Take the Tough Jobs: 10 Habits of People God Promotes
Dr RJ Sing, 51 min
Originally preached as “What Successful People Do”
Short edits of this message: The Best Person You Can Ever Lead Is You: Habits of Success
Sermon outline
Success is a mindset and an attitude: embrace hard work, problems and responsibility with the right heart, and God will promote you.
Main text
- Proverbs 15:22
- Proverbs 21:5
Opening
He welcomes the church and the television audience to a live service at FCI in Greenwood Park, Durban, reminding the church that at the deliverance meeting they shed the weights holding them back. This is part two of his success principles for 2014, which he calls a year of great success. He recaps part one: manage your emotions, your priorities, your energy, your thinking, your words and actions, and your personal life, because the best person you can ever lead is yourself.
1. Successful people take tough jobs
Don't complain about the boss who gives you the hard assignments; God is training you and developing the leader within you. Problems are part of life, and tackling them teaches resiliency, tenacity and problem-solving skills that make you needed. Your ability to solve problems increases your value.
Illustration: People phone him wanting to resign because there are too many problems at work. His answer: that is why you are there. He quotes the old saying that the willing horse gets flogged, because the boss knows he can depend on you.
“God sees you as a problem solver.”
2. Successful people pay their dues
Successful people are willing to pay the price, not only for their own promotion but for the organisation. Move from 'my desk, my bonus' to 'our company, our vision', and bring the same attitude to church. Success is not just money in the bank; it is a mindset and an attitude.
Illustration: Years ago he preached a message on the 'nose up attitude': when a plane's nose goes down you are in trouble, but nose up it stays on course.
“Success is a mindset.”
3. Successful people work in obscurity
Many want the limelight and take the credit for others' work, but successful people work behind the scenes and let God promote them in due season. Wanting the limelight is pride; the kingdom attitude prefers others. He says one of his dreams is to watch others preach better and grow greater than he does, because as spiritual parents, their success is his success.
Illustration: During the deliverance meeting he watched Seen, a security volunteer, go far beyond his duty, helping to catch people and pick things up, and he urges everyone to go the extra mile because God is watching. Later in the message he adds Moses, who spent forty years unnoticed in the wilderness before God called him.
“If you do what you can with what you have, where you are, then God won't leave you where you are.”
- 1 Peter 5:6
- Proverbs 16:18
- Romans 12:10
4. Successful people succeed with difficult people
Most people cannot choose who they work with, and difficult people will not disappear from family, work or church. Learn to work with them and even to like them, because everybody adds value.
Illustration: It would be ludicrous to pray for God to remove all the difficult people, because to someone else he might be the difficult one.
“Difficult people are not going to disappear.”
5. Successful people put themselves on the line
Distinguish yourself by taking the risk of standing for what is right, even when nine others go the other way. Have convictions and allegiance: stand up for your church, your vision and your family, and the same conviction will serve you in business.
Illustration: He meets members of other churches whose faces glow when they speak of their pastor and church, and he wants his people to feel the same, because your church should be your home.
“Your church should be the best church.”
6. Successful people admit faults but never make excuses
When something goes wrong, a leader takes responsibility instead of playing the blame game. You can move from failure to success, but not from excuses to success, and the higher the level you play at, the fewer excuses are accepted.
Illustration: A pastor he knew took responsibility even for the restrooms running out of tissue paper.
“It's easier to move from failure to success than from excuses to success.”
7. Successful people do more than expected
Raise the level of what is expected of you and go the extra mile, so you are considered first when promotion and increase come. If they are overloading you, it is because they trust you and God believes you can do it.
“Do you know why more is coming your way? Because God thinks you can do it.”
8. Successful people are the first to step up and help
Be the first volunteer, and when you are corrected, don't sulk; taking instruction is a sign of maturity in the army of God. Church is a training ground, and God tests your capacity: the greater your capacity to solve problems, the greater the promotion.
Illustration: Moses spent forty years in obscurity in the wilderness; it was his test that made him the meekest man on earth and prepared him for the burning bush. Joseph, too, had the right heart and God promoted him.
“The greater your capacity to solve problems the greater the promotion.”
- Exodus 2:11-15
- Numbers 12:3
- Exodus 3:1-10
- Exodus 4:10-16
9. Successful people perform tasks that are not their job
'It's not my job' puts a ceiling on your potential. Be the go-to person who says 'leave it with me', and when the manager moves on, you will be the one considered. When your capacity is stretched, don't give up: God is testing how much you can handle so He can give you more.
“The more they can handle the more I'll give them.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:7
10. Successful people take responsibility for their responsibilities
Don't put the blame on someone else, and keep a teachable spirit that does not get angry when corrected. The greatest is the servant, and he presents himself to the church as a servant who builds them up.
“When you have a teachable spirit you're a candidate for God's blessing.”
- Matthew 23:11
Putting it into practice
- Stop avoiding tough jobs and problems at work; see them as training for promotion.
- Treat your workplace and your church as 'ours', not 'theirs'.
- Admit your faults and drop the excuses.
- Volunteer first, and do more than is expected, including tasks that are not your job.
- Keep a teachable spirit when you are corrected.
Closing
He prophesies promotion, multiple businesses, properties and 'suddenlies' over the church, saying their axe head will float, and speaks of angels as ministering spirits who, like the wind that brought the quail, can blow contracts and favour their way. He prophesies salvation for unsaved loved ones and wayward children of praying parents, speaks to viewers who feel discouraged, and prays over the church with raised hands, declaring over 50 multi-millionaires in the church.
Declarations he led
- You must expect great success, because you're going to see it.
- I'm sitting next to a millionaire.
- You can do it.
- I have the capacity to handle much more.
In his words
- “You climb up in the kingdom of God and you pull people up with you.”
- “Success is a mindset. Success is the way you think.”
- “It's easier to move from failure to success than from excuses to success.”
- “The best person you can ever lead in your life is you.”
- “Church is a training ground.”
Every scripture in this message
- Proverbs 15:22
- Proverbs 21:5
- James 3:4
- Matthew 13:3-8
- Proverbs 4:23
- 1 Peter 5:6
- Proverbs 16:18
- Romans 12:10
- Exodus 2:11-15
- Numbers 12:3
- Exodus 3:1-10
- Exodus 4:10-16
- 2 Corinthians 5:7
- 2 Kings 6:5-7
- Hebrews 1:14
- Numbers 11:31
- Matthew 23:11
- Philippians 4:6
- 1 Chronicles 4:10