The Bible tells you how to prosper in business and in the world of work. I considered calling this series "God Tells You How To Be Rich," but there are TV cults who say God wants everybody to be rich and the first step is to send money to them. I chose "prosper" to keep clear of those people.
Does God want everybody rich? Instead of promising wealth, God told Adam:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, til thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:17b-19
if any would not work, neither should he eat. II Thessalonians 3:10
Does that sound as if everybody is supposed to be rich? Not to me. It sounds to me as if we are supposed to scratch and scramble all the days of our lives just to eat, anything beyond that is a bonus.
God is fair. Having told us we would have to sweat to eat, God told us in the Bible how to go about our business so that we can prosper by our sweat.
I’m going to give you two axioms of capitalism and of making money. An axiom is defined as self-evident truth, something so obvious that you do not need to prove it, but you are unlikely to figure out for yourself. In school, we learn such axioms as "A straight line is the shortest distance between two points" but I’m here tonight to give you two business axioms to help you prosper financially.
I did not invent these business axioms, they were taught me by my first boss. I was extraordinarily blessed to have a boss who could explain these facts so clearly. I have tried to base my economic life on these two simple ideas ever since, and these axioms have contributed mightily to whatever success I’ve enjoyed.
I didn’t know it then, but the principles my boss taught me are based on the Word of God. My success with these principles proves that obeying the Word of God leads to success even when you don’t know you’re following God’s rules.
What frustrates me is that there are many more economic lessons in the Bible which I ignored because I did not read them. I was so impressed with what my boss said that I would have tried to find more axioms in the Bible if I had known he was teaching Biblical principles, but I did not know.
It was only a few years ago that I discovered that the Bible has a lot to say about how to succeed at work. I felt so stupid-here were all the other axioms I had learned so painfully, right there in front of me, but I had not found them.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
I despised the wisdom of the Bible by not reading it even though I knew better. We have all been taught to read our Bibles-I did not read mine enough to learn God’s lessons the easy way, and learning the hard way cost me dearly.
What I’m going to point out tonight, especially to you young people, are tested principles how to prosper. You can heed and obey what the Bible says about earning a living or you can despise God’s wisdom. I really hope you will heed; ignoring what the Bible could have taught me cost me plenty, and I want to help you avoid some of my mistakes.
Let us pray:
Our Father, we understand your punishment of Adam for disobeying your Word and eating of the forbidden fruit; we know that we must work and work hard. We thank you so very much, Father, for telling us how to work, so that our efforts might help us prosper. Help us all to learn from your word, so that our testimony at work might bring others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I don’t have time tonight to tell you very many Biblical principles for business, so I’ll just tell you what my boss told me, then give you a few verses to show that my boss’ axioms are based on the Bible. First the story, then some verses, and the rest is up to you.
My business enlightenment happened one morning in 1969 shortly after I started work at IBM in Poughkeepsie. I asked a question that indicated global ignorance. My question showed I had no idea what was going on, so my boss said "Come in my office, there’s something I must explain to you" and in we went.
By the way, young people, please remember that this five-minute explanation of what life was all about which has served me so very well for more than 25 years came about because of two things:
1) I asked a question. It was an ignorant question, but I asked it anyway.
2) I listened to the answer and remembered it.
There is nothing wrong with asking questions on the job; most bosses like people who want to learn. The more you learn, the more you can help the boss, and most bosses realize that. Just remember the answers so you don’t ask the same question over and over, that gets annoying.
Anyway, my boss sat me down on one side of his desk and he sat down on the other side. He leaned toward me and opened his eyes wide and said "Bill, why doesn’t your paycheck bounce?"
Talk about getting my attention! There was nothing he could have asked me that could have gotten me more interested-he was talking about my pay! For you bosses who have to answer questions or sometimes give information when your people haven’t asked, remember that it’s good to tie information about the job to payroll if you can-talking about money is always interesting.
My boss answered my question with a question. That made me think and helped me remember. Good technique.
For you very young people, a check is a way to pay people money without using dollar bills. You send a check and they give it to a bank and your bank gives the money to their bank. This is safer than mailing dollar bills because money is easy to steal. A check has their name on it and is harder to steal. The point is, if you write a check for more money than you have, your bank won’t accept it. This is called "bouncing a check" because instead of sending money to the other bank, your bank bounces the check right back at them. You have to have money in your bank before you can spend money writing checks. When my boss asked why my paycheck did not bounce, he was asking me to explain how IBM got money, and I did not know. How does IBM get money?
I stammered something, and he said, "It’s like this. IBM is not the government; we can’t print money or force people to give us tax money, we have to earn it. Your paycheck does not bounce because our customers send us checks that don’t bounce. And as a matter of corporate policy, we want customers to send us money because they sincerely feel we earned the money, not just because the contract says they gotta send money. We want happy money here at IBM. If a customer is not happy with our product, we give it back and return the money, no matter how badly it hurts."
He went on, "Look, our salesmen don’t call on companies that don’t have money, that’s a waste of time. All our customers have money, we check that before we go. The trick is to persuade them they want our products more than they want the money. If they want the money more, they keep the money, and you are out of a job. But if they want our computer more than the money, they give us the money and we can pay you. This is hard to do because everybody likes money a whole lot. Being more wonderful than money is not easy, but that’s what we have to do to eat."
I was beginning to understand. Light was shining through the cracks! My enlightenment was such a wonderful feeling that I still remember everything he said. He went on, "Let’s talk about you. We hired you because we want the work you do more than we want the money we pay you. If we did not want your work more than we want your pay, we would keep the money, we would not pay you, and you would be out of a job. Your challenge is to be sure that your work is more wonderful to us than the money we pay you every single day.
Do you want to get paid more? Of course you do. That’s easy-all you have to do is make your work more wonderful to IBM, and IBM will take care of you, I promise you.
Let me tell you how to make your work more wonderful. Our job in the lab is to design computers that are so wonderful customers will want them more than money. All we want you to do is help us make our products more wonderful so we can raise the price and get more money. I don’t mean raise the price through stealing, I mean raise the price because the product is really better. Help us get more money from our customers. You take care of customers, customers take care of IBM, and IBM can afford to take care of you. It’s really that simple."
The clouds rolled back. The sun shone through and I understood capitalism. I understood that IBM did not pay me, customers paid me, IBM just handled the money. That’s important, kids, for you to remember, your boss doesn’t pay you, customers pay you, the boss does you the favor of collecting the money.
I also understood that nothing happens unless it’s more wonderful than money. When you buy anything, you buy it because you want it more than you want the money; if it were not more wonderful to you than the money, you would keep the money and nothing would happen.
The Irving station pays people to pump gas because they wants the gas pumped more than they want the money. People buy houses because they want the houses more then they want the money. People buy Big Macs because they want the burgers more than they want the money.
