Expert Ownership Podcast
Expert Ownership Podcast
Seven Keys to Godly Work
Ever wondered how faith can transform your professional life? Discover the seven keys to Godly work through the remarkable story of Jacob in Genesis 30.
Tune in for a transformative exploration of how partnering with God and embracing hard work without shortcuts can lead to profound success and fulfillment.
Okay, so here we are on our laptops. I'm actually this is David I'm in Gatlinburg, tennessee, with my family on vacation. Jason is back home in his office and so if there's any quality issues with sound, it's all Jason's fault, not David's. Now we're going to talk today about the seven keys to godly work, to biblical work, to kingdom work, seven ways that you know that you are working as unto the Lord. Now we know in Colossians, chapter three in the Bible here on Expert Ownership Podcast, we've said it many times Ephesians 6, colossians 3, we work as unto the Lord, not as unto man. But then what are some of the examples in Scripture? What are they? And so we're going to go back to the very beginning and we're going to look. Well, I say the very beginning, not creation order. Of course God's always working, but we're going to go back to the early years in the book of Genesis and we are going to see, in one of the patriarch's lives, seven keys to God-honoring work, to biblical work, to kingdom work. And hopefully that's going to be a blessing to you today, as it was to us as we were reading through this passage of Scripture. So, if you're driving, don't heed my advice when I tell you, open up your Bible. Okay, you're driving, don't do that. But if you, if you're not man, crack open your Bible. If you got a physical one, or if it's on your phone, you can go to Genesis 30. This is good. I love this, and this is why I think it's so important, as faith-filled entrepreneurs, that we're in the word of God every single day, because God wants to speak to you, and he's going to speak to you through what you read. He's going to speak to you through prayer, and so typically, david and I, we start out in the mornings with prayer and then we let our prayer time move into Bible reading time, because then the Bible reading time is just an extension of prayer. So if God's your business partner, you need to be listening to him every single day and reading scripture, and I remember reading this back oh shoot, it was probably a decade ago and seeing these seven keys like man, this is how I want to build my business. This is how I want to train my employees. This is the kind of worker I want to be. So if you're a solopreneur right now, apply these seven keys to the way that you do your work. If you're an entrepreneur, of course, apply them to the way you do your work, but then pay attention to your employees. Are they working this way? And if they're not, you need to educate them, and if they're still not willing to work this way, you get rid of them. Okay, so, I know that sounds hardcore, but, man, sometimes you just got to drive people out. That's just the way it goes. The best thing that could ever happen to somebody who's not working the right way is to get fired, and then they'll end up working the right way.
Speaker 1:Okay, so in Genesis 30, we're going to see a story between an employee and his boss. So, whichever role that you find yourself in boss or employee you can put yourself in this story. So Laban was the boss, jacob was the employee. All right, here's what we're going to see. We're going to see a great picture of the type of work that God blesses. So, in time, jacob had been working for Laban for I think it was a period of about seven, might've been about 10 years and he wanted to go out on his own. I mean, how many of you have ever had an employee want to go out on their own? And that's okay, because what we ultimately want to do is we want to train up other entrepreneurs. Right Now we don't want to hire, we want to make sure that not every one of our employees are entrepreneurial right, otherwise we wouldn't have a business. So if we do hire an entrepreneur, we got to recognize at some point they're going to want to go out on their own.
Speaker 1:So Laban the boss had to have a hard conversation with Jacob, who was his employee, and now Jacob wants to go out on his own and so he wanted to start his own business. And David, verse 27 of Genesis 30, I want you to read how Laban the boss responds. But Laban said to him if I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Isn't that incredible? Like, just imagine if you were an employee and a boss said that to you. It's like I know my business is blessed because you're here, like there's nothing better that could be said. And so Laban obviously wanted to keep Jacob. But Jacob wanted to do something on his own. So he's like man, there's really something inside me that wants to do something on my own.
