WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.580 It was April 110 years ago, 1912. The Titanic, the great ship that was built with the promise 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:24.539 that could never sink, sank. There's an image about that that I want to share with you, 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:31.399 and it's an image that has to do with the cause, the way in which it sunk. I've got a little visual 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:36.439 aid I'm going to hold up here. It's an ice cube tray. I think I can guess what you might think 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:41.280 the link may be, but I'm guessing that it's probably not what the link is you think it might be, 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:49.439 but we'll come back to that in a moment. We're thinking about faith in the workplace, God's 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:58.219 presence in the workplace, and I just want to give you a few figures to think about. These 00:00:58.219 --> 00:01:08.019 are broad brush figures, okay, but I want you to imagine that you work nine till five, Monday 00:01:08.019 --> 00:01:15.659 to Friday, like a standard sort of set pattern, and that you do that with 28 days holiday a 00:01:15.659 --> 00:01:25.099 year, so that's 48 weeks of that. I want you to imagine that you do that for 45 years. 00:01:26.039 --> 00:01:29.700 Now, I realise that there could be all sorts of different variables thrown into the mix 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:34.340 there, but for the sake of trying to get some broad brush figures together, imagine that's 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:42.340 what you do, nine till five, 48 weeks a year times 45 years. And imagine that you live to 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:50.400 what is currently the average age expectancy within the UK, which is around 81 years. I 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:54.600 say around, it's point something. And again, there's all sorts of variables that can be thrown 00:01:54.600 --> 00:02:04.540 into that one. If you were to do that, then you would spend about 10% of your life on earth 00:02:04.540 --> 00:02:17.319 working. How might that compare with the amount of time that we spend gathered in church? Well, 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:22.000 again, I'll give you some broad brush things, but imagine that you come to church every Sunday 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:29.680 and that you spend about an hour and a half here. And imagine that you do the same thing 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:34.640 at some kind of midweek activity, whether that's a home group or something else, again, about an hour 00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:42.000 and a half. And imagine that you were to do that every single week without exception, no sickness, 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:48.280 no exceptions for if you happen to be away or whatever, but you would do that for every single 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:55.100 week, hour and a half on the Sunday, an hour and a half midweek, every single week for those same 45 00:02:55.099 --> 00:03:05.939 years of your working life. Again, broad brush figures, but that would equate to approximately 00:03:05.939 --> 00:03:14.039 1% of your life. The point I'm trying to drive to here is that when we make the comparison, 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:18.819 and we spend a lot of time talking about church and how we do church and how our faith connects 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:25.519 with church. But if we are just talking in terms of life units, the comparison of the amount of time 00:03:25.519 --> 00:03:33.419 that we spend gathering together as Christians on Sunday and midweek to do church together, 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:39.159 and we compare that with the time that the average person is likely to spend in a work environment, 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:47.099 we basically spend about 10 times more of our lives in the workplace than we do doing church together. 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:55.919 So when we think about it in those terms, it's quite clear that the workplace really, 00:03:56.099 --> 00:04:05.639 really does matter. That it's where our Christian discipleship hits the road. That's where we have 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:14.280 to work it out. You may have heard this kind of analogy, but some people have said that perhaps 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:20.259 we need to think of church, the experience when we gather as church, as almost a bit like half time 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:28.139 in a sports match for a team talk. We go over the first half of the game, we assess the mistakes we've made, 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:32.879 we own those mistakes, and yeah, okay, I could have done that better. Yeah, there's a weak point there. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:38.819 But we also look ahead at the second half, and we frame strategy and think, how can we do better? 00:04:38.819 --> 00:04:49.040 We're going to win this. Well, the point is, is that, you know, whether we are working, 00:04:50.099 --> 00:04:58.579 or whether we're retired, or whether we're raising children, or full-time caring for a loved one, 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:04.800 whether we're between jobs, or whether we're in training, or whether perhaps we're prevented 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:12.639 from working because of illness, Christian faith is about whole-of-life discipleship. 00:05:13.840 --> 00:05:20.000 Yes, it's important for when we come together, and we worship together, and we learn about 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:28.780 what the Bible has to say to us. But discipleship is worked out throughout our whole lives. 00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:36.819 Yes. That's where the rubber hits the road. That's where we think it through. Our faith 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:41.219 is not so much about where are we and what are we doing at half past ten on a Sunday morning, 00:05:41.359 --> 00:05:48.000 but where are we and what are we doing at half past ten on a Monday morning. Wherever you are, 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:53.899 whether you're in a work environment, or one of those other things, or something I haven't 00:05:53.899 --> 00:06:02.319 mentioned, but, you know, wherever you are, be assured of this one fundamental truth. 