We’re having hard times now when there isn’t much money. That makes money more wonderful so people hang onto it. Then things get touch, McDonalds drops their prices to keep their burgers more wonderful than money. But if you wants to earn a million bucks, I’ll tell you how. If you can make the burgers more wonderful so McDonalds can raise prices for every store without losing sales, that will be worth millions to McDonalds, and they will take care of you, they really will.
Remember the Gillette twin blade razor? They’ve sold a few of them, earned a buck or two over the years? Well, the man who invented that razor works for Gillette. They gave him a big raise and told him he could keep his job for life even if he never did another lick of work, he had paid his dues. He had been so wonderful they didn’t need any more work from him ever again.
That’s the secret of getting paid a lot-be worth a lot. You are worth a lot if you bring your boss a lot of money. I have always tried to make the most money for my boss I could. I have not always succeeded; many things I did failed to make money, but I always tried my very best.
What are the axioms? Everything must be worth more than money, and you better make sure that you take only happy money. If you aren’t worth more then your pay, you’re gone. If you don’t keep your boss happy to pay you, you may be gone even if you are worth your pay. So here are the axioms, folks, write `em down, they’ll serve you well:
1) Be more wonderful than money.
2) Take only happy money.
That’s the story of my business education. Those two axioms have been the foundation of my economic life and God has blessed me greatly, but I could have had so much more if I had realized that those rules came from the Bible and looked at all the other business lessons in the Bible.
God tells long stories like David and Bathsheeba, Amnon and Tamar where He’s trying to teach marriage and morality. He also teaches business, but the business teachings are shorter and not so easy to find; I don’t know of any business stories, if you find one, let me know. God must feel that marriage is more important than business, He gives marriage more space in the Book, but the business principles are there if you look for them with an open heart.
Let’s look at "More wonderful than money," where are the verses for that? Well, it’s an old, old Biblical principle:
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might Ecclesiastes 9:10a
When you’ve found a job, you’ve found something to do, so do it with thy might, that is, wonderfully.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24
Jesus served you by dying for you. You’re commanded to work as if you were serving Him, the Bible says you are serving Him. Jesus washed the disciples feet, serve your boss likewise and be as wonderful as you can. How about
for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Luke 10:7
Jesus was telling his disciples not be ashamed to eat in people’s houses while on missionary journeys. This verse is often used to explain why we pay pastors, saying that their labor is worthy of our hire, but it has another meaning too. Jesus’ disciples were bringing the good news of salvation and that labor was surely worthy of their hire. You are not bringing your boss anything nearly that good, but you must bring something worthy of your hire. Your contribution must be worth your hire, you must be more wonderful than your salary.
You don’t have a whole lot of choice; the Bible says you must work to support your family:
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. I Timothy 5:8
Since you have to work anyway, you might as well be as wonderful as you can so you get paid as much as possible for the time you spend working. Being more wonderful than money is a lot of work, but the Bible gives encouragement:
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Proverbs 10:4
Being wonderful means not just doing the assigned work, it means doing extra work:
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Matthew 5:41
Even if your boss does not notice your extra output and promote you right away, God promises that you will be rewarded if you are patient.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9
Being more wonderful than money requires that you give a lot. This may sometimes be a sacrifice, but God praises it:
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. II Corinthians 9:7
God isn’t the only one who loveth a cheerful giver, all bosses love a worker who gives cheerful, willing, cooperative work. We usually use this verse to commend cheerful giving to the church, but it also commends cheerful giving to your boss, or to your spouse and children for that matter.
What about happy money? Where does the Bible say you should make people happy to pay you? What about:
Let no man seek his own, but rather another’s wealth I Corinthians 10:24
The Bible says plainly that you are to seek your boss’s success before your own so that he is happy to pay you. If you genuinely wrap you heart around the boss’ work, don’t you think the boss and your customers will be happy to pay you? This is a specific case of the more general principle that you are commanded to think of others first:
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Philippians 2:3-4
Does the boss pay you to do his thing, or does he pay you to do your own thing? He pays you to do his thing, of course, and you had better esteem his thing enough to do it cheerfully whether you like it or not. If you do your work cheerfully, your boss pays you cheerfully and you get happy money. If you grumble, is your boss happy to pay you?
What about keeping customers happy?
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. Proverbs 11:26
This means you must sell at reasonable prices even if you have a chance to gouge. Remember when oil prices ran up a while back and oil companies raised the price and then doubled it? Did their customers curse them? Did the oil companies develop any loyalty or will customers desert them for anyone offering a penny less per gallon? No, my oil company did not take care of me, and I remember. I feel sorry for middlemen who had to announce the price increases.
Many business axioms are taught in the Word of God but they’re harder to find than other lessons. Until next time, just remember "more wonderful than money" and "happy money," those two axioms alone will take you a long way.
God Tells You How To Prosper, Part II
This is the second of a series of sermons exploring God’s instructions how to prosper in business and in work. During the first sermon, I told how my first boss taught me two fundamental business axioms which have guided my economic life ever since.
What are the axioms? Everything has to be worth more than money, and you had better make sure that you only take in happy money. You do not buy something unless you want it more than money; if you don’t want it that much, you keep the money and the store loses a sale. If you are unhappy with what you buy, you either take it back or don’t go to that store again.
When you work for a boss, you have to be more wonderful to the boss than the money the boss pays you. If you aren’t worth more then your pay, you’re gone. If you don’t keep your boss happy to pay you, you may be gone even if you are worth your pay. So here are the axioms, folks, write `em down, they’ll serve you well:
1) Be more wonderful than money.
2) Take only happy money.
Being wonderful is not only good idea, it’s a commandment of God:
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24
You don’t really work for our boss; you work for God. God commands you to work heartily and to be as wonderful as you possibly can.
The world does not owe you a living. God told Adam to eat by the sweat of his face, we all have to sweat to eat. Knowing that you have to be more wonderful than money is not enough, you have to know how to be wonderful.
At the time I learned I had to be wonderful, I was blessed with a wonderful boss. His explanations were so inspiring and seemed so wise that I had little trouble working for him and doing things his way. That made it easy to obey God when God told me to obey my boss.
As we all know, however, God’s commands are unconditional. We must obey our bosses whether they are good bosses or bad bosses. Husbands most love their wives as Christ loved the church whether wives deserve sacrificial love or not. Wives must submit to their husbands whether husbands deserve submission or not. God did not say "Love your wife if she deserves it," He said love your wife even if she does not do her part. God did not say "Submit to your husband if he deserves it," He said submit to your husband in all things even if he does not do his part. God did not say "Children obey your parents if you agree with them," He said "Children obey your parents."
