Lesson #3
Succeeding at Work and
Getting Paid Well
I.
God’s commandment to work and
to work with excellence:
A. Gods view of work:
2Th 3:12 Now them that are such we
command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ,
that with quietness they work, and eat their
own bread.
B. God rules about work are simple; if a man
does not work, he does not eat:
2Th 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
should he eat.
C.
God created man to work , and commands man
to work all way back to the creation of Adam in the
Garden of Eden;
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon
the earth. Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them. Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.
Initially - Food was freely available:
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to
you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl
of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat:
and it was so. (All vegetarian)
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and,
behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day.
So you can see that in the Garden of
Eden God Gave man:
A Relationship – direct face to face communication
with God
An Address – Garden of Eden
An Allocation – Food
A Limit – Tree of Good and Evil
A Dominion – Over all the Animals
A Mate – Eve
A Job! – Dress the Garden
A vision and purpose – be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the Earth.
D. Work and Food after the fall – things
really changed.
Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the
tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat
of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;
and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
E. Work – after the curse – food and survival
only comes by hard labor
Men – commanded to work from early adulthood to
death
Men are designed to work and should work
II.God’s example – the Ant
verses the Sluggard
A. Consider and copy the Traits of an Ant
a. Hardest working insects in the world
b. Are physically fit and can carry many
times their own body weight
c. Will fight to the death to protect their
young
d. Harvest food at proper time to feed
themselves year around
e. Work quietly without showing off.
f. Work diligently until all work is done.
g. Are ingenuitive – building elaborate
homes and tunnels.
h. Work amazingly well as a
community.
i. Work toward common goals.
j. Keep their homes exceptionally
clean.
k. No one ant exists without a specific
job.
B. Put off being a Sluggard
1. Sluggard is defined by the dictionary
as someone who is:
• a. Habitually Idle
b. Slow Moving
(slothful)
c. Lazy
2. Our Bible defines a Sluggard as
one whom:
a. Loves sleep
b. Great wasters
c. Wishful thinkers with no action
d. Constant excuses for inaction
e. Lazy
f. Refuse to work
g. Live lives FULL of
trouble
h. Belongings turn to ruin
i. Irritating to others
j. Servants to others
k. Have no business ability
l. Can’t be trusted
m. No understanding
n. Generally represent unsaved …no faith
C. Look at and apply the special traits
of the wise ant:
1. Pro 6:7 Which having no guide, overseer, or
ruler,
Take incentive even without a boss – we do not
need a physical master overseer or guide because
we already have them:
Holy Spirit as our guide – John 6
Jesus = Overseer =Shepherd - PS 23
God = Ruler of the universe – Rev 20
2. Pro 6:8 The ant works when can and
even then “harvests” Saves for the
“rainy day”
a. Deuteronomy 25:4 says “Thou shalt not muzzle
the ox when he treadeth out the corn.”
b. But the ant is smarter – she saves for later also –
she stores:
c. The “ store “ 28 times in the Bible:
d. What it means to us: - Don’t live paycheck
to paycheck!!
e. Lay up savings– see where money is going,
adjust your lifestyle to income, stop
overspending. Match lifestyle to $ so we can
have savings, not the other way around!
D. The Sluggard
1. Sluggard = Laziness = slug
2. God hates Laziness:
3. Sleep and Inaction are the downfall
of the sluggard
4. Sleep is not the cause of
Slothfulness. Attitude is!!
E. Steps of preparation for getting a job:
Pray for it – it is in God’s will – be specific
Prepare your references – contact them – ready
them for a phone call
Prepare a resume – get help from someone
experienced
Dress at least like what the employer wants to hire
Look like what they want to hire – picture in their
mind – fit the picture
Arrive on time and show true ENTHUSIASM
F.
Pay attention to your focus:
1.
– WARNING; Do not trust in riches after
God blesses you: Luke 12:21
3.
Also do not pridefully refuse instruction
especially of “old timers”.
4.
Show true persistence; God rewards the
diligent.
Overall application of the
Sluggard and the Ant:
Wake up – work hard and God will reward you –
if not you will suffer.
None of us should ever accept the “he’s just
creative” or She’s just a “disorganized”
person as valid excuses. Both of these are just
euphemisms for LAZY!
III. God’s commandment for
Excellence (including at work)
Col 3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh; not with eye service, as
menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing
God:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as
to the Lord, and not unto men; 24 Knowing that
of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
D. We must work as Team Members,
not just successful lone wolfs.
Phil 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or
vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves.4 Look
not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others. 5 Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus.
Same is true at work – you must fit
on 2 levels:
1. Must be technically capable of doing the
job that you are hired to do
2. You must be a good teammate so you fit
into the “body” of the company.
