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Digging Out of Discouragement
May 26, 2026 · 41 min
A reminder that difficult times may serve God's purposes, that feeling abandoned isn't proof He's gone, and trust grows as we yield to His sovereignty.
Series Russell Gray's Morning Muse May 26, 2026 · 41 min · Russell Gray's Morning Muse
A reminder that difficult times may serve God's purposes, that feeling abandoned isn't proof He's gone, and trust grows as we yield to His sovereignty. ...more Show the full description Show less A reminder that difficult times may serve God's purposes, that feeling abandoned isn't proof He's gone, and trust grows as we yield to His sovereignty.
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Lessons from Moses: Exile and Endurance 0:03 Good morning, and welcome to another morning news. I'm your host, Russell Gray, and I am sitting in my thinking chair as I often do early early in the morning. And I've had some things happen in my business life0:15 and in my psychology that had me discouraged. And no business person, no leader likes to admit that they get discouraged. Everybody wants to be all happy high notes all the0:27 time. But the truth is, as Christians, as business people, as anybody living life, we're going to face discouragement from time to time. And some people are more discouraged than0:38 others more often, and some people are more negative and fearful than others. There's people that are more prone towards optimism and hope and other people that are more geared towards doom0:50 and worry. And I don't believe that god really created us to worry. I think the scripture is full of reasons to have hope. And yet clearly, we know that we're going to have difficult times in1:02 this life. So it shouldn't shock us when it happens. The bigger question is how do we deal with it? And so I'm dealing with it, and I started out feeling a little glum. And I got into the word a little1:14 bit, and I wrote in my journal a little bit. And then I kinda worked myself out of this funk, and I thought, you know what? This is actually a a pretty good life lesson. And, of1:25 course, I've lived a lot of life. I'm probably older than most people listening to this at this stage. And so I think I'm qualified to have an opinion because I've had to overcome a lot of things in my life to keep1:37 going, and I've been through quite a bit of things. I've lost a lot of money in the great financial crisis. In fact, I lost everything. I've had business failures. People disappoint me. People betray me. My1:49 late wife got terminally ill, and we went through cancer together until she passed away many years ago. And so, you know, I'm not saying that I'm the only person in the world who's2:00 had difficult times. I think that's common to all people. We all go through it. And so I think that a lot of people don't like to really talk about it, and I'm always grateful for the people who are. I feel like there's2:12 so many lessons when people have worked through really difficult times and are willing to open up and share. And so I've made it my mission a little bit in life to talk openly about the2:23 difficult things that have gone on in my life, the challenges that I face, the mistakes that I've made, and out of all those things, the lessons that I've learned. And if they can help you learn quicker,2:36 then that's the purpose. That's the whole point, and that's why I'm here. I don't really like drawing attention to myself. It's no fun chronicling the mistakes and the lack of faith and the2:47 dumb decisions that you've made in your lifetime. It's it's never any fun. However, I do think that if it helps somebody out there, there's a young version of Russell Gray, somebody in their twenties or thirties2:59 that is on the front end of their entrepreneurial journey, the front end of building their family, the front end of building their life. And I know when I first got saved in my early twenties, I thought that god3:11 was now on my side, that I was invincible, that everything would be great. Where I happen to get introduced to the Christian faith was filled with quite a bit of legalism,3:24 which made me feel overly responsible for outcomes. And I'm not saying you should be irresponsible, but I think there's a danger in thinking that you have more control over your own life than you do. God is sovereign.3:35 You're not. Right? Our job isn't to orchestrate all the details of our life. Our job is to be faithful on a daily basis, and I think that's 1 of the great lessons that I've learned. And the other thing3:47 is is that there's going to be difficult times. Just because you are doing well doesn't mean that you are a perfect person. And just because you're doing poorly doesn't mean you're inherently3:59 flawed. God has a way of using difficult times in people's lives to work out his own purposes. And sometimes and often we see perfectly good people, people that really don't look like4:11 they deserve what they're going through, but they go through difficult times. And then you see other