God also commands you to obey your boss, even if he is unworthy:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. I Peter 2:18
The command to obey bosses is even stronger than the command for children to obey their parents and for husbands to love their wives because God specifically includes bad bosses as well as good. It must be harder to obey a bad boss than to love an unworthy wife or to submit to an unworthy husband.
God does not hold you accountable for your boss, God holds you accountable for you. When you appear before the judgement seat of Christ to answer for your work, don’t bother pleading you did not set a good example at work because you had a bad boss, the Bible tells you to do your part anyway.
I’m going to point out six Biblical principles to help you be wonderful on the job whether you have a good boss or not. I know these principles work even with bad bosses because I did not learn them from the Bible; I learned them from bitter experience. I learned these lessons by violating them. Each time I broke one of God’s rules, I got slapped down, wasting untold toil and treasure and damaging my testimony. Each time, I had to pick myself up, try to figure out what happened, and learn not to do that again.
When you violate God’s laws on marriage and morality, it may take a while to see results. David murdered Uriah the Hittite to get his wife Bathsheeba and the punishment came later. When David didn’t punish Absolom for murdering Amnon, David’s punishment didn’t come for years. When I broke God’s laws of business, I usually got punished right away, and my punishment was losing a job or losing money. Swift punishment has one advantage, you learn faster.
What I’m going to point out tonight, especially to you young people, are tested principles how to be wonderful. You can heed and obey what the Bible says about earning a living or you can despise God’s wisdom. I hope you will heed; ignoring the Bible cost me plenty, and I want to help you avoid my mistakes.
Let us pray:
Our Father, we understand your punishment of Adam for disobeying your Word and eating of the forbidden fruit; we know that we must work and work hard. We thank you so very much, Father, for telling us how to work, so that our efforts might help us prosper. Help us to learn from your word, so that our testimony at work might bring others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Avoid Unequal Yoke
The first principle of business success is, never go into business with an unsaved person. The Bible tells you to avoid unequal yokes:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God, with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. II Corinthians 6:14-17
Going into partnership with an unsaved person is rebellion against God’s command, and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, I Samuel 15:23.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17
You know God’s will in this matter, so it is a sin for you to have an unsaved business partner. God not only tells you not to do it, He tells you why:
Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Psalm 127:1
How can you build a Godly business life if you are in business with an ungodly partner? You can’t; I couldn’t; nobody can, God says so. I’m strong on this rule because I violated it, not once, but twice. God was merciful the 1st time and my partner only stole $3,000 from me. The 2nd time, I ended up repaying a $100,000 bank loan out of my own pocket.
I should have left my unsaved business partners for the Lord’s sake.
Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10:29-30
Most of you will never start a business, but most of you will marry. The principle of avoiding partnership with the unsaved applies to spouses as well as business partners. Don’t go into business with the unsaved; don’t marry the unsaved. It’s a whole lot easier to get into bed with someone than to get out.
Most of us end up as employees of the unsaved; that’s not a sin.
Don’t Quit
The second principle of prosperity after avoiding unequal yoke is, don’t quit. Being wonderful is a lot of work, but you have to keep on keeping on.
For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again: Proverbs 24:16
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9
God says not to be afraid of failure, just pick yourself up and try again. The lost know this. Remember the saying "If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again." Colonel Sanders was a 63-year-old bankrupt sleeping in the back of his car when he started a fried chicken restaurant. It did OK.
Humility
After equal yoke and "don’t quit," the third principle of prosperity is plain, old-fashioned humility. This is a very important point; I have fired more people for violating this principle than for any other reason. The Bible says.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Philippians 2:3-4
Does the boss pay you to do his thing, or does he pay you to do your own thing? He pays you to do his thing, of course, and you better esteem his thing enough to do it cheerfully whether you like it or not.
Let no man seek his own, but rather another’s wealth I Corinthians 10:24
The Bible says you are to seek your boss’s success before your own. "Let nothing be done through strife" says not to argue with the boss. Nobody ever wins an argument with the boss or with a customer; you lose even when you win. In many offices, you will often see posters displaying the two rules of business:
Rule #1 The boss is always right
Rule #2 If the boss is ever wrong, see rule #1.
In other words, even the unsaved say the boss is always right, even when the boss is wrong.
This is not as silly as it sounds. The boss has been in business longer than you, and it’s just possible that he’s learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. The boss is probably right, even when you think the boss is wrong.
I have a dehumidifier hung from the basement ceiling so water can run down a hose into a drain on the wall. Last summer, the water stopped running through the hose and started dripping on the floor. I tried everything-I cleaned the hose, I checked the drain. The water kept dripping on the floor, so I put the hose in a bucket and emptied the bucket.
When I went on a trip, my son had to empty the bucket. He did this a while, then he had a bright idea. Next time I visited the basement, the hose was up in the pipe instead of down in the bucket and the water was all over the floor.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to save work, but my son’s idea failed. He should have known I’m at least as lazy as he, and that if I didn’t put the hose in the pipe, there might be a reason. He should have asked me first.
Humility means assuming the boss has a reason for the way he wants the work done and doing it his way even if you like your way better. If you absolutely must try something new, ask first, and use a humble posture like "Excuse me, Sir, I don’t understand your methods. Could you please tell me why this won’t work...?" If you ask first, the boss will realize you can be trusted to get the work done when the boss is away. That makes you wonderful.
Humility means acknowledging the boss’ authority in thought, word, and deed. When the boss tells you to do something, there is a big difference between unenthusiastic "All right, if that’s what you want" and whipping out a snappy "Yes, sir!" and doing it on the jump.
The first thing the Marines teach a recruit is how to say "Yes sir!" They teach the same lesson at State Police academies. You can’t be a soldier or a cop without being able to say "Yes, sir!" and mean it.
Accepting authority with your mouth is important. Every boss knows your mouth shows your heart:
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45
Bosses and drill sergeants know forcing your mouth mends your heart. Sensible bosses insist on polite respect-if you respect them verbally, you eventually respect them from the heart and work goes smoothly. Sensible employees respect bosses and are polite to customers without being told.
I learned this while growing up in Japan. The Japanese are much more concerned with authority than Americans and I was taught to follow authority from my youth up. At my first job after IBM, the boss asked me why I was so much more polite than his other people. I told him I was being paid to help him get his work done; that was why there was money for me in his budget. Since he was senior, he deserved my respect. He liked that.
When my name appeared in engineering magazines 20 years later, my boss remembered me and sent me a note wishing me well. Bosses like polite respect. So do teachers-polite students get better grades. That’s a tip, young people, write it down! Soft answers turn away wrath; you know that, but humble politeness can keep wrath from even starting.
Humility also means apologizing, even for things that aren’t your fault. A woman at our office was deeply hurt when a manager told her I’d said unkind things about her. I had no idea what was going on, but I wrote her an apology.
