This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Today we continue with our series called Doing Business with God. In this
series, Rick helps you understand why you work, what you should be working
for, and how God can use you in your workplace. Right now,
here's Pastor Rickwood part one of a message called standing Out at Work. I
got a couple letters from me and I want to read them. One of
them said, Dear Pastor Rick, this week, I'm starting a search for
my first job. What advice do you have for me? What should I
talk about? What are the things employers are looking for? That's a good
question. And then I also got this question from somebody. Dear Pastor Rick,
here's my question, what does it take to get a promotion? I
love this. It seems I have been stuck in my current position forever.
I see peers of mind getting promoted from time to time, yet I'm always
overlooked. Just doesn't seem fair. I'm a hard worker, I do my
work well and I never cause any problems. I feel like I should be
rewarded for my long tenure and for not moving to another business. What's wrong?
Well, first, on the second one, whoever wrote it, I'm
sorry for your frustration, but part of the problem maybe your misunderstanding of what
it takes to get a promotion. Most people think that promotions are given as
a reward for past service. I did good in my job, therefore I
get promoted. That's simply isn't true, friends, and you need to eliminate
that myth from your mind. That's not why people get promotions. People don't
get promoted for past performance. They get promoted on the promise of future performance
that they lax lead, do better, accomplish more, be more beneficial to
the company in the future. It's not a reward for the past. In
fact, if you did do a good job at work, you might not
ever get promoted because you're doing such a good job. There, let me
before we even actually get into the message, let me give you what I
call the laws of promotion. Okay, there's no room on your outline for
this, so write it on your arm. Okay. Law Number one of
promotion. To get a promotion in a business is this. Promotions aren't given
to reward past performance. They aren't. They're given as a promise for future
performance. Number two. If you are more valuable where you are, in
the job you're in right now, You're not going to get a promotion.
Now, listen to me, very clearly, irreplaceable people don't get promoted.
Does that make sense, because if you're doing such an incredible job at what
you're doing, nobody wants to move you because you are you have made yourself
so irreplaceable. You're the only one who knows how to do that in the
company. You didn't train anybody else, and if you are irreplaceable, then
you won't be replaced. Here's a little tip from your pastor. If you
want to get promoted, you need to train somebody to do what you're doing
so you're not irreplaceable. You need to train somebody else to know all of
the inner secrets of the job that you do so you could hand it off.
Law number three promotions is if it costs your employer more to replace you,
you're not getting replaced. They're going to hire somebody else if a job
opening comes up, but to replace you would cost more because of what you're
doing, they're not going to replace you. That's why you don't want to
be irreplaceable, not if you want to get promoted. Number four The fourth
law is this, you only get promoted if your employers think you will benefit
their future more in a new position. Now you need to realize this.
When people are being considered for promotion, they're not thinking about your past.
They're thinking about their future. Let me say that again. People aren't thinking
about your past. Oh, she's done such a great job, she should
be promoted. They aren't thinking about your past. They're thinking about their future.
But if they see how you could actually help them get to where they
need to go, then you have a greater chance of being promoted. Another
law, fifth law would be this, if you are working in a job
or working in you're working on something that becomes unimportant in your company, then
you increasingly become unimportant to getting a promotion. So what I'm saying is this,
you always want to get involved in the project that are most important to
your company, even if you have to volunteer to do it. It may
not be your current job, but if you hear about a project that's going
on in your business that you think that's important to the future of the company,
that's where you want to volunteer. I'd be glad to help out with
that. Volunteering is a great way to do that. You got to get
involved. And then finally, rule number six is this, Promotions aren't based
on how good you are. Promotions are based on who knows how good you
are. Does that make sense? You could be really, really really good
at your job, and if nobody knows it, you're not going to get
promoted. Promotions aren't based on how good you are, They're based on who
knows how good you are. Now, he said, well, I don't
want to be bragging. This isn't bragging. It's not a sin for you
to let people know what you're good at. You need to understand that it's
not a sin to let people know, particularly in the business where you are,
what you are good at. In fact, this is what Jesus said
Matthew, Chapter five, verse fifteen to sixty. Don't hide your light under
a basket. Instead, put it on a stand. Let it shine for
all the sea. In the same way, let your good deeds circle that
good deeds. Let your good deeds, let the things that you're good at,
your good works, your good deeds. Let your good deeds shine out
for all to sea. Circle the word shine shine out for all to sea,
so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Did you know that God
wants you to shine at work? Did you know that God wants you to
shine out at work. He wants your work to be so good and he
wants everybody to know it's good. Let your good works shine out so they
give praise to your heaven Father. Christians should have the best reputation for quality
work, excellent work, energetic, enthusiastic work of anybody. God wants you
to shine out at work. He want you to stand out at work.
