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00:01 Hello me. We are continuing with Nehemiah.
00:06 Two weeks ago we were at work. Today we're going to continue work. Last week we had George Verver which was on
00:12 missions. So we're going to mash up the two together and we're going to look at work as missions. Today before we go to
00:19 chapter 4, could we have the other slide PowerPoint up? We're going to have a guest come up today. We're going to have
00:24 Dr. Lim Khi come up. He's uh runs what is known as the incubator.
00:31 Let me just explain a little bit about what he does and then he's going to take over. He has been in long time with
00:37 Hullet Packard and then he was headunted for company called Dust Tech. Dust tech is a disc drive company. He had 10,000
00:43 people uh underneath him. So he's basically a man who was very involved with multinationals
00:49 and about sometime in 1995 he he decided to go into coaching and so he worked
00:55 with Vistec which is basically one of the largest coaching companies in the world and they coached multinational
01:02 CEOs. So for 20 years he has been coaching multinational CEOs and sometime
01:07 few years ago God gave him a calling. He started a Bible school. So all you
01:13 business people today this is for you. Seriously today we're going to continue about work and business especially
01:20 entrepreneurs and they started incubator. I'm going to give the floor over now to Dr. Lim and he's going to
01:26 share a bit about what they do and then we're going to grill him with some hard questions. So over to you Dr. Lim.
01:32 Thank you honor. uh maybe just one or two uh correction on the I I I almost
01:40 couldn't recognize who but nevertheless the I was with Hula Packet but uh V
01:46 stage is actually an organization that actually coachesmemes
01:51 as well as as and also uh I I no only big companies
01:56 big companies also small companies so don't enlarge me so big
02:01 thank you very much but the the I saw the website is all mainly CEOs you know so don't be so shy
02:07 yeah business owners as well okay thank you very much Arnold uh I just want to take very quickly five minutes to
02:13 introduce what incubator and also in the and in in the in the slides itself I'll
02:19 just uh share a little bit about my personal journey how trying to integrate
02:25 uh faith and work and the secular and the uh sacred divide I'm sure many of
02:32 you are who works in the workplace. How many of you look forward to go to work every Monday?
02:40 Well, very few, right? I'm sure more than uh more than five or six of you uh
02:45 work still work. But many of you, if I use the word vacation, how many you love
02:51 to go on vacation? There you are. You see, you see work and vacation somehow
02:56 uh personify something different in our minds. But I believe that we because of
03:02 our what has happened to the workplace today we are more or less really put off. So there are a lot of challenges
03:09 that all of us face and I think needless to say the first thing that comes to mind is in the area of corruption. Do
03:16 you agree? And I don't think I need to say anymore in this country. There's just too much has been said. And the
03:23 second issues that we we challenges in the workplace is it's become unhealthy
03:29 and very toxic. And uh many of us uh the survey says that uh on a Monday uh some
03:36 people says there's a lot of uh uh depression. You know every Monday you get up you want to go to work you have a
03:43 depression. They says that a lot of suicides happen on a Sunday night
03:48 and so I don't know uh the survey says a lot
03:53 of suicides and because they don't want to go to work and workplace is the surveys done by this uh a big company
04:01 says that the people that are engaged in the work is only about 10 to 15%
04:06 worldwide in the US the highest is about 30% and guess what in Malaysia is only
04:13 about 10%. % an employee that is engaged is someone who really psychologically
04:18 wants to do a good job and go the extra mile and it's only about 10%. And that
04:24 has been on for many many years and why is that the case? Because the workplace is broken and redemption needs to happen
04:32 not just at a soul level and also the workplace level. I think as Christians we have a responsibility for redemption
04:39 also at a workplace level. And the third thing is there's a uh there's an issue of a power struggle or survival of
04:46 fetus. Now as believers we always look forward that we also want to be winners
04:52 but they are losers also in the workplace and nobody likes losers and because Christians identify believers
04:58 identify with the lost the last and the least people who are marginalized and we
05:04 always seen as people who are soft and can be run over. So as a result I think
05:10 the workplace needs to be redeemed. So one of the challenges I faced when I was
05:15 running a company uh in a multinational I was also at that time an elder of a church. I started didn't start as elder
05:21 I started a young people's leader and all that in the Bon church and uh subsequently I was trying to merge the
05:28 two. How do the sacred and secular divide ever come to meet? Sunday I was,
05:34 you know, hallelujah. And certain Sundays I'll be preaching and all that.
05:39 And Mondays to Fridays I'll be back in the office. I'll be, you know, up there
05:46 because I'm MD of a big company and you get calls and meetings in and out. So I
05:52 could not make sense of the two. I went out to see my elder and I talked to him. His advice to me is Gawi, I think you
06:02 should just mark your time in the workplace and then when the time is right,
06:07 you just come out and serve God full-time, you know. Uh I so I asked him, is it not
06:14 possible for me to serve full-time for God? Why I am now because I'm good in what I do, can I not serve him? I think
06:22 the teaching on that was so lacking. And there's there's today I do not know
06:28 churches today I'm sure it doesn't happen to you right now people are beginning to understand a little bit
06:33 more about uh integration of faith but I still come across when I wanted to
06:40 started uh some of this uh pl uh work like the incubator or the integration of
06:47 faith and business I went to churches and one of the young uh uh this men's
06:53 group that I spoke to when I talk about this applying biblical principles in a workplace. A young a very prominent
07:02 business person stood up. He's a prominent lawyer in the country. He
07:07 stood up and he pointed a finger at me. He said, "Kawi, this will never work in Malaysia. Do you know how corrupt it is?
07:15 Do you know how difficult it is?" Because he assumes that I don't know anything about business. I think so. I
07:22 think that is real. But then I was taken aback in a Christian church and
07:28 Christians prominent Christian leaders are talking like that. But I think that
07:34 day uh the Lord sent somebody to redeem me. The elder very humble man sitting right in front quietly stood up and
07:41 turned to his Bible and say, "Didn't Joseph and Daniel live in a time of
07:46 pagans? And weren't the society as corrupt as we were today?" But they
07:53 stood for their faith, didn't they? So if they can do it, why can't we?
