 Right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and let's thank the Lord for this new week that he has blessed us with. Then we'll get into our teaching. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this new week that you have blessed us with. We thank you for yet another wonderful opportunity where we could just come together and study and learn your word of God and we pray Holy Spirit that you will speak to our hearts even as we learn these principles of Godly living of God and pray that we will stand on these principles. We'll begin to learn and grow and walk at these principles. Thank you Lord for everything that is ahead for us. We pray that you will minister and speak to each of our hearts. We commend this time into your hands and Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright so let me just present the notes. We did up to chapter 14 if I'm not wrong. Right. So we'll get into chapter 16. Customer relationships chapter 15. We'll look at it if we have time towards the end but I just thought we'll focus on this you know the important chapters here. So chapter 16 challenges and tough times. Now when we talk about challenges and tough times it doesn't matter what season or what phase of life we are in. Right. We will all face challenges. We will all face tough times whether it's in the workplace whether we are in college whether we are you know even in school whether we are just parents whether it's in the life we are in. Challenges and tough times are a part of life. We can't hide from it right. We can't hide from challenges and tough times but we must understand that as believers as God's children God sometimes allows us to go through challenges and tough times and other times we we know we put ourselves through challenges and tough times knowingly or even unknowingly. But today let's talk about how in the workplace you know when you join an organization initially the first few months are you know you would say you're just getting into place the managers are very good to you they try to teach you they train you this is how you do it but as time moves on as time goes by right things change and there will be challenges that will be put your way the bosses who are very kind and sweet have now become very stern and you know they expect you to do things and get it done quickly so it is not it's not a place where we blame or we point fingers and say okay because he did this but we must understand that with time and with working organization challenges tough times will come but here are a few pointers that we can put in place we can apply it in our lives when we face workplace challenges and number one mountains can be conquered we talked about this briefly right every mountain when we say mountain it only basically means challenges right it's called times Matthew 1720 so Jesus said to them because of your unbelief for a short way I say to you if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain or you can say to this challenge you can say to these tough times move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for God for you right so there will be mountains along the way every one of us will face these mountains it will be sometimes it may not even be in the workplace it may be in your own personal lives maybe a project that has come into your hands and then we keep doing this project but then all of a sudden you feel that it's too difficult or it's a huge mountain that I cannot conquer but remember what God's word says if you have faith as a mustard seed say to the mountain to move it will move no matter how high the mountain is one way that we can stay anchored in the goodness of God is to have faith in God when you and I are putting our hard work when we are working sincerely when we are working hard when we are looking to God trust God have faith in God we as believers walk by faith we don't visit faith now I know that sometimes we may just crumble down in fear which is natural but you stand up again and say God I will walk by faith I will not walk by sight look at this mountain in the natural when you look at a mountain you see its beauty you see its majesty and you see how big it is but climbing a mountain is not an easy task people have trained for years and years and years to even get to a certain limit to a certain height of a mountain so many of them have lost their lives trying to go above a certain limit so it's not easy that's in the natural but in the spiritual there will be these mountains but remember that mountains can be conquered when we have faith in God so stay anchored in the goodness of God in every season in every situation find something positive that you can praise God for and that's what the next point is maintain a positive attitude be thankful 1st Thessalonians 516-18 be sure for no matter what pray at all times thank God no matter what happens this is the way God wants you to belong to Christ Jesus to live now when you look at a situation there may be 9 things that are going wrong maybe one thing that is going wrong okay one thing that's good looking good hold on to that one positive thing I know it's very easy to look at the night because they're just jumping at you these 9 things are just attacking you it's coming to your mind it's attacking your thinking your words your actions everything is being attacked but that one thing which is good or a positive thing that's happening in a situation we try to push it away rather what you and I can do as believers is to be sure for no matter what happens so it may look like these 9 things are wrong but you hold on to that one thing God I want to thank you I want to thank you and if there's nothing to thank God for in a situation this thank you for the gift of life if you are at home thank God for that because there are many of them who are sitting in the hospital they've been sick in hospitals for years for months and years but you're at home you're at home maybe going through a difficult situation maybe we're crying and praying and you know thinking God are you even listening to me but find that place of comfort and be thankful how can we do that we can just say God I know the season that I'm going through is very bad nothing looks right but Lord I want to thank you for the gift of life there are many of them who've lost their lives there are many of them who are in hospital hanging on to their life but you've given me good health you've given me good strength and I know that you know one day I will overcome this mountain so you know when you focus on the things that have been good and positive things all of a sudden these mountains which look like mountains it doesn't look like anything sometimes we think hey why was I even worried about this it's nothing to be worried about because we are focusing on the positive you know as pastors we go