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:13.299 It may not always feel like it, but God's there. He's present. And the challenge facing 00:06:13.299 --> 00:06:21.299 us is how we discern that presence in that environment. Now, today we're thinking specifically 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:28.420 about working environments. It's a huge tragedy when often we might come across that phrase where 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:38.480 someone may say, well, you know, I work to live. I don't live to work. When that's said, obviously, 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:47.300 it's a comment on perhaps getting priorities right. But there's a certain tragedy, I think, 00:06:47.300 --> 00:06:53.660 reflected or echoed within that statement, because it suggests how work can become just something that's 00:06:53.660 --> 00:06:58.439 a means to an end. Something that we've just got to get through because we just need to make income. 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:05.259 We've got to live. We've got to, which is true, but if that's the only way that we look at our work, 00:07:06.180 --> 00:07:12.660 perhaps we need to ask some questions. A few weeks ago, I think I shared an image here on a Sunday 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:17.340 morning where I was thinking about God's presence and how sometimes in our lives we may have this 00:07:17.340 --> 00:07:23.520 sense that we just wish we could press the fast forward button, and we can't. And sadly, perhaps 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:28.580 very often, work can feel like that, that we just want to press that fast forward button, just want 00:07:28.580 --> 00:07:37.080 to get it over with. There was a business in Detroit where in an office there was a notice on the 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:43.680 bulletin board and it said this, the management regrets that it has come to their attention that 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:52.339 workers dying on the job are failing to fall down. This practice must stop as it becomes impossible to 00:07:52.339 --> 00:07:59.699 distinguish between death and the natural movement of the staff. Any employee found dead in an upright 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:11.300 position will be dropped from the play roll forthwith. It may not be present, obvious to us, but God is 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:16.899 present in that work environment, even if it may be something that at times we must just dread. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:22.240 No matter how mundane, and this applies to whatever we're talking about in life, whether it's about our 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:27.519 workplace, whether it's about home life, whether it's about anything, anything at all in our lives, 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:33.100 it's in those mundane places that the challenge to each of us is to discern what it means to work 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:41.399 out our discipleship, because God is present there. And Galatians 5, and that passage that 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:47.159 Tina read to us just a moment ago, is not addressing specifically the workplace environment, but it is 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:54.100 addressing our whole of life experience, where Paul says that, you know, we must walk by the Spirit, 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:58.399 we must keep in step with the Spirit. In other words, he's saying that wherever you are, whether 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:04.680 that's the workplace or somewhere else, the Holy Spirit is there. Our challenge is to discern that 00:09:04.680 --> 00:09:13.820 presence and to work alongside, in step with the movement of the Spirit, to discern the presence of 00:09:13.820 --> 00:09:21.600 the Spirit and to keep in step with that presence. And this isn't just an abstract set of ideas. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:26.920 Paul paints this out quite explicitly when he talks about the fruit of the Spirit, where he gives a 00:09:26.920 --> 00:09:31.300 vision of what this looks like. Surely this is a challenge to every single human being on the 00:09:31.300 --> 00:09:36.720 planet. It's not abstract. This is what discipleship looks like. He says it's love, it's joy, peace, 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:44.560 patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So coming back to those figures 00:09:44.560 --> 00:09:50.240 earlier on, 1% in church, 10% in the workplace, what does that look like for each of us? 00:09:51.600 --> 00:10:03.379 Well, let me come back to the ice cube tray and the Titanic. Now, I'm guessing that you might be 00:10:03.379 --> 00:10:10.139 thinking that the connection there is that the sinking of the Titanic involved a chunk of ice. 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:16.779 It did. But that's not really what this image is about. It's what happened next. Because the Titanic 00:10:16.779 --> 00:10:23.480 was built, in order to withstand sinking, it was built with, in the hull, there were 16 separate 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:30.980 compartments. And the idea was that if the ship was damaged and water started coming to the hull, 00:10:31.379 --> 00:10:37.079 then if one of those compartments was to flood with water, it would be fine because there were still 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:46.280 the other 15. And what happened when the Titanic sank is that one compartment filled with water. 00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:55.440 And then another did. So there were two. And then three. And then four. And the boat was designed that, 00:10:55.540 --> 00:11:01.160 in fact, three or four of those compartments could actually be filled and the boat could still stay afloat. 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:12.120 Except that's not what happened. Six compartments were flooded. And if you imagine this little tray here, 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:18.879 if you were to pour water into one compartment, it would stay in that one compartment. But sooner or later, 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:25.980 it would just overflow into the next one. And then the next. And then the next. And that's actually 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:33.800 kind of what happened with the hull of the Titanic. Until eventually those six compartments were flooded. 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:35.960 And down it went. 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:45.200 When it comes to our lives, probably most of the time we do this subconsciously, but we compartmentalise things. 