07:59 So I thought that was my redemption. So if anytime you get challenges in the
08:05 workplace, sometimes God sent uh angels to come and save you. So Nehemiah 4
08:11 you're talking about today is about challenges. Uh we started incubator
08:17 wanting to transform the marketplace through multiplying biblical entrepreneurs. We believe if the Bible
08:25 uh entrepreneurs and business owner can do their business according to the word
08:31 of God, we believe that transformation can take place. Now when I tell people
08:36 there are 2,500 verses in the Bible that speaks about business and finances,
08:44 people are quite shocked because in comparison with the subject of prayer,
08:50 there are only 500 verses that talks about prayer. Now it's not
08:56 that prayer is not important and business is five times more important. No, I think there is a lot of
09:03 equal emphasis in the Bible. So there's no sacred and secular divide in the
09:09 Bible. As far as God is concerned, we are whole, one whole integrated. So I
09:15 believe that if Christians learn how to do that, the workplace can be redeemed
09:20 and transformed. So our solution was to come up with something. There are nine of us. We got
09:28 together and we were inspired to say let's put together something where we can help the next generation of
09:35 believers and nine of us were all in our 60s. He said the next lap is going to be
09:40 very short. Let's run the race well like Paul says you know I have uh I fought a
09:47 good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. No. So all of us wanted that
09:53 and the crown of righteousness. Many of us who are you know they say we
09:59 are like the toilet roll that moves faster as you grow older right okay so
10:05 let me just quickly my time is almost up I think business school is the first
10:10 thing that we say is a business school it's not a Bible school per se but it
10:16 teaches the Bible that relates to business and we have uh graduated about
10:22 33 students today and there's another 12 they're going through right now the next
10:27 intake is in uh in June of next year. Uh so here one of the one of the great
10:36 things about the Emir's business school it teaches them that your business don't belong to you. So at the end of the
10:41 seven months course they'll come before an audience among their parents their pastors they invite for the graduation
10:48 they'll dedicate their business to God. Now you have child dedication in the church. So we have business dedication.
10:55 Your business has just been given birth. So why not dedicate it to the Lord? So we do that with all the young
11:02 entrepreneurs. We dedicate their business because you don't own the business. You're merely stewards of their business.
11:10 Then we have the CEO round table. When the business grow bigger, we want to
11:15 journey with them. We want to walk with them. We want to coach them. We want to help them. So we have a round table
11:20 where there is a peer advisory there is accountability. The Bible says that uh
11:26 in a multitude of counselors there is safety without counsel the people fall
11:32 and psalms one says that uh blessed are men who walk in the coun who do not walk
11:38 in the counsel of the ungodly. There are a lot of counsel out there which are
11:44 ungodly. So if you want to seek godly counsel, come and sit around peers who are believers, who are also in the in
11:51 the business itself. Then we have cradle workplace. We try to put them in a place you you know when
11:58 you want to start a business, you don't even have place to start. So we provide space for them. So as students, they get
12:04 seven months free of charge for the space that we have in our cradle. And we
12:09 bring Christian investors to help to upskill to give them opportunity and
12:14 hopefully uh to help them along the journey as well. And lastly, we want to build a biblical community. So every now
12:21 and then we bring Christian speakers and we want to let them in network with one
12:27 another and together they can do business together. And we have taken this overseas uh to the less developed
12:33 countries. One of our things about our incubator is that we are not just uh set
12:39 up as a commercial enterprise. We are in a way a social enterprise too. We have a
12:44 missional arm where we provide scholarships. So those of you who are really called to be business but don't
12:50 have money to go in, you can enroll apply to us and you may get scholarship to join. Every year we give one or two
12:56 and uh business school and we also train up entrepreneurs in the third world
13:02 nation. So we have sent out actually four teams in the last one year in uh
13:07 different places where we sponsor all the training for 4 days for uh new
13:13 entrepreneurs as well as at some NOS's and sometimes pastors we have gone into
13:18 uh places where they can't go in but they need a business so we teach them about business and uh that's basically
13:26 uh what the incubator about and uh I will just okay we want to wrap this up. Next year
13:34 what we will do, we will start a series on marketplace where we get Dr. Lim to
13:39 speak. We get Neahmiah Neahmiah, not the Bible Neahmiah, the other Neahmiah to
13:44 come and speak. We were trying to get uh uh Tans Chanachai to come over. So there's something burning in my my
13:50 heart. Um I'm continuing on with family life ministry, but next year we're going to really start things on marketplace
13:56 ministry. Let me just ask a few questions very quickly and and the the most obvious question since you're
14:02 talking about startups. Yeah. Uh for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the gospel, what is what has a
14:09 more effective reach? People are in properness or people in salary position. What what would advice would you give
14:14 young people today? Uh I think uh I think uh each one of us
14:21 can have an impact wherever we are placed. But there is such a thing called
14:27 uh calling and in business you have to be called. Uh but there's a lot of myth
14:33 about business and entrepreneurship. I think Christians have to clarify that in
14:38 their mind because I think uh some of the myth uh is that business people are
14:44 greedy. You know that uh they they only think about making money and as a result
14:51 Christian says we we should not go after those things. Uh the other myth is that
14:57 uh Christians who are in business uh involve in very difficult corrupt
15:02 activities and it's very challenging. Yes, it is challenging and uh maybe the
15:08 other one is that some people think that you can only be a businessman if you're born an entrepreneur but the fact is
15:16 that entrepreneurship can be taught. So today universities are teaching entrepreneurship and all that. So I
15:23 think we miss need to clear our mind of some of this myth and then we can make a
15:28 a better decision whether entrepreneurship is for us and uh
15:33 because we have not been taught. So as a result uh naturally we say when you graduate find a job you know but I
15:41 believe if God has called you to be an entrepreneur then I think you have a greater impact uh that you can impact a
15:47 lot of uh people. Yeah. Okay. Because of time is short, we just pose one more question for Dr. Lim and
15:54 he will be here with a table outside there. Please stay back and asking questions. So here's a killer question.
