4/9/25 - 2089: Thy Kingdom Come... to the Office!

Jim: Welcome to a special edition of iWork4Him, unleashed, untethered, some time with my friend Robert Fukui. He happened to be flying through on his car through Marionville, Missouri. We spent the last couple of days together, Martha and I, and Robert's wife, Kay Lee, and we decided just to jump into the podcast studio and have a conversation today. So it's a little bit different format than a typical iWork4Him show, but that's okay.

We don't need to keep doing things the way we've always done them. That's the epitome of stupidity, right? We just keep doing the things and expect a different result. Robert, one of the things that I think a lot of our listeners, people that are following Jesus that are workplace believers, they don't really understand the kingdom.

Robert Fukui: Jesus talked way more about the kingdom than he did about the church. So let's have a conversation today about the Kingdom because I think everybody listening today needs to understand their part in the kingdom, the significance of their role within culture that is kingdom minded. When you think of kingdom, what comes to mind?

We've all read fairytales, right? And so the [00:01:00] kingdom is, you have the king, the queen, but everything in it, people and commerce and everything in it technically would be owned by the king, but how the kingdom will operate and how it'll flourish is still dependent on the people within it, right?

Robert Fukui: You think of the, you think of kings obviously as a more of an autocratic type of rule. But the reality, but still, if you just think about the principle, the concept is that still the health of the kingdom is still in the very end, is determined by your part in it. How productive are you in it as citizens?

Jim: One of the things that - so if we're in the kingdom, what role do we play? And as believers in Christ, as followers of Jesus, we've been rescued by Almighty Heavenly Father. And we are adopted into the family. So we are actually, we're not servants of the king, we're not slaves of the king. We're sons and daughters of the king. We serve at the pleasure of the king. [00:02:00] That's the servanthood part. But no different than - you mentioned the fairytales. All this stuff that we, everybody loves to watch it, great. Fairytale with castles and things like that, but we serve at the behest of the king. At the pleasure of the king.

How do we interpret that though? Because we don't, none of us here in the states, we don't live in a kingdom. And really, there's not very many people live in a kingdom. And it's certainly not very many autocratic kings on the planet, very much. Most of them are dictatorial, theocratic, and not very pleasant places to be. How do we help our audience to understand the role of the kingdom? So if we're sons and daughters, it means we're princes and princesses. We're not heirs to the throne. That's Jesus's job. But our brother, Jesus, our adopted brother, Jesus, he gets the throne. He's taken the throne already. How do we help people understand this?

Robert Fukui: Speaking of the son, or our adopted brother, I mean he left us the message of what is our role in the kingdom and the Great commission, and that was to go out, spread the [00:03:00] gospel and disciple all nations. And whenever the great commission is talked about, especially in the pulpit, the emphasis is on the preaching the gospel. And I think that's where the disconnect becomes, or maybe not disconnect, but almost like the, I'm not worthy to do that part because I am in the marketplace.

And so preaching the gospel, that's up to the pastors and the ministers. But it wasn't just preaching gospel, it was actually also discipling all nations. And discipling is something that we all can do in the way we are wired, in the way God wired us. And so discipling comes down in the simplistic form, is mentoring or just doing life with somebody and showing them the ways of God.

Jim: Discipling is like what Jesus did. A lot of people think Jesus talked about platitudes and all this really cool stuff every day, and you just, they memorize it. No. They lived life together. Jesus taught the 12 disciples and the other dozens that followed, he taught them how to live life. What's interesting, and I heard this in the last six months, never thought about it before, [00:04:00] we never think of God as Father. We never hear of God as Father anywhere in the Old Testament. That the first time we hear God being referenced as Father is because of Jesus.

He's reintroducing us to what Adam and Eve experienced in the garden and that relationship changes everything when we look at it in the perspective of, okay, we've got our Father. So Jesus was discipling, but it was teaching all of his disciples, demonstrating here's how we live life with our Father.

Yeah, but how does that affect me as an accountant or as a used car sales guy? Because I've been a used car sales guy. I've sold insurance. And now I'm a commercial redeveloper, I'm rehabbing 150 year old buildings. How does that apply to me? And then I wanna talk about you.

Robert Fukui: You hit a key word just a little earlier, was relationships. And number one, you know what's the most important? Our relationship with our heavenly Father. And the deeper our relationship is with him, we then start to really live out that [00:05:00] DNA of who we are as made as an image in Christ.

