The Kind of Work God Blesses — Part 1

SPEAKER 01 : 0:02

Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you’re a regular listener, we’re really excited that you’re here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God’s incredible plan for your future. All right, well, let’s get started. Here’s part one of a message called The Kind of Work God Blesses.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:41

This week we’re gonna look at your work. We’ve been looking for several weeks at different key areas of your life, your health, your finances. We’re gonna look at your family. This week we’re looking at your work. Now the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 22, when you see people skilled in their work, You know that they end up standing before kings, not working for ordinary people. God says that when you commit yourself to becoming skilled at your work, God is gonna prosper you. You’re gonna find promotions in your life. Let me just say it this way. The economy does not control your success in your career. Your faith in God does. The economy does not control your success in your career. Your faith in God does. And if you have faith in God and you’re trusting him and you’re doing it his way, you’re going to find that he helps you even in spite of what’s going on all around you. And what I want to do this weekend is just give you an overview of some of the key things that God says about what causes some people to be successful and what causes others to not be successful in their work. I can summarize it this way. What you do is not as important to your success, or for that matter, to God. What you do is not as important as why you do it, how you do it, and what you become while you’re doing it. You could have 100 different careers that all would be in the will of God. It’s not like a bullseye that, oh, I can only do this and this is the only thing God wants me to do. There might be a hundred different careers that God would say, it’s your choice. Whatever I shaped you to do, what you’d love to do, what you’re passionate to do, I can bless all of them because what God is more interested in is in your character than your career because you’re not taking your career to heaven and you are taking your character. That’s why why you do what you do, how you do what you do, and what you become is far more important than the job. God can bless any job if you’re working on those. In other words, let me just say it this way. Motive, method, and meaning matter more than money. You try saying that. Motive, method, and meaning matter more than money. That’s why I’ll try saying that. Motive, method, meaning matter more than money. That’s what God says, why? Because none of that’s gonna be taken to heaven. You’re gonna leave it all behind. But what you become in the meantime is very, very important. Now, what I want to do, as I said, is just give you an overview. So we’re going to look at seven keys to succeeding at work. And I just, for fun, put in a little cross-stick, S-U-C-C-E-E-D, how you succeed at work. All right, let’s get into it. Number one, if I want to be blessed in my work, for my work to be blessed by God, I first, I must start working enthusiastically, Thank you. wherever I am. I must start working enthusiastically where I am right now. Now, it doesn’t matter if it’s a menial job. It doesn’t matter if it’s a part-time job. It doesn’t matter if you hate the job. It doesn’t matter if you intend to quit. If you want God’s blessing on your career, you must start working enthusiastically where you are right now. You say, you gotta be kidding me. That’s what the Bible says. Look at this verse. Ecclesiastes 9.10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Now notice it doesn’t say whatever you like to do, do it with all your might. It says whatever job you’ve got at the point, at this point, whatever you find yourself doing, if you’re cleaning toilets, do it with all your might. That’s not a suggestion. That’s a command. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might. You were to do, when you work, you were to work with zeal, you were to work with passion, you were to work with a good attitude, you were to work with enthusiasm. You say, wait a minute, Rick, you don’t know my job. If you had my job, you would not work with enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter what your job is. because enthusiasm is a spiritual discipline. Enthusiasm is based on why you are working. It’s not based on what you’re doing. You can be enthusiastic about anything if you have a right reason for doing it. Enthusiasm is not based on the fact that it’s fun to do, it’s paying you a lot of money, it’s based on why you’re doing what you’re doing. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word en, E-N, and theos. Theos, en is the word for in. It means to be in something. Theos is the word for God. Theology is the study of God. Theos is the word for God, which, by the way, Theodore and Dorothy both mean the same thing, lover of God. That’s what it means. Theodore and Dorothy mean lover of God. It’s two Greek words. And so what this is, is he’s saying you must be enthusiastic. To be enthusiastic means to be entheos, which means to be in God. Has nothing to do with your job. It has everything to do with whether you are in God or not. How do you get enthusiastic? You get in God. When you get in God, you will be enthusiastic. It’s based on why you’re working, not what you’re doing. Now, if you want to learn to be enthusiastic, because God says, whatever you want to do, if you want me to bless it, I don’t care if you want, if this isn’t your permanent job, you’ve only got it for a little while. He says, I’m watching you to see if you’re enthusiastic in this job, in this. This isn’t a perfect job, but in this one, are you enthusiastic? Are you in God? And if you wanna be enthusiastic about any work, all you have to do is remember three things. Number one, this is a test from God. The job you’re in right now, it’s not nearly as important as what’s happening in your attitude. Remember we’ve talked about this now for 12 weeks that life is a test and life is a trust. And God is seeing what he can trust you with and how much he can test you with here so he knows if you’re faithful in little things, he can trust you with more in eternity. This life is preparation for the next. And the Bible says this, Luke 16, whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. But if you’ve not been trustworthy with somebody else’s property or business or job or assets, who’s going to give you your own? God says, I’m watching to see if you’re going to be enthusiastic even in the little things of life. So you remember first it’s a test. Second thing you’ve got to remember is that even though nobody else may be watching what you’re doing, God is. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, doesn’t matter what your job is. It may be the most boring job in the world, God is watching. And he’s watching to see your attitude. Look at this verse on the screen. Work hard so that God can say to you, well done. Be a good workman, one who does not need to be ashamed when God examines your work. He said, you know, be positive about that. That’s the third thing you need to remember is that if I wanna be enthusiastic, I gotta remember that my attitude determines my joy. My attitude determines my joy. A lousy job’s a lousy job, but it’s even worse when you complain about it. Isn’t that true? Does complaining ever make a job better? Does it ever make a job easier? Does griping ever make an unpleasant job more pleasant? No, it makes it worse. And that’s why the Bible says this. The diligent find freedom in their work, while the lazy are oppressed by work. Why? It’s all in your attitude. And the first thing God says, before we can talk about anything else than succeeding in your life, you gotta change your attitude. You got some stinkin’ thinkin’. You need a checkup from the neck up, okay? And you gotta change your attitude about the work you’re doing right now. It may suck, but you need to have an enthusiastic attitude because the Bible says, whatever you do, do it with all your might. Romans 12, 11 says this, never be lazy in your work. Why? Because God’s watching. Nobody else may be, but God is. But serve the Lord, how? enthusiastically. Now that leads us to the second key to succeeding in life. First start working enthusiastic where I am. The U stands for understand who I’m really working for. I need to understand who I’m really working for. Now this will turn your attitude around. See the truth is neither your boss nor your board is really your Lord. Jesus is your Lord, not the board. Your boss is maybe your supervisor, but he’s not your ultimate, he’s not the big boss. You know when you play video games, you always wanna go after the big boss. Because he’s the one who’s got all the controls. Now, I need to understand who I’m really working for. Colossians 3, 23. Work hard and cheerfully whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord. Circle that, for the Lord, rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward. and the master you are serving is Christ. Now that’ll change your whole attitude. It’s easier to be enthusiastic or anything. I’m not really doing it for this guy or this woman. I’m doing it for the Lord. I’m doing it as unto the Lord. And you can do anything. You can clean dishes to the Lord. You can scrape paint for the Lord. You can repair a car for the Lord. You can do any job when you turn it from I’m doing it for my boss or I’m doing it for a paycheck to I’m doing it for the Lord. You just turned your work into worship. And when you turn work into worship, you know what you’re doing? You’re storing up credits in heaven. You’re storing up treasures in heaven. You’re making an internal deposit in heaven. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, 31, so whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do it all, circle the word all, for the glory of God. I don’t care if it’s rearranging papers, signing bills of lading, or whatever it is. Any job can become an act of worship if A, you do it enthusiastically, that is, in God, Lord, I’m doing it because this is a test, you’re watching me, and I want a good attitude, and number two, I’m doing it as if I’m doing it for you. Number three, the third key to success is concentrate on building my character. Why, because your character’s far more important than your career. What you become as a result of your work is far, far more important than any job you’ll ever have. As I said, you’re not taking your job to heaven. You’re not taking your career to heaven. You’re not taking some gold watch or some trophy to heaven. You’re taking you. And so you want to work on, concentrate on building character. As I said, God’s more interested in what you become than what you do. Now look at this verse, Romans 5, 3 and 4. We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials because we know they’re good for us. They help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character. in us and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. Now let me explain this to you. A lot of people get freaked out every time they get tempted by something. They get tempted by greed or they get tempted by pride or they get tempted by sensuality or sexuality and they think, wait a minute, I shouldn’t be having that thought. You know, I’m a Christian, I’m trying to do the right thing. And you get all freaked out like, why should I be tempted? Let me tell you what, you will never outgrow temptation. In fact, the closer you get to God, the more enemy you are of Satan, the more he’s gonna work on you. Hate to tell you that, but it’s true. You have greater strength to resist it, but you don’t need to be intimidated. Never be intimidated by temptation. The Bible says everybody gets the same temptation. Martin Luther used to say, you can’t keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. God puts an idea in your mind, that’s inspiration. Devil puts an idea in your mind, that’s temptation. You decide what you’re gonna do about it. It’s not a sin to be tempted. The Bible says Jesus was tempted in every way, yet he never sinned. It’s not a sin to be tempted. It’s a sin to give in to temptation. Now, what you need to understand is that when you’re at work and you’re tempted, let’s think of some of the common temptations. To get irritated at people who are jerks. Is that a common temptation? Yeah. To say to a rude employee, up your nose with a rubber hose. Yeah. Or, you know, to get back at people. Is that a temptation? Yeah. Yeah, it is. Okay. You may not be tempted to go commit adultery. You may be. Or go steal something. You may be. But really the common temptations are to be unkind and unloving and to get angry and to be prideful. And they’re relational temptations. Now what you need to realize is that every temptation is not just an opportunity to do bad. It’s an opportunity to do good. And so then you realize, oh, well, I can use this for growth. Every temptation is either a stepping stone or a stumbling block. It either makes you better or it makes you better. You can take temptation, and when that temptation comes to go, you know, I just want to get even with that person right now. And if you don’t, instead you stop and say, you know, the Bible says return good for evil. The Bible says bless those who curse you. The Bible says pray for those who offend you. So Lord, I ask you to bless that person who just ticked me off. You just grew. your character just got better. So rather than every time you get tempted, if you use it to grow, you know what’s gonna happen? Satan’s gonna stop tempting you so much. The last thing he wants you doing is growing. Let’s say one of the things he likes to do is make you impatient. And so he keeps adding delays in your life and keeps adding delays in your life, keeps adding irritations in your life. And all these heavenly sandpaper people, the extra grace required people. And all these people are bugging you and bugging you. And instead of you getting upset, you start, Lord, I thank you for that person. And I want to pray they have a good day. And Lord, I wanna thank you for that person. I pray they come to know you. And I pray you will bless that person. And that person who just got a promotion and I didn’t and they’re bragging about it, Lord, bless them really good. Now, two things happen when you do that. Two things happen. Number one, does Satan want you praising God? No, so he’s gonna figure out pretty soon, every time I tempt that person, I praise God, I’m gonna stop that. And that person’s gonna stop being an irritation to you. Number two, God says, you’re growing, that’s my girl, that’s my son, you’re growing and you’re building character. Every temptation is an opportunity to do good. The Bible says in Proverbs 20, 12, verse 24, work hard and you’ll be a leader. That’s how you become a leader. Be lazy and you end up a slave. I need to concentrate on building my character. The other C stands for I must, if I want God’s blessing on my work, I must care about those I work with. This is so important. If you’ll learn this, you will find yourself having the favor of God on your work. If you learn to care about the people around you, even when they’re irritable, even when they don’t like you, even when they make fun of you, even when they put you down for being a believer, all of those different things, you just be nice to them, you just be friends to them. By the way, if you’re only friends with people you agree with completely, you will have no friends. In fact, you’ll never get married. Because your spouse doesn’t even agree with everything you do. So if you only can be friends with people who agree with everything you do, you’re not gonna ever have any friends. You need to concentrate and care about those you work with. You know what this is? This is all about love. And friends, it is the glaring omission in almost every secular business book or leadership book or, um, uh, you know, life planning book or, you know, any kind of business related career book in my life, I have read hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of business books. Many, you know, I have a library of over 20,000 volumes. And for many years I used to read a book a day. And so I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of business books. And they all have one glaring omission. They never talk about love. The one exception is a fantastic book you ought to read called Love and Profit by James Autry. It’s not by Christian, but it’s a very good book about love and profit as a businessman. Now, why is it important to care about the people around you if you wanna be successful? The number one lesson in life, the number one reason God puts you on this planet is to learn how to love. Remember, God is love. He wants you to be like him. He wants his children to learn how to love before they go to heaven. It’s easy to love people like you. It’s easy to love the lovely. It’s easy to love people who are easy to get along with. If God’s gonna teach you real love, he puts you around unlovely people. Don’t look at them, but you know who I’m talking about. And as he puts you around these heavenly sandpaper people who just kind of rub you the wrong way, God is giving you opportunities to learn real love.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:17