people who you feel like really are getting a pass, and their life seems so easy. And you think, why are they getting4:22 such a great life when they have, you know, these obvious flaws? And it may seem like there's no rhyme or reason, but how are we to judge God who can see everything, who knows everything,4:34 who's perfect plans? Well, you can't. But early in your faith, at least for me, I didn't realize that. And I certainly didn't realize it was true in my own life. So I felt very disappointed when4:46 I felt like I did everything right, and all of a sudden, god didn't show up for me. In fact, I've confessed that I went through a difficult 12 year period where I really felt like god had abandoned me. And, of course,4:58 that wasn't true at all. I really effectively had abandoned god because the expectation of who I thought he was and how I thought he would and should show up was based in a5:09 really kind of a false understanding. And what effectively happened, I think the devil used that to sideline me and distract me and disempower me and discourage me for a dozen years.5:22 And you may think what a waste. Well, yes. You can look at it that way or what a lesson. And I've had to learn to look at it like what did I learn going through all that, and how has that helped me.5:34 And 1 of my I don't know if I wanna say hero, but 1 of the people I identify with in the Bible is Moses who, of course, was raised in privilege through a set of5:45 circumstances he had no control over. Right? He ended up getting floated down the river in a basket and adopted into pharaoh's household, and he grew up in privilege. And then 15:57 day, I think he was 40 years old, he realized that his people, the Hebrews, were under oppression, and he saw a Egyptian abusing a Hebrew. And6:09 he felt compassion and anger, and he stepped in, and he he killed the Egyptian. Now all of a sudden, he created a mess. So I think he had a heart for what god wanted to do, but he stepped outside of god's plan, god's6:20 timing. Or it would appear that he did, or maybe it was all part of god's plan and timing because it all worked out. I can't tell you. I don't think anybody can tell you. I think only the Lord knows6:32 how he works out what he wants to do. But the net result of it is Moses ended up in exile for 40 years. And then during that 40 year period of time, there's not a lot6:44 that is told about what his life was about. But then the experience at 80 of leading the people out of slavery, out of Egypt, and into the wilderness where they6:56 spend another 40 years. And so he never got a chance to go into the promised land. And, you know, 40 years of living life as a prince, 40 years of living life as anFaith in Action Amid Business Trials 7:08 exile, 40 years of leading people to a promised land that they couldn't get into. And, yes, it was their own fault. And, you know, if you're familiar with the whole story in Exodus, you7:19 know how that all that worked out. But I gotta believe along the way, there was times when Moses got a little discouraged, when the people got a little discouraged. And they wondered what is god up to? Why is this7:30 happening to us? Are we really that bad? I thought we were god's chosen people. Does god really keep his promises? Who is this god? And so I think that there's certainly biblical precedent for7:42 people who are walking with god to feel like they don't quite understand what's going on. And in those moments, there's a bit of discouragement. So that's kinda where I was coming from. So I look at, you know, where7:54 I'm at in my business, and I've been doing a start up now for a couple of years. And that's a long time, and it's a big vision, and it's a complicated start up. It's really not building a8:06 company, but an ecosystem. And I'm building it to scale very, very big. I decided at this stage of my life, if I'm gonna do something, I wanna try to do something big. And it wasn't so much about what I wanted8:18 because honestly, I kinda like to take it easy. But I feel like god gave me this passion, this desire, this vision. He's put me in a set of circumstances providentially where I have the right relationships,8:30 the right positioning. I have an opportunity to do this. The tools exist. The timing is right. I think the market is ready. Now am I correct? I don't know. We're gonna find out. But I do feel like more8:41 than just something I want to do, it's something I think that God put in my heart to wanna do. Psalm 37 4 and 5 says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you or assign to you the desires of your heart.8:53 And so I have this passion to do this thing, and so I I work on it. But along the way, things don't always go as planned. People that you believe in, people who come and pledge their loyalty to you, people who say9:04 they're on board, and they believe in what you're doing and wanna be a part of it, and then wake up 1 day and they quit. I just had that happen. And, you know, I'm not faulting the guy. It's fine. You know, God brings9:15 people into your life and