15:60 How can you differentiate between someone who's ambitious for self but he says he's doing it for God as opposed to
16:07 someone who's really ambitious for God? One thing I really don't like something about Christian business people, oh they
16:13 say I'm doing it for God. Actually they're doing it for their own pocket. So seriously, you know, I mean I'm going to market ministry. are come actually
16:19 you just want to connect. So I struggle with that. So how do you differentiate between the two? So answer coming question coming from
16:25 you. Yeah really. Yeah. Okay. So I I I believe that uh all of us
16:31 are going through a journey and uh the Bible says by the fruit you shall know them right and I think in uh Matthew 7
16:40 or something it says a false prophet. So that there are people who claim this and
16:45 that but really the the Bible wants us to be fruitful and the the Bible wants
16:52 us to be uh faithful as well. Uh so a lot of people in the marketplace as
16:60 Christians they they get the wrong idea. They need to pursue success which is uh
17:07 a wrong thing for a believer. A believer needs to pursue faithfulness. Yes, we
17:12 need to pursue fruitfulness with the right kind of fruit and uh then we we can see the the fruit people will judge
17:19 whether you're doing it for self or doing it for your own self uh for for the kingdom of God. So uh we are the
17:26 Bible commands us if you are faithful or fruitful in the right thing but he doesn't command about uh pursuing uh
17:34 success. So success comes not out of pursuit but success is a result. It's
17:41 something that ensued after us. You know in Deuteronomy uh 28
17:47 talks about if you obey all these things then prosperity and blessing will
17:52 overtake you. So it is almost like you don't run after it but is as a result of
17:59 what you have been doing success overtakes you. So if you see someone because in business it's not because he
18:06 has been pursuing it. A lot of times it's because he has paid the price of
18:12 faithfulness and God has chosen to bless him. Interesting. I think next year we must
18:17 really get him back. Let us pray for Dr. Lim and as we open the sermon today Lord we thank you for bringing Dr. live with
18:23 us and we pray for the ministry of the incubator and Lord to we are now in this season where we ask you let us reflect
18:30 on our calling in our marketplace and today we ask you humble our hearts that
18:35 you speak to us we ask that um we will stay back and ask questions Dr. Lim to
18:41 learn through him what you want to teach us and we say this in Jesus name amen thank you Dr. Thank you very much.
18:51 And we're going to continue with uh chapter 4 on uh what we have spoken two
18:57 weeks ago. And uh let's just open
19:02 quickly again in prayer. I didn't really get to pray for my sermon. So let's do that. Lord, we just ask you humble me.
19:08 Speak uh speak through your word today. Keep me fearful. not my word but your
19:15 words and keep us teachable and we say this in Jesus name amen let me just quickly go through what we did uh we did
19:21 chapter three two weeks ago we had three key points work and kingdom mindsets work and leadership work and identity
19:28 and chapter four flows from chapter three and one thing we must understand about having a kingdom mindset
19:34 understand work is essentially worship and we see that very clearly in Nehemiah Neah rose to the top as what Kai said he
19:42 he never pursued good success. He was a godly man who was faithful and he became a cup bearer. And if he wasn't a cup
19:49 bearer, he would not have built the wall. So the vocation in the ministry essentially links one to one another.
19:55 They're not you cannot have this sacred and secular mindset. We look at leadership. We look at some of the
20:01 goals. Today we look at godly perseverance, but all leadership points to Christ the servant king. And what
20:09 let's just see whether we do some homework. See whether any of you any one of you can remember the message. What's the most repeated word in chapter 3?
20:16 That's very good. Next. We are all called to build his church together.
20:21 Together. No exceptions. And we are called to unity in the body of Christ. That's the big picture of chapter 3. And
20:29 now we come to chapter four. And chapter four suddenly things don't go so well.
20:36 There is opposition. Now let me pull you back a little bit. The danger about reading a book like
20:41 Neahhemiah is that we tend to concentrate on the person. But the book of Neahmiah really isn't about
20:47 Neahhemiah. Although he's a great leader, the book of Neahhemiah is about the character of God. Now, one of the
20:54 most interesting things about the book of Neahmiah is the silence of God. You
20:60 notice that you read it, you don't hear God speaking in thunder and lightning.
21:05 You don't see miracles. It's not that the book is against miracles, but it's almost like God is at work when we think
21:12 he's not there. So, it's a fantastic book to study about God's character in
21:18 his silence. So, let me give you three propositions here. One, opposition is
21:24 inevitable. Number two, opposition and our decision making process. And lastly, we look at
21:30 godly strategies from chapter 4 during opposition. Now opposition is inevitable
21:37 if there's a big if I like to propose two things coming generically from
21:42 chapter 4 because what happening in chapter 4 is before this they building the wall it was all going very well and
21:49 then some people didn't like it some people basically saying you know what you you Christians you live in a
21:55 you do this okay the moment you do this we don't like it and then the opposition comes in waves in insults in mockeries
22:03 in false accusations. It goes to chapter five. So firstly, when you decide to do
22:09 work in a godly way in an ungodly environment
22:15 and and and we all have stories and the he brought out the first thing he brought up was corruption. Let let me
22:21 just give you a small little example. I don't want it to be about me, but let me give you two. Like I say, I'm an
22:27 architect. You know, Chinese have a saying. Chinese says that you're as healthy as the horse you ride on. I'm
22:32 not a very big architect firm. So a lot of my horses not very healthy. That's a fact.
22:38 What do you call people who not know the kind of client base that may be shaky? When they shaky, they ask you to do a
22:43 lot of strange things. You know, very unbiblical things. And you know, in the building line, you're so corrupted. Some
22:49 of you may know this story. Years ago, I was asked to go to Thailand for for a study trip. Anytime a client tells you
22:55 to go to Bangkok for a study trip, you got to be very careful already.