Disaster occurs if you only have one (or none)
of these requirements
F. Summary of God’s attitude for
excellence:
1Cor 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God.
V. Practical ways to succeed at work:
“Good” vs “Great” employee.
A. Normal Employee:
7 hours
work as assigned, doing just barely
what is required
1 hour
unproductive – talking, phone calls,
water cooler/coffee, bathroom, etc.
B.
Really Good Employee:
7.5 hours of all work as assigned
.5 hours unproductive
C. Our focus as Christians should be to give a full
days work every day and be totally obey our
bosses
D. Hourly people = LAW – live by schedule
Salaried = Grace – Judged by tasks completed
E. Be good witnesses in being at the low end of
social time and breaks – don’t stretch it!
Be positive in attitude and watch gossip
F. If salaried, do not interfere with hourly
schedules – be an example
Always be helpful – even if not your job – prove love
of Christ and not just a religious wacko
Watch carefully your “church talk” – must be good
witnesses, do not let our love of Christ hurt the
cause !!
Conclusion:
A. Now what makes a Great Employee
• 7 hours work as
assigned
.5 hours unproductive
.5 hour Significant
Problem Solving!
B.
Problem Solvers are:
1. Able to pick and create their own
challenges
2. Less likely to become bored at their work
3. Seen by superiors as leaders
4. Biggest key: Seen by coworkers as
successful and unique
But what
about the
other 80% of
time that
women are
not paid the
same as men
- who’s fault
is that? (Mat
20:1- 15)
Matt 20:1
Questions:
Which of these laborers was paid fairly?
Which was paid unfairly?
Verse 13 is the Key: But he answered one of
them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong:
didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Greatest Lie Often Told:
Work hard and you will
be paid what you are
worth!
Truth – You will not be paid what
you are worth;
You will be paid what you
NEGOTIATE!
Capitalism is a system
of completely voluntary mutual exchanges!!
Those who succeed are those who are
knowledgeable enough to make the
smartest exchanges.
• If a woman doesn’t push to ask for more
money in her first job, she stands to lose more
than $500,000 by the time she reaches age 60.
• Women who do successfully master the art of
negotiating, earn more money and are more
successful in their careers. In fact, for some
women who have learned to negotiate
effectively, these statistics have been
Completely Reversed. They make MORE
than their male counterparts.
•
So why are women so bad at
salary negotiation?
• Women are naturally less adversarial –
women want to be nice – men want to win
• Women do not see job offer situations as
opportunities to negotiate in order to take big
steps forward.
• Women underestimate their Self Worth and
Financial Worth as compared to men.
Women report
salary
expectations
between 3%
and 32% lower
than those of
men applying for
the exact same
jobs!
F. General ways to correctly
negotiate:
1. Gather information!
2. Realize, once the company starts
talking money – they have made
their selection!
3. Make them offer first!
Women specific suggestions from
Salary .com
1. Negotiate Like a Woman, Not Like a Man
2. Role Play Before you Interview
The Key – Women need to Put Off
being Underpaid by learning to
Negotiate!
H. Career Choices and Pay
Generally, the closer
you are to cash flow
and profit, the more
valuable the
position.
Say your job skill is that you like to stand in
front of people and explain things
• Public School teacher - $35,000 –– has no cash flow impact
• College Professor - $ 80,000+ - if good, some cash flow
impact
• Corporate trainer - $125,000 – impacts cash flow by training
either internal people or customers on products….which
results in more sales
• Top sales person - $250,000+ – directly involved in producing
cash flow
• CEO – $2.5M+ Oversees complete plan to produce cash flow
and generally are instantly fired when cash flow doesn’t meet
expectations.
• The more impact that you have on Cash
Flow and Profit – the more you will make
Why lower paying jobs are paying
so low:
• Loss of manufacturing - 15M more workers looking
for non technical jobs
• Unemployment rate claimed at 4.8% really is around
18% - drop outs often reenter
• Overexpansion of workforce – immigration has added
20M to the low end job market
• Economics Supply and demand dictates that with an
expanding workforce wages will stay low
If you want to make more money – look at
your God given traits, not you profession!
If you want a better paying job, look at you skills
(like teaching / presenting) not your profession
(teacher) and then apply for jobs where that
skill set brings in more cash flow.
Conclusion to today’s lesson:
If you are unemployed, make it a full time job to get a job
When you have a job – Work hard and absolutely shine as
a Christian employee
When looking for a job, realize that you have a lot of
negotiating power; do the research first and then make
the best deal possible for yourself.
Negotiate until you get paid what you are worth
Bring glory to God through your work!