The big boss later asked me "Bill, why did you apologize? It wasn’t you that criticized her, it was so-and-so, you had nothing to do with it."
I said "Well, I was sorry it happened. She’s one of our better workers, and having her unhappy hurts the company." The boss felt I was looking out for his interests and not just my own.
Humility and esteeming other better than yourself means taking care of customers even when it hurts. When my wife worked at Jordans, she’d always go back and check when a customer asked for a missing size or color even if she was supposed to be on break. She became known to customers; they looked for her when they came to the department. At first, other workers tried to discourage her, but after the boss took notice, they followed her example. Sales went up.
So what does humility mean at work?
*Esteeming not your own things, but rather the things of the boss; seek his wealth and not your own; that’s humility
*Don’t argue with the boss or customers; that’s humility
*Do everything the boss wants done in the way the boss wants it done; lean not to your own understanding; that’s humility
*Acknowledge the boss’ authority through politeness and saying "Yes, sir!" that’s humility
*Apologize even when it isn’t your fault; that’s humility
*Take care of customers first, then your boss, finally yourself; that’s humility
Ever hear of J-O-Y, Jesus, Others, Yourself? In business, it’s C-B-Y, Customers, Boss, Yourself.
Don’t Complain
Working humbly means never complain, the boss doesn’t like it. God doesn’t like complaining either:
And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. Numbers 11:1
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. I Corinthians 10:10
Do all things without murmurings and disputings Philippians 2:14
You have to talk about your job enough to understand it, but there is a big difference between learning about work and complaining. Murmuring is forbidden, I Corinthians 10:10. If your boss feels you are complaining, you are. If he does not feel you are complaining, you aren’t, but you should stay well clear of anything that sounds at all like complaint lest you get a reputation as a troublemaker.
That’s bad for two reasons: First, nobody likes a complainer; the noise makes everybody’s work seem harder. Second, if the boss figures you will complain no matter what, why should he give any thought to your preferences? If he can’t please you anyway, why try?
God tells you twice why you should not complain-Proverbs 19:13 and Proverbs 27:15 compare complaining to a continual dripping of rain. Hasn’t anyone ever told you, "Don’t rain on my parade?"
Complaining changes the way your work is valued. If you work cheerfully, your boss thinks you do more work than if you complain. Complainers have to do at least twice as much work to be seen as equal to people who do not complain.
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. II Corinthians 9:7
God isn’t the only one who loveth a cheerful giver, all bosses love a worker who gives cheerful, willing, work.
When the Israelites complained, the fire of the Lord consumed them (Numbers 11:1). If you complain at work, the fire of the boss may consume you and you’ll be without the camp looking for another job.
Be Honest
God commands that you work hard, work quietly, work humbly, and work cheerfully. You must also work honestly, your testimony depends on it.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Romans 12:17b
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 11:1
A just weight and balance are the Lord’s: all the weights of the bag are his work Proverbs 16:11
Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good. Proverbs 20:23
"Divers" means various or varying. Old-time cheats had two sets of weights, a heavy one for buying and a light one for selling. Using the heavy weight to balance what they bought meant they got more; using the light weight to measure what they sold meant they gave less. This is an abomination to the Lord which means God hates it and that it disgusts God. God thinks dishonesty is icky!
Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:10-11
Four times God condemns false measurement, twice in the same chapter. It must be important. You can’t hide dishonesty; even children are known for their actions.
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in the closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. Luke 12:2-3
This is why God hates dishonesty:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
We Christians belong to God; if we do good work, others are interested in God. We were created for good works. If we are dishonest, we make God look bad because he made us and we are part of Him. Our dishonesty gives the world an excuse-an unsaved person says "Christians are no better, why should I accept salvation?"
Not many of us work with scales, but remember the saying "An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay"? Your boss has bought your best effort. Your boss expects you to be more wonderful than money; honesty compels you to deliver the most wonderful work you can.
Doing your own work around the house well and slacking off on your boss’ work is having two measures, one for you and one for the boss, which is abomination unto the Lord. God hates that; it disgusts Him and sets a bad example. Doing less than your best for your boss weighs your work with a false balance which is not good (Proverbs 20:23).
How many times have you heard a worker say "I’ve got to leave early today; I’m going out." or "I don’t want to work too hard, I’ve got a project this weekend" or "I’m just putting in the time, my heart is somewhere else." Don’t you know people who call in sick when they are well? That’s using divers weights, an abomination to the Lord; it utterly disgusts God, and your boss hates it too. Cheating your boss is not wonderful.
Young people, don’t you work hard on activities like skiing or hobbies you enjoy while slacking off on schoolwork? Watch out-you are learning the habit of using divers measures of effort, one measure for your work and one measure for school work, which is abomination to the Lord and disgusts your teachers.
Don’t even think you can fool teachers-I’ve talked with them about many teens. They know when you do your best. Even a child is known by his doings and teens are beyond childhood, they’re beginning to make a mark in the world.
Doing less than your best in school trains you in not doing your best when you go to work. Every day, you are becoming what you will be. If you are not wonderful in school it will be hard to be wonderful on the job. You can’t fool the boss any more than you can fool your teachers, believe me. People who always do their best have a light in their eyes and a spring in their step which is unmistakable. Wonderful workers glow; others sort of sog through life and anyone can see it. You certainly can’t fool God:
But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Deuteronomy 25:15
God says just measurement is the way to long life and prosperity. Everybody wants to deal with honest workers. I treasure the workmen of our church-I can tell them to do what needs to be done without worrying about unneeded expense. Can you imagine telling an unsaved auto mechanic "Fix whatever you find wrong"? Can you imagine saying "Take the time you need to do it right"? But I can say that to our mechanics, and to our carpenters, and to our cleaners, and to our other people.
Honesty earns you the benefit of the doubt. I learned that with my expense reports. I’m a cheapskate. I stay at low cost hotels; I ask for extra meals on airplanes so I won’t have to eat on the ground. My expense reports are so low the clerks talk about them, "Did you see Bill’s latest? Four days, not a penny for food!" With that reputation, do you think anyone ever questions my expenses?
Lest you think I’m cheating the airlines, I should point out that meals which aren’t eaten in flight are thrown away! Airlines try to set up programs to give leftover food to the poor, but health departments won’t let them-the meals have been out of the refrigerator too long. Asking for extra food doesn’t cost the airlines a penny and saves my boss money.
Verily I say unto you, there are worse things in life than being known for being tight with the boss’ money. Bosses feel exactly the way Christ does. Remember the story of the talents and how the boss received the servant who handled his money well?
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23
If you don’t watch out for every penny of company money, how can the boss trust you with dollars? If you can’t handle dollars, how can you be promoted and enter into the joy of the boss?