22:60 So true enough I prayed they brought the engineer they brought a lawyers along a whole big team they went there and then
23:06 suddenly they went to this place Dr. Maka don't know where and there was big Roman
23:12 really gaudy looking building middle of nowhere and you know you're in trouble when outside there the sign says for men
23:18 only and true you enter there there's all this glass they I think they call this I
23:25 don't know what they call it a fish house I don't know there's a strange word for it when you know the women are
23:30 behind there men go and choose and they they do a lot of things to you know to to degrade women and the developer was
23:36 pushing me pushing ing me. Yeah. Yeah. Go, go, go. This is what men do. The
23:41 lawyer before me went. No aspirations or lawyers here.
23:48 I I I I said, "No, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to take my beer." And strangely the structural consultant next
23:53 to me said, "I'm going to join Anna and take my beer." And then suddenly the three men huddled there really very strange in the lounge doing nothing. And
24:01 I'll tell you there's two things happened when I came back. And we came back there's no free lunch. I came back they were wanting us to sign documents
24:08 to say a building we're doing will not fit for habitation I refused to do it then I remember why
24:15 they sent people to Bangkok catch you number two on the plane back the engineer sat next to me he says you know
24:21 what my partner gave up the practice to become a
24:27 missionary for the Methodist church you see something God opens the door for testimonies
24:33 so so I I don't want to make it about me But there are stories but you have to
24:38 make a stand. Last year I had another project where client rang out money. I went to the meeting room one day I saw a
24:44 rifle there and this is not America. He was clearly trying to send me a sign
24:50 you know clearly sending me a sign. After there's a lot of intimidation you want sign documents because got L. I
24:57 said I'm not signing. We went almost to violence.
25:02 But there are days where you make a stand. And I'm going to tell you how the text tells you you make a stand. So
25:07 that's lesson one. Number two, you decide to undertake God-sized project.
25:12 Some of you, yes, like how we say, not everybody's in ungodly environment. Some of you are semi-retired. Some of you got
25:17 a lot of free time. Lot of free time. Go work for the church. Church got a lot of things for you to do. And when you work
25:24 for the church, I guarantee you got opposition on. Guarantee you. Ask
25:30 everybody here work for church got opposition because we all sinners. Okay. Now in in in chapter 4 the opposition is
25:38 sunbal and Tobayat and they were arming themselves with spears and knives. Now
25:44 our struggle is not against Sambalad and Tobayat and outside people. Our struggle is not flesh and blood but against the
25:51 rulers authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
25:57 realms. We forget this when we go to work because we have divided it into
26:02 secular and sacred. We come to church on Sunday and do our BSF or VBS and all our whatever and hallelujah. In work,
26:09 something else takes over and we forget that spiritual warfare happens the most
26:15 at work. And the context of this, our defense isn't the bow or the arrow or
26:21 the sword or the armor. Our defense is the armor of God. Now we fail to pick
26:28 this up in CS Lewis landmark book the screw tape letters which really is about
26:34 series of letters from a senior demon to a junior demon. You know he tells people
26:40 and and is very relevant to us in the workplace. There are two strategies he tells especially all you working people.
26:47 Number one the best strategy is make the person who is going to work
26:52 don't believe devils exist. don't believe there's a demonic war. How
26:58 many of you when you go to work, you actually believe you're engaged in spiritual warfare? You don't, right?
27:04 That's their first strategy. Secondly is to give you that kind of success where you ma Malaysia very good
27:14 know and then come to church and say hallelujah and they call this this gradual gentle
27:21 slope. That means you don't learn to say no. The safest road to hell is the gradual
27:28 one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without certain turnings, without
27:35 milestones, without signpost. You see, any other sin a person struggles with,
27:41 he feels guilty. He's got an addiction, he feels guilty about it. He's got a bad temper, he feels guilty about it. He's
27:48 successful in his business, he gets proud. He thinks he's a somebody.
27:55 I had a very well-known Christian person who did a lot of ministry. You know, I
28:02 knew him personally because he was he was he was very successful in business also. And they got caught in some issues. But he was very well known in
28:08 the Christian circle. You know how he did it? He got what they call a runner.
28:14 We call it middleman. He paid the middleman some money. them in typical candidate
28:22 I give you money what you do with you I don't want to know that's basically saying he can take the money and count
28:28 him everybody it doesn't come back to me that's how Christians deal with this you know
28:34 that's pride let me let me challenge you if you're in an environment where you struggle with
28:40 corruption let me challenge you and challenge myself when was the last time you spoke to anyone about it in
28:48 When was the last time we struggle with this but we rather not this kind of
28:54 thing cannot talk about it. The safest road to hell is the gentle slope is the
28:59 slope of vanity. Here's the other one. Some of you who
29:05 feel hey I'm in a good job American company multinational all the protocols
29:10 in there not toxic then you're like a 10m maker
29:16 but why was Paul a t maker is a deliberate ambitious choice because as a tm maker
29:24 he is basically mobile he we find the book of in first
29:30 Corinthians he does therefore doesn't put a burden on the church and because he's on a missionary journey. When he's
29:35 a tent maker, he can therefore go and preach and teach. So what I'm trying to
29:41 say is that career decisions have to have the gospel in your mindset. And
29:46 once you do that, yes, Paul doesn't have oppositions doing tense. He has a lot of
29:53 oppositions in his work. There's one uh sister I met in the church. She deeply respected. She's not here today. She's
29:59 an American. She made a decision to be a teacher in an international school so
30:05 that she can travel the world and preach the gospel. I have deepest of respect for her. You see, your career choices
30:13 will come with opposition if you do it with a kingdom mindset. Either
30:18 opposition in your work or when you are so involved in kingdom work is so big,
30:26 there will be people who will be forcing their ways against you. Let's just go back and say well okay so
30:33 easy to talk about opposition how do we handle it whether in my workplace or in church let's let's talk particularly of
30:40 work and let's talk about corruption okay because that's that's the air we breathe and you say you don't understand
30:47 or I don't I don't get a license I get it and I I I don't want to judge anyone
30:52 this morning let's just say you know I I I I'm I'm in I'm in a boardroom meeting and they they deal with this thing I
30:58 don't know what to is very difficult. I get it. Don't ever say I don't get it. In my line, we swim
31:05 with sharks. So, let let's let's pull back and look at the text. Now, let's look at the kind of opposition. Verse
31:13 four. First, Salad ridicules the Jews. What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their walls? Would they
31:19 offer sacrifices? Tobaya adds in what they are building. Even a fox climbing
31:25 on it will break their walls of stone. So, first there's mockery. All right, let's go down to verse seven.