What a life-giving message from Pastor Rick. Now let’s join Rick with today’s offer. Thanks for listening today.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:24

You know, honestly, I never paid much attention to my health until I had a little epiphany a few years back when I baptized over 800 people in a single day by immersion. Now looking at myself and everybody that I was baptizing, it was real clear that we all needed to get healthy. So I put together a team of nationally known doctors to help me develop a program for our church. I called it the Daniel Plan, based on the passage in the book of Daniel, where Daniel has a contest with King Nebuchadnezzar on who can be the healthiest. The Daniel Plan is centered on five essentials that will help you become healthier. faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. There are a lot of diet plans out there that deal with food and fitness, but the secret sauce in the Daniel plan is focus, learning to have your mind renewed, friends, learning to grow in community, and faith, trusting God’s power rather than willpower. You know, we found that when individuals addressed health issues in each of these key areas, they are transformed. In fact, in the first year of the Daniel Plan, over 15,000 people from 190 countries participated, and the results were life-changing. In fact, our own church, Saddleback Church, lost over a quarter of a million pounds in one year. Can you imagine that? What did it do for our church? It increased our energy. We started sleeping better. It reduced our need for medication. The whole church was healthier. Now, the Daniel Plan has recently been released in a book format, and I want you to have a copy of this book today so you can start getting healthier now. And I’ll send you a hardcover copy of the Daniel Plan book as a very special thank you for your gift to this ministry.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:12

Just go to PastorRick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That’s PastorRick.com. Or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. That’s the word HOPE to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people all over the world. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God’s Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.