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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 I am excited to start a new series today. Now I I'm gonna give you a full warning. Don't leave. Don't get don't get all were worried and nervous and0:12 upset. The Lord has something for you in this word. Oh, I'm so excited to get to it. We're gonna start a brand new series.0:23 Everybody's standing. I'm gonna read a parable from Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 19. If you've got a bible, smartphone bible, feel free to open up Luke chapter 19. Here's what God says through0:35 his word. Verse 11. As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear0:47 immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minas and0:59 said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, we don't want this man to reign over us.1:11 When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him1:22 saying, Lord, your mina has made 10 more. And he said to him, well done, good servant. You have been faithful with a very little, and you will have authority over 10 cities. And the second1:33 came saying, Lord, your mina has earned 5 minas more. And he said to him, and you are to be over 5 cities. Then another came saying, Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief1:45 for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit. You reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that1:57 I was a severe man taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money? Somebody say, my money. Yeah. Why did you not put my money in the bank? And at my2:09 coming, I might have collected it with interest. And he said to those who stood by, take the miner from him and give it to the 1 who has the 10 minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has 10 minas. I tell you2:21 that everyone who has, more will be given. But from the 1 who has not, even what he has, will be taken away. But as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them2:33 here and slaughter them before me. This is God's word. I've got a word for you guys. Everybody listening, God wants to say something to you2:45 about money. I I know I know church people get funny when the pastor talks about money, but stay right where you are because God wants to empower you and bless you when you understand how to2:56 handle his, not mine, his money. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, speak to every single 1 of us, myself included. Help us to hear your3:08 voice. Help us to see money the way you see money, the way you want us to see money. Empower your people with financial3:20 stewardship in a way that empowers their life for generations. I'm believing God that you're gonna change someone's financial story this3:31 weekend. We ask God that we might see Jesus, him and him only. In his mighty name, pray, and everybody said a big Amen. God bless you. Have a3:43 seat. It's not about money. I wanna just put a little the in there. It's not about the money. And here's the title of my message. It's called it's about the opportunity. My name is Tim. I'm3:55 the lead pastor of Waters Church. Welcome. If you're here for the first time, I pray it's not the last time. Come on back. Make Waters Church your home, and everybody who comes regularly said a big Amen. Amen. Amen. It's4:05 not about the money. Part 1, it's about the opportunity. Luke chapter 19. And I I I just am so amped for this series because it's we're heading into4:17 tax season, and and some of you are gonna get hammered and some of you are gonna get a couple of bucks back or whatever and and some of you are gonna say, what happened to my financial life? And and some of you are4:26 stressed right now. Some of you are going through financial difficulty that you have never been through before. I believe that God wants to set you free. I believe that God wants to empower you. I believe that the best4:36 is yet to come. I believe that God is for you and he wants something for you because he needs nothing from you. And I thought about this and it's real simple. Where else can you go4:48 except to God to get truth about your finances and trust God in such a way because you know he doesn't need anything from you?5:00 See, this is why I have no problem as a pastor talking about money, preaching about money, because it's such a huge issue in our lives. Did you know that 4 out of 10 divorces happen because of5:12 financial difficulties or disagreements? 