31:31 When a mockery doesn't work, verse 8, they all plotted together to come and
31:37 fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. In simple English, they cause office politics.
31:44 They create trouble for you. That's the second line. After they create second
31:49 line, then third trouble comes. Now we have trouble from within the people in
31:54 Judah. Judah is supposed to be the most powerful tribe. says the strength of laborers is giving out. There's so much
32:00 rubble we cannot rebuild. Their own people now are trying to abandon the work. Third opposition. So let's look at
32:07 it. We have mockery. One, two, plotting.
32:12 Three, your own people abandoning you. And let's go on. And then now we want to
32:17 go into actual violence, assassination. Verse 11, we will be right there and kill them. And the Jews who live near
32:25 them came and told me 10 times over. Wow. 10 times over. That's a sign is
32:30 repeatedly. Whenever you turn, they will attack us. The work now is about to fail. After three chapters of success,
32:37 now the work is going to fail. And we find chapter six with Yen preached to
32:42 us. You find afterwards down there there is now false accusations is reported
32:48 among nations that Gish says it true. You and the Jews are plotting to revolt. There is a king in Judah. False
32:54 accusation. Verse 11. And not only false accusation. They are traitors in their midst. I realized God had not sent him
33:01 but had prophesized against me because Tobia and Salbalad had hired him. Let it
33:07 sit down. Who does that remind you of?
33:14 Jesus Christ. Jesus was mocked upon. His followers
33:20 abandoned him. The Pharisees plotted to kill him, accused him, brought him to a
33:26 false trial. Judah betrayed him. Nehemiah points to Christ.
33:34 So every time you feel you can't do it, here's the starting point.
33:42 How much did it cost Jesus? If we value our salvation,
33:49 we think of the cross and then we ask ourself, how much are we prepared to sacrifice for the gospel? Let's just
33:57 keep that in mind. Jesus said this in Hebrews 12:2, sorry, the author, which I
34:02 I thought was interesting. See, looking upon Jesus in time of the trials and tribulation, the author and finisher of
34:09 faith, who for the joy was set before him, this is quite interesting, endured
34:14 the cross, despising the shame.
34:21 So if you walk into an office and you try to do what is right and people have a go at you, they threaten you, they
34:28 mock you, think of Jesus who despised the shame,
34:34 endured the cross. And may that give us courage to move on.
34:39 Um, here's another reason, and I think George Berber spoke about it last week. You think about it. If I'm a Jew, right,
34:46 I'm building the wall. And now, wow, God has brought us all together. We're one
34:51 big family. Is God's will I build the wall? Hallelujah. And come to chapter 4.
34:58 Bam. Everything stops. You ask, "Why God? Why?
35:04 Why did God give us so much opposition? Why did God give us so much trouble?
35:10 Didn't God want us to build a wall?" Yes. because he's trying not to build a
35:16 wall so much. He's trying to build people. Imagine the tribe of Judah if they
35:23 didn't go through chapter 4. Now, what happens in chapter 4? The tribe of Judah
35:28 says, "We can't build it. We can't build it. Too much trouble." And Nemiah says, "You can't build it. You can build it. I
35:34 can't. We can't. We can't do it. You can. You can." And we know at the end of chapter 4, they do it. So, what happens?
35:43 The trials at the work changes them. So here's the reason why opposition is
35:51 crucial. Why opposition is inevitable? Because God wills it. If your job is so
35:59 smooth sailing, you are of no value to God. God's looking for warriors. Then
36:04 you say, "Anor, but we tried and we didn't succeed." Well, Ver says this,
36:11 you're better together even when we fall. That's really what chapter 3 is
36:17 about. It's about going together. Opposition in our decision making
36:23 process. Whenever you you have opposition, your mind doesn't think straight. I had um one other consultant
36:32 who was going through a lawsuit. When you go through a lawsuit, you cannot think straight. I I have personal
36:38 experience in this. I know. So his lawyer asked him uh you know again I'm sorry today don't don't thorough lawyers
36:45 but the lawyer told him you you you should
36:50 go and take a document and backdate it. The problem with backdating this document he needed an architect
36:56 signature on it. So he took me out for Maka talked to me with his partner. Hey you must help me la I got su this and
37:04 that. Oh yeah. Nobody knew. First in my mind he's crazy if I want to sign for
37:09 you anyway you know and he was begging meong
37:17 home you got to help me sign after that you know what he did he sent
37:23 me entire WhatsApp message on it which is completely stupid you got to do that have the common sense
37:30 not to even put it put it record he put it in record you know so I noticed
37:35 something When people uh are stressed at work, they don't think straight and they
37:41 make very foolish decisions. I obviously never sign it. I tell him very nicely and I I was just trying to tell him
37:47 firstly as a Christian, I will not sign it. And and here's some simple business sense. I never sign anything you don't
37:54 understand. But you know, I'm just telling you people that don't think straight. Now, this is this is great.
38:01 You really got to learn this. This has been picked up by everybody from Tim Keller to everyone has picked this up.
38:06 Now they they now want to plot verse 8 they plotted together to come and fight
38:13 in Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. Verse 9 is is the rich. We prayed we
38:20 get it right. God save me. Hallelujah. Lord save me. Save me. Save me. After
38:27 they prayed what they do do they posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. You you see see what this verse
38:33 is saying. Most of us when we pray God
38:42 translation God help me. I cannot take it. Help me. Then you wait. God give me a sign. No sign coming. Follow me.