So we're going to look this weekend at how you do that? How do
you stand out at work so you get noticed? If you've ever wondered,
how do I get out of a dead end job that I feel stuck in?
Or how do I get a promotion when all my peers are getting promoted
and I'm not, Or how do I get hired for a job when there's
so much competition competing for the same job? How do I stand out in
that job interview process? If you've ever asked those questions, you picked a
good week to come to church because we're going to look at that how to
stand out at work, and we're going to look at the six most promoted
traits. These are the six most in demand traits that employers look for when
they're looking for somebody to say, let's give that person a promotion. How
do I know this because they're covered in the greatest promotion story of all time.
Genesis, chapter thirty seven to chapter fifty is all about one guy and
his name is Joseph. Joseph is the most amazing story of promotion ever told.
Now, everybody loves a rags to richest story. We like these stories
Ragstrich, the guy who is a nobody who becomes a somebody. Well,
that's exactly what happened to Joseph. In fact, he went from being a
slave to going to prison. First of from being kidnapped to being a slave,
to going to prison to being the number wine guy in charge of the
greatest country at its tentacle of power, the Egyptian Empire. He was second
only to Pharaoh. Pharaoh put him in charge of the entire country and he
wasn't even Egyptian. Now that's what I call a promotion. Going from prison
to president in one lifetime, that's what I call a promotion. And the
Bible tells us that these stories are in scripture to teach us by example,
And we're going to look at six traits in Joseph's life that caused him to
go from being in prison to becoming president, the greatest promotion in history,
and put him in charge of the most powerful empire of its day. And
he saved not only Egypt, but also Israel and a number of other countries.
So get out your pencils and your pens. Open your bible to Genesis
chapter thirty seven. We're going to look at what it takes to get a
promotion. Now the background, there was a guy named Abraham, and Abraham
had a son named Isaac, who is the promised child. And then Isaac
had a son named named Jacob. These are the patriarchs of the nation of
Israel. Now you've heard of the twelve tribes of Israel, they came from
the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob had twelve boys, and each of his
boys founded one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Son number eleven was a
guy named Joseph, and he was Daddy's favorite. And because he was Daddy's
favorite, he got preferential treatment, and it made the other eleven brothers hate
Joseph because he was daddy's boy, and he was the second to the youngest,
but he was the most loved obviously. His dad even went out and
bought him a very expensive multicolored coat one day and gave it, and Joseph
was stupid enough to wear it around in front of his brothers and rub their
noses in it. And they just hated him, and so they wanted to
get rid of him, and one day they conspired to kill him. Let's
say, let's just kill him. We all hate our brother, so we're
just going to kill him. Ruben, who was the oldest, said no,
no, no, we can't. We can't kill our own brother.
I'll tell you what let's do. Let's sell him into slavery. Oh that's
very helpful, thank you, Reuben, very very nice. So some traveling
Arabs come by in a caravan and they sell Joseph to the Arabs the Midianites,
and then they fake his death and claimed that he was eaten by a
bear. And the Midianites take Joseph on down into Egypt, where now he's
not just a slave. He's auctioned off to a guy named Potiphar, who
was a Egyptian official. But Joseph had some amazing qualities. We're going to
look at them this weekend. And so wherever he went, God just blessed
him and kept getting promoted. Even in the worst circumstances, he kept getting
promoted. He had what was called favor on his life, and God would
bless him even though everything was going wrong in his life. He would find
blessing in that circumstance. And so he goes to work for Potiphar and he
does such a good job. Potiphar just really begins to like this kid,
and he really loves him, and actually he learns to trust him more and
more and more, and pretty soon Potiphar puts him in charge of his entire
house. And then missus Potiphar begins to notice that this guy is good looking.