takes them out, and I've learned just to trust that process. You know, it hurts a little bit. It wasn't personal. I mean, we're still friends. It just he concluded it wasn't a match. The timing9:26 wasn't right for him, even though at the beginning, he felt like it was very much the right thing, and he was super excited. And so, I don't always listen completely to what people say. I watch what they9:38 do. And maybe he felt the same way about me. So, again, I I don't think it has to be a good or bad. It just wasn't a match, and that's fine. But at the end of the day, I I was really looking forward to working with him.9:49 I really felt like he brought a lot to the table, and I thought I had big plans for him. And I created a big opportunity for him, but it didn't matter what I wanted. It mattered what he wanted and the timing, and so he10:00 chose to leave. And that's fine. And then there's other times when you give it your all. I've had times where I put in 15, 16 hour days for days and days, sometimes weeks at a time. And and you10:12 think I've given it everything I've got, and you look at the situation, and the situation demands more. You're like, I don't have anymore. And when you get that spread thin, you begin to get discouraged. You just I don't10:24 have anything left to give, and I it looks like it needs more. And of course, we know that what looks impossible to man is very possible for God. And sometimes, we try toScripture: The Weapon Against Lies 10:35 do things in our own strength like Moses did, and God has a completely different plan. If you remember when Moses was in the wilderness after they come in, and he's judging the people, and he's standing there from10:46 morning till night judging. And his father-in-law, Jethro, comes and says, Moses, you can't keep this up. This is not sustainable. This is not right. You're going to exhaust yourself. You've got to10:58 train up leaders. You've got to create an organization, and you are gonna need to change the way you're attempting to do what you're trying to do. So it wasn't that what Moses was trying to do was bad. It was the11:10 way he was trying to do it was not scalable. And so even in the bible, there are business lessons about scaling, and Moses is 1 of the very first ones that had to build an organization11:21 to handle all the administrative responsibilities he had as a leader of these people out in the wilderness because they'd gone from a very structured society where they had task masters and assignments11:33 and a hierarchy, and then they went out in the wilderness where it's chaos. Well, it's a lot like that when you start a business. You go to work for a company, and they've got organization. They've got structure. You've11:43 got a boss. You've got clear assignments. They've got clear vision. They've got infrastructure, and then you go start your own business and you're floating in outer space. The mission of an entrepreneur is to take a11:53 vision and a box full of potential and circumstances that doesn't look very organized to begin to assemble or organize structure. And12:05 it starts with time and focus with calendar and a vision, and then you bring in leadership and culture and mission and vision and values, and then you begin to identify customers and create products and solutions and12:17 delivery systems. I mean, it's a lot of work. And people who've never done that before, they look at you and you tell them, hey. This is what I'm doing, and it takes a year or 2. And people are like, what are you doing?12:28 Like, why is this taking so long? And of course, when you're bootstrapping, you can only go as fast as your funding. And after having had put some investors in some deals that didn't go12:40 as scripted, and part of that was honestly because the plan hadn't been really fully developed, we were winging it a little bit. I won't do that again. Right? This time, I'm gonna make sure I've got a very12:52 good blueprint, very clear financial path. I say, do the math and the math will tell you what to do. And so if you're investing or building a business and you don't have a financial model, you don't have a financial13:04 plan, and you're not managing your activity to produce those results, then you you really are kind of flying blind. And I think that's very dangerous. If you wanna do that with your own money, god bless you.13:16 But if you are going to take on investor capital, if you're going to have people defer their compensation, believing that you can deliver on the promise. I think it's responsible13:29 to have a a plan. And so these things take time, and not everybody that comes along is willing to wait. So, another things I've obviously experienced is bad things happen to good people. I talked about that13:40 earlier. I looked at my late wife who took good care of her body. She didn't drink much. She exercised. She wasn't overweight. She ate pretty well. She had a happy13:52 outlook. She was a busy productive person. She loved life. And yet, she came down with cancer and eventually died. And that was during the period of14:04 time where I felt like God wasn't there for me. I mean, I believe that he was there as a creator. I believe that he is the lord of all in the world, and I I never quit believing14:17 that he existed. I just didn't feel like I knew who he was or how he would show up and watching this happen to my late wife really just reinforced that. It was a couple of years after she died that god really met14:28 me where I was at and spoke to me in, a language, if you will, that only I would understand. And I wasn't seeking him. He sought me, and he spoke to me very,14:40 very clearly, as I said, in a in a way that only I would understand. And I got the message, and the message was my late wife is fine. He goes, you know, all those unkept promises, all those14:52 broken promises, all of the things that you did and put her through and the hope that was deferred because you were busy doing your business and doing whatever you were doing. And so,15:04 honey, someday, someday, someday, and then the someday didn't come because we ran out of some days. And I'm holding her dying in my arms, and I realized how much of our 41 years I15:15 had squandered when I could have really been much more of a blessing to her. And many of the things that I had deferred, I had the ability to give to her, but I I pushed it off and reinvested in my business,15:27 both my time, my focus, and my money. And then ultimately losing it all in 2008 after all those years of working and sacrificing and having to get reset, what I did was double down15:39 on delivering and just worked harder. And I I felt good about that. I I felt like I was doing the noble thing. But in reality, I wasn't really there for her. And, you know, that's hard to live15:50 with. And god had to heal me of that in order to free me to get back to work and get back on track and and really learn to fall back in love with him and trust him. And a big part of that was him assuring16:02 me that she's fine, that every promise that I ever wanted to keep for her, every joy that I ever wanted to bring into her life, he said, I got you. She's fine. She's happy. She was me with me. She's not missing a16:14 thing. Go do what I created you to do. And that was a watershed moment for me. That was that was as big a day in my life as the day I got saved.16:26 And it's been really the thing that's been directing my life since it happened, and it's been 7 years, almost 7 years, 6 and a half years. But you have to deal with the fact in your life that good things are gonna16:38 happen or bad things are gonna happen to good people, and you might be the good person that bad things happen to. And so my point of all this is it's easy to get discouraged. And so there's a very long list of things16:50 that are gonna discourage you. I had a guy that I worked with a long time ago. He used to say, if you want an excuse to quit, life is gonna give you 1000000 of them. Right? Everyday, you're gonna have an excuse to quit.17:00 So but the thing is you can't win. You can't produce. You can't succeed if you are willing to make excuses. So there are no excuses. There's just reality. There is what it is. You do the best17:12 you can. And so 1 of the things that I've noticed that this will encourage you in my 65 plus years is that the biggest discouragements often precede the biggest breakthrough. And so at the17:24 time when you're feeling the most discouraged, it's often just on the front end of something big that's about to break for you. And I can't say that's always the case. It's not a formula. It's more of a17:36 pattern, but it does give me hope when I'm facing discouragement to realize that if I just keep pushing forward, the likelihood based on history, based on observation,17:49 based on what I've seen much less God's promises is that there's a breakthrough coming. But until you experience that pattern for yourself and you just hear a guy like me tell you about it,18:00 it's not quite as powerful. So it's taken years of me experience to this to begin to believe this is is true. And so what I found as I sat down to journal this morning and I was thinking about the18:12 things that I was feeling. And I wanted to trace them down as I talk about all the time. And for those of you haven't heard that, let me just explain it. When I sit down to journal, what I do is I18:24 take an inventory of my feelings. And I know some people don't think you should pay attention to feelings. Feelings don't matter. Feelings can be deceptive. But I think feelings are symptoms. And I think feelings are18:34 things that God gave us just like he gives us pain and pleasure to motivate us, to move us. And so our feelings are very very important. And when we get emotional about18:46 something, it creates motion. Either we run towards something or we wanna away from something. And so when we learn to manage our emotions and understand our emotions, we can direct our activities in our direction. We18:58 can either move in a positive direction or a negative direction, but it's that art and science of understanding your emotions and manage your emotions. And for me, I look at it like a flower. AndWin the Day: Faithful Capitalism 19:10 the blossoms, the the flower itself, what I can see, what I can touch, what moves me, what I can say is pretty or attractive or has a nice fragrance19:22 or is ugly and smells bad, whatever it is. Right? It's it's the flower. Those are feelings. And those feelings are connected to the roots by19:34 the stem, and the stem is like our thoughts. So what we think is the basis or or what feeds our emotions. And so we've got our emotions and underneath that we have a19:46 thought process we may or may not be aware of. Because candidly, when you look at a flower, you don't really notice the stem. You look at the flower, that's what you see. The stem is overlooked and the roots are19:57 invisible. And yet the roots is where everything comes from. Right? With no root, there's no stem, there's no flower. So what is the root? The root are beliefs. And so if you have your flower, which is what you20:09 see, which is what you experience, which is what moves you, your feelings, and you trace it to what you're thinking, the thoughts that are driving that emotion, and then you have to ask yourself is20:21 what belief is that root? Is that stem rooted in? And if it's a false belief, then you're gonna have false thoughts, and then you're gonna have false or unhealthy emotions. And so you gotta20:33 do a little bit of, investigation into yourself and your psychology. So this is the way I do it. So I write down when I'm feeling it. So this morning, I was writing down that I was was feeling discouraged. And then I20:43 began writing down why I was discouraged. So the feeling was I was discouraged. Why I was feeling discouraged were my thoughts. And at the root of the thought was that I'm working20:55 so hard. I'm dreaming so big. I'm sacrificing so much. And what if it doesn't work? You know, what people won't buy? They won't21:07 believe. They won't wanna be a part of it. And until I know from experience, it's all faith. Well, why am I doing this? Because God, I believe, not only21:19 gave me the the the mission and the vision, but he gave me the plan. Well, I believe that. And because I believe that, that's faith. But faith is you have to21:30 put it in action. Trust is faith in action. So if I'm going to believe God, you know, James says even the demons believe and tremble. So believing is interesting, but you've actually got to trust.21:42 What is trust? That's putting your faith into action. And so I said, okay, lord. You're calling me to do this, I believe. Let me show you how much I believe by actually acting upon it. And so I21:54 left a 24 year business partnership. I walked away on some things, and I decided in a late stage in life to start all over again, build a new brand, build a new business,22:06 take all the things that I've learned, and attempt to go do something on a much bigger scale than I've ever done before. And along the way, things happen. People quit. I have issues with software,22:18 financial things. Things happen in the economy. Some things are in my control. I make mistakes. Other things happen that are outside of my control, but they still hinder me. And then deep down inside, you know, there's22:29 this this voice saying you're never gonna make it. You have delusions of grandeur. You're dreaming too big. Right? Just why don't you just take it easy? Well, you could make an argument for that, especially after22:41 everything I've been through. And yet, I don't know that I could be happy. I don't know that, you know, being happy is the litmus test. But I don't think I would be at peace with myself and with God if I simply22:53 gave up on this thing that he's had in my heart to do for 27 years. I think rather I need to do it and then I need to figure out whether the discouragement is rooted in truth or23:05 not. And so what I found happening is I was journaling, and this is really important, is that scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture just kept popping into my mind, and I'm writing them down23:17 as fast as I could. And the reason that happened is because I have 30 years of spending time in the bible. So if you don't have that as a23:29 habit, and I hope you do, but if you don't, then I would encourage you to do it because the Bible itself in Ephesians 6 17 says that we are in a23:40 spiritual warfare and to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. If you've never picked up the word of God, if you've never practiced with the word of God, then you're like a swordsman who is really23:51 unfamiliar with how to use your weapon. And if you're in a battle, whether you realize it or not, you're gonna wanna have a weapon and you're gonna wanna be good with it. So you gotta train with it. And so they just24:02 encourage you. May not seem like it makes any sense, but what you're doing is you're building up an inventory that later you're going to use when faced with the devil. And so James 4 7 says24:14 resist the devil and he will flee. So first thing