38:51 Either that we do like what my friend did. We just react. You know you got problem. Better quickly solve it. So there's two extremes. The the one is
38:58 found in James chapter 4 where he says come now you who say today tomorrow we shall go into such a town spend a year
39:05 there doing business and make a profit and then James hams them he says all
39:12 you're doing now is boasting and he tells them you know what he tells them basically to pray we find that because
39:18 it's connected to James chapter one chap James chapter one is about seeking wisdom so here's one part of us we react
39:26 you We we are very reactive people. Business is going bad. Wow. I need to get a loan. I need to downsize. I need
39:33 to do this. We we're now in a in a market business where you either you either do niche and the problem with
39:39 niche is how much niches can you get? How much blue ocean can you get? Or
39:45 either that you got to scale up. Some people say the day the smi is eclipsing.
39:50 You scale up you need a loan and then your monthly expenses you sweat. So a
39:55 lot of people are now at that line where you either niche or you scale up anything in between AI is going to take
40:02 over really. So we we in difficult. So I've seen a lot of people react you know
40:07 oh I got to do this for my business. I got to do this my job. But where's God in the picture? That's one. Huh? Here's
40:13 the opposite extreme. The other opposite extreme is you're looking for a sign from God.
40:20 One friend of mine uh recently quit his job. He quit his job. He and I he
40:25 couldn't tahan the boss and I he's been he been having this problem for few years already
40:31 and he is the sole bread winner. He quit the job without getting another job. Now
40:38 what was very worrying for me was he went to a church and there was a prophet and this prophet told him the Lord says
40:45 to you I will enlarge your territory. You just need to be steadfast and I have
40:50 great plans for you. Hallelujah. Now, I'm not here to demean prophets.
40:56 But when a person is not in his right state of mind, guess what a prophet prophecy like that does? You're
41:02 basically affirming his decision. You're telling him you you don't have a job.
41:07 No, the prophecy tells me it's within God's will. Ah, someone tell you that
41:13 the moment someone tell you God told me so already. Now, what's great about this
41:20 prayer is that there are two things happening. They pray and then they act. You notice that there is nothing in the
41:27 text that says they prayed and they waited for a sign. They prayed then they
41:32 use their common sense. Hello. You and I are designed to think and to
41:39 make decisions. Here's one verse which in my view has been completely
41:45 misunderstood. You see most people read this verse as this. Be still. It's almost like a
41:51 Buddhist way of reading it. Then sit down there. Go. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Be still.
42:00 Oh, very tired. God, speak to me. God says, "Anel, you should quit being an
42:06 elder." Is that what the verse is saying? That's how people read the verse. They read the
42:13 verse as a meditation verse. Is not it? No, because the next line it says the
42:19 heathen nations will know. The purpose of being still is so that the nations
42:25 know I'm God. It isn't a meditation verse. Is the mediation verse. This is
42:30 the end of Psalm 46. The psalmist is saying when the mountains shake and the
42:37 oceans roar, you are tempted to take things into your own hands. That's the
42:44 context. The Hebrew word for still is rafa meaning let go trust in me.
42:53 Is that not right? When you go through difficult times in your work, who is
42:59 God? Very often you are God. And Psalm 46 is telling you in times of
43:07 trouble, do not call on to Egypt. Do not call on to Babylon. Do not call on to
43:14 Syria. Call on to me, labor for me, and I will fight for you. You see, not all
43:22 opposition is due to external evil forces. My friend who couldn't get on the bus, I
43:29 wanted to tell him, have you ever considered is actually part of your personality problem?
43:36 Because I known him, he he the way he say things to people, you know, in Canton,
43:42 he really offend people. But because of our sinful nature, we like to make every opposition people's
43:49 problem and not mine. Why? Because sin is such that I don't want to change. I want you to change. Now, what's great
43:56 about this prayer is they pray and then they act. So there's a tension between
44:01 seeking God's will and our responsibility in decision making. Nehemiah chose to excel in his work. He
44:09 rose in the ranks of king's service. He chose he could choose not to. You know, in
44:14 God's timing, he was a position to choose to build a wall. He could choose not to. There's nothing in chapter one
44:20 that says God spoke to him, Nehemiah, thou shalt build the wall. None of that. He didn't go around asking for signs,
44:26 you know, let me pray and look for visions. None of it. The Israelites prayed to God for deliverance from the
44:32 enemies. Then they chose, they could have chosen to stop building the wall. They could have chosen to send
44:39 a peace treaty to Salbalad and negotiate terms. They could have chosen to go back to King Artuses to ask for soldiers. But
44:47 they chose a defensive strategy. Now, you you got to be very careful of this. Let me let me put it to in business
44:53 terms. They're building a wall at full speed. You know, you know what they did? They cut their workforce by half. In
45:00 business terms is saying your production went down by 50%. You think that's a minor decision?
45:07 That's a shareholding decision. They decide, all right, we're going to cut by 50%, the other 50% they're going
45:16 to be our soldiers. And then they make another drastic decision. The 50% that works, one hand
45:22 you're going to hold a travel, the other hand you're going to hold a sword. So technically your production went down by
45:27 75%. You don't think there's a decision that was made lightly?
45:33 That's a strategic decision. Did they do it by saying, "God, give me a sign. Give me a sign."
45:39 They thought it through. Now, this is where I think is very relevant to us.
45:47 Let me pose you a few questions. Number one, if you quit your job, where was God's
45:55 will in it? Here's the question. Number two, quit
46:01 serving your ministry. They want more. that more easier. Simple example, you come to FBC, you
46:08 serve in the ministry just like building a wall, all doing very well. Hallelujah.
46:13 Then suddenly someone come tell you, ah yeah, you do things like that. So stupid
46:19 one. Nobody do it like that. Wow.
46:25 So what do you do after that? Correct. you go and do
46:32 I quit. Now have you asked yourself was it God's
46:38 will for you to do it? Now we all humility that's the most common answer
46:44 we get with people you know how come you stop doing it oh yeah that person said this to me I don't do anymore already
46:50 the elder got someone to do he as he go do everything
46:56 you follow me but there is where this tension is quit working with certain people in church I cannot honor Anna
47:02 talk so much yes admittedly he doesn't listen well he just talk and
47:08 talk all the time Yes, I admit it. Trying to change. He bulldo over you.