And so the more we get to have relationship with the Father, then we can have better relationships with our customer, our clients, our neighbors, and all that. And we get to demonstrate who God is, just through how we live and how we relate to people. And so relationship is the big thing, is the big key to how do we disciple people, is by developing relationships.

And so no matter where we go - whether it's at work or in business or at home or in a ministry, at church - we have an opportunity to really develop relationships and we don't wanna take those things for granted and those opportunities for granted that we get to, even in the smallest way, we don't realize that people are also watching. We don't, we can't, the disciples didn't just get discipled just by hearing Jesus teach. It was through his words and actions, and people are watching us all the time, whether we realize it or not. And based on just even our [00:06:00] actions and how we deal with people, how we, handle a customer issue.

If we didn't, maybe the customer wasn't happy, how we handle that, how we interact with our employees, and of course how we interact at home. And it's amazing, how much people will observe when you don't even realize it. You don't think people can realize how healthy your marriage is, even if they're not at home with you all the time, or how you are as a business owner or a manager and all that.

I remember, this was in pharmaceuticals, I remember I was going through a period where I was even, I was like, am I supposed to be here for the rest of my career or am I supposed to do something else? And I just, really long story short, felt I was supposed to start a business and I didn't know what it was at the time, but I started to have short timers disease where I basically started coasting. And I could do that job like in my sleep, basically. It was a sales job for pharmaceuticals.

Jim: You're a drug dealer. Professional drug dealer. (laughter)

Robert Fukui: My first job was with Coca-Cola, so I went from selling coke to selling drugs. (laughter)

Jim: It is to be noted for those of the kingdom that [00:07:00] Coca-Cola did start off with cocaine inside. That's where they got the name.

Robert Fukui: But not anymore.

Jim: Not anymore. Now they put other drugs in there: high fructose corn syrup which is actually just as addictive as cocaine, but it's somehow more acceptable to society 'cause it comes from a plant. (laughing)

Robert Fukui: Yeah. So I was just coasting along and then I came to this scripture about, and we've all heard this a dozen times or more of "do your work unto the Lord, not unto man." Colossians 3 23. And I've heard this and I've read it a number of times, but for whatever reason, I guess probably that season in my life where it just struck me and I felt convicted because I knew, obviously it spoke to me 'cause I knew I was coasting at work.

And so I said, oh, even though I have a next step in my career journey, but the fact of the matter is I'm still employed by somebody and I owe it to them and also to God, because ultimately he's looking down on me and he's basically looking, are you just camping it in or what? And the minute I repented to God and I said, okay, as long as I'm here, I'm [00:08:00] all in. And I literally kid you not, within two weeks I got all these promotional opportunities and it was almost like they were just watching me and all of a sudden they saw my repentance and then, all of a sudden these things. So it's just amazing how, when you think people aren't watching just even your own attitude at work that, people are really out watching, observing.

Jim: Anybody that's had children knows that our kids are always watching and they're repeating our behaviors. Because when you go who on earth told you to say something like that? oh, you learned that from me. But you bring up a point, but I wanna be a little controversial with it.

Actually, just contrary to you, not even controversial because you say the kingdom's a lot about relationships, and I agree, Jesus was all about relationships. And he maximized relationships, but there are a lot of people that are listening that don't like to talk to people because they're just quiet people. They're shy. That's it.

Robert Fukui: Yeah. That's me.

Jim: Yeah, sure. (laughter) I get it. I know you're a lot quieter than I am and I appreciate that, but it's more [00:09:00] than relationship because it's also the work that we do. The way I summarize it, I got a statement that I've saidon iWork4Him for decades. How about for a decade? It's: As a Jesus follower, everything about us should be changing. That's that sanctification process, that's a purification process. That's just Jesus, the Holy Spirit work inside of us. So everything about us should be changing, and everyone around us should be benefiting from our faith, whether they believe in Jesus or not. That's the kingdom.

Because I believe that person working the manufacturing line that's doing excellent work in the manufacturing line is doing kingdom work. Because if they're doing things with excellence in what they do, they're blessing others' ability to flourish, whether those people believe in Jesus or not. 'cause it's not all about evangelism.

Robert Fukui: Absolutely.

Jim: And we don't always get to have a relationship with the people that are benefiting from our work. Like I sold used cars on the side for 15 years.

Robert Fukui: You're a used car salesman?

Jim: I was a used car. I know you're shocked now, aren't you?