through a lot of funeral and it's a reality check for us because one day we know that we're all going to pass this we're going to all be there we know that we cannot run away from it we cannot hide from it but many a times I have said to myself God I want to thank you this life that we are living is a gift may not be that everything is going the way I want it to go but life itself is something that we must be grateful for so find things that you can be positive about don't be focusing only on what's going wrong focus on what God can do in your life then don't lose your confidence Psalms 41 to 3 I waited patiently for the Lord's help then He listened to me and heard my cry He pulled me out of a dangerous pit out of a deadly quick sand He set me safely on a rock and made me secure He taught me to sing a new song a song of praise to our God many who will see this will take warning and will put their trust in the Lord now here again David is writing and he's saying don't lose your confidence I think David is somebody who can really say this with all confidence because he had many many situations where he could have just said okay God I'm losing confidence he had Saul running after him he had enemies attacking him from every side he was hiding in caves and it's very easy for him to lose confidence but he did not negative thoughts I see this negative thoughts like fear anxiety or depression remember fear anxiety depression they destroy faith they destroy it so don't lose your confidence stay strong in the Lord stay anchored in God sing a new song to the Lord and one of the things we can do is we can just say to the Lord and say God I know that I feel weak I know that I'm losing confidence but I know that I can also put my trust in you and you are a God who will work in my life so here's what Psalm 42 11 this is what David is saying why am I so sad why am I so troubled I will put my hope in God once again I will praise him David is speaking to his own soul his own emotions as a human being David he's going through all of these difficulties but he's seeing it first hand but he's speaking to his own soul and he's saying why are you sad why are you so troubled you know when I was a shepherd boy probably he thought of all this when I was a shepherd I killed a lion and I killed a bear with my own hands when I when all the armies of Israel was afraid of Goliath I was standing then I killed Goliath by God's hand the help of God God was with me so now why am I sad why am I a trouble am I afraid I know that God is with me even though I don't see it I don't feel it I know God is with me so I will put my hope in God once again I will praise him look at that he just he just turned his he spoke to his emotions to his soul and he looked to God so don't lose confidence in yourself number one and don't lose confidence in God because we know when God all things are possible there's nothing that he cannot do but he also expects us to be confident in him right to stab into empowered efficiency Joshua 2310 one man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you now humanly speaking practically one man cannot outdo a thousand people but in God's kingdom it's different there will be situations you'll have to work alone there will be situations where you may be given a task where 10 people must do that task huge huge work especially when organizations when you look at the corporate sector suddenly what organizations do is they downsize so maybe 500 employees 200 employees so you got 300 people working who have to do 500 people to work the managers are going to put a lot of work on you now this is not uncommon this is something that happens even now it's extremely stressful it is challenging but here is where under these situations you tap into empowered efficiency God has promised I will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation step up to the task and deliver right don't look at how come they are not doing how come you know in my team I am the one who's doing 10 people's work but nobody else is doing that person is doing only five people's work but I'm doing 10 people's work how come this is not fair we can think of all of that but remember if God is putting these things on you you can tap into empowered efficiency tap into the spirit of God ask him for wisdom ask him for direction and you know he will give you success he will give you success remember we talked about Nehemiah now quite a few chapters back we talked about the leadership attitude that he carried huge task he had no people he had the people he had was regular Jews who had no experience in building a wall but when Nehemiah saw this he took it up for himself he said I'm going to tap into God Nehemiah was a cup bearer he had to just this or he had to just come and you know present why you know just be there being stable he doesn't have any certificate in structural engineering or anything but he tapped into empowered efficiency he said I'm going to do this what about Daniel same thing he tapped into empowered efficiency he knew he had this spirit of excellence and at a young age he said okay I'm going to follow what God has asked me to do and opportunity I'm sure you know it didn't come easily to become an administrator in Babylon I'm sure the kings would have given him so much of work so much of tasks to do but he was excellent and the Bible says they could not find anything wrong with his work but only if it is God that they could trap him so you tap into God's power you tap into that efficiency rather than grumbling rather than complaining and murmuring you tap into that you say God I know this is a season you may have to put in 12 hours of work you may have to sacrifice sleep time but remember it's a season it'll pass by and God will reward you for that season and also I would like to say that sometimes you know reward may not come you may feel hey I did all of this but I'm not even rewarded it's okay remember God is your boss so don't worry about bad bosses or unfair employees God is your boss now Paul is writing to the Ephesians he's talking about bond servants and how he says to be obedient to your masters not with eye service but as men pleasers and not with eye service as men pleasers but as bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart so basically he's saying see you're a servant you're a believer you believe in Jesus but you're working under an employer you do your work not not with eye service but you're doing it because you love God and God is the one who has placed you there and you do the work with all your heart the moment we have this we have this understanding in our heart that will change our perspectives we say God this organization for example this organization has hired me they are paying myself we are going to reward me for the things that I do well ultimately