4 in 10 divorces happen because of financial difficulties or disagreements. Now now just think about5:23 this, married people. If you get this issue right in your married life, you are going to lower your chances of divorce by 40 percent.5:35 Think about that. Do you understand what that does generationally? Do you understand what that does not just for you, but for your children and their children? You, today are gonna start a journey5:47 with us that I believe is gonna completely change the trajectory, not just of your life, but of your children's life, and your children's children's life, and your5:59 children's children's children's life. My son, this past week, brought me a flyer that we got in the mail and I don't have it. I looked for it, I couldn't6:11 find it. And he brought it to me and he said, dad, guess what? He said, I won 1000 dollars and I was like, Jake, he's 12 years old. I said, Jake, no you didn't and he said, no no6:23 no, they sent us a scratch ticket and I scratched off all the numbers and it is 3 irons in a row, 3 little pictures of an iron in a row and it says, you get 3 in a row of any picture, you win6:35 1000 of. I said, show it to me. I looked at the paper and at first I got caught up in it. I said, oh my goodness, I just won 1000 dollars because it came to my house, not Jake's house. I won 1000 dollars So I said, Jake,6:45 bad news. You didn't win 1000 dollars Dad won 1000 dollars And I looked at him, and sure enough, scratched off 3 irons in a row. And I said, woo, baby. Thousand dollars. And immediately, my wheels start turning. Here we6:57 go. And so then I looked, and I said below the little scratch ticket area, it said, if you are a winner, please call this number to schedule your prize7:09 vacation voucher. You all know what that's about. That is a sales pitch, friend. That is bait and7:20 switch. And our world is full of bait and switch financial troubles. How many understand that when it comes to your financial7:31 waters, there's piranhas all around you? No interest payments for 36 months. Buy now, pay later,7:43 or only 60 payments and it will be yours. Put it on layaway. You can have it today. I mean, all around us, all around us,7:55 financial piranhas chomping at us, trying to take what God has put into our hands. And today, I wanna start a series to give you a bat8:07 to start banging those piranhas on the head. Come on, somebody. God's got a word for you. Back to my point. Who else can you trust? Who else can you trust8:19 when it comes to financial wisdom than the only 1 who needs nothing from you? God needs nothing from you, friend.8:31 I think he's trustworthy. He's he's he does not require you to give him money in order to tell you how to handle money. That's upfront. He front loads8:43 truth to empower you and then ultimately change you and transform you into a wise and faithful, and listen to this, blessed, not8:54 stressed, steward of God's things. I wanna talk to you about this title. It's about the opportunity. What does God want from me when it comes to money? Now if you9:05 if you ask this question, what does God want from me when it comes to money? I'm sure that some of you are gonna say, oh, I I know what you're gonna say, pastor. Give it to the church. Give it to the church. Of course.9:16 And and and hey. Hey. I'm all for that, friend. Next week, we got our 40 week offering for really big things, and I am hundred percent all for you giving money to the church, and I want9:28 you to as a faithful steward. But but before we get to that, I think about this. Some of you can't give like you should be able to, and this9:40 is the reason why you've never seen money from God's point of view. Do you know that Jesus talks about money more than hell and heaven combined? 1 out9:52 of every 10 verses in the New Testament is about money or possessions. 16 of Jesus' 38 parables are about money and10:03 finances. Most famously, Jesus said, you cannot serve God and money. He said that money is gonna be the 1 thing that pits itself against God for the affections of your heart.10:16 And so when we talk about money, listen to me very carefully. Jesus knew and understood that money, above all other things, can rip our hearts away from God. First, some good10:27 news. Waters Church is 40 days into 2024. 40 days. And I am so excited to share this with you, and you should be giving God a big praise at this. In 40 days10:39 in, and Waters Church has seen 191 people raise their hand for salvation in 40 yes.10:50 Amen. Praise God. Okay. Are you ready for something though? Let me just let me just pull the rug out from under you. It's 1 thing to put your hand up to God for salvation. It's another11:02 thing to offer up your money and say, God, this is yours. Teach me how to use it. Take out your notes. Let's let's get ready to fill in the blanks. Let's get ready to talk about living with the11:14 opportunities that God's give us. Us. I just read from Luke chapter 19 this very famous parable. Some translations call it the parable of the pounds. It's the parable of the minas. A mina11:26 is an amount of money. 10 servants are entrusted with 10 minas, 1 mina each. I looked this up. A mina is about, in our money, in our day, it's about 20 to 40000 dollars. Real rough11:37 estimate here. 20 to 40000 dollars. About 3 to 4 months worth of income on average for the average person. That's what Amina was. These 10 men were given money, and they11:49 were put they were told, put this money to work. Now the context of this passage has everything to do with salvation. Just before this passage, Jesus was at a12:01 guy named Zacchaeus' house. Do you remember the story Zacchaeus? In Sunday school, used to sing it. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he? He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see, and12:13 he saw Jesus. He wanted to see Jesus, and Jesus saw Zacchaeus. And then Jesus said, Zacchaeus, come down, for I'm coming to your house today, for I'm coming to your house today. Remember that? That's that that that's old12:24 school. That's my that's my history. Well, anyway, Jesus goes to Zacchaeus' house, this rich, wealthy tax collector, and Zacchaeus meets Jesus. In in our language, Zacchaeus puts his hand up for salvation. Lord,12:36 I'm ready to be saved. Save me. And then this is what happens. Luke chapter 19 verse 8, just before this parable, and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold Lord, the half of my goods I give to the12:48 poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restored fourfold. In other words, here's what happened to Zacchaeus. Here's what happened. He met Jesus. Are you ready for this? He met Jesus,13:00 and it changed how he handled money. Whoo. That's when the rubber hits the road, friend. And so Jesus has a story to tell. And notice how13:12 Luke ties the interaction with Zacchaeus to the next parable of the minas. Look at verse 11. As they heard these things,13:24 Jesus has just changed Zacchaeus' life. He brought Zacchaeus out of the kingdom of darkness and put Zacchaeus into the kingdom of light. He brought Zacchaeus out of a destiny for hell and gave him a destiny to heaven.13:34 And Zacchaeus changed how he saw money and changed how he handled God's money. And then Jesus says, as they are and then Luke says, as they heard this going down, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable.13:46 Now what is a parable? A parable is a story of spiritual realities that is about natural things to reveal hidden things. That's what a parable is. A parable is a story about natural things to reveal hidden things. And13:58 what God what Jesus is doing in this passage is he is revealing hidden secrets about money that Christians listen to me. Christians need to get down. And so it says this, he proceeded to tell them a14:10 parable because he was near Jerusalem. That means he was coming to the to the place where they expected Messiah to come and rule and reign on the earth, And so they were expecting the kingdom. Look what it says. And they14:19 were and they supposed that the kingdom was to appear immediately. In other words, Jesus was gonna march into Jerusalem. He was gonna kick the Romans out. He was gonna take his throne on the temple, and he was gonna rule14:30 and reign, and all peace and glory was gonna be restored back to Israel. And Jesus is like, no. No. No. No. Wait a second. It's gonna be a long time. And here we are, ladies and gentlemen,14:41 2024 years since this moment. It's been a long time. And Jesus wants us to be prepared, listen to this, long14:53 term with his money. Alright. So so you got the context. That's the foundation. This is what Jesus is dealing with here in this text. It's15:04 about money. Now I feel like I need to say this because Christians, and I've been a minister through all kinds of chaotic cataclysmic15:16 events, Christians tend to get cray cray when it comes to Jesus' return and money. You see Jesus says, look, it's not gonna happen for a long time, you've gotta be a15:28 steward, you've gotta be faithful, you've gotta manage the opportunities I give you because it's gonna be a long time before I come and we've seen it over these, I've seen it over the last 25, 26 years of ministry.15:40 I was around in ministry when y 2 k happened, and all Christians were freaking out. Oh, y 2 k. Jesus coming back. I was around when 9 11 happened. Oh, look at the towers fell. Jesus coming back. I was around in 2008 when15:52 the financial crisis happened. Oh, look at this. Jesus coming back. I was around and you were around 20 20 COVID and all that nonsense. Oh, Jesus is coming back. And yes, Jesus is coming back. But here's the thing, as16:02 Christians, we need to live as if Jesus is coming back today, but we need to plan as if Jesus is coming back in our grandchildren's lifetime. Yeah. Yeah. Plan as if live as if he's coming back today16:14 responsibly, worshipfully, faithfully, but plan like he's coming back in 30 to 40 years. Financial stewardship starts16:26 there. So let's do it. I got 3 points and a lot of sub points, lot of writing today on how to handle the opportunities God gives you. Number 1, write this down. God wants me16:38 to seize financial opportunities. God wants me to seize financial opportunities. He said, verse 12, therefore a16:50 noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom in return. And he called 10 servants, gave them 10 minas, and said, engage in business. Everybody say those 3 words, engage in business on the count of16:59 3. 