God's Kingdom Business "My Journey" Kris Vallotton

hi everybody it's a privilege to be here and we almost didn't get to land last night well I think eyes got some weather going on here so we had Snowmageddon this year reading got two feet of snow and we're out of power for eight days so for us but anyway yeah thank you so much for for being here is there right if we just pray and I know we prayed but I know how God and Shawn are doing to make sure we have prayer that actually works Holy Spirit thank you for what you're doing in this place and we ask that you would inspire us that you would enlighten us and that you would also encourage us and we bless every single person that's here we pray that they would all give to Chris Felton ministries amen obviously I'm joking well I am excited to be here and I really excited to see what God's doing all over the world and I believe that we're in this I believe that we've entered this season several years ago this New Apostolic Reformation that God is bringing to the world and I am excited for what what I see going on everywhere in the world and I feel like you know as people are so many people are think that kind of the end of the world is near and I think that's just the beginning you know I feel like this is the most and I feel like this is the most strategic and important time to be alive in the earth and I'm so excited for the season that we're in I have a couple of things on my mind I wanted to share I really have about three points that they they don't correlate so I don't know how I'll bring them together in just a few minutes because we just have 20 minutes but I wanted to tell you just a quick story about my journey I was in business for 20 years we owned nine businesses they were all in the automotive field own three auto parts stores and several auto repair shops and and then we we moved to Bethel and we we sold our automotive or our parts houses our three auto parts houses we sold to our supplier and told the story a few times but and then the escrow kept going on and on and ended up being 18-month escrow and they just kept you know rhe inventory in our inventory and they just had one reason after another why the escrow wasn't closing in and finally we had already agreed to come on staff at Bethel I by the way I've been with bill 41 years and so we made a covenant to spend the rest of our lives together good thing we did because we didn't always get along but anyway we get along great now but so we we finally we ended up coming to Bethel with our still owning our stores and waiting for the Eskimos to close and I think we were at Bethel a month or maybe two and the company that bought us which was the second-largest aftermarket company aftermarket parts parts aftermarket company United States went bankrupt and instead of buying our businesses we lost everything we lost our stores and we lost our house we lost everything so but a longer story obviously that I've told many times and we ended up we ended up living in a little apartment had no money and Bethel couldn't pay us that was the deal bill said you know I can't pay you for until you start to school ministry until the school ministry actually has income I can't pay you so we ended up just it was just a you know you could imagine like building businesses for 20 years and then losing everything and then our elders didn't asked us to not bankrupt so we at one point we owed actually probably around 1.7 million and they asked us not to bankrupt and so we ended up it's kind of funny we're in this board meeting and I was sharing with them what happened to us and I said you know Kathy and I are gonna go back in the business world I mean you know it would take us five lifetimes to pay this back in the ministry and one of the elders who had been there fifty years stood up very quiet man and he said well first of all a family doesn't leave when they're in trouble and secondly we don't want you to bankrupt and thirdly we ask that you would trust our faith for God to do a miracle and I remember this day like it was yesterday I said I I want you to know I have no faith for this you know when you're in the middle of your crisis it's so much easier to have faith for other people's crisis for some reason and he said this to me he said would you have fit would you allow me would you trust my faith for six months I'm like what's six months you know and so I said I I said yeah and three months within three months half of our debt was forgiven 980,000 was forgiven and then within three years we either had it paid off all of our debt paid off or forgiven so pretty miraculous but in the midst of that this man came up and he gave me he actually gave bill a check for me for $30,000 his name was Eli I didn't know him I'd never met him I'd only been at the church now like two months or three and and you know at that time thirty-five you know when you have thirty thousand dollars it feels like three million dollars you know I first I thought that check was for three thousand and we were in a prayer meeting bill hand me this envelope and he I said oh thank you said we'll open it so I opened it it was a cheque folded in half as a business check fold in half and I opened it it was three thousand dollars and I started yelling in the prayer meeting I mean that's how desperate we were I started I'm like literally people were bringing us groceries and I started yelling God gave me three thousand dollars and Bill goes you better look again and I looked again it was thirty thousand dollars and I mean I just freaked out you know and then you know we wrote the man a really nice we