The Unfair Advantage with Aaron Burke - Part I #104

Have you ever felt that life was unfair?  Did you ever feel like God forgot about you?  You’re not alone.  The life of Joseph was filled with rejection, disappointment and unfair treatment.  Yet he learned how to turn every obstacle into an amazing opportunity and you can too!

Pastor Aaron Burke joins us in this podcast to share the principles that Joseph learned in the darkest hours of his life.  He has written an inspiring new book called The Unfair Advantage

which lays out seven keys from the life of Joseph for transforming any obstacle into an opportunity.

In this edition of Finish Strong, you’ll discover how to turn your biggest rejections into your greatest opportunities.  You will come to understand that man’s rejection ultimately leads to God’s direction.  Most importantly, you’ll learn how to view things in light of your legacy, not your limitations.

Get ready to get charged up about God’s calling on your life!  Aaron Burke is a high energy guy who has experienced rejection and disappointment but learned how to turn every one of them into an Unfair Advantage.  Today, he pastors a church in the Tampa area that has nine campuses and a regular attendance of around 6,000 people.  You don’t want to miss this life-changing interview!

Transcript

Dan Wheeler: 0:02

Have you ever felt like life just wasn't fair? We all have at some point. But what if those unfair moments were designed to help you achieve greater purpose in your life? The story of Joseph as recorded in the Old Testament book of Genesis is filled with unfair situations that Joseph actually turned into an unfair advantage. Stay tuned for an awesome episode of finish strong. We have a special guest tonight with an exciting book that addresses this topic in a very inspiring way. He'll join us in a moment, but I'm Dan Wheeler, and I'm joined by my co host, Terry Steen and Bryan rollin. Guys, I think we've all been in situations in our lives where we felt like all the cards were stacked against us, and it wasn't fair at all.

Terry Steen: 0:50

Yeah, that's true. And you know, it's so many areas in our life. I can even think of sports all the time, we played sports, that things really weren't fair and were done wrong, and it makes you so mad. But same with life. Same I know, some of the jobs that I was in, there were leadership issues that were just not fair. And that really tested or determined our character, didn't it.

Dan Wheeler: 1:14

I know Brian thought the last couple years when Michigan was destroying his Ohio State Buckeyes probably felt that wasn't fair.

Brian Roland: 1:22

I didn't think that was fair at all that he bring it up now. But that's okay. Prior, we just dismantled it, it's coming again to Yeah.

Dan Wheeler: 1:35

But seriously,

Brian Roland: 1:38

seriously, I think we all go through times like that, where it's almost like, we feel like it's complete destruction. It could be through through working, it could be through relationships can be anything. But there's, there's always going to be another outcome. There's always gonna be something come out the end. And we're going to find out about how we're going to achieve that how you achieve that

Dan Wheeler: 1:57

today. Yeah, when I look back at some of my situations, I realized that God really was working all things together for good, and it all worked out. Well, Terry, we've got a great guest tonight. And he's actually joining us from Ireland. But since you know him, well, I thought you should introduce him.

Terry Steen: 2:14

I'd be happy to because this is my pastor. This is Aaron Burke. He was a former youth pastor. He was a missionary for a while, a church planter. He planted our church, radiant church in Tampa 10 years ago. And incredibly enough, we have nine locations, and we're running over 6000. It's just miraculous what's got what God is doing through his leadership. And now he's, you know, he's been an international speaker, and now he's written his first book. So I'm excited to bring him on to the episode with us. Pastor Aaron, welcome. We're so excited to have you.

Aaron Burke: 2:54

I am so honored to be with you men and hanging out with you guys. I think people are a little confused or like he's from Ireland. He's in a trip right now. And I was so excited to do this podcast.

Terry Steen: 3:10

My only concern was is if you would have picked up an accent already that we had trouble.

Aaron Burke: 3:18

Doing good, good. Good. I'm honored to be with you, man.