People ask me "Why are you so careful-it’s only company money?" Don’t kid yourself, it’s your money, if you don’t spend it, your boss has more money to pay you.
Computers print out numbers added up every which way. Your boss knows exactly how much you cost, not only your pay, but your health benefits, social security, unemployment, your share of the rent, your share of the heat, your desk, your tools, your travel, and everything else you don’t think about, down to the last penny.
Believe me, your boss gets those reports and looks at them. The boss knows what you cost; it’s up to you to make sure your work is worth everything you cost and more. One way to be more wonderful than money is to cost less money, then you don’t have to be as wonderful.
Honesty not only means working hard when the boss is watching, it’s working even harder when the boss is away to do part of what he does on top of your own job:
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. Matthew 24:45-47
Here we have a responsible servant-he distributes meat to the household. He’s paying out the boss’ money. Maybe he handles payroll, maybe it’s petty cash. Whatever his job, when the boss gets back and finds the job done well, the servant is promoted.
The passage also describes the servant who is not working when the boss returns. He loses his job.
Jesus is speaking about His return as well as telling us how to treat bosses. We should live our spiritual lives as if Christ might return at any moment; we should work as if the boss might pop in at any moment.
You probably work with at least one goof-off who gets away with not working. Remember in class when the teacher would be out of the room, some kids would fool around and some would work? Every time you do wrong, you make wrong a habit and it is harder to do right the next time. When you do right, you make right a habit, and doing right becomes easier.
God sees the goof-off, and the boss eventually sees it.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:6-7
For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. II Corinthians 5:10
Goofing off never pays over the long haul; God judges slackers, but that is up to God. You are not to criticize the slacker; he works for the boss, not for you; he is paid with the boss’ money, not yours:
Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Romans 14:4
Uplift and encourage the slacker, do not condemn him:
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2
Take Care of God’s Work
The last principle for prosperity we’ll talk about this week is to take care of God’s work as well as your boss’ work and your own work.
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25
At the time the King James was written, the word "Liberal" meant "generous." Now, a liberal is someone who wants the government to take your money and give it to people who produce fatherless children through fornication, but at that time, nobody ever conceived of the government taking money from the taxpayers for that purpose.
If you are generous to the Lord’s work and to other people, the Bible says you will be successful, if you water God’s work, God will water you.
There is that scatereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. Proverbs 11:24
If you scatter your resources to help God’s work, your own will increase, but being stingy makes you poor. If you put your own finances ahead of the Lord’s work your labor may come to nothing. This is a great mystery to me; I’ve seen it all my life, but it’s still hard to believe.
I know it’s hard to keep dropping money in that box back there, especially when times are tough. My worst struggle in my entire life is believing that God will take care of me and dropping in money I need for other things, but God has never let me down yet.
Summary
We have covered the first six principles of being wonderful enough to prosper this week: avoiding unequal yoke, persistence, humility, don’t complain, honesty, and taking care of God’s work. Persistence means not quitting-when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Unequal yoke means never have an unsaved business partner or spouse because it will cost you dearly as it cost me.
Humility means doing what your boss wants the way the boss wants it done even if he’s a bad boss. It means politeness. It means working quietly, letting your work speak for itself and letting others praise you. Honesty means working just as hard for your boss as for yourself even if he’s a bad boss. Honesty also means supporting God’s work.
Being wonderful is a real pain, I admit. There is a hymn which says "Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fight to win the prize and sail through bloody seas." To be honest, I’d far rather have flowery beds of ease, but that’s not the way God usually works, I’ve spent most of my life in bloody seas and so will you.
How can you be wonderful all the days of your life? Simple. Be wonderful one day at a time. Eastern Airlines used to say "We’ve got to earn our wings every day." They had the right idea, but they didn’t do it, and now they’re gone.
That’s no surprise. Jesus did not offer blessings to those who "Hear my words." Jesus did not offer blessing to those who "Know my words." Jesus offered blessing to those who "Hear my words and do them." Merely knowing the secrets of prosperity is not enough, you have to do them. Knowing the Bible is no help; you’ve got to do what it says.
This message has been directed to the saved; these verses won’t mean much to someone who’s not accepted Christ as Savior, although many of God’s commands have been accepted into common business wisdom. It’s hard to follow God’s principles of prosperity without God’s help, that’s why the saved should be such an example to others at work.
The Bible Teaches You How To Prosper, Part III
Last week, we discussed six Biblical principles of being wonderful enough to prosper: avoid unequal yoke, persistence, humility, don’t complain, honesty, and support God’s work. Complaining makes everybody around you suffer; both your boss and God hate complaints.
Complaining hurts you worse than it hurts anyone else. Men who complain used to be called "sourpuss." "Puss" is a slang term for face. Complaining makes a man’s face look sour, and over the years, the wrinkles, scars, and other marks of sourness become permanent.
Young ladies, a negative, complaining, bitter attitude makes you look ugly. I’ve been male all my life; I can assure you that a cheerful, helpful attitude makes a woman very desirable to a man. Good cheer makes you a better employee, it makes God happy with you, it also makes you more attractive. Such a deal! You gain far more beauty from a cheerful heart within you than you can possibly gain from makeup painted on the outside, and cheerfulness costs less than makeup. Beautifying your face or figure without beautifying your heart is like painting a fender without scraping the rust off or sweeping dust under the rug; what’s underneath always shows through.
Who are the most popular girls at school, the sourest or the happiest?
Complaining is selfish, it assumes that everybody cares about your problems; humility cares about other people.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Philippians 2:3-4
Honesty means working just as hard for your boss and for God as for yourself, using equal measure for your own work, for the boss, and for God. Doing less than your best for a boss or teacher or God is an abomination to the Lord and disgusts God, and you can’t hide it.
Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:10-11
Humility means politeness. It means working quietly, letting your work speak for itself, not your words.
Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. Proverbs 27:2
Humility also means doing what your boss wants the way the boss wants it done. It doesn’t matter if you are smarter than the boss, you aren’t the boss, you have to do it the way you are told.
I’ve fired more employees because they weren’t humble enough to do things the way we needed them done than for any other reason. The smartest people have the hardest time realizing the company pays them to do things the company way, not their way.
That’s no surprise. Satan was one of the best of God’s angels but Satan wanted to be boss. We all know what happened to him:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. Isaiah 14:12-15
Satan got fired because he was too proud to let God be boss. Eve lost her job tending the garden of Eden because she wanted to be like God instead of accepting the position God gave her. Pride is fatal:
God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble. I Peter 5:5
How can you stand when God Himself resists you? Pride is worth nothing; it only goeth before destruction.
Tonight, we’ll consider four more principles of prosperity, but first, let us pray.
Our Father, please, help us to accept your commands that we work diligently every day of our lives. Help us to keep on keeping on, and give us the strength to work to do all things unto thee. Amen.