1, 2, 3. Engage in business. Okay. He says, engage in business until I come. The word engage in business in the Greek language, the Bible, the New Testament, was written not in English. It was written in17:11 Greek. Engage in business is 1 word. It's 1 word. And the word is pragmatowomai. Pragmatowomai. Pragmatowomai is the Greek word17:23 from which we get pragmatic. Now the definition of pragmatic in the English dictionary is the following. Dealing with things sensibly and realistically17:35 in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations. I want you to think about this. These are the words of Jesus. When it17:46 comes to your money, I want you to be practical. I want you to have your feet on the ground. And so often17:58 Christians, so often church people, we get very impractical about money. We let our heads sometimes get into the clouds of18:10 so much spirituality that we never think about finances practically. See, all the freaking out about y 2 k, 9 11,18:21 2008, 2020, you you know, that Jesus is gonna come back and, woah, he's gonna wipe out my mortgage. Okay. Well, that might happen, but let's18:34 live in reality. Let's live in reality. Put your feet on the ground. I was thinking about this. We're reading from the gospel according to Luke. Did you know that Luke was a doctor18:45 and he lived in reality and yet he talked about Jesus? He had his feet on the ground. He was a doc he was a physician. And then I thought about this even further. Consider this, not18:57 1 writer in the New Testament was a professional theologian. Not 1. Luke was a physician. Paul was a tentmaker. Peter, James, John, they were all fishermen. Jude, James, the Lord's brother, were19:08 probably carpenters, and Jesus himself was a carpenter. What I'm trying to tell you is that people with real jobs and real incomes wrote the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy19:20 Spirit. And they were men who knew how to make money. Really, that's what happened. They knew how to make a living with their hands. Some of them were very rich, some of them were not. It's not an it's not that's not the19:31 point. The point is they knew how to take advantage of the opportunities that they had before them. And I thought about this. Some of you financially, you're getting nowhere financially because you've never thought19:43 about how to make money. And I wanna answer this question for you to empower you. How do I make money? Write that down. How do I make money? Have you ever19:55 thought about that? Some of you got a job and you hate your job and you want a new job. Well, I'm gonna give you 4 points on how to make money. And you may have never thought about this, but this is pragmatic. This is20:06 practical. This is feet on the ground truth. Okay. Number 1, write this down. What can I do that helps people? What can I do that20:17 helps people? Because the fact of the matter is people need a lot of help. I've met people, they need help, okay? They need a lot of help. And20:29 I've learned that if you give yourself to helping people, eventually helping people will pay you. You you will20:41 make a living by helping people. Now now now let me let me address something that's spiritual, but it's very practical. When Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit, do you know what he calls him? In John 1520:53 26, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit, look at this, the helper. Somebody say helper. The Holy Spirit of God comes into my body, and he is a helper. He wants to help me. But21:05 have you ever thought about this? Paul says in first Corinthians 6 19 that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The holy the helper, listen to this, is21:17 inside of me. Everybody say this after me. The helper Is inside of me. Is inside me. You've got the third person of the trinity inside of you to help21:29 you, but have you ever thought about this? To help you help people around you. And it's just common sense, friend, that if you give yourself21:40 to helping people, they are going to possibly pay you for helping them. In fact, I'm guaranteeing that your job right now, whatever it is, is helping people in some way.21:52 And what you gotta do is you gotta do this. You gotta you gotta spend some time with the Holy Spirit and and ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what is my helping gift? What is my helping gift?22:04 Everybody has a helping gift. I I thought about this. Here's some general categories. Some of you have a physical helping gift. You are good with physical stuff. You build,22:16 you design, you create. Jesus had that. He was a carpenter. You are a person who puts things together. You are a con you are constructive. You might work with your hands if you have the22:28 helping physical gift. Another way that you have a another kind of helping gift is a mental helping gift. You are a thinker. You are a planner. You are a coordinator. You you don't do the22:39 hands on stuff, but what you do is you put the thing together in in concepts, in ideas. You draw. Maybe you're an architect. Maybe you're a designer, and you have a mental22:51 helping gift. Number 3, I thought about this. Maybe you have a relational helping gift. What does that mean? That you are a person who brings peace to team. You're a team builder. You're a coordinator of23:03 people. You love helping people work through their problems. You might be a therapist, a counselor. You might be an adviser. That's that's your gift. You've got a helping. And if you23:14 see your gift, not as just if you see your job, not just as making money, but as in helping people, you are starting to align your gift with God's blessing stream23:26 in your life. You see. It's not about the money. It's about helping people. 1 last 1. Some of you have a financial helping gift. You are great at numbers. You might be an accountant. It just comes23:38 you you light up when you see a spreadsheet on a computer. It just makes sure you just feel the holy spirit rise up. I mean, that is a financial help again. You love balanced23:50 budgets. You love when you were a kid, you had a check register in your backpack. You just love I mean, that's your helping gift. Here's my point. You24:01 need to stop seeing your job as just something you do to pay the bills and start seeing your job as an opportunity to help people. I believe when you do24:13 this, you are going to align your life with the Holy Spirit inside of you. Number 2 question. Ready? What do I notice that needs fixing? Here's how you find the job that24:25 you're supposed to do. And young people, pay attention very clear very carefully because listen to me. There are a bunch of college degrees that universities are offering young people around24:37 this country that are totally worthless. Worthless. Art history majors, listen up, change24:48 majors. French enlightenment majors, listen up, gender majors. Gender studies majors, drop your25:00 major. Get over to engineering school, get over into accounting school, get over into law school, I don't know. Something that's gonna fix people's problems. The richest man on earth right now.25:12 Well, it's always a adjustable scale, but I think he's he's in the top 3. His name is Elon Musk. You know how Elon Musk has gotten so filthy rich? It's very simple. He25:23 fixes problems, and he fixes huge problems. When he was very young, in his early twenties, he started a company called PayPal. Cash App, Venmo? Yeah. Yeah. Their ancestor their25:35 predecessor was PayPal, paying people digitally because we were in the Internet age, and nobody had a way of paying money digitally, so he invented a way. It fixed a problem. When he got older, he bought a company named25:47 Tesla. And with the climate change alarmism and and the lack of fossil fuels fear and all this stuff, and he said, listen. Let's let's build cars that run on electricity. And it just blew up because he wanted to fix a25:58 problem. He owns another company called The Boring Company. It's not boring at all. They are boring holes under the ground, tunnels to alleviate traffic problems in major cities.26:10 He is right now building another company called SpaceX to take rockets up into space and then land. I never thought about it. Why didn't NASA come up with this plan? Reland the rocket on the26:22 ground. Just so that way you can use it again. What is he doing? He is fixing problems. And I wanna ask you, you wanna make money? What problems do you see that need26:34 fixing? This is this is engaging in business. This is doing something that aligns God's blessing into your life. I have a pastor friend in New Jersey. He told me a story26:45 about a guy in his church that was sick to death of the church parking lot and the church building being covered with pigeon poop. I kid you not. Church was covered by26:57 pigeon poop. So he asked the pastor, said, mind if I clean it? He did. He went he got himself a power washer. He got himself some equipment, and he cleaned the church. Free of charge. Cleaned the church because he wanted27:07 to fix the problem of pigeon poop. Well, the neighbors next door to the church saw him cleaning up the pigeon poop. They had the same problem because pigeons are, you know, no respecter of persons. They'll poop on27:15 anything. And and and they had poop all over the house. So they hired this guy to clean up their pigeon poop because they assumed the church was hiring him. He started a business. Today, he runs a very successful pigeon27:27 poop removal service. It makes a lot of money. Why? Because he saw a problem that needed fixing. What problems do you see? And27:39 it goes back to your it goes back to your helping gift. Maybe it's a relational problem, a mental problem, an emotional problem, a spiritual problem. What is it that you see that needs fixing? Number 3, what do27:51 I love doing? Write it down. What do I love doing? Because if you follow your interests, I guarantee that your passion for that interest will fuel money28:03 making capabilities. This is engaging in business. And, yes, this is entirely spiritual stuff. Let's put it on the ground. Feet on the ground, practical, pragmatic