Dan Wheeler: 3:20

We're glad to have you appreciate it. Let

Terry Steen: 3:22

me just at the top. Let me just show this book. There you go. Because the unfair advantage. And it's the seven keys from the life of Joseph for transforming any obstacle into an opportunity. And it's available on Amazon. And we'll talk about that more a little later. But this is the foundation of what we want to talk about today. And let's just jump right into the meat of this thing. Because fortunately for me, I've been able to sit on Sunday mornings and listen to a series that Pastor Aaron's done on this unfair advantage, and one of the first ones and pasture and I want to throw these three points out and let you run with it a little bit. Because in your first sermon, you talked about how God has a plan. So if we accept the fact that he has a plan, and the second piece is God's plan for us is great. So if we accept he has a plan, it's a great plan, then the conclusion is if it's not great yet, then God isn't done. And I think that's such an important message for our listeners as we try to finish strong. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? God's not done with us? Is he?

Aaron Burke: 4:43

Absolutely. You know, I give a lot of details in the book about some of the great men and women of God and how throughout the Bible and throughout history, that their greatest days where they're late, they're later in life, I mean, 5060 7080 90 100 years old, that the Lord had a major plan, think of the life of Abraham, given a promise that 75 doesn't come to pass till 100. So a lot of the book is about giving people hope that you know what, God's not finished with us. And if your life has been unfair, then what I tell them is, there is ways that you can leverage that unfair situation for your good, actually, the unfair situation is for your advantage to walk into the purpose of God for your life, we just don't know how to. So I try to spell it out in the book of how to do that, how to give people some practical tools, of how to leverage all those things that we've all been through.

Dan Wheeler: 5:39

So there's hope for us old guys.

Aaron Burke: 5:43

Every Age, that's the goal.

Brian Roland: 5:46

Oh, my plan to be fulfilled when I'm 100.

Aaron Burke: 5:51

But, but that's the basic that just the idea of the book is the fact that Joseph gets a dream at 17. But you know, nothing comes to reality. Until he's 30. And he has 13 years of unfair situations, and I map out seven of them in the book. But the reality is, is it takes the unfair to get you to the greatness that God has for you part of the message that, Terry, you're talking about, as I mentioned, how the plan that God has for us includes pain, and nobody likes pain, right? Pain is connected to your purpose, what are the crazy things I figured out, was I always thought to figure out your purpose, you always evaluated your personality and your passions. That's what everybody said, personality and passions. It'll lead you to your pain, do your purpose. And I looked at that I go, we're missing a big part. It's not your personality and your passions alone. It's your personality, your passions, and your pain will lead you to your purpose, because all of those together are part of the big plan God has for your life.

Dan Wheeler: 6:56

Yes, you mentioned Joseph's dream. And you call that chapter the discouraged dreamer based on Genesis 37, five where he had a dream, and he shared it, and his brothers hated him for it. So you know, when you read it, you're like, was Joseph a little arrogant to the overstep his bounds? What happened there? Well,

Aaron Burke: 7:17

I think Joseph's story is so beautiful, because he's, he's alone, and he gets a dream from God, we all have those moments where we get those that download from God, and we're all excited. And we may be overzealously. Tell it to everybody, and they don't catch it. And so he does, he talks to his family, he tells him his interpretation of the dream. Isn't it interesting that our kind of fleshly ideas of our dreams always have to do with some kind of success, some kind of ruling, prominence influence, but the reality of Joseph's dream was not him ruling over people, it was actually serving people who are in need. So he just saw it wrong. But the dream was from God. And in that passage in that chapter, it's the first unfair advantage is what do you do when people don't believe in your dream that God gives you? And I've had that moment? I remember when I got called into ministry. I remember I told my grandma, and she's like, Aaron, that's a great idea. Now, when are you going to get a real degree? Like, are you going to go to school? And I'm like, I will grim I'm going to get my bachelor's degree, but I want you to, I'm going to be a pastor. And then I became a pastor. And she kept asking me, like, Do you have a real job, she's still waiting for me to get a real job. I was 20 years. And it just shows me that not everybody's going to buy into your dream, right? But God has. And that unfair advantage we have as believers is that if God believes in you, that's enough. If God is for you, that's the majority. You don't need a majority rule on this deal. You just need God to be behind you. And Joseph does something that is unfair. But it brings an advantage. It's when nobody believed in him. He dreamed again. And I love that because you read that verse that, you know, and they didn't believe. And then a few verses later, it says, And Joseph dreamed, again, that if you have an unfair advantage is will you dream again, even if it's not working? Yeah, I like that.