Speaker 1:But they actually figured out a workaround to where Jacob could have something on his own, but yet he was still under Laban's umbrella. And this is what I love, because Jacob, in this moment, did not ask him for a handout. Look what Jacob said. Verse 29 to 31,. David, okay, but Jacob said to him you yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me, for you had little before I came and it has increased abundantly and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also? So he's talking about, he wants to provide for his own house.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they come up with some plan. David. Read 32 to 37. Okay, let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one of you that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs that is found with me shall be counted as stolen. Laban said, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.
Speaker 1:So now Jacob has his own business, but he's doing it under the umbrella of Laban. So now you have two entrepreneurs still yoked together, but they both have their own thing, and yet Jacob is still under Laban. Now here's the thing. Here's what I love.
Speaker 1:Jacob asked for the runt of the litter. He literally basically made Laban a no-brainer offer. Jacob basically said hey, any speckled or spotted sheep or goat, let me have those and I'll count those as my wage. And Laban's like oh heck, yeah, that's like somebody coming to you and saying, hey, every dollar that you have that's ripped or crumpled up or anything like that, give me that, I'll take that for my wages. Well, it's like if you're an employee and you see that your business owner, that there's an area of the business where it's like look, we don't have time for this type of a client or this type of service or this type of a product, we just have time for it. And you want to start a side hustle, you're like hey, you know what On the side, hey, I'll work for you, but on the side I find this, and when I'm doing a lot of coaching different contractors where they're like I can't take anything less than side. You can get a little scrape on it, but you'll kick them up into a nice little business that could become a division of your company. I pitched this idea two years ago to one of my guys and now that secondary company is almost as big as his first one. It's growing as big. It's the same trajectory as his first one. That's what Jacob did with Laban at the same trajectory as his first one. And that's what Jacob did with Laban.
Speaker 1:So where did Jacob get this idea? Because in Laban's mind this was like the runt of the litter. These were sheep and goats that nobody wanted in their flock, right. And so Laban's like oh, this is a no-brainer, I'm going to get it. And we know from the story that Laban was a crook. He wasn't a good guy, he wasn't a good boss, he was a little bit of a deceiver. Jacob had struggled with that a little bit as well in his life. So that's why God brought a deceiving boss to Jacob to drive out the deceiver inside of Jacob. So if you've got employees or you've got clients or whatever who are not doing you right, you need to make sure that you go to God and be like God. Is there a way that I haven't done someone right? So just always pay attention to that.
Speaker 1:So how did Jacob have this idea? Well, he was spending time with God and we're not going to go over to that passage and God downloaded a vision to him about how he could create a flock out of the speckled, spotted sheep. God gave him a download. It was actually an ingenious download. It had something to do with peeling bark back off of sticks and having them drink in certain places. Next thing, you know, jacob's flock of spotted and speckled sheep and goats is larger than Laban's. But how did he get that? Because he spent time with God. Jacob spent time with God listening to him, and God gave him a download for how he was going to build a big flock, which was a big business. God wants to give you a download, so you got to listen to him every single day. Now this is a great picture of what God and man can do together when they're working hand in hand, and why you want to be a faith-filled entrepreneur who's listening to your business partner.
Speaker 1:This is what David and I did in 2003 with foreclosures. We were literal brand new green agents in 2003, when real estate had just boomed and all these agents were dealing with these big five, six $700,000 houses. They didn't want to deal with a $25,000, $50,000 foreclosed house. And David and I went around to all these agents and said give us those, we'll take those. So that's what we did. That was in 2003. 2010, we had 100 offices in 35 different states closing 500 to 600 foreclosures a month, and the average median price was about $125,000. So you do the math God gave us that idea. He literally gave us that idea. So listen to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Now, several years later, after this business deal with Laban and Jacob, laban's attitude changed towards Jacob and he basically ran him off. He was like man, you're too big, this is all mine. So they end up in a showdown and in this showdown, jacob says something to Laban and this is where we're going to find the seven keys to godly work of what Jacob does David read verse 38 to 42. This is Jacob responding to Laban You're talking about in verse. Chapter 31? No, chapter 30. Okay, he set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks and troughs Wait a second.
