Rick Warren - The Purpose of Work Part Three

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 Rick with the final part of a message called.

The purpose of Work. Now we come to the sixth purpose,

which is the highest purpose of all. And this is

the purpose not of identity or necessity, or charity or

credibility or maturity. It is the purpose of eternity. And

this is thinking long term about what your job's implication is.

Eternity is I use my job to build God's kingdom.

I use my job to build God's kingdom. You can

use your work to bring glory to God. You can

use your career to bring glory to God. You can

use your skills, you can use your business. You can

use your workplace to further God's kingdom. So how do

I do that? Oh? There are lots of ways, lots

of ways you can use your business to further God's kingdom.

One way is to use the contacts that your businesses

have to spread the good news and to tell other

people about the good news to pass it on. This

is why we have in the peace peace and assist

the poor using business people to go out and teach

businesses which will assist the poor to create jobs. Let

me give you an example. While back, I got a

call between the services of this guy named Eric Stamminger.

He's a German guy calling from Germany. He said, my

name is Eric Stammiger. I am the president and CEO

of Adidas. You know what Adidas is, you know the

shoes and all that. Actually it's called Adi Das in

German because it's named after Adi Dossler, who is the founder.

He said, my name is Eric Stanminger. I'm the CEO

of Adi Das. He said, I have just finished reading

Purpose Driven Life. It changed my life. I've given my

life to Christ. I will come anywhere in the world

to meet you. How soon can we meet? I said, Well,

why don't you come to church next week? He said,

I will. He said, I got to go to China.

I got to close the deal in China. Then I

got to go to Tokyo close the deal there. I'll

be back over in California. I'll be there next Sunday.

So the next Sunday, the president and CEO of Adidas

came and came to church, and I went back and

we sat down on a couple of chairs in the

back and I said, so, mister Stamminger, tell me how

can I help you. He said, well, I just need

to know one thing I've read purpose Driven Life. It's

changed my life. I'm a Christian. Now I want to

know should I resign a CEO of Adidas and become

a pastor? I said, let me show you how to

use your job for the kingdom, how to be a

kingdom builder, not just a wealth builder. I said, do

you have an executive team at Adidas? He said yes,

there are six of us. I said, are any of

the others Christians? He said, well, actually two of them are.

I said, you start meeting with those two and start

praying for the other three. And your first ministry is

to win your six coworkers to christ That's your first job.

That's your first ministry to win the people close to you.

Nobody else is as likely to win them as you are,

So you start working on that. I said, number two,

how many employees do you have an Adidas? I don't remember.

I think he said twenty five thousand. I said, that's

called the megachurch. I said, your congregation is bigger than

most pastors will ever preach to. So you've got twenty

five thousand members in your congregation, they're all employees. You

start praying for them, you start being available to them,

you start putting instituting good Christian principles in your business.

I said, would you like to influence other CEOs? I

said yeah. I said, then you need to stay at

a CEO, because you'll have far more influence on them

as a CEO then as a pastor or missionary anybody else.

I said, would you like to influence culture? He said, well, yes,

of course I would. I said, then you've got to

influence the culture makers if you want to influence culture,

and the culture makers are musicians and athletes and celebrities

and people in the media. I said, do you do

celebrity endorsements? He said yes. I said, of course you do.

And I said, the next time you do a celebrity endorsement,

you bring that pro athlete in, you sit them down

and you say, look, I'm not just your endorser. I'm

not just your sponsor. You're going to make a lot

of money off me. But I'm not just your sponsor.

I want to be your friend. And here's my business card.

And when you get in trouble, and when you have

a need, please call me personally. And then you just

wait because the problem will come. And celebrities have rovos.

They're just more visible. And I said, they'll have a

slump in their game, or they'll have a drug crisis,

or a marriage crisis, or a health crisis, or an injury,

or a financial crisis, or something will happen and they're

going to need you. And when they come back to

you and they ask for your help, then you can

share Jesus with them. You do not move where you are,

stay where you are and be that person. Does that

makes sense. I know a number of Christian businessmen in

Hong Kong been there many times who were concerned about

mainland China because the churches were under persecution by the

Communist government and they weren't always allowed the freedom. And

so they decided, how can we be planning churches in

China when some of the places we can't plant them.