47:13 Very pushy. Yes, I confess my sins, brother. But maybe it's because of that you
47:20 better work with me because God's trying to train you. I will tell you there's
47:26 truth. There are certain people in the church, let me be very honest, I rather not work with now. Please, you're
47:31 sitting there. I'm not referring to you. But I tell myself I need to for my sake
47:37 and your sake and for the sake of the gospel. So there are people whom I you know what I don't want to invite them
47:43 for meetings. I don't want to WhatsApp them and tell them but Lord for the sake of the ministry for the sake of my pride
47:49 I will do it. That's why this this this chapter is so great. You know it's not about people who don't get out working
47:56 together. It's people who understand what God's will is. You see this what God's will is. God's will is
48:01 understanding obedience in scripture. That's the moral will. And then within
48:07 that, you have a right to make decisions. I think Pari put it best. You
48:12 choose what is better. But what a lot of us want is to find a
48:17 divine answer. Have you asked that when you bought shares or not? Do you ask that when you bought your property?
48:24 Lord, should I buy a house at USJ5? Show me a sign. You didn't, right? Look at
48:30 it. Bye. But you come to work. God, give me a
48:35 sign. Give me a sign. It's very selective, isn't it? It doesn't make sense.
48:41 Quit trying so hard at work. Yeah. My boss like that, like that. I don't want to work anymore. Is that what
48:47 God you want? And here's here's my favorite.
48:54 Seriously. Hey, how come he never seen NBC anymore? Oh, he got offended by
48:59 Peter. Now don't use my name. I use Peter's name for a change. Peter offended me. I quit the church. Then you
49:06 have to go and sit down a person have dinner with you and why? And then they give you two hour. You people, you as an
49:13 elder, you okay? Yeah, we Yes. Confess I'm wrong.
49:19 But do you need to leave the church? Yes. Is the Lord's will. Really?
49:25 Seriously? So how do you make your decision-m process?
49:31 Let me let me give you a a simple guide there. What the text is saying there the
49:36 two ways of knowing whether your decision making is within God's will. Number one number one it's not about you
49:45 because normally when we make these decisions is about us. I got hurt so I
49:50 quit. You never pay attention to me so I quit. You never appreciate me, so I quit. I
49:57 didn't get paid enough, so I quit. You're a lousy boss, so I quit. What's the common denominator?
50:04 You follow me? But what if God wants you there as a witness? What if God wants
50:09 you in ministry? So the ministry grows. So the first obvious sign is when it's
50:17 about me. The second is when we go back again to chapter three. When you don't
50:23 have a kingdom mindset, you think Joshua Joseph loved to be in
50:30 prison, but when he prison, he became a star prisoner. He organized the prisoner
50:36 prisons. Some of us for seasons of life, we are put in places where you will
50:42 suffer. No, but remember the cross. The cross is Jesus despised the shame, but
50:49 he endured it for us. So let me challenge you before you consider quitting. Now I'm not saying you should
50:55 quit but ask yourself is it God's will let me quickly end by looking godly
51:00 strategies during opposition and they are at least here four. Number one we all don't pray about God
51:08 problem we pray very often. Correct. That's human nature. So of course I got
51:14 opposition to my work. I pray ma the issue isn't you praying. You know the
51:20 issue is how you pray. Get it? We all pray. It's not whether you pray, it's how you pray. Look at
51:26 their prayer. Hear us, oh God. We are despised. Turn their insults back on
51:32 their heads. Give them over as plunder land of captivity. Do not cover up their
51:38 guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders. Wow, that sounds very strong. Let me just give a
51:45 caution. He's not asking you, "Hear me, oh God. My CEO is really bad person.
51:52 Curse him, oh Lord. I put a curse on him. Turn him over to captivity. Do not
51:57 cover his guilt and make sure he goes to jail." That is not what the verse is saying. Huh? The Bible is not asking you
52:03 to put a pukau or put a curse on him. They call this this is this is certain
52:09 kind of prayer that found in the Psalms. Essentially, there are two things you
52:14 pick it up. First is a prayer for justice. Number two, if you look carefully,
52:22 Nehemiah is framing the verse in such a way that he's saying, "You're not insulting us. You're insulting God."
52:29 Because it is God's covenant. The Israelites come back. The Israelites are
52:34 in God's will to build a wall. So if you despise the building a wall, you are
52:40 mocking God. Now, where are we going with this? Very simple. When you got a
52:46 problem at work because your pay is bad, your boss is bad, your environment is bad, and you got an obstacle going
52:53 through, our default mode is this. God, remove the obstacle. Get me a better
52:59 pay. Get me a better boss. Correct? What this prayer tells us is those kind of
53:06 prayers are again centered on self. A prayer like this is centered on God and
53:13 a certain character of God. You know the God of justice.
53:18 So next time you are saying I'm getting paid bad know I deserve higher. Lord
53:25 pray that you double my pay. The Lord is telling you that's a bad
53:30 prayer. The Lord is saying am I being prayed right in this economy?
53:36 especially if my boss is not doing that well. Oh, I love that kind of prayers because I'm the boss of one company. But
53:43 that's besides the point. The point is to center it not on yourself.
53:49 You see, I think Sam was very spot on. We need kingdom-minded
53:55 large prayers not centered on our needs and what we wants but prayers that
54:02 center about the name of God not being offended. Two, the work must go on. So
54:11 we rebuilt the wall. What happens after the prayer? Nothing happens. God didn't remove any of it. They rebuilt the wall
54:17 until it reached height for people with all their hearts. And then trouble comes
54:22 and then verse 10 the people Judah says they can't do it. Now why I love this
54:27 because you know the phrase one step forward two steps back that's Christian
54:33 life. Have you ever had that you you you feel you're making progress then you you go
54:38 back I'm feel I'm doing something going back and what the verse is trying to tell you don't be don't be discouraged.
54:44 That's Christian life and we are to persevere. You ought to persevere fixing
54:50 your your eyes on the cross and that he will finish the work for you. That Jesus
54:56 was victorious and the work must go on. Now the problem is when work becomes
55:02 very bad. What we don't realize that it shapes your emotions. You learn to become bitter.