got him in a really nice card and thanked him but then for the next several months I I didn't know as void him you know you know when you're unconsciously ignorant you don't know that you don't know I spent several months probably six months avoiding Eli and in one day bill was preaching it was back when we only had one service and Bill would sometimes go along and I was sit in the front row trying to not interrupt servicing if I had to go to bathroom I ran into the bathroom and and Eli was in there and his back was to me and he didn't see me and I closed the door now run out of the bathroom and I mean like I don't know if I'm gonna make it and the next bathroom is a football field away and I'm running to the next bathroom and this is exactly odd happen and on the way there I had to this epiphany like I had this revelation like there's something wrong with me and it was so troubling like I you know adversity introduces to a man a man to himself I just got introduced to me and the craziest thing is I had no idea why I was behaving that way but when it when I was running to the other restroom I realized I had been doing this for six months the day before I didn't know that like it was so under the it was so below the conscious level I didn't know I was doing it but when I was running to the second restroom I I said to myself I've been doing this for six months and then I didn't know why I went to bed that night I couldn't sleep I just laid awake all night long thinking what's wrong with me why am i behaving this way and about the Sun was coming up so it's probably five ish in the morning I finally thought well I should pray I know I get paid to pray and I didn't even dawn on me and I said to God God I think there's something wrong with me and immediately he said uh-huh I said do you know what it is you know you're really lost when you don't know if God knows what it is you know it's like Adam you know when God said Adam where are you I mean if God can't find it you're freaking stock you know [Applause] so I said God do you know what it is and he said uh-huh and I said will you tell me it's a very defining moment my life he said do you really want to know to be honest I didn't know if I really wanted to know I mean I literally laid there for a long time it was probably five minutes but it felt like forever like trying to decide if I could handle the truth and finally I said I do I really want to know and God said to me you I gave you $30,000 I'm like I know that he said where the problem is is that you don't love yourself thirty thousand dollars worth and you were afraid that if he like gets to know you he'll be sorry he gave you the money and I I said I realized for the first time in my life earnestly did not know this I'd actually don't like me I never knew it like if you would have said you don't like yourself I would have said you're crazy I don't none of my friends would have known I didn't like me but I actually didn't like me and so I said god what do I do and he said why don't you try this why don't you try loving you the way I love you he said if you loved you the way I love you you would think if you I got to know me he would love me and that became a journey I actually wrote a book about it years later like my journey became love your neighbor as you love yourself how many know everyone needs a big ass she just turned to your neighbor and say you need a big eyes because how many know how many no you can't love your neighbor unless you love you now come back come back as I'm from California so probably figured that out right away when I said freaking there like I forget I'm in Texas the Bible Belt you know religion still popular here good I meant it as a good thing like Sean and I we all of us and we all live in a world that's quite different than Texas I'll tell you and we thought we love this and we love this we wish you had it in California but anyway short story is I began this journey in learning how to love myself but the reason why I share this that a business lunch is because the next revelation I had and was probably a couple years later is I realized I was in business for 20 years but I would I would never have prospered and by the way I always was busy I never that was I you know nine businesses I never went broke besides that time selling my business and they didn't pay my business is always prospered they always grew we broke most every rule in business and still prospered but I realized that five years after I was in business after always my business were gone I would never actually prospered because I actually actually sabotage my own wealth I called it generous I couldn't keep money because I wasn't worthy of it and lots of things that I did that looked generous were actually coming from brokenness and so I I started learning and again I feel like I'm still on this journey I I have a feeling it's a lifetime journey I feel like I've come a long way because I mean I I know this could sound arrogant but I hope you take it in the context like I really do love myself like I enjoy being alone I couldn't be alone I could it if I was alone I had to have activity TV on some I couldn't be with myself I didn't like me so being with me was not fun and I little by little I began to realize you know God made me the way I am it doesn't mean that we shouldn't grow and change but it means the core of who I am he loves me and he began to love on me and I say it like this like he kissed me into a new dimension in life and to the place where I actually really liked me I actually do think you know we have a lot of people who hate us and you know