Dan Wheeler: 9:24

You mentioned that in the dream, he actually it was about him serving. And in God's view that prominence is not given for the purpose of honor, it's given for the purpose of helping I thought that was interesting.

Aaron Burke: 9:36

Yeah, yeah. It's when we think it's about us. We've seen it wrong, and so much about life and so much of our discovery, is the fact of realizing we were created by God, for God, to glorify God through helping other people so that they can again honor God. So if you realize, you know, it's not about us, but even the jury I mean that God's put in your heart as much as God wants you to, to excel and want you to, you know, have such blessings. And I think he does want to prosper us and not to harm us and give us hope and a future. The reality is, that dream is about helping the world around us.

Dan Wheeler: 10:16

Well, you're a young guy, but really what you wrote about is our whole philosophy here on finished strong our podcast, we don't want to retire to the golf course, we want to use our resources to serve God. And purpose doesn't stop because of age, you're never too old to dream big. So that really goes right along with it. You also had a great quote from missionary Jim Elliott, who was an amazing guy. And he said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. But he also said, Wherever you are, be all there. And boy is that missing in today's world world with these devices are

Aaron Burke: 10:54

we are more connected to the world than ever before. And more disconnected from the purpose God has for us right now, here as our mind is everywhere, except for where God has us. And I remember when I got saved at 16 years old, and I wanted to change the world. And I've really started to go, Oh, God, what do you want me to do? And I started dreaming about doing work like Reinhard Bonnke, or Billy Graham. And I remember the Lord gave me a phrase that changed my life. He said, Aaron, start where you are at, start where you're at, it changed my whole life, because it was this idea of like, I can't make a difference anywhere else, I have to start where I'm at. And that's the whole key is, is where you're at might be that you're finishing up your career, and you're looking for what's that purpose God has for you. Now, next, where you're at means you might have lost a spouse. And now you're in a different season in life, where you're at as your kids might be moved out of the house. And now you're trying to figure out what is it look like? Start where where God has you you can't make a difference where you're not at where you're trying to dream about all these other things. But I think if we're faithful where we're at, God will lead us to where we want to go.

Terry Steen: 12:06

That's good.

Brian Roland: 12:08

You talk about another subject when you get into the second one is the redirected reject. I love it. I think that was great. And notice

Terry Steen: 12:15

how we gave Brian the

Dan Wheeler: 12:19

vote on that one.

Terry Steen: 12:22

Immediately, we said all this is Brian,

Brian Roland: 12:26

in the last statement to wherever you are there, you're just remind me we have George Carlin, saying, wherever you are, there you are, wherever you're at, there you are. And I can relate to that. But we spoke a little bit about the rejection is full of pain, and what and what it can bring home can bring you for purpose. We've talked just a little bit about this a bit ago. But things don't have to make sense to God, do they? We think it had all us to make sense. But I always say he's working behind the scenes, like in a telecommunications room, all wires going everywhere. And nobody knows what to do. But you pull when everything goes off the air.