They'd just immediately be outlawed. So these businessmen began building

factories in mainland China and putting churches in the factories.

In today's globalized economy, the new missionaries are businessmen and businesswomen.

If you are a businessman, there's not a country in

the world who doesn't want to know what you're doing.

They want to know about your distribution and your products,

stuff like that. There are many countries they're not going

to allow a pastor in, they're not going to allow

a full time missionary in. But you, as a businessman

or businesswoman, can go where nobody else can go. Business

People are the missionaries for the great commission of the

twenty first century. That is being a kingdom builder, not

simply a wealth builder. You're using your business for the

one thing that's going to outlast everything else, the Kingdom

of God, the Church, God's family. Another way you can

do it is by making money in your business and

giving that for kingdom causes. And I know many businesses

like that. One of them is hobby lobby. It is

one of the most profitable businesses ROI return on investment

in America, and because it's all built on Christian principles,

they tie their money to help other things and God

continues to bless that business. Bless that business. Bless that business,

because they're using the profits for God's kingdom. The employees

are better paid than anywhere else. I keep raised on.

They're making great wages, and because the people at the

top are generous, that blessing is on that business, and

they keep going on and on. So I talk to

the Greens about one of the projects we're working on,

what we're calling the Final Frontier, which is one of

our ten decade of Destiny goals. Twice in the New Testament,

twice in the Book of Revelation, it says that in

heaven one day there will be people from every tribe,

every nation, and every language around the throne of God

in heaven. I take that serious. That God wants people

from every nation, every language, and every tribe. Somebody is

going to be there in heaven. Here's the problem. There

are three four hundred tribes in the world that have

no Christian no Bible, and no church. So there's nobody

going to be in heaven from that tribe. Yet somebody's

got to get to that tribe. We call that the

Final Frontier. And I began to enlist other churches to

help us do this. And when I'd go out and speak,

I'd encourage others, and people were signing commitment cards, and

I was asking a church to adopt a people group.

In the last two years, we've taken four hundred off

that list. Used to be thirty eight hundred. It's now

thirty four hundred. Can you imagine getting to heaven one

day and you say, yeah, you know, my business it

wasn't that big. But we helped fulfill the great commission.

We helped raise the money by the stuff we sold

to help get the Bible in the last translations and

get churches in the last tribes that needed to be done.

Let me show you some amazing promises and we'll close.

They're on your outline. Matthew six thirty three is a

good verse for businessmen. Jesus says, be concerned above everything

else with the Kingdom of God, more than my business. Yeah,

even than more than your business. Be concerned above everything

else with the Kingdom of God and what He requires

of you. And he God will provide you with all

the other things. So what do you need more of? Well,

I need more staff that goes into all the other things.

I need more distribution that goes in all the other things.

I need a smarter salesforce that goes in all the

other things. I need an innovative idea for my business

that goes in all the other things. Be concerned with

God's kingdom and what it requires you. He will provide

you with all the other things. Look at the next

verse there on your outline. We know that the same

God who raised Jesus will also raise us one day.

That's in heaven. And as God's grace brings more and

more people to Christ. In other words, as the kingdom

is built, as it spread, as we build the Kingdom,

as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ,

there will be great thanksgiving and God will receive more

and more glory. Kingdom builders reach one more for Jesus.

Matthew six point twenty. Jesus said, store up for yourselves

treasure in heaven. Circle the phrase for yourselves. Did you

know that you can store up for yourselves treasure in heaven,

not say to store up for God? God that needed

God says, you can create a bank account in heaven

that is eternal, pays the highest dividends and nobody can

steal it. From you. You can store up for yourself

treasure in heaven. That's the best investment you'll ever make.

How do you do that by using your work and

using your business to get people there? The only way

you can in heaven is to invest in people who

are going there. Your business isn't going to heaven, your

car isn't going to heaven, your house isn't going to heaven.

But people are. And when you invest in people getting

them into heaven, you are storing up treasure in heaven

to use for eternity. So here's the big question. I

wrote it on your outline. Will I be a wealth

builder or will I be a kingdom builder? You can

use your work to build wealth. That's okay, nothing wrong

with that. Trying to make a living, make a profit, fine,

But it's short sighted. God says, don't just be a

wealth builder, be a kingdom builder. Which of those are

you going to circle? Will I be a wealth builder?

Circle that? Or will I be a kingdom builder? Circle that? Now,

let me close this. You don't realize how important your

work is. You may think your work is I work

at a Starbucks. You know, I work at a fast

food place. I help clean in a certain place. I

don't care what you do, whether you are a mother

of preschoolers or you're the CEO of a corporation. Your

work has far more significance than you realize because it

wasn't meant for simply necessity. God says, I want to

use your work, no matter what it is, for identity.

I want you to express your talents through that. I

want you to use it for maturity. I want you

to let it make you a more stronger and a

more mature and a more patient Christian. I want to

use it for credibility. I want you to use your

platform to influence the people you come in contact with

for the good news and the gospel. I want you

to use it for charity. I want you to figure

out how to live on a little bit less so

you can give a little bit more so you're storing

up treasure in heaven. If you're behind on your tithe,

you get caught up on that. But you learn to

be generous. And I want you to be a kingdom builder,

not just a wild builder. I want you to have

a priority in your life. You can waste your life,

you can spend your life, or you can invest your life.

And the best use of your life is to invest

it in the King of God because it's the only thing.

It's going to last forever. One day, God is going

to do an audit on your work. Did you know

that You're going to have a job interview? One day,

God's going to do an assessment on your work, last

versa on your outline. It is going to come a

time of testing at the judgment day to see what

kind of work each builder is done. Where you're a

wealth builder or were you a kingdom builder. Everyone's work

will be put through the fire that means mine and

yours to see whether or not it keeps its value.

What's the value identity, maturity, credibility, charity, priority, eternity. Everyone's

work will be put through the fire to see whether

or not it keeps its value. If the work survives

the fire, that person will receive a reward. But if

the work is burned up, the builder will suffer a

great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like

someone escaping a fire. In other words, this has nothing

to do with salvation. You're in heaven, but you're going

to lose reward. So here's the question. Have you had

a shallow conception of your work. You just thought ought

just get money, put food on the table. No, no, no,

far more significant than that. Are you ready to step

up to all six of God's purposes for your work?

Will you become a purpose driven businessman with these six purposes?

Will you become a purpose driven business woman? Will you

become a purpose driven owner operator? Will you become a

purpose driven employee? Will you become a purpose driven professional?

Will you say, God, I'm going to give you my

work for not just one, but for all six of

the purposes that you planned for my work to be.

That's power heads. As I pray, follow me in this prayer, Father,

I realize that while I'm at work, you're working on me,

and I want you to use my job for all

six purposes in my life. Please use my job to

express what you made me to be. Help me in

this series to find the right job for my shape.

Use my career to develop my character. I want to

use my job as a platform to bring people to you,

to share the good news. I want to use my

job to be able to help others financially and to

give to others. I want to use my job to

help further your kingdom, and I want to use my

job to prepare to serve your purposes in eternity. I

want to be a kingdom builder. Please use this series

to help me succeed in my work, and I will

honor you with my life, with my time, with my

tithe and by giving my best, knowing that I'm really

working for you. If you've never invited Christ in your life,

said Jesus, Christ, become the CEO of my life. Become

the manager of my life, the president, the chairman of

the board. Jesus be the director of my life. I

want to be under new management and I want to

follow you from this day forward in your name. I

pray Amen. Hi everybody, this is Rick, and I hope

you enjoyed today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed

that prayer for the very first time, or you just

recommitted your life to Jesus again today, would you let

me know about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment.

So write me Rick at Pastorrick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life

to Christ, and I'll send you some material that will

help you on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also

pray for you. God bless you.

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