God I am working for you and I am going to work sincerely and I know God that you will reward me so help me to walk in integrity help me to walk in honor help me to focus on you and God did that for Jacob, Jacob's story is wonderful right Jacob and Levan's story is really wonderful Genesis 31.4 through 7 you know through this story we can see that when we focus on the Lord we can expect his intervention right the boss cheated him and changed his way this 10 times but God bless Jacob more than he could imagine so always remember that when we work for the Lord God intervenes and he can speak to these unfairly unruly bosses now when it comes to ministry we may not you know have unfair or unruly bosses and leaders but when it comes to the corporate sector I am sure there will be their names maybe you know John leader Andrew they may have Christian names but the way they work may be completely opposite so during those times during these seasons ask the Lord to intervene in your situations bouncing back when you are put down Proverbs 29 and 26 many seek the ruler's favor but justice for man comes from the Lord look at that this is Solomon writing he's a ruler himself he's a king seek our favor but justice for man comes from the Lord many times you know this word people can position to manipulate things and displace you manipulate and displace you think of these two words manipulate sometimes leaders you know can manipulate you can say you do it like this if you do this report this way then you know it'll be good for you you'll be able to you know we'll give you a promotion or they may displace you they will say hey this person did it you know you may be working sincerely but they may not even look at you they may take you out from your current role and put you know put false accusations on you such things happen in organizations now I'm not saying it's not good to have favor from your boss remember Daniel when he was the governor the Raias king that Raias came and the Persian king and he had favor from King the Raias Daniel had favor so it's good to have favor from the manager so but then when it's good to have favor but it's also remember that he is the one who will fight for you don't fight back don't retaliate don't go around speaking ill of your boss or your manager keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and with God's help you'll come back strong you'll come back diligent you'll come back with great results look at these things these are very important the initial reaction is to fight back the initial reaction could be to retaliate or if you can't do any of these two just go around speaking speaking is not going to cost you anything fighting back could cost you a lot of work to get down retaliating can cause a lot of work but you can also speak ill which but don't do that keep your eyes fixed on Jesus look at Daniel they signed the petition those who don't bow down this idol will be thrown into the limestone Daniel did not fight back Daniel did not retaliate Daniel did not go about speaking ill of any of his leaders what did Daniel do he went back to his home open the windows look to his Jerusalem and look to God what he did as usual he did and God fought for him he came back strong actually to see Daniel it didn't bother him that people are trying to bother him because there's no account of him getting angry or upset nothing changed he was too deep in God that didn't affect him at all and that's how we can be say things to you say you know you are this you are that you may now get the promotion that you deserve keep your eyes on the Lord look to him he will he will give you the opportunities don't stoop down to the level of gossip and organizational politics now there will be gossip there will be politics in any organization unfortunately this is the truth workplace gossips politics will be there as believers don't stoop down to their level that's why I love I love to have this picture of the eagle you don't see the eagles with the crows you don't see them mingling with crows you don't see them if crows try to come and you know there are eagles flying and then sometimes the eagles choose to fly low and then when the crows come and they try to you know trouble them or something the crows the eagles are not going to fight the crows I'm not seeing it happening what are they going to do they're just going to fly higher and they know the crow cannot reach there just go up I don't waste my time you know if you think of the eagle the eagle is thinking I don't want to waste my time fighting against the crow because I know I can finish him off eagles are designed to kill snakes and they design they have such great eyesight they're able to you know pick up things from such great distances but the crow is nothing they don't stoop down to the level of gossip or politics tell yourself you know there's this picture that Safari showed me once long time back how many of you have seen those dog races right and there are these fast running dogs so they usually have this like these competitions and then so they thought okay let us see if we can put a leopard to run against these dogs so what they did is they put one leopard and about nine or ten dogs and this is a true story that really happened and the person who took the photo of this was you know he really touched his life as well like he understood so much and about nine dogs these are like really fast running dogs really fast and they were trained to run they put a leopard there inside they said okay when the gunshot goes all the animals will run but to the surprise the leopard was just sitting inside it chose not even to run and the you know the picture said choose your battles wisely the leopard is not bothered that the dogs are running because the leopard doesn't have to prove to anyone the leopard will easily defeat those dogs the leopard is it's a very very fast animal it's not designed to run with dogs not at all don't go down to gossip politics see you can't take away the gossip and the politics but you can choose to fly above it you can choose to conquer evil by doing what is good sorry I think there was a problem in my network the internet just dropped everyone can hear me okay okay sorry I don't know when I lost sharing the notes okay so as I was saying we were talking about the whole aspect of God being your defense against false allegations then resolving business conflicts among brethren Matthew 18 15 through 17 says if your brother sins against you sure we know this was right go to him show me a fault but do it privately between your own yourselves but if he does not listen take another person and if he does not listen to that as well tell the whole church if he does not listen to that as well then you can just let it go or just treat him as a pagan what is shown here so sometimes