I mean, he's a spitting image of Rick Warren, you know,
bulging biceps, you know, just an incredibly sexy man. He's Gongnam style,
I mean, really, he's He's just incredibly sexy, and so she
starts trying to seduce him. Joseph, being a man of integrity, refuses
to do this, refuses to give in. We'll look at this in a
minute. But Finally, once she spurned enough times, she christ foul and
she claims that Joseph raped her. Actually Joseph did the exact opposite, but
she claimed it. And so Potiphar very angry has this man who he had
trusted thrown into prison. Now his life has gone from bad to worse.
First being kidnapped, first being rejected by your family, second being kidnapped,
third being taken hostage to a foreign country, fourth being sold into slavery,
and fifth being false accused of raped and thrown in prison. Not a very
good life, would you say. I mean, he's going where is God
in all of this? And you may be in a stage of your life
you're going, where is God in all of this? The story isn't finished
in your life. God had Joseph exactly where he wanted him to. It
just so happened that Pharaoh had two of his court cabinet, his cup bearer
and his baker, had offended Pharaoh at some party, and so he had
his baker and his and his cup bear thrown into prison along with Joseph.
While they're in prison, they both have dreams and Joseph goes, well,
you know what, I'm not a dream interpreter. But God can tell you
the meaning of that, And so I'll pray and ask God. And so
God tells Joseph the meaning of these two dreams. He shares it with the
cup bearer and the baker, and the bottom line is that the cup bearer
gets restored to power, the baker is killed. And Joseph says, by
the way, when you get to back into the palace, you might put
in a good word for me. Well, the guy promptly forgets Joseph,
promptly forgets Joseph and doesn't even mean. So Joseph is languishing longer and longer
and longer in prison. Then a little while later, Pharaoh has some dreams
and they're very, very disturbing. When he has these dreams, he's gone,
I wonder if anybody could tell me the meaning of these dreams. And
all of a sudden, the cup bear goes, oh, I know a
guy who could do that. I forgot to tell you about him. Boss,
any guy says, we'll go get it. He says, well,
actually he's not Egyptian, he's Hebrew, he's Jewish. Well where is he
he's in prison? Well get him out of prison and bring him here.
So they get Joseph out of prison. They have him go shaved, they
have him take a bath, they have n't put on cling clothes. He
comes in and he correctly interprets Pharaoh's dreams. He says, the two dreams
you've had of this, You're gonna have a good economy for seven years.
And he says, things are really gonna go great, and you're gonna have
abundance. It's gonna be fruitfulness. But he said, after that, you're
gonna have seven bad years where it's gonna be recession. It's gonna be famine,
it's gonna be starvation. It's going to be really bad. And Pharaoh
goes, well, what do you think got to do? He goes,
we ought to go out and find the smartest man you can find and put
him in charge of a plan to have people save twenty percent of the profits
every year during the seven good years, and put him away and store all
the week, store all the grain so that then when the famine comes,
you don't lose your kingdom and you make it through a tough time. Pharaoh
goes, you're the smartest guy I know, and he promotes him and he
issues a decree, and he says, everyone is to say to follow anything.
Joseph says, from now on, I put him in charge of the
entire nation of Egypt. He's now in charge. The only person above him
is me. But every decision he makes, you were to follow. And
so wherever Joseph goes, they all bow down to him. He's now the
most powerful man on planet Earth. He's gone from prisoner to president. That's
quite a promotion. What happened in all that time? How in the world
did that happen? Well, from his life we learn the six traits that
get you promoted, the six and these, by the way, today,
even today, they still work that the six most in demand traits that employers
look for when they're looking for somebody to hire. Let's look at them.
By the way, these traits are not in order of importance. Okay,
they are in order of the story, so they're chronological. It's not like
the first one is the most important. It's just the one that comes up
first, So they're all important. Number one, the first trait that Joseph
shows is audacity. Audacity, and if you want to make it in a
career, you have to show audacity. You have to show this character quality
that Joseph develops and shows in his life. He has a big dream.
Now in each of these qualities, I've written a definition for you there on
your outline, so you might want to fill this in. What is audacity.
