Rick Warren - Standing Out At Work — Part One

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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