Aaron Burke: 12:58

Yes, yes, yes, you know, so he tells his brothers, and his brothers immediate response is rejection and Rejection hurts. And I mean, everybody's dealt with it. The stat I heard is that the average person deals with seven major rejections in their lifetime. So whether that's a family member, you know, disowning, you or a kid, you know, I've heard so many people have thought they had falling outs with their children, or maybe it's a partnership in a job. And rejection really hurts. And what I said is, is rejection happens to the best of us, but it doesn't have to get the best of us. And the way we deal with rejection, actually can be an advantage, or can be actually the thing that ends up destroying our potential in our future. Because we all know people who have gone through rejection, and they've come out of it better, they've come out of it sharper, they've come out of it, more self confident, more confirmed, and what God's called them to do. But we also know people who have gone through rejection, and they walk out of a bitter, resentful, angry at God not trusting people, the wall is up. And what happens is you can have two people go through the exact same rejection, one of them gets out of it better and one gets out a bit better. And I just decided that when you deal with rejection, which we all will, the choice you have to make is the choice Joseph made, which is I'm going to move forward. I'm not going to hold on to the anger. Joseph's story is so amazing, because it's so incredibly detailed throughout the Bible. And yet it never talks about him holding resentment, or bitterness or anger in the next season, about the things that happened in the past season. Whether it's the rejection of his family, his brothers, his dad, Potiphar, then it's stuff that happened with part of his wife, then the cup bear and the baker are in the prison with him. The cup Bear says I'm going to remember you when I go to Joseph when I go to Pharaoh. And then the next verse says, And he forgot Joseph. Thank you Joseph never walks with resentment and bitterness. Beautiful picture. People can hurt you. But it won't stop your purpose. It can actually accelerate your purpose. If you'll learn to let go, forgive, walk with a clean heart, and then see how God has something else for you next.

Brian Roland: 15:21

Well, something you said in there too. And offense is an event becoming offended as a choice. That just Joseph he made that choice didn't mean he went on the offense it was going to be good, and didn't take that up being offended at their choice to go down that road. But man's rejection leads to God's direction. I like what you said there.

Aaron Burke: 15:41

Yeah, it's a give a chain of events story of my life. That is pretty remarkable fences started with getting kicked out of high school right after I got saved. It brought me into like a depression season was really frustrating. But then I ended up going to junior college from my last year of high school would have never would have done that got my got a full year of college done, and then ended up going to get my undergrad degree. I graduated three years instead of four years, on the day of my graduation, I got offered a job as a full time missionary in Sri Lanka. And I remember being on that plane flying to South Asia. This is right after that big tsunami hit South Asia. We're sitting there going, this never would have happened. If I wasn't kicked out of college high school. I wanted, I wanted to find that principal. He had a vendetta against me. He was I had such I was so angry. But what he did, but now I can look back and go, I wanted to give him a big hug and a kiss on the chin. accelerated my purpose. It was rejection, but it was actually God's redirection. So every time God closes a door, look at it like, Hey, God, how are you redirecting my life? Maybe he's trying to change something in you. Maybe he's trying to change the direction of where he wants you to go. So I heard I heard a guy sit like this the other day, I thought it was so brilliant. Is God wasn't rejecting you. When that door closed. God was rejecting them for you. He was rejecting that job for you. Right? He's rejecting that career path for you. God rejected it. He didn't reject you, because he's got a plan for you. That was so beautiful. Like, let's use it rejection as redirection. It's an unfair advantage. That is great.

Terry Steen: 17:30

So, so Joseph, nobody believed his dreams. So then he faces rejection. So he's coming from a family that has probably well to do, he's got the nice coat, they got all the sheep, there's all these kids. And he's going into a job as a slave now he doesn't get a penny. So you called your next chapter, the wage LIS worker. And you know, today's society, there's you made the comment to stop expecting someone to hand you success. I mean, our society today Joseph was a hard worker. And he wasn't getting paid. He was a slave.

Aaron Burke: 18:14

The Bible says he prospered and Potter's home with everything he did. And I looked at that going, that's, I don't know if I would do that. Right. Potiphar tells me to do something, I'm gonna go, Who do you think you are? paying me? I'm leaving this place. I'm gonna go find my brothers. I'm gonna go get revenge. That's what we would do in our flesh. But Joseph did something beautiful. He said, I no matter where I'm at, I'm working as as I'm working unto the Lord. Yes, knew the principle that we all preach, but he practiced it before his popular, which is, your boss is not your boss, right? Your boss is actually someone who God put in place for you to honor for you to work for, for you to support. And the way you work for them is actually how you're serving Him. And, and even if it's unfair. Now, we've all been there. We've all worked at jobs where we didn't get paid what we should. We didn't get recognized the way we should. I mean, I've done it for years. And I remember during those times, going, God if nobody acknowledges Me, you do. If nobody promotes me, you will. If nobody sees what I'm doing, you will. And that's what God did to Joseph. Joseph worked the way he should work. If he was, you know, getting paid so much money. He did his best because it wasn't about the money. It was about the posture, that we're going to work as unto the Lord. And I think it's a principle that we need to give today because the victim mentality, the idea of it's got to be handed to me. I'm in touch hydel to this

