and God opened the right door remember promotion comes not from our boss it comes from god Sometimes we can be people pleasing and say okay my boss and then we you know we keep buttering up our boss It's not gonna work Promotion comes from the lord. It's the lord who will open doors So whether it's a good boss bad boss Honour them the lord will honour you by opening the right doors He will lead you up. He will bring you up to higher positions Right, and it's true. It's we have seen it in our lives Right, uh god does not of course qualifications is important But god does not always look at qualification God looks at our heart Right, Joseph was not qualified. He didn't go to the school of Egypt to study about how to interpret dreams No God decided that I will raise this person up He had his own way of opening the door And he will do the same in our lives, right? So we Yes, we have to uh, you know do everything that has been assigned to us by our bosses Do the right way But even as we do it we honour them The lord is watching over us. He will open a door for us He will exalt us Right, he will lift us up When we honour him Right Develop workplace etiquette and cultural sensitivity Right, um now I just want to bring out a few aspects here Good workplace etiquette, right saying hi. Good morning. Uh, these are simple things now Uh, for example, you're in a in a phone conversation Uh, like you're sitting in the office won't come you get a call I I I don't know if you've seen You know people in the workplace, you know, they pick the call you start You know screaming and talking on the phone and everyone around them get disturbed It's not workplace etiquette, right? It's not the right way to do this, right body language Eye contact while talking attentiveness proper dress code Punctuality orderness Have you seen sometimes, you know in the workplace you got these desks table with death And then you open the desk and there's no place to even keep a pen Full of things in that then Uh orderliness You know neatness. These are all uh workplace etiquettes cultural sensitivity is also to do with Being sensitive to the people around us, right? What what is their culture? What are the backgrounds? And sometimes they are the whole thing now just because let me give this example, right? Just because You know, you're a chris. We are a christians. We are christians Doesn't mean that we can go and uh, you know Sit next to a person who is vegetarian and say no, no, no. I will eat non-veg Next to you because that's that I can't help it if you want you go somewhere else and sit Right that that would be so wrong We're not sensitive to the culture around us Right and so god is asking us, you know to to Maintain that Problems 23 1 to 3 says when you sit down to eat with someone important Keep in mind who he is if you have a big appetite restrain yourself Don't be greedy for the fine food. He serves. He may be trying to trick you So the problem the writer here is only saying Learn Learn how to be learn workplace etiquette Learn how to be culturally sensitive now in the ministry Cultural sensitivity is something that is being that was always being questioned All right, we get you know, sometimes we go on a tangent I go to the pulpit we start sharing we start talking about all the other religions other than jesus That would be so wrong I'm reminded of what the book of john teaches us Says jesus says We shall know the truth And the truth will set them free So at apc one of the things we very sternly follow on pulpit time is Don't go talking about all these other things that are happening. That is wrong. That is wrong. That is No, don't focus on what is wrong focus on the word Let the truth of the word of god, which is life Set people free Right You don't have to keep telling what is what other churches are doing or what other Religions are doing why they're doing it. It doesn't make sense. They're all wrong You know just discussing about all this on pulpit time now that would be very wrong We should be culturally sensitive right Now many a times We would say, you know church attacks have happened because we may not have been culturally sensitive Talking about other religions harshly and then they would come and start a problem and say, oh, this is church persecution It is not church persecution It is our irresponsibility or cultural insensitivity that has caused that But I hope you get what I'm trying to say. So be careful Especially if you know that your your sermons are going online Or maybe if you know that you're you know in a place where people from other religions are Very easily able to access and listen to your sermons or even watch you Preach or teach be culturally sensitive Right. There's this one event that happened where this happened in north india when we went once This faster this whole family came to christ. It was wonderful But then he was sourced on and he said everyone take those Those pictures of the Or the idols of these other girls go and throw it into the lake And burn it up or something they did so they took all of it as a procession They took pictures in order to say that, you know, we don't no longer It became a big issue And the entire village came and caught the pastor beat him up caught the family The family lost their jobs and Just became a whole big problem. Why cultural insensitivity? We get to know christ learn how to don't have to prove it to people You don't have to you know go about You know doing all these things be sensitive Yes, you could slowly just dispose it off if it's you don't have to take videos and do a procession and it became a whole problem And then one of the team from our You know, there was this whole persecution relief team that was there in north india. They had to go Meet with the pastor meet with the police Finally the pastor was arrested and needed the police and then say, okay. No, this is the thing But what was it termed as? Christian persecution Right, so It is not christian persecution. It was cultural insensitivity We need to be very sure that we know what we are doing right when the heat is on behave wisely Meaning when there is No constant maybe this whole feeling of You know In a team maybe or in the ministry this whole feeling of okay. We need to get things done remember david David killed gulayat And then they all started singing and saying hey Saul killed thousand david killed tens of thousands Saul king Saul became jealous of david So he put david in the military hoping that david would you know, uh, we destroyed But sol tried his best to get rid of david, but david behaved wisely Right, he didn't say david didn't say hey Saul do you know that I killed gulayat? Your whole you and your whole army was sitting in You know shivering in your tents I went and killed gulayat and because of me you all have destroyed the philistines Now how long will it take for me to kill you? Did david say that no He behaved wisely he acted prudently meaning he acted wisely. He knew that no matter what Uh, you know king the king sol is my king god has placed him there. I'll just keep quiet I will run away from my life. He's behind me, but I will run away from my life I know that god is with me And at the right time god will stand for me And and he acted very very wisely at such a young age Right, so when the heat is on act wisely, you know corporate setting You know your boss may be really upset You know you say everybody come to the conference room and he may just go on and on You may say these are the things you all tend to and these don't stand up and say that's because you know You guys you as a leader haven't done this this is no, that's a wrong time to bring that up I'll be here wisely remember how to Bring out things how to and the heat is on There are times when we can speak there are times you just need to keep quiet Uh, and let god do the work right right our time is up. We'll continue from here And uh, we'll pick up from next week All right, uh, let's close quickly in prayer Uh, uh Anybody want to close and prayer? I mean us I don't you close and prayer for us Yes, it's your faster. Thank you. Okay, let's pray Our greatest family father, we thank you for this beautiful time and the moment that you have provided for us lord Jesus Thank you for all the resources Thank you for all the information father god that you put in the bible and we are now learning father god Thank you for the sources father god that you have provided this books And we pray that lord Jesus father god as we are learning lord Jesus as we as we are pursuing lord Jesus And understand more father god what your words is lord Jesus for For a specific work lord Jesus We submit each fellows into your mighty hand lord Jesus We submit pastors into your mighty hand Jesus father god as we are ground lord Jesus We ask your leader. We ask your holy spirit to lead us and guide us. Thank you lord in jesus him. We pray amen amen Thank you every now. Thank you everyone for joining. Have a great day ahead. I'll see you tomorrow. God bless