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:52.180 We might be, even perhaps without noticing, we kind of come into one environment, perhaps such as this, 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:55.320 which may be a very prayerful environment, a very spiritual environment. 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:58.440 But it becomes a compartment. 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:06.519 And then we find ourselves at 10, 30, 11, whatever it is, on a Monday morning, and we're somewhere else. 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:08.420 That may be a workplace environment, it might be something else. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.720 But whatever it is, it becomes another compartment. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:21.019 And the challenge for each and every one of us is to stop compartmentalising our lives. 00:12:21.019 --> 00:12:28.240 And to understand that whatever, wherever we are, God is there. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:37.779 And the challenge that we each face is how do we discern the presence of God in each of those compartments, 00:12:38.779 --> 00:12:45.620 the presence of the Holy Spirit, that in those compartments where it is far more difficult and challenging 00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:51.560 to walk by the Spirit and to keep in step with the Spirit. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.220 That's a challenge. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:58.460 And it's a challenge to each and every one of us. 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:03.620 But I want to share just one more image with you. 00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:11.300 Because I'm guessing that as we think about the theme of work and the work environment, 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:18.280 that I dare say it's inevitable that some of you listening to this will be thinking, 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.939 I'm just dreading going to work this week. 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:23.879 I don't know what lies ahead. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:28.059 Or maybe it's a longer term view of things and the sense of the unknown. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:32.120 And just longing to know that somehow God is in it. 00:13:33.959 --> 00:13:35.839 But I want to finish with just sharing you a story. 00:13:36.079 --> 00:13:38.500 It's one you may have heard me share before, but I think it's relevant. 00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:43.879 And it took place during the Second World War, during one of the bombings. 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:50.360 A building was on fire and there was a young boy on the first floor. 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:52.200 The building was burning. 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:53.039 He couldn't get out. 00:13:53.439 --> 00:13:55.820 The only way he could get out was to jump out of the window. 00:13:56.700 --> 00:14:03.700 Because he looked out, it was a dark night and the smoke was so dense that he couldn't see anything. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:10.480 And as he coughed and spluttered, he heard the voice of his father shout out from the ground. 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:12.639 And he said, just jump. 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.360 The boy shouted out, yeah, but I don't want to jump. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:17.259 It's a long way. 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:18.159 I'm terrified. 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:23.639 The father shouted back, I will catch you. 00:14:25.299 --> 00:14:29.200 The boy shouted out, but I can't see you. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:31.919 And the father replied, no. 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:36.019 But I can see you. 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:40.340 And that's all that matters. 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:40.379 That's all that matters. 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:44.379 Let's pray. 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:44.419 Let's pray. 00:14:56.200 --> 00:15:00.419 Lord, as we think about our whole lives, 00:15:01.419 --> 00:15:07.960 help us to discern your presence. 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:24.540 Lord, help us to remember that though we cannot always see you, 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:27.740 you can see us. 00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:36.360 Lord, help us not to compartmentalise our lives. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.159 Help us not to make a spiritual and secular divide. 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:49.899 Help us to understand that you are present everywhere and in everything in our lives. 00:15:49.899 --> 00:16:03.779 Lord, we pray for the places where we work. 00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:11.919 And in the stillness of this moment, let's just hold in our prayers. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:21.159 For those who are working, hold before God in prayer right now an image of your workplace. 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:25.759 Where you're likely to be tomorrow morning. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:40.399 If you're retired, hold in your prayers those spaces where you used to work. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:52.079 If you're between jobs right now or training for something, just hold in prayer now the way ahead. 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:55.279 Asking for guidance and clarity. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:03.480 And maybe if your work right now is caring, whether that be for children or for another loved one, 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.359 just hold that situation in prayer right now. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:12.359 So let's take a few moments as we just hold these images before God. 00:17:27.719 --> 00:17:30.559 Thank you, Lord, that you go before us. 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:35.839 As we face whatever lies ahead. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:42.359 Help us to know that wherever we are on a Monday morning, 00:17:43.299 --> 00:17:44.479 you are with us. 00:17:45.159 --> 00:17:46.839 Just as you always have been. 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:48.699 And always will be. 00:17:50.179 --> 00:17:51.339 In Jesus' name. 00:17:52.659 --> 00:17:53.039 Amen.