Terry Steen: 20:01

right? That ain't gonna work. Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that productivity precedes promotion, because God's the one who promotes. And you are a perfect example of that. Because I know during the years that you were begin, even before you started at church and began the process, you behind the scenes, went back to school, got your MBA degree. Yeah. And then you kept moving forward and got your doctorate just recently, and all of those things you said in the book private faithfulness, brings about public fruit. Yeah, and so many people don't catch that, do they,

Aaron Burke: 20:42

they, everybody wants the fruit. But here's what you do, is you gotta recognize that if you'll do the things behind the scenes that nobody wants to do, then God will do publicly to you, which everybody wants. And so what you do is you stop promoting yourself, and you let the Lord do it. That is a great example. I made it a fact like and point in my life, I'm not going to be a self promoter, never asked for a speaking engagement anywhere, never, you know, put my name in the hat for anything. I'm like, Lord, have you open the door, because if he opens the door, then I, then then the results are going to be up to him too. And I want good results. If I open the door, then I've got to produce the results. I'm just gonna let the Lord do it. So it was a behind the scenes word from God, that happened. You know, in 2000, I got this message. I got asked to preach a conference in Dallas. While I'm preaching this conference in Dallas, Mark Batterson, who's one of the great authors in America actually in the world today comes up and says, Aaron, you got to write that into a book, I'll help you get it published out, get you a public trial, get Jasco. If you'll help, I'll do I'm just not going to do it myself. What was is I'm going to do the hard part behind the scenes that nobody sees. And God will do the things and open the doors that only he can open. So let me encourage the somebody that's listening or watching this thing, because you go, nobody recognizes me, I'm telling you, you do the right thing, when nobody sees it, God will promote you and do Todd is a full rewarder of those who will faithfully and diligently seek Him. And I'm telling you, he is he's good for his word when it comes to

Dan Wheeler: 22:29

this. Hey, man, this is such good stuff. And I see the times flying by, I'm gonna get into the last chapter we want to cover tonight. Or today, which is the seduced St. Genesis 39, seven, you know, Joseph's doing a great job. Potter first wife just keeps coming after. And then all of a sudden, she takes notice of him and just tempts him beyond what you know most humans can handle but he's he stayed with his integrity. And you said in the book sin is easy to get into. Integrity is hard to keep.

Aaron Burke: 23:04

Yeah, we have a generation of people and ministers. And we've all seen them as this isn't a new thing that have charisma to take them to the talk, but don't have the character to keep them there. And what I love about Joseph's story is Joseph chooses the unfair way called integrity. It's unfair, that we can't do whatever we want to do. It's an unfair that we can't just sleep who with whoever, whatever we want to sue whoever we want to sleep with. It's unfair. We can't just spend our money whatever way we want to spend our money. We look at it as you know, restrictions. But it's not. It's unfair in the world's perspective, but actually, it'll accelerate your calling. And you'll learn to be the real deal behind the scenes. And I've challenged my Church recently. I mean, we have a lot of we have a lot of people from every age and stage of life. But we really are reaching a lot of 20 year olds. And I told them I said my my concern is that you're more concerned with what people think about you than what God knows about you. So what we need is we need a generation that is overly concerned about what God knows about us, instead of what people think about us. And DL Moody said it this way, if I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself. So let's be a generation let's be a people who value character and integrity yet again, and this is cross. You know, despite our ages, this is crossed generationally. And we need people of integrity and character. And Joseph choose chose the hard half of doing the right thing. And let me just tell you, the one reason why and I know we're out of time, but I have this crazy theory that he remembered uncle Esau don't remember Uncle Jacob's brother. He's always the one who was out hunting. He had a long day. And he went in and he gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew. Yeah, yeah. And I think that that story got passed down to those 12 Boys of why are we blessed in our cousins or not? Oh, you got to remember Uncle Esau, Uncle Esau gave up what he wanted most for what he wanted now,

Terry Steen: 25:14

gratification.