conflicts may arise among believers engaging in business together but it's very important that we learn to solve these matters in a healthy way only go to legal proceedings as the last option and Paul writes in 1st Corinthians he talks about this right how can you drag your own brother into the court and then when you do that what are you doing you are what will the people who are outside what will gentiles think what will they think that being the same family they are fighting against each other so Paul was very stern with them right so there will be times among believers there will be these challenges but as a last resort you take it as take it as take it up legally right don't let male chauvinism or prejudice shake you meaning this is a note for women right now in situations in a workplace sometimes you know men will feel hey I'm stronger I'm better women may look maybe look down inferior right remember women that you are equal in God's eyes you are not lesser you have the same Holy Spirit you have the same gifts of the Holy Spirit you have the fruit of the spirit right so don't let all of these you know because he's a male don't let prejudice shake you because he's a man so only he can be a manager only he can be a CEO stand your ground continue to demonstrate your value that you are bringing to the organization if things don't change move on there are other things in life you can always you know ask God to grant you some favors so don't let those feelings of you know because I'm a woman I may not get the opportunities that a male gets it may be true in the workplace but to God we both men and women are equal and so we stand with that we understand that God gives us the same opportunity the same Holy Spirit the same wisdom and we can raise up to greater levels right say no to male sexual advances and requests now in the workplace women again there will be men who will give indirect hints right and it's not something that is new there will be these things happening take precautions stay wise be sensible run away from things stay say no to advances right that may come to you in the workplace now I'm not saying this is only in the corporate it could also happen in ministries we've heard of ministries where men and men of God have you know advanced towards women and taken advantage of them so say no and protect yourself I don't give into pressure and sometimes because oh what if I lose my job what if I don't get another job so we give in right don't do that right say no stand your ground you are God's child your God's property you cannot be you know a loving men to come against you in this way and stay away from the woman seducer don't play with fire so men there are sometimes women who will lure you they have habits of you know for favors sexual favors sometimes they you know women try to direct your attention to someone else or to or even if you know in the workplace there are many times if open of people where women have men have left their wife and probably their children beautiful children beautiful family why because of a woman in the workplace right just luring them stay away from them and don't play with fire remember that God is watching you God is watching us we need to be careful on how we stand our ground right if you are ridiculed for your faith stand strong knowing that you are blessed again you know we will be ridiculed at times and for our faith hey this guy is only talking about Jesus Sunday he is not going to come for you know playing football or playing soccer because he goes to church or he is always praying and he is always doing the sign of the cross or he is always doing this he is always preaching to us people will ridicule you and that's a fact they have done it to Jesus they did it to his disciples they did it to the early church they will the enemy will keep doing it till the end of time it will be ridiculed right but continue to do your work again as we said right stand strong focus on God know that you know it's such a blessing that people are ridiculing you for your faith it's a blessing that means you are doing something right you are working in you are standing with godly principles if you are not being ridiculed for your faith sometimes you can say hey am I being a believer in the workplace if you are being ridiculed it's alright that means you are standing around that means you are standing with God's principles and working with godly principles right wisdom answers to nepotism a wise servant will rule over a son who causes shame and will share an inheritance among the brothers a wise servant now nepotism is basically when a boss may have a son or a daughter and they've been just given the role of a manager or senior manager even if they are not capable of performing the work right and it's very easy for us to say hey because your father is a boss so now you become the assistant manager how can you do that and it's very easy but remember respond with wisdom we'll get you noticed and give you access I was reading an article you know we were talking about the Pharaoh and during Moses' time Moses was scheduled to be the next Pharaoh because this history proves that he went he won many wars he was the strongest Egyptian commander during that time he knew either Hebrew the Pharaoh knew that he is not Egyptian but you know he was able to show it by his work so wisdom will get you noticed and give you access wisdom is greater than nepotism so I'm not saying nepotism will be there but you continue to work in wisdom there are two things here one is sometimes we will have to let people go part of the organization and other times people will want to leave the organization maybe for a better job or for their own personal reasons in both of these situations do it in an honorable way if you are getting somebody to request them to leave the job be honorable try to leave in good terms be friendly be honorable and maybe you can help them plan for the next step if a person has already got a new job and he wants to move from the current job to another job bless them don't fight to them say you have to stay you know what I spoke to I mean I provided for you for so many years how can you leave we release them honorably let them go remember that stay yielded to God his purpose he will work all things for good but especially when it comes to letting people go it's hard we may have to do that we have to do it in an honorable way remember challenges and tough times can be conquered and we conquer it through mountains can be conquered so if any of us are facing a mountain like by the personal or in the workplace wherever we are remember to maintain these attitudes right we'll take a break we'll just take a little bit of an extended break we'll come back at 11 and we will go to the next chapter we'll be able to complete the next chapter thank you