is I recognize that the discouragements are not from God. God would not send discouragement. God is going to encourage me. He says be bold and of good24:25 courage. Yeah. That's what he told Joshua. When Joshua was saying, okay. You know, Moses is dead. You're the leader now. You're gonna go into the promised land. So the first chapter of Joshua, like, 2 or 324:37 times, the Lord says, if you're different people to Joshua, be strong and of good courage, be of good courage. And so I believe the same thing. There's a promise land that God has for each of us. Right? The24:49 ultimate promise land is we get to go to heaven, and along the way, we need to be of good courage. But we also have our individual missions to build a business, raise a family, whatever it is that you are doing in25:01 this world and you have a a long term goal. If you believe that that's from God, then his word to you would be be strong and of good courage. And the joy of the Lord says25:13 Nehemiah is your strength. So be joyful and of good courage. Right? That's the calling. So if you get discouraged, you can know that's not from God. Well, if it's not from God, who's it from? What's from your adversary,25:24 the devil? Right? First Peter 5 8 says your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. How does he devour you? He lies to you. How do we know he's a liar? Because Jesus told us in25:35 John 8 44, the devil is a liar from the beginning and the father of lies. So we know he is a liar. And James chapter 4 verse 7 says, resist the devil and he will flee. Well, how do you resist25:47 the devil? You resist the devil because he lies to you and you resist him by refuting him with truth, which is the word of God. If you don't know the word of God, then you're not gonna be able25:59 to refute the devil quickly. And I think that's important. So if you can't resist the devil, then he won't flee. He'll continue to lie to you. He will continue to discourage you. He will pile on and pile26:10 on and pile on. And if he can discourage you to the point where you despair of life, I mean, that would be the ultimate victory for him. If he can discourage you to the point where you despair of26:22 hope and you withdraw into escapism and won't engage with your responsibilities and the opportunities that you have, then that's another level of victory for him. If he can discourage26:34 you just enough so that you will settle for not developing your fullest potential, for not going after the full passion and purpose and mission that god gave you and keeps you26:46 busy doing things that appear to be satisfying, appear to be successful in the world's eyes, but you're not effective for God and his purposes. That's another form of victory that Napoleon Hill and Sharon Lechter talk26:57 about in outwitting the devil. And so there's a lot of different ways, but at the end of the day, the tool of the devil is lies and your tool to refute him and resist him with the promise27:09 that he will flee. James 4 7 is the sword of the spirit, the word of God, Ephesians 6 17. So just keep reading your Bible. Read it again. Just keep reading it. Read it. Read it. Read it. David said in27:21 Psalm 1 19 11, I hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Well, if you think about that for a minute, you're you're hiding the word. You're you're you're filling your heart,27:33 your desires, your passions with the word of God that you might not sin. And for a Christian, if you're covered by grace and we know you are, we are covered by grace, then what is sin?27:45 Well, in my opinion, it's failing to trust. And again, my definition of trust is faith in action. Faith alone is not powerful. Right? In fact, James 2 2627:57 says faith without works is dead. Well, we don't have to do works to earn our salvation. We don't have to do works to earn God's love. Those are gifts. Even faith is28:09 a gift from God, says Paul. But we show him that we trust him when we obey his commandments, when we act on our faith. And if he calls you to do28:21 something, you also have to believe that he will equip you. That's another scripture. And so when you begin to go out and take on these big challenges and you begin to stretch, you begin28:32 to step out in faith and do more than you think you can to believe bigger than you really do, to act in a way that is consistent with who you are and your28:44 calling instead of how you see yourself and how the devil belittles you. You begin to be effective in the kingdom of god for his plans and purposes. Now that doesn't mean you win big in life. Right, in the world's eyes.28:56 You may not become rich. You may not become famous. You may not become notable in any way, and that's fine. I don't know that those are any of those are litmus tests of being a successful Christian. I29:07 think they aren't. I think they're byproducts of being faithful to do what God is telling you to do. He does say that he wants to prosper you, has plans to prosper you. But his definition of prosperity and your29:18 definition of prosperity, certainly the