Aaron Burke: 25:17

And I think it got ingrained in Joseph to go, I'm going to make the hard decision. And I'm going to always keep the big picture in mind, and not give up what matters most my walk with the Lord, my family, what my kids think about me what they're going to speak about on my funeral one day, I'm gonna remember that, and I'm not going to gratify the desires I have right now, that will easily pass.

Dan Wheeler: 25:39

I read and living above the level of mediocrity by Charles Swindoll, in the intro was so impactful. He talked about Pearl Harbor, and how these soldiers were just it was a lazy Sunday morning, they were just kind of stretching and yawning. And here comes the enemy. And in just a few minutes, if they left so much destruction, and that can happen. He said, In a moment, you can share your character and torpedo your whole career and it's not worth it. And Joseph did. And you said short term desire not worth your long term dreams. Now I've given them up. But one other thing, culture doesn't dictate our character Scripture does. And boy, that is right now with our culture and what's going on, we have to hold on to that harder than ever just give us 30 seconds on that.

Aaron Burke: 26:26

Yeah, I mean, culture changes but God's Word does it. And God's word is a is a is principles that we live, that no matter what generation you're raised, or where you're, where you're raised, or what country you're raised their principles at work everywhere, at all times, at all generations. So I'm telling you, people are crying out going God I need a word from you. I need direction and like, pick up to your Bible. There's a lot of words and a lot of direction. That's just obey that and I'm telling you, we've overcomplicated it, you know, we we have the Holy Spirit and we have God's Word. We have no excuse why we can't live a life that God wants.

Dan Wheeler: 27:03

So we got through our first four chapters and Aaron is so good we're having him back. We're going to cover the last three chapters of this book. The unfair advantage by Aaron Burke it's the life of Joseph seven keys that will transform your life and it is powerful stuff because it's straight for the Word of God but Aaron you've done just such a fabulous job. This is book number one can't wait for number two. We're gonna let you go and we'll kind of wrap up this and we'll see you on our next episode of finished strong Okay, good.

Terry Steen: 27:39

Thanks so much for coming here appreciate it so much all the way from Ireland the guy that may be a new record right? Get is

Dan Wheeler: 27:48

guys powerful stuff though. I mean those first chapters Joseph the discouraged dreamer, the redirected reject the wages this worker the seduced Saint so much that Joseph went through yet he kept his eye on the prize Yeah. Which we all want to hear well done good and faithful sir.

Terry Steen: 28:07

almost inhuman. You know, I don't you sit and look at every piece of what he went through. And it could only be with God's help, because that's just powerful stuff, the way he handled himself during those dark moments.

Brian Roland: 28:21

But you know, and when I looked at it, we've probably gone through one of four not four or four, like Joseph did, but he like he said, kept his eye on the prize. He just kept the annuity he was going to do what he was there for.

Dan Wheeler: 28:34

Well, what a great episode and we're gonna look forward to having Aaron on our next episode, so he won't want to miss it. As we continue on the with the unfair advantage with Aaron Burr. Kay, tell your friends about finish strong. And guys we don't mention often we've got a great Facebook page with well over 41,000 followers now we've got a YouTube channel, go there. Subscribe. It's free. And we have something like over 2100 videos there, don't we?

Terry Steen: 29:05

Yeah, good playlists of different subjects. If there's something that's bothering you, that would be helpful. It's all there.

Dan Wheeler: 29:12

Yeah, guys, I love doing this show with you and doing this podcast I should say. And I'm just doing fearless faith ministry with you guys. And what Aaron's all about in his book is it's never you're never too old to dream big and that's fine to do. So thanks for joining us and we'll see on this next edition of finish strong as we continue with Ehrenberg in the unfair advantage.

John Matarazzo: 29:36

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finish strong and fearless faith. Check out their website F faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong