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

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