Work Hard
Principle #7 is hard work to go with your cheerful, uncomplaining, persistent, humble attitude. Not just persistent work, but hard work. I once saw a little box in a novelty shop, on top it said, "This box holds the key to prosperity." I opened it, and inside was a note with one word. It said, "Work!" That’s Biblical.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10a
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise Proverbs 6:6
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs 10:4
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before Kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the LORD; Romans 12:11
I’m so thankful for the very few schools which won’t give A’s unless young people average 97%. Anything less is an A- or something worse.
Public schools think 90% is an A, but that’s silly. What if your mechanic fixed 90% of what was wrong with your car, would you go back? What if your car started 90% of the time, would you keep it or would you junk it?
What if our roofers drove 90% of the nails right, would the houses they build stay up? Out in the real world, kids, the only thing that counts is 100%, zero defects, 4.0! I’m thankful for teachers who make kids do and redo and redo their math until it’s right! How else can they learn accuracy?
What if the post office delivered 10% of the mail wrong? People think they deliver lots of letters wrong, but their actual error rate is well below 1%. The post office delivers more than 99% of their letters correctly, yet most people think they have a much worse record than they do. Why is this? People remember what you do wrong far, far longer than they remember what you do right, that’s a fact of life. As Shakespeare said, "The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." Your boss remembers your mistakes longer than he remembers what you do right, so you better not make many mistakes.
The world does not line up for the privilege of handing you money; you have to go out and earn it. Rich Kirby says he doesn’t see how anybody can make it on only 40 hours per week, 40 hours barely covers costs, making a profit at all takes longer than that. The Bible says "six days shalt thou labor," there is none of this 40 hours per week nonsense in the Bible. To advance in your job, you must not only do what is asked, you must look for extra work. Jesus said:
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Matthew 5:41
Any Roman soldier could compel any citizen to carry a burden for a mile and people hated doing it. Christ said they should do more than they were asked. This sounded strange, but don’t you think your boss appreciates it when you do more than you are asked? Are you an employee whom the boss could call at 2AM because he needed you for a sudden 7AM meeting? If he did, how would you react?
It’s not extraordinary to serve your boss, it’s only reasonable:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
Note the words "living sacrifice." God is not asking you to die for your boss, God tells you to sacrifice every moment of every waking day of your life to your spouse, to your children, to your boss, to the church, giving `til it hurts. Giving reasonably is not sacrifice.
We tend to think sacrifice is unreasonable, but God says being a living sacrifice is "your reasonable service." Remember J-O-Y, Jesus, Others, Yourself? And C-B-Y, Customers, Boss, Yourself?
Christ may or may not ask you to die for Him, martyrdom is rare in the United States, but He commands you to live for him. Christ also tells us to serve those who rule over us:
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye service, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the LORD, and not unto men; knowing that of the LORD ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the LORD Christ. Colossians 3:22-24, see also Ephesians 6:5-8
Doing what you are told with all your heart is only reasonable and it serves Christ. The boss always comes first:
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come in from the field, Go and sit down to meal? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded of him? I trou not. So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. Luke 17:7-10
God says working hard isn’t extra, it’s your duty. Merely doing your duty makes you an unprofitable servant.
Even the lost know this-medals are awarded for heroism "above and beyond the call of duty." On top of "more wonderful than money" and "happy money," remember the A B C D’s of money-your output must be Above and Beyond the Call of Duty to prosper. A-Above B-Beyond C-Call D-Duty. A B C D Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. That’s how to be a hero in the military and at work. Military heroes get dead. At work, heroes get paid more and are worthy ambassadors for the Lord Christ.
Paid more? How’s that again? Paid more? Simple. Work Above and Beyond the Call of Duty as if there were nothing to it. Not grudgingly, or of necessity, for the boss loveth a cheerful giver.
It’s plain common sense that a boss appreciates your doing more than is asked. How can you show you are ready for a bigger job except by doing more than your job? Put yourself in the boss’ shoes. You have two workers and need to promote one. The first does superb work but always arrives barely on the dot and is out the door in a flash at quitting time. The other is in early straightening up and stays late making sure the lights are out, the doors are locked, and the place is ready for the next day. Whom do you promote, the one who does only what is asked, or the one who looks after the whole business?
It’s reasonable to sacrifice for the boss; he pays your bills. You write checks with your name at the bottom. You fill in "pay to the order of" and the bank gives the money to them. Your boss is probably the only place you regularly get a check with your name at the top, pay to the order of you!
Isn’t someone who does that worth a little extra work in appreciation? With no complaints about low pay? If you make your boss feel bad about not paying you enough, he may feel so guilty he decides not to pay you at all.
Hard work means not quitting before the job’s done, no matter how long it takes, no matter how tired you get:
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
Quitters are not only unfit for the Kingdom of God, they are unfit for the payroll.
Employment sounds like much work, and so it is. So what?
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9
How can you be wonderful all the days of your life? Be wonderful one day at a time. Eastern Airlines used to say "We’ve got to earn our wings every day," but they weren’t more wonderful than money so nobody gave them any money. They had the right idea, but they didn’t do it, and they’re gone.
Faithfulness and Loyalty
After point #7, hard work, comes #8, faithfulness. Faithfulness means showing up every day whether you feel like it or not. Faithfulness means looking out for the business instead of for yourself.
What’s the limit on business growth? Is it money? Is it that big businesses don’t have the money to build factories?
IBM has billions in cash; they could throw up any number of factories; they don’t have faithful people to run them.
I know a parts dealer who has several stores. Why not more stores? Can’t he get parts? Big A, his parts supplier, loves him. One phone call would fill any building in the state with parts, no questions asked.
Maybe he can’t get buildings? No, banks are after him to borrow more money. To banks, you and I are an expense, they have to pay us interest, but he’s a customer, he pays them. No, he could get buildings in a heartbeat.
For all their money, he and IBM can’t expand because they can’t get faithful people. Listen to Solomon’s lament:
Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all these have I not found. Ecclesiastes 7:28
Solomon ran the Kingdom of Israel like a family business. The population of Israel was about the population of IBM or General Motors. Solomon’s annual cash flow was comparable to GM’s sales. GM handles more money per year than all but the 6 or 7 largest countries in the world.
What was Solomon’s problem? Not money, he was swimming in gold. He could not get faithful people to run the business, only one employee in a thousand was worth anything.
As an aside, I should point out that some men use this verse to justify not trusting their wives, but this is grossly unfair. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (I Kings 11:3). A woman can’t trust a man who hasn’t dedicated his life to taking care of her. Solomon had not dedicated himself to a wife; he had far too many women to give any of them the time, attention, care, conversation, praise, and devotion a wife needs.
This verse shows the pain a husband suffers when his wife is not his but also reminds husbands that wives need faithful devotion to help them belong. Your wife needs your faithful devotion so she can be happy to belong to you and stay on your payroll; your boss needs your faithful devotion so you can belong to him and stay on his payroll.
To get back to business, your boss’ main problem is finding faithful followers. Your path to prosperity is to be a good and faithful servant; your boss will clasp you to his bosom with hoops of gold and never let you go. Why do the Marines look for "A few good men"? The Marines are realistic; they know there aren’t many good men.
Remember the Boy Scout oath? It goes: Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent. What more do you need? That’s how to succeed.
Didn’t God say:
but we beseech you brethren, to work with your own hands, that ye may have lack of nothing. I Thessalonians 4:10b-12
That’s the secret! Why would God beg you to work with you own hands if everybody did it? Faithful workers are few as any boss will tell you. If you are faithful, your boss will treasure you and protect you. Take care of your boss and your boss will take care of you.
Faithfulness means being on your boss’ side. A house divided against itself cannot stand, Matthew 10:25. Unless you help your boss increase the business, it shall decrease, and you shall be out of a job. Work is like riding a bicycle-if you stop or even slow down, you fall.
You and your boss eat off the same income. You are sucking on the same straw and competitors want to shove their straws in your glass. Everybody wants to eat your lunch. When it comes to faithfulness, your boss agrees with Jesus when Jesus said:
He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Matthew 12:30
You are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem, and your boss doesn’t need more problems. God explains that you must help your boss defend your paycheck against competitors:
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12
God says you’ve got to work together and watch the business every moment of every waking day:
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man. Proverbs 6:10-11
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. For riches are not forever: and doth the crown endure to every generation? Proverbs 27:23-24
Your competitors will get you if you don’t watch out. GM shows this. When I came to the US to go to college in 1963, there were no Japanese cars on American roads and GM had 45-48% of the market. GM went to sleep for years as the Japanese took share from them; they are down to the low 30s now.
GM wasn’t humble. They did not ask us what kind of cars we wanted, they told us what cars we would buy. The Japanese took survey after survey and developed the most popular, reliable cars in America.
GM was a house divided. GM fights with suppliers and dealers and labor unions; you’ve read about these fights in the papers. When Mazda got in trouble, the Japanese unions took a pay cut and worked overtime for years to get a new model out to save their paychecks. Their house was not divided, all one body they.
GM wasn’t faithful. Their cars broke down and were hard to fix. A boss may forgive occasional unfaithfulness; customers never forgive.
GM complained. They griped to the government that the Japanese were unfair when all the Japanese were doing was offering better products at a better price. The government let in fewer Japanese cars so the Japanese raised prices and made more money to invest in new factories to make cars even better. GM raised prices and put the money into management bonuses. They improved their cars a bit, but not as much as the Japanese.
GM loved money instead of customers-management gave bonuses for profit instead of customer satisfaction, workers fought for more money instead of working to improve sales so there would be more money. Everybody fought to take out, nobody worried about putting in. God says the love of money is the root of all evil and that we should be living sacrifices. GM loved money and hated sacrifice; GM is going down. They were too proud to serve customers so customers went elsewhere.
Is it any wonder GM’s market share is down in the 30s and they are losing money? Is it any wonder that if you do these things, you have trouble finding a job?
Keep Quiet About Money
Humility leads to point #9, keep quiet about money. Philippians 2:3-4 tells you to look on the things of others, and we’ve just seen what happened when GM complained. Looking not on your own things means keeping quiet about your pay no matter how dissatisfied you may be. God tells you not to worry about money:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Matthew 6:24-25a
You can’t serve both money and your boss. Not thinking about money brings you peace:
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be make known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Bosses want you to be more concerned with the work you do for them than with pay, vacations, and whatever else they do for you. If you want more money, ask God, not the boss.
I’ve messed up that one too. In one job, I felt I was being treated unfairly. I thought I was keeping my concerns to myself, but one day, a co-worker said to me "All you ever do is worry about what you’re getting paid!"
I was shocked-not only had I reduced my effectiveness, I had destroyed my testimony. I had to find another job.
Talking about pay makes someone unhappy, either you or the other person. This leads to murmuring and complaining which God forbids. Talking about pay is so divisive, it leads to so much bad feeling, that IBM forbids it utterly. You’ll be fired on the spot if IBM catches you talking about pay, your own, or anyone else’s. Discuss pay, and you’re out!
God forbids complaining in general; Jesus Himself specifically forbids complaining about money:
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour, he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle. They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Matthew 20:1-15
Your salvation is between you and Christ and none other. Your pay is between you and your boss and none other. The boss has no obligation to pay others in a way that seems right to you, it’s not your money. The boss must only pay you what you and he agreed. The boss can pay others any way he likes; it’s his money.
It’s the American tradition to do what you want with your own money. If you have 300 million to spend, you, too, can paint your name on the back ends of airplanes as Donald Trump did when he bought the Eastern shuttle. If the boss wants to spend money on a rattle-brained goof-off, it’s his lookout, not yours. Study to be quiet and to do your own business (I Thessalonians 4:10).
Your boss hires you because he wants your work more than he wants the money he pays you, but your pay is private between you and him. Even if you are paid standard wages and everybody knows what you make, don’t talk about it.
McDonalds has people wrap hamburgers because the boss wants burgers wrapped more than he wants the money he pays to have them wrapped; if he didn’t, he wouldn’t pay. Anything you buy, you want more than the money or you’d keep the money.
More Than Money
This is one of the fundamental principles of business: Nothing happens unless it is worth more than money.
As I said earlier, I learned this while working for IBM in 1966. I asked my boss a question. He took me to his office and asked where IBM got its money. I didn’t know so he said "We are able to pay you because customers send us money. We want customers to send us money because they feel we earned it, not just because they gotta send money. We want happy money here in IBM."
He said, "Our salesmen don’t call on people with no money. Their job is to convince customers to want our products more than money or they don’t make the sale. Our job in engineering is to design products that are more wonderful than money or they won’t sell and the company won’t have money to pay us."
He said, "Look, you want to get paid more, right? I’ll tell you how. Make our products worth more to customers so we can raise the price. I don’t mean stealing, I mean raise the price because it’s genuinely better. Don’t worry about pay, take care of customers. If you take care of customers, customers will take care of IBM, and IBM will take care of you. That’s how you get paid more-get us more money so we have more money to pay you with."
I understood capitalism. IBM did not pay me, customers paid me, IBM just handled the money. That’s important, kids, for you to remember, your boss doesn’t pay you, customers pay you, the boss does you the favor of collecting the money; you don’t have to go get it. If you don’t think collecting money is a pain, ask anyone who runs a business.
Nothing happens unless it’s more wonderful than money. When you buy anything, you buy it because you want it more than you want the money; if it were not more wonderful to you than the money, you would keep the money and nothing would happen.
I shouldn’t have had to have my boss tell me that; it’s in the Bible. Remember the verses about do with thy might and do unto the Lord? Doing with thy might unto the Lord is IBM company policy. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver; IBM loveth a cheerful worker.
I found out later that what my boss told me was in his manager’s handbook. IBM wants to be sure every kid gets that lecture at the right time so they teach all their managers to pass it on. Making sure every employee does as unto the Lord is IBM doctrine. Our church has doctrine about separation and obedience; IBM has doctrine about customer service, hard work, and sacrifice. Joining IBM is like joining a church. Managers teach IBM doctrine to new people like we teach Bible follow-up to new members except IBM does a more consistent job.
IBM teaches you to take care every day that your work is more wonderful than the money you get or you lose your job.
How do you get more money without asking about money? Pray, and strive quietly to make your work more wonderful to your boss. As the value of your work increases, most bosses share the increase with you. If your boss doesn’t, it’s easy to find a boss who will, provided your work has truly increased in value.
This is an old, old Biblical principle:
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. II Timothy 2:15-16
What could be more vain than babbling that you aren’t paid enough? Don’t do it; griping not only makes your boss unhappy, it leads to ungodliness.
The word "study" means exactly what you think. Young people, your full-time job is to study so that when you become workers you need not be ashamed. Workers, you must continue to study and learn new skills, how else can you be approved of God? Increasing your skills is not only approved of God, it makes you approved of the boss, and that is the way to more pay.
Women who go back to work after a child-rearing absence of two or three years usually have great trouble catching up. Everything changes so fast your skills are out of date every few years, I don’t care what you do. Some people think it’s too much trouble to stay current, but if you think education is expensive, you ought to try ignorance. If you think keeping up to date is costly, try letting your skills slide; that will cost you more.
Working humbly and quietly is the key to prosperity:
but we beseech you brethren, that ye increase more and more; and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. I Thessalonians 4:10b-12
Being quiet and working with your own hands leads to lacking nothing.
Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. Proverbs 27:2
and let her own works praise her in the gates Proverbs 31:31
This woman’s work praises her, not her words. Working humbly and quietly and letting others praise you is not only how ye may have prosperity by lacking nothing, it’s superb testimony, as unsaved bosses see that you are different from all the other workers and wonder why.
Take Care of God’s Work
The 10th rule for prosperity is to take care of God’s work.
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled [finely finished] houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow on it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house. Haggai 1:2-6,9
These people put their own work ahead of the Lord’s work and their effort came to nothing. It’s hard to keep plugging away handing out tracts, visiting the lost, and doing other work for the Lord, but it’s the most important part of God’s prescription for prosperity.
People say "I can’t help with the church, I haven’t the skills!" God does not hold you accountable for skills you don’t have, He wants you to use whatever you do have. Don’t worry about what you can’t do, concentrate on what you can do. Doing the Lord’s work is the most important part of God’s prescription for prosperity.
So, if you want the formula for success in a single word, remember Eddie Sleeper’s little box holding the secret of prosperity-work!
If you can remember a little more, remember IBMs axioms: Be more wonderful than money, take only happy money.
It’s best of all, of course, to remember what the Bible says about prosperity: last week, points 1 through 6: avoid unequal yoke, persistence, humility, don’t complain, honesty, and support God’s work
For this week, points 7 through 10: not just persistent work but hard work, loyal faithfulness, keep quiet about money, and take care of God’s work. I listed doing God’s work twice on purpose, that wasn’t an accident, doing God’s work is that important, it’s what we’re made for.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
Disclaimer
There’s no guarantee that following these rules will make you rich; that’s not God’s way. We’re commanded to accept the Bible by faith; if everybody who followed the Bible got rich, people would follow the Bible through evidence, not faith. Obeying God is always a good idea, however, and following God’s rules gives you an edge at work so you can make the best of whatever you do.
Business and the Christian Life
I’ve pointed out Biblical principles how to prosper in business-separating from the lost, humility, faithfulness, hard work, concern for others, taking care of God’s work, uncomplaining sacrificial service to the boss and more. The verses I used are familiar-Pastor Anderson has preached them over and over as keys to success in the Christian life.
Separation, humility, concern for the things of others, quietness, faithfulness, hard work, taking care of God’s work, and service to others are the building blocks of the Christian life as they are building blocks of success in business.
God knew we could never learn two sets of rules, one for business and another set for salvation. We have trouble enough with one set of rules, so God made one set do for both. With God, learning one set of rules gives you the second set free. Learning how to succeed in the Christian life helps you succeed in business and vice versa.
It’s an even better deal than that. My wife and I became concerned about the divorce rate and have been collecting material to teach our sons how to be good husbands and to avoid the pain of divorce. I don’t want my grandchildren growing up in single-parent homes.
The very same verses God wrote for business and for the Christian life apply equally to marriage. Separation, concern for others, humility, quietness, faithfulness, hard work, taking care of God’s work, and sacrificial service to your husband or wife are the building blocks of successful Christian marriage, successful Christian life, and successful business.
Stores occasionally offer a 2 for 1 sale-buy one, get one free. God has a permanent offer of three for one-accept one set of rules, and you can prosper in marriage, in business, and in the rest of your life. That’s 3 for 1!
The irony is that if God chooses to let you become rich, it won’t do you much good unless you don’t want it. If you want the money, it harms you rather than helping:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I Timothy 6:10
There’s nothing wrong with having money but there is everything wrong with loving it. Coveting money not only brings you sorrow, you will never be satisfied, no matter how much you get:
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this also is vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them, and what good is there to the owners thereof, save the beholding of them with their eyes? Ecclesiastes 5:10-11
I have worked for many millionaires. As their wealth increases, it goes away. Each of them is just like you and me; they all wonder how they will make the next payment, the only difference is the size of the payment. You and I wonder where our next hundred bucks is coming from; my millionaire boss worries about his next hundred thousand.
Consider Donald Trump; he’s worth 3 or 4 billion but he owes 4 or 5 billion, nobody knows how much, nobody can count that high. He’s worried where his next 100 million is coming from. And has he not pierced himself through with many sorrows?
Let me close with this:
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Ecclesiastes 5:12-13
God gives to us so we can give to Him, not so we can brag how smart we are. Have Mr. Trump’s riches helped him or hurt him? Mr. Trump’s wife has left him and the banks are after him. Do you think his riches will help him sleep?
This message has been directed mostly at the saved; these verses won’t mean much to someone who has not accepted Christ as Savior, although many of God’s principles have been accepted into common business wisdom. It is very hard to follow God’s principles of prosperity, though, without God’s help.