Speaker 1:Do I have the wrong one? You have the wrong one, okay, so this is chapter 31 then. Yeah, that's what I thought. David, right, jason's wrong. Yeah, all right, hold on, let me turn there. Okay, so Genesis 31. Yep, yep, go ahead. Okay, jacob says this to Laban hand. You required it. Whether stolen by day or stolen by night, there I was. By day, the heat consumed me and the cold, by night and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock. You have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of passage, we're going to pull these seven keys.
Speaker 1:So let's look at key number one. If you want godly work, the type of work you need to do and the type of work that you want your employees to do Key number one Jacob cared about his work. You got to care about your work. This is in verse 38. For 20 years I have been with you caring for your flocks. So Jacob was essentially saying to Laban I cared for your flocks just like they were my own. Okay, you got to treat your customers and your clients like you would your own family, which means that you would never take advantage of them. And you want employees that are going to treat your business the way that you treat your business, as if it was theirs.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, number one, the very first thing, is he actually cared about the work that he did. He actually cared about the work that he did. Key number two he did a good job. It says in all that time, your sheep and goats never miscarried. You know what that means. Jacob actually did a good job. He was so good at his job that for sheeps and goats there was no mistakes made and he never cut corners. This is so good for Jacob. He actually did a good job.
Speaker 1:If somebody's not doing a good job, bring them in your office and figure out why. If you're not doing a good job, you need to figure out if you're in the right line of work. Obviously, I'm talking to faith-filled entrepreneurs. So doing a good job is not a problem for you. You're going to do a good job because you're going to take pride in your work. Jacob took pride in his work. He did a good job. Why? Because he cared about his work. So that's key number two he did a good job.
Speaker 1:Key number three he didn't take advantage of his position. This one's an important one, the very end of verse 38,. In all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food. Just think about that as a as a farmer here. Jacob was tending flocks for Laban and he had his sheep and goats and he had his cattle and all that kind of stuff, and Laban was three days away. Jacob could have easily killed one of Laban's cattle for the food for him and his employees, but he didn't do that. He only killed his own sheep and goats and cattle to provide for his people. But Jacob could have easily killed some of Laban's and then just said, hey, it just got killed by a wild beast. You know what I'm saying. But Jacob never did that. So, even though he was in the livestock business, he paid for his own food.
Speaker 1:You know, as business owners, we know more about the thing that we sell our product or service than our customers do. We know more about it. So we don't ever take advantage of that situation. We don't take advantage of our position. It's like an IT guy they know more about cybersecurity than you do and they can easily oversell you. Yeah, or a mechanic. Yeah, or a mechanic. Yeah, you know what. I would replace this too. I'd replace that. I'd replace that when in reality they don't need it. But the person who's driving the car is like, oh well, okay, you know more than I do. So you upsell him. Jacob didn't do that, never did that. He never took advantage of his position.
Speaker 1:That's key number three. Key number four he took personal responsibility for any losses. In verse 39, it says if any of your flock were attacked and killed by wild animals, I took the loss myself. You know what that means. That means he replaced one of Laban's sheep with one of his own sheep. If one of Laban's sheep got attacked by a wolf and killed and Jacob essentially said that's on me, I let the wolf do it. I shouldn't have. I should have caught that. We should have made sure to protect him better. So I'm going to make, I'm going to replace that myself. You know it's like the server at the restaurant If they made a mistake on the order, then they pay for that order, of which I would always say if you own a restaurant, don't ever make your servers do that. I would always say if you own a restaurant, don't ever make your servers do that. Your servers don't make enough money.
Speaker 1:Jacob didn't shift the blame on his helpers or ask the boss to take the hit. David and I, being bosses, we know what this feels like. Somebody makes a big mistake and they don't own up to it. Then they ask us to take hey, can you guys just cover this for me? I don't really have anything. It's like I was going to cover that for you anyway, but what I want you to do is come in and say, hey, that's my mistake, I'll cover it myself. And the minute you say that, guess what I got you? You don't have to cover it, but be willing to take the hit yourself.