world's definition of prosperity can be different. And so we don't get to decide exactly what we're gonna get. We can aim at things, and we should, and we29:30 should work for things, and we should. But the main thing, in my opinion, the thing that I strive to stay focused on is to be faithful to the calling that God called me to, to be faithful to29:43 build according to the plan he gave me on the mountain, to continue to acknowledge him in all my ways, trusting that he will direct my path. I think that's Proverbs 3. And so it's29:55 a very different way of approaching business and investing and success than what the world gives. And so 1 of the reasons I do this ministry is because I wanna share that that30:07 how do you reconcile the faith part of it with the business part of it. How do you be in the world but not of the world? How do you retain your Christian faith in the midst30:18 of a capitalistic world? And I don't think those are antithetical. I think they've become antithetical because Satan has successfully removed so much of Christianity from the30:30 marketplace and the mission of the Christian Capitalist Show and these morning muses and the things that I wanna do with fellowship of Christian capitalists is all about getting Christianity back into capitalism and30:41 getting capitalism back into Christianity. I believe that as a as a system, an economic system, capitalism is the best way to love your neighbor practically. If I30:53 get up every day and I work and produce goods and services, and I'm good at that, and I produce excellent goods and services, and I'm very efficient at it, and I can deliver them affordably, I can serve31:05 more people those goods and services for less money and improve their lives. That's a practical tactical way of meeting other people's needs. And in order to inspire other people to do31:17 that, if they do that too, then they have more purchasing power and they have more abundance. And then you get to the point where you have abundance to be generous from and charitable from. And so31:28 there's nothing wrong, I believe, morally with capitalism. In fact, I think capitalism is those most moral form of economic system there is. But anything that is moral31:41 when you take god out of it is gonna degrade into being immoral. And we've had some of that happen in capitalism, and it's become a way for people who are selfish and greedy31:53 to create monopolies and hinder capitalism, keep small businesses ineffective, create regulations and taxes and difficulties. Business32:05 people work to create what they call a moat. We're gonna create a moat around our business so that it's so difficult for anybody to compete with us. We will effectively have a monopoly. The problem when you have32:17 a monopoly is you you lose that competitive edge. You don't have anybody keeping you honest in terms of creating value and improving, and that's why things that are monopolies where they don't32:28 really have to compete, that's where you get, you know, the government, which doesn't really have to compete with anybody, and so they they're not very efficient. You get these large corporations. I happen to have a32:39 disdain for Microsoft. I think Microsoft does a terrible job with customer service because they have a virtual monopoly. So sorry if you work for Microsoft, but that's some feedback for you as a customer. Now I use32:51 it because I feel like the product that I need to have to be productive, but I can't stand doing business with Microsoft. I wish somebody would introduce a company that could create products that are just as good with33:03 excellent customer service. I think there's a big opportunity there. I'm not a software guy, not gonna be my thing, but somebody out there, I'd encourage you to do that. But my point is is that when you're setting out to33:12 go do something in business, you're going to run into discouragement. And as Christian, you just have to understand that, well, you have your KPIs and you have your metrics and you have your financial goals. Your33:24 ultimate mission is to be faithful to what god has called you to do, to build it according to the plan that he gave you to execute with diligent and discipline every day33:36 and to really work on conquering the day. And I'm gonna talk about that again in a minute. And along the way, you have to understand that when you step out in faith and you33:48 begin to work, you're going to have setbacks. And that shouldn't surprise you. That's not evidence that god is against you or that god is not with you. It may not even be34:00 evidence that the devil is against you, although you can be assured that he is. But what Jesus said was in John 16 33, he goes in this world, you're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheerShow more In this video 0:00 Lessons from Moses: Exile and Endurance7:08 Faith in Action Amid Business Trials10:28 Scripture: The Weapon Against Lies19:08 Win the Day: Faithful Capitalism34:08 Win the Day: Faithful Capitalism
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