 (laughing)

Jim: That fits just totally. Have I got a deal for you today? But it's only today. This car just got traded in by an old lady. [00:10:00] One owner. She drove it to church on Sundays. That's all she did. I know all the lines, but that's not, I sold cars with integrity, which is really hard to do in the used car business, but before we sold any cars, we fixed every car before we sold it 'cause I didn't want somebody to bring a car back to me that I'd feel bad. And we wanted to sell on a strict margin, but, that was my way of okay, I'm gonna be different than the used car industry.

'Cause used our car industry, if there's some of you out there that are doing it like we did it, that's fine. But most used car guys are a little on the unethical, slimy side - big profit margins, low quality, and then in Florida, buy here, pay here. So they buy a car for a thousand bucks. It should sell for 3000, but they sell it for five, but they finance it and they plan on repossessing it from you, and then selling it back to the auction again. It just was terrible.

But my idea was I wanna be a blessing to people, whether I get a chance to share my faith or not. I got a lot of opportunities to do it. But let's talk about that. All the different jobs in the world, there are so many. From government workers to teachers, to military [00:11:00] people, to people working in the manufacturing line, maybe janitors, maybe people cleaning ditches, maybe people digging ditches. How is that kingdom work?

Robert Fukui: Like I said, that Colossians scripture, you do your work unto the Lord because ultimately work is worship. And so there's a Hebrew term, word, adovah, which means work and worship. And so what we do is worship to the Lord, and the better we do it with excellence, obviously is pleasing to him, but also in turn, it also opens up opportunity.

And even as for an introvert like me, opens opportunity to talk about the kingdom and talk about God. Like I said, I know even my wife, Kay Lee, we're married almost 19 years now, and she still doesn't believe me that I'm an introvert at heart. And to speak about God, just to say it out loud or to actually be intentional about it, to be proactive about it, as opposed to being reactive, it just scares the dickens outta me. And talking about God, especially in a any kind of setting outside a church would frighten me a little bit, and I'm certainly not just gonna bring it up.

[00:12:00] But when you do work with excellence, and especially when they know you're Christian, like in conversation, it should come up, right? Like I go to church, I think people ask you like, what did you do this weekend? Part of it is going to church. And what I've learned is when people start to question your faith, that's like an open door to talk about God without you even like proactively saying it, but it's just through natural conversation, right?

Opportunities pop up and what I've learned is as soon as that they question it or they bring it up, then that means there's an open door. So I was sharing with you guys at dinner, you know how when I was in pharmaceuticals, especially bringing up faith in the corporate environment is an absolute no-no. I can't bring it up, but when somebody else brings up, whether it's in the office environment or a customer with a physician or whatever, once they bring it up, it's open season, right?

Jim: You can't bring it up, but it should ooze out of you.

Robert Fukui: Exactly. And so I had a physician, we'd go out for lunch every now and then. That's one of the ways I can get in front of the doctor, [00:13:00] take 'em out for lunch. And one time after lunch, we'd do the, you have lunch, talk a little business, have some small talk. And this one lunch, when we got towards the end of lunch, he just said, Robert, you're a smart guy - I'd probably been calling him for a few years now - but how can you believe in God? And this, this one totally came outta left field and I'm like, what? Like, where did this come from? I'm like, number one, he knows I'm a Christian. I never said, Hey doctor, I'm a Christian.

But like I said, probably through a series of conversations over the years that it just, obviously, I probably said something about it. And so we started getting these debates about evolution and creation and a number of times. By about three lunches, we're having these debates and at one time when I'm gonna go meet him for lunch, I'm just saying, Lord, okay, debating is not gonna do, this isn't working. So what do you want me to do with this? Because he's initiating this conversation so obviously he's open and he's a self proclaimed atheist too, by the way. But he always brings it up. I never initiate, he always brings it up.

And so I just heard the Lord saying, just [00:14:00] ask him what happened. And so I'm like, okay, lunch, true to form, have lunch, small talk, business. And then he brings up evolution and God, and all that stuff. And so I said, doctor, what caused you not to believe in God? And he said I was born in Iran. I was raised in Iran, and I had a dream one night. He had a dream one night that the revolution started and people were killed and dragged in the street. Two weeks later, he sees it unfold on tv and he's just like, why would God give a kid a dream like that? I'm like, I can't go out and warn anybody 'cause nobody's gonna believe me. I'm just a kid.

And I'm looking at him like, all I could do to control my laughter 'cause I'm like you had a prophetic dream? And we've had all these conversations of how science can't prove God and science can't prove this and that and all that stuff. And I said, science can't prove that you had a prophetic dream, right? But clearly you had it 'cause you saw it. You experienced it. And so I said, I don't know exactly why God [00:15:00] spoke to you other than I know God in general is always speaking and in this kind of particular case warning, and I notice kids are just more open to hearing from God, just because we don't have a lot of biases.

As we get older, we just there's a lot of biases coming into play. And so just blocks being able to listen from God. But kids were, you're innocent, right? You're pure at that moment and so you are just more receptive to hearing. And so I said, when you're ready, I said, just ask God to reveal himself and I know he will because obviously you can hear from him. And he got quiet and he just looked down and he's okay. And so didn't have the opportunity that, that day. And then I had quit the company shortly after that so I never knew what happened, but I just felt God...

Jim: he's on LinkedIn, find him on LinkedIn. Follow up with this guy!

Robert Fukui: No, we do, we do talk every once in a while.

Jim: did you ever get back with him on that conversation?

Robert Fukui: No. I, what I need to do is, since you prompted me, I will reach back out to him on LinkedIn. 'cause every now and then I say hi and whatever.

Jim: Hi, let's have dinner. Let's come on over to my house. Have some dinner. I had you over dinner at my house. Why can't you have this guy from [00:16:00] Iran over to your house?

Robert Fukui: I'll do that.

Jim: So what we really want you to get outta this conversation is that so many workplace believers think that their work is insignificant. They think they need to quit their job and go into ministry, so their work would really matter.

All of that's false theology. God has you right where he wants you on purpose, for a purpose. He's surrounded you with people who need to meet Jesus that are only gonna be introduced to Jesus because of you and your work. So next time you're thinking, yeah, my work just doesn't matter, oh, if you do with excellence, it does.

And there's a way to transform every workplace into a mission field, on our website iwork4him.com/jointhenation. You'll find what God showed me, and it's really just five easy, well easy, quote unquote, easy steps. If you're on YouTube, you'll see I just did some air quotes there.

But these five steps, it starts with praying for the people that you work with. We all [00:17:00] work around the same people every day. Some go in and out. Some might be customers, some might be vendors, some might be bosses, some might be employees, some might be just coworkers. But we work around the same people every day. You start praying for 'em by name.

When you pray for people by name, God starts to help you see those people the way he does. And then as you are in conversation with 'em you're paying attention to these people. You look for ways to befriend those people outside of work. Because that's where real relationships happen. 'cause you can have work friends. They don't really mean anything until you've invited them into your space.

At work, you can look for ways to serve them over and above what your job requires you to do. Because when you go over and above, it says something about you. If you stand behind somebody, one of your coworkers is struggling with a project to get it done on time, you stop what you're doing to help them get their stuff done on time, that says something.

You also notice the demeanor of these people on a regular basis. Hey, this is the way Robert is. He's pretty quiet, but he's usually fairly jovial. But he comes in one day, sourpuss face, he's cranky, and you're like, [00:18:00] Robert, what's going on? Are you okay? Now, people usually, when you, Robert, when somebody says are you okay? What do you, how do you usually respond?

Usually you'd say, I'm good. No. Or the other four letter word. I am fine. Oh yeah, fine. I'm fine. Women will always say that, and whenever, if you're married, if your wife ever says, she's fine, you run. But if somebody says you're fine, you pull out the Italian job. Did you ever watch the Italian job? You pull out the Italian job and you say, really? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional? How are you really doing? And then you shut up and you listen. Yeah. Because if you've noticed her demeanor's distinctly different than their normal demeanor, there's something going on and let them share.

Just shut up and let 'em share. This is somebody you've got a relationship with. And you know what they're like and so you shut up and you let them share and after they're done sharing, you say, wow, thanks so much for sharing that with me. Can I pray with you about that right now?

Never have I had anybody say no to me. Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, doesn't matter. They always say yes, because when [00:19:00] people are hurting, they believe in the power of prayer because they want something to matter. But none of that matters except for point 5, if you don't do point 5, which is you need to be the best, the brightest example, the hardest working person in your position. Everything about you needs to scream excellence.

Because if you're a mediocre worker, why would anybody wanna know about your faith? But if you're an excellent worker and you work hard, these five steps will instantaneously turn your work into a mission field and turn you into a kingdom worker.

Robert Fukui: Yeah. 'cause that, I think that's what turns a lot of people off Christianity 'cause of how they observe other, who they know as Christians, and they don't provide a great example at work or whatever. And you'll hear this, you're a hypocrite or whatever. There's, they just, you get turned off. And so we need to be the best example of who God is by how we work.

And then when we're excellent and when I was in sales, top sales performer and all that. People listen, right? They wanna know more. They wanna know, how do you do this? Like even, Jim, I lost my first wife 22 years ago in a car accident right before [00:20:00] Christmas. And people watched me, how I dealt with that, especially that first year, and had a number of people from executives and all that like, how are you doing this? And I was, I was suffering and I'd cry at home, at work I'm not crying, but, we have conversations sometimes and I talk about, what's going on.

But still, I was performing well and I was still doing with what people are saying, grace, but they would ask me how I'm doing and I said, I don't know about the grace of God. I can't tell you. All I know is I just remember, and I had opportunities to share this and people would respond, and the number of coworkers came to know the Lord just because of, just watching how I got through that

I was honest with them, right? 'cause you put on a good face at work and I said, look, it's not like I'm not crying at home and breaking down in the middle, on the freeways. And all of a sudden, tears start flowing out for no reason. But I also know that God's always got my back and he's gonna get me through. And it's not for the grace of [00:21:00] God. It gets me through and it just touches people. And not just doing excellence at work, but even how you navigate difficult periods of your life. People are watching and they wanna know. And when you're successful, you know, they wanna know how. And it always creates that opportunity.

And you don't have to be preachy about it. If you can tell by my how I've been talking, I'm not preachy, I'm just frank. This is just part of who I am. And just have it, just let it flow naturally. You don't have to have this script right? We just have to be natural about it.

Jim: It makes your faith relevant and compelling, when you live your faith out loud, even when you're struggling. It makes your faith relevant and compelling. 'cause that's what people are, the world is hungry for relevancy. Show me something that's real.

That's something that is super powerful. Robert, great conversation. Anything else on the Kingdom you wanna say before we close out today's show?

Robert Fukui: Even with the work we do now for our business, we help married business owners, what we say, is create greater work life balance. How do we win in business and marriage at the same time?

Jim: What do you help [00:22:00] them do?

Robert Fukui: Win in marriage and business at the same time. Have a better balance in the life, not just be all in on business and sacrifice your marriage and your family. And I've had a number of young, there's a young couple, early on, they're in Brooklyn, and a couple sessions in, they just said, really thank you for what you're doing. 'cause we don't have great examples of what marriage should look like. Even our own parents. 'cause both their parents are split.

The married couples around them, they say, we don't have great examples. They're not, they aren't Christian. And so we got an opportunity to share and they know, if they look at our website for a minute and about us section. We're not overt, but we also don't hide it, who we are. And so they know what we're going through and we actually, there's a part of our program, there's some script references and we just talk about it and how we apply it. But anyways, all to say is just open the door.

And just in what we do in business, we get an opportunity not just to share how you interact as husband and wife, and especially in business, but also just to share where [00:23:00] these principles of success come from of how you do marriage. And so it just, no matter what we do, whatever it was, the corporate career or even our business now, or even with friends and family, we always have that opportunity. And when they see good, people wanna know how you do it. And so when people ask that question, you get that opportunity to share.

Jim: Robert Fukui, phenomenal conversation off the cuff. Love it. You can check out Robert and his wife Kay Lee at Married Entrepreneur.Co. Might wanna connect up with them. They work with CEOs and entrepreneurs that own businesses, couples together trying to help them protect their marriages and run a great business at the same time.

I wanna remind you that the iWork4Him podcast brought to you by SaferNet online at safernet.com. If you wanna protect all your devices, get a VPN, antivirus, website filters, all that at one time for a very reasonable price. SaferNet.com.

And of course, Robert, you and I are on the board of directors of the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. If you are in commerce in this country, join a US Christian [00:24:00] Chamber near you. They're in over 20 cities around the country and expanding all the time. But you can also become a member of the National US Christian Chamber online at uschristianchamber.com. Martha and I are members. Robert and Kay Lee are members, and you just visited the Lima, Ohio christian Chamber? What's it called? The West Ohio Christian Chamber of Commerce, west Ohio. And there's one in Tampa Bay. There's one coming up in Minneapolis.

Robert Fukui: One starting in Texas. In Dallas area.

Jim: Yeah, all over the country. That's right. US christian chamber.com, and they can get you to a branch local to you, but you become a member nationally as well. US christian chamber.com.

You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim Brangenberg. I'm a Christ follower, my workplace, it's my mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.