Speaker 1:And here's the key for this, this one in gray areas lean to the other person's benefit. So if you get into a situation where you've got a customer, client, employee or whatever, let's just stick with customers and clients. And there's a situation to where something happened and they need a refund or whatever, and it's a gray area, it's like I don't know about this. Lean to the other person's benefit and watch how God blesses your business. So lean to their benefit.
Speaker 1:Jacob did that. That's key number four. Key number five he worked hard and didn't complain. The rest of verse 40 says I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through the cold of sleepless nights. He had to tell Laban this 20 years later because he didn't tell Laban that two years in oh, it's so hot, it's so cold he didn't complain.
Speaker 1:Listen, drive out the complainer. If you've got an employee that complains, drive them out. Get them out. Before you get them out, though, you got to train them, get them out, they won't learn. Yep, laban never knew how difficult it was on Jacob, because Jacob locked down his job and didn't shift the headache to Laban.
Speaker 1:If you have an employee that shifts their headache to you, where they're constantly coming into you with problems as opposed to trying to figure these things out on their own before they come to you, that's a problem. You got to train. This is where the 3S model comes in. Anytime someone comes to you one of your employees or if you're going into your boss, it's. What is the situation? What are the available solutions and what is your suggestion? Like, do not come to me with problems that you have not thought through, or don't you go to others with problems, like with your clients or whoever you're serving with problems, unless you've thought through it. What is the situation? Let's get clarity on that. What are the available solutions. And now, what is your suggestion? That's exactly right. So you want to do that.
Speaker 1:So he worked hard and did not complain. Key number six he never asked for handouts. He said I worked 14 years for your daughters and six more for your flock, which means I didn't ask you for your daughters without giving you something. He earned his keep, didn't ask for handouts. Well, I probably should be aware of how I say this, but he wasn't into raising support for his money and I'm not saying people who raise support are wrong because that's a legit business model. But he didn't default to that because he didn't want to work Right, it's just too easy. What if I just ask for people to do it for me? You know, if you're going to raise support, man, give me something of value in exchange. So he was not into that. He never asked for handouts.
Speaker 1:And key number seven and this is the most important one, he partnered with God. In verse 42, he says if the God of my father had not been on my side. Basically, god is the one who built my business. Like you see today, this is the most important attribute of all. He saw God as his partner in business and God should be your partner in business. Right? Let me give you these seven keys again. He cared about his work, he did a good job, he didn't take advantage of his position, his high position. He took personal responsibility for any losses. He worked hard, didn't complain, he never asked for handouts and ultimately, he partnered with God. And what was Jacob's reward for being this type of worker?
Speaker 1:David read Genesis 32, verse 10. Genesis 32, verse 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff, I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps Right there. It's like I started with nothing. 20 years later, I have the biggest business in the whole land.
Speaker 1:That's what happens when you do these seven things. If we will work like Jacob, we'll be blessed like him. We shouldn't want the wealth of Jacob if we're not willing to do the work of Jacob. And that's what we can learn the seven keys to godly work right there. So there we go. That is expert ownership. That was excellent. Faith-filled entrepreneurs into greater freedom and success. That's right Summary.
Speaker 1:You care for your work, you work well, you do a good job.
Speaker 1:You don't take advantage of your position. You take responsibility for your losses. You work hard without complaint. You don't ask for handouts. You do a good job. You partner with God, trusting that God is going to take care of your work and God is going to take care of you, and the result is that the Lord's hand of blessing will be upon your work. This will be a good one for you. I'm thinking about this now for you to let your kids listen to you know your older kids the type of work you want them to do. Yeah, this is it. This is what we want. So, hey, christian Healthcare Ministry sponsors us, expertonershipcom slash CHM. They've been a great partner for us with all of our healthcare needs and they can help you out as well. Many business owners that we coach have partnered up with CHM and it's been just really awesome. But I like that, jason, that was great, right out of the book of Genesis. Okay, guys, we will see you next week. Don't forget. Rate, review, subscribe, appreciate you guys, bless you.