55:08 You learn to become cynical. And you learn to become I don't know the English word in Malay we call it tida apa
55:15 attitude. And then there's a transference of that attitude to church and family
55:21 because your work is so bad and you become cynical. You come to church people do anything also a very stupid oh
55:28 want to do what restructure waste time cannot change one because you're so
55:34 bitter. Ah yeah these elders all so don't get on one or three of those who cannot agree anything one you follow me
55:40 that's a transference you know you don't pick it up but other people pick it up.
55:46 So what the this second thing is teaching us is strategies is that you
55:51 must plow on fix your eyes on the cross and plow on. Now how do we do that? Thirdly you need a strategy and I think
55:59 this is fantastic strategy. Let me tell you what it does that there are three stages to it. The first you
56:06 find that in the verse I station people behind the lowest points of the wall posting them families. So the first
56:13 thing he does that he starts off small. He he takes some of his investment and
56:18 he puts it into basically this is risk management. You know it's basically right going deploy some people to God.
56:25 After that not enough after that he ups it. You know from that day on half of
56:31 man did the work half or equip his spears he went halfway. Wow that's even
56:36 more. He ups it now. I told you productivity drops by half. And then lastly, he multitask. He multitask. We
56:45 continue to work with half the people holding spears and the other half were working. So that's a psychological
56:51 thing. Now I'm working one hand with a travel, one hand with a sword.
56:58 Now, have you noticed you could do a management plan with this?
57:03 You could take out everything about Christianity here and teach a business plan with this.
57:10 Now why am I telling you this? Because sometimes as Christians we tend to think the Bible teaches us about morality you
57:16 know about being good being this and that. The moment we say you know the
57:21 Bible teaches us about good management practice we say oh no no no it cannot that's not biblical. This is a classic
57:27 text that tells you God is a management God and we should be people who learn to
57:34 think strategically. And here's I think what a lot of us don't do. We think reactively.
57:42 We do not think strategically. I like to suggest disciples of Jesus Christ should
57:48 all think strategically. We should learn to apply wisdom. Learn to have a plan in
57:53 everything we do and get people to help us out in this. Here's the last one, and I'm going to end with this. God fights
58:01 for us when we fight together. And I love this verse. Then I say to the
58:06 nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, the work is extensive and spread out. We are widely separated from
58:12 each other along the wall. Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us
58:18 there. Our God will fight for us. There are two things. One, the need to
58:24 remember. When you hear the trumpet, you remember. And then join us. Join us. That means
58:32 they fight together. And we are now going back to chapter three. So let me
58:38 just close with this. What again is the single most repeated word in chapter 3
58:45 next. So here's my here's what I want to end with this and why we brought Dr. Lim
58:51 here today. If you are struggling with your work, you're not happy in your
58:57 vocation. You think you're getting nowhere, can I plead to you not to just keep it
59:03 to yourself? We ask people to come here today so that you can talk to them.
59:09 If you're struggling with corruption, struggling with anything,
59:15 today is just one small step we want to ask you to do. Talk about it. Why?
59:21 because we are next to you. It's my job to uphold you as your job to uphold the
59:27 next person. That's how chapter three meets chapter four. And I want to now enlarge
59:35 this whole discussion beyond our vocation with a closing remark. We know
59:41 that's the most repeated work next. So we stand with someone who's struggling in his job and that person stands with
59:48 someone else. But let me give you the larger picture of chapter 3 and four.
59:54 Who is the person we should stand next to the most? Is the person who suffered
59:59 like this? It's one thing to stand next to someone who's struggling with work, but it's
60:06 more critical that you and I stand with people who do this. And we just mentioned this
60:14 is Christ or those who follow Christ.
60:20 So let me just close by telling you your work problems are nothing compared to
60:26 the problems some other people face. And I was looking at this message I
60:33 asking myself we don't need to go to Iran or Iraq or Pakistan.
60:39 Look at your country and look at those in this country who will mock upon
60:45 who had false accusations brought on them and when they were not enough
60:51 plots to assassinate them and then people betrayed them and I
60:58 think of this person and I think of her.
61:04 You know I I I I never knew Susanna and I I don't claim to know her very well. She's very kind. yesterday she sent me a
61:10 message says I'm praying for you but got to know her better and I was I was privileged enough to be with Pearly and
61:15 some of us at a dinner last week you know Susanna is not a speaker she can't speak for anything
61:22 if if if Raymond was drawn look at her I'll probably say this one look like housewife
61:27 but God transformed a housewife to a warrior now I'm going to say this now in
61:34 ending in on my own capacity I'm not going to drag the church in this my own capacity.
61:41 When people do God's work, there's opposition. And then they will mock you. They will
61:48 accuse you. And when there's not enough, you will disappear off the face of the earth.
61:56 And why do they do that? They do that to intimidate the church. So when a housewife gets up and says,
62:04 "We are not taking this You find back my husband or I'm going to
62:12 make your life hell. My question to you,
62:18 where does the church stand? And Nemiah tells us this.
62:23 Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight
62:31 for your families, spiritual families, your sons, your daughters, your wives,
62:39 your homes. Let us pray. And I like the worship team to come up. Lord God,
62:48 while we have opposition at work, we just want to remember those who genuinely have been persecuted.
62:56 And remember, it is our job to stand next to them and fight for their
63:04 families, their sons, their daughters. For the church will not be intimidated.
63:12 In the same way, the Israelites were not intimidated when enemies try to stop
63:18 building the walls. So, we too must not be intimidated when building the church.
63:25 And with that in mind, oh Lord, with that kind of courage from the spirit,
63:30 we bring that same attitude to the marketplace and we will not be intimidated. We are
63:37 victorious because Christ is victorious. And yes, some of us face corruption.
63:42 Yes, some of us are in a toxic work environment. Yes, some of us have office
63:48 politics, but we set our eyes on Christ for who for our sake loved us and endured the
63:55 cross despising his shame. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. We're going to
64:02 close with this song. I know.