approach. What do you love doing? Okay. Ladies and28:14 gentlemen, it should be no shock to you that I love I love preaching God's word, teaching God's word. I love talking about the problems in our society and helping God's people navigate through the problems in our28:26 society with the truth of God's word. I get to do what I love to do. But but but but but but you have to find that for yourself. What do you love doing? There was a survey done of college graduates many, many years ago,28:37 1500 college graduates. It was a longitudinal study, and they put them in 2 groups of those 1500. The ones that followed the career path chasing the highest28:49 salary, and the ones who chose the career path doing what they wanted to do, interests. And they would worry about the money later. After 30 years, they explored the results of this29:00 1500 study group. Do you know that 101 of them 101 out of 1500 became millionaires? And all but 1 of the hundred and 1 were in the group of people who followed what they were29:12 interested in. They chased their interests. Now now I want to say 1 very big qualifier, and I wanna warn you.29:24 Don't just follow your interests and what you love doing. Because number 4 question is so important because you might not have the chance to do what you love doing. And I29:36 I I didn't have the chance to do what I love doing when I was young. So for the fourth number, write this down. What options are around me right now? What options are around me right29:48 now? Because I may not have the opportunity to do what I love. So what God does, and I found this is a true case in life, what God does is30:00 he puts a test in front of you. Can you be faithful with something that you don't love doing but might lead to an opportunity to do what you love30:12 doing? I was called when I was very young, and I went to bible school to do what I do. And I wanted to do 1 thing when I graduated bible school. Do you know what that was? Do know what that was? It was planting30:23 churches and preaching. And guess what I get to do right now full time as my job? Plant churches and preach. I love what I do. I am extraordinarily blessed. But ladies and gentlemen, listen to me.30:35 My passion that I get to do right now came after a bunch of jobs that I had to learn to do faithfully that I didn't wanna do.30:47 I was a waiter, and I was a teller at a bank, and then I was a financial adviser at a bank, and and then I would and and during that time, I was a youth pastor, and I don't even like teenagers, and30:59 I had to do that faithfully, and God had to test my spirit. Was I going to be faithful with the thing that I didn't wanna do to hopefully lead to the thing that I wanted to do?31:11 Which leads me to a bonus question because some of you are stuck. You're stuck between what you want to do and what you have to do and I've got a great I got a great pro life tip for you. This is so important. If you31:22 wanna get to the place where you're doing what you love to do, here's the bonus question. Am I in the ballpark of what I love to do? Okay. Let me explain. In31:34 order for me to get to what I love doing, preaching the gospel and planting churches, I had to get around people who were preaching the gospel and grow in churches.31:47 Even if that meant I had to do something I didn't want to do to be in that area. Now let me let me explain. You might wanna be a chef, but you have no training. Okay. And and you don't have31:59 no money for college. Okay. Here here's pro life tip. Are you ready? Get in the ballpark. Go to a restaurant and get any job that you can. I used to be a waiter, and I I've done this. I used to be a waiter, and I learned32:10 real fast that if I treated the chefs with respect, my food came out first. So I would shake their hand when I showed up. I would show them appreciation. I said, great job. Oh, that looks so delicious.32:22 Good. And I just show them verbal respect. I had no money, so I just show them verbal respect. And these guys love me. Do you know what eventually they did? They taught me. I said, look. I love this dish that you made. I32:31 said, can you show me how to make that dish? And they did. And before I knew it, I was cooking my own dishes and learning how to be a chef. Now listen, I only share that to say this. If I had a passion and a calling to32:42 be a chef, I don't. But if I did, I was well on my way just by being faithful in the small thing of being a waiter and treating people with respect where I was. Don't you understand? If you32:54 wanna get into the financial world, and I did this as well, you wanna get into financial management. Okay. I got my 1 of my jobs was I was a bank teller. A bank teller, you know, where where do they go? Well, there's33:03 opportunities if you get into the ballpark. And sure enough, as I started to ask for opportunities and questions and how can I advance my career, they opened up doors? They were gonna pay for me to get my master's degree33:12 and my financial management degree, all the all the certificate. They were gonna pay that so that I could become a financial manager, a financial adviser, and I was well on my way. Of course, that wasn't my calling, but33:23 what I'm trying to tell you is that God taught me through those experiences what I'm trying to teach you. If you want to get to the place where you love what you do, get into the ballpark of what you wanna do. And ladies33:34 and gentlemen, the doors will start to open. And what I'm trying to beg I'm I'm begging you to see this. What Jesus wants from his people, he wants you to get33:45 busy practically, pragmatically. Engage in business and the money will come. Point number 2. This is big point number 2.33:57 God wants me to succeed in my opportunities. Now I feel like I need to just say this as clear as I can. Some of you have got you have got a poverty34:08 mindset. There's a whole bunch of Catholics that take a vow of poverty. I have no idea why these people do this. It is not in the Bible. It never says34:20 once, thou shalt take a vow of poverty to prove how spiritual thou self is. It never says it. Jesus was poor, yes, for our34:32 sakes, the Bible says, so that by his poverty we might become rich. Now now riches can be a trap where we forget the Lord. Listen to me. Poverty can become a trap34:44 where we curse the Lord. That's in Proverbs chapter 30. So so understand what I'm trying to tell you. Success is actually a very good thing. And and let me just say, it's a34:55 godly thing. And I don't believe for 1 second that your father in heaven wants you to basically fail through life and then eventually go to heaven. Absolutely not. He is a good35:07 father. He is a good father, and he loves you, and he wants his children to succeed. But listen, his way. His way. Verse 15 of our parable.35:19 When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered those servants to whom he had given the money, and he called them. And look at this line, that he might know what they had what's the word, everybody? What they35:29 had gained by doing this. Just circle the word gained. You understand? When the master comes back, he's looking for increase, gain in35:41 your life. And I thought about this. This is why some of you can't give. This is why some of you are strapped for cash. This is why some of you are so financially stressed. You're on the verge of divorce. Your life is a35:51 mess. Here's why. Because you've never learned how to gain. You've never learned how to gain financially. I got 4 points under this 1. I hope you're ready for it. Write this down. Number 1, make a plan or letter a. Make36:01 a plan. Proverbs 21 verse 5. The plans of the diligent surely lead to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes comes only to poverty. So the scratch ticket is hasty. The lottery ticket36:13 is hasty. The slot machine is hasty. Planning leads to abundance. Planning leads to abundance. I got a I got a bit more36:25 to say about this. The word for financial planning is a word that scares most people. It begins with b and it ends with36:37 budget. Budget. A budget is a plan. Let me say it like this. A budget is when you tell your money where to go before you're36:49 wondering where it went. When I was in bible college, my senior year, 1 of my professors had just left vocational ministry, came from the real world, the practical world, and37:01 started teaching us young whippersnappers about how to be pastors. I'll never forget. This was the greatest class I ever took because he taught us feet on the ground practical stuff. And 1 of the assignments it was37:11 actually I think it was our final assignment. He said, I want you to plan a budget with a 30000 dollar a year salary because you're all gonna be ministers, and you're all gonna be broke. And so here's what you're gonna37:22 do. You're gonna tithe first, 1 tenth to God. Then you're gonna save, 1 tenth. And then you're gonna pay your bills, and then you're gonna buy food and clothing and kids stuff and medical stuff, and then you're gonna37:31 have a little bit of money for recreation. And I'll tell you something. We did it we did it with all theory at that time, but, man, I'll tell you, it put in me it put me it it put my feet on the ground to say, wait a37:39 second. I've gotta be prepared with a plan for the money that comes into me. These guys get 20 to 30000 dollars in this parable, and they have a plan. They need a plan. I wonder if somebody handed you37:51 20000 dollars today, I bet you would have a plan for it. But the question is, would it be a plan that God would approve of, or would it be a plan of hasty actions that leads to poverty?38:03 And and and married people, listen to me. This this is fantastic. Okay. A budget should be ruling your your your household income. A38:15 budget, not 1 person. Because it's God's money, not 1 person's money. It's both y'all's money. God has trusted it into your hand. It's his budget. And here's what you do. You tell misterShow more
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