Audacity is the courage to think big. It's the courage to think big,
to show initiative and to take risks for a dream while facing the possibility
of failure. That is audacity, and it's the first trait we see in
Joseph's life, the courage to think big, to show initiative, and to
take risks for a dream while facing the possibility of failure. Now we have
an example of this in Genesis, chapter thirty seven. The Bible starts off
telling us this about Joseph. Joseph had a dream. Circle that Joseph had
a dream. Now this dream is so big, so incredible, so audacious,
nobody in the world believes him. He says, I had this dream
the one day I'm going to be the most powerful leader in the world.
And not only am I going to be the most powerful leader in the world,
all my brothers are going to bow down to me, and all the
brothers going, oh yeah, you and your mama. Okay, even my
dad's going to bow down to me. I'm going to become the most powerful
leader in the world. Now, truth, was was it the truth?
Yes? Was the dream from God? Yes? Uh? Did it happen?
Yes? Was it fulfilled? Yes? Was Joseph stupid and telling his
brothers? Yes. Now, let me give you a little advice here.
If you're an entrepreneur, not every dream should be shared with everybody. When
God gives you a dream, you only share it. Listen, very important.
You only share it with people who can help you get there. You
don't go tell everybody. A lot of times you get a great idea and
you want to go tell everybody in your family. Your family's going to say,
and who do you think you are? See, the question is not
who do you think you are? Who do you think God is? And
a lot of people don't understand that. When I started Saddleback Church and I
stood up at the first service and I announced that one day this church,
I said, this is a church. One day we'll have twenty thousand people
and we're gonna have at least fifty acres of land. Was that dream from
God? Yes? Was it true? Yes? Was it fulfilled. Yes.
Was it dumb of me to share it with everybody at first? Yes?
Because of me, all kinds of critics. Who'se this kid think he
is? He's a twenty five year old kid. You got any money?
No, you got any land, No got any members? No? What's
he got a dream? You don't share your dream with everybody? Does that
make sense? You only share it with those who can actually help you get
it there? You don't arvertise there. But Joseph has an audacious dream.
And what was the result of his family? It says when he told it
to his brothers, they hated him all the more. It has made him
more mad. And when he told his father, as he had had his
brothers, his father rebuked him. Even his dad didn't believe him because it
was so audacious. And he and Jacob said, what is this dream of
yours? What is this dream of yours? Sometimes you're going to have to
just step out in faith when it doesn't make sense. That's audacity when you
think this is what I'm supposed to do, this is what God wants me
to do. I know it. It's a dream God's put in my heart,
and I'm going to do it, and God honors that when we step
out in faith according to your faith, it will be done unto you.
That was Pastor Rick Warren with his current series Doing Business with God. Right
now, here's Pastor Rick with today's offer. Maybe you've never thought about it,
but your job matters to God. You say, how is that?
Well? Because God planned what you would do with your life if and part
of your life includes your job, your work. God planned a ministry for
you through the work you do. Now listen, it doesn't matter what your
job is. You may be a manager or a stay at home mom or
dad. You may be a doctor, a teacher, sales clerk, garbage
collector. You may be a taxicab driver. You may be paid or unpaid.
You may be a volunteer in your work. No matter what you do,
God uses your job to put you in a place where you can minister
to others. And your ministry is actually in your job. I'd like to
help you with this. I'd like to equip you for your ministry at work.
So I put together a study kit that I've called Christians in the Workplace,
and it actually includes six sessions. There's study sessions, and there's a
DVD, and there's a study guide where a ZEUSA specific professor Paul Schreyer and
I teach you about ministry at work and together we talk about opportunities for spiritual
growth, and we give you a guide for moral and ethical decision making,
and we talk about how to find opportunities in your work to share your faith
with others. There's a lot of helpful material in this kit, and I'd
like to send it to you. I'd like to send you Christians in the
Workplace Study Kit just to say thanks for your financial support of Daily Hope.
And when you support this ministry, you are helping not only share the good
news with people around the world, you're helping Christians to grow. Now,
I believe that this series is going to be a good series to help you
because we all have to work in different ways, and you'll benefit from the
study and it'll be a great small group study you could actually do with some
friends. Now, we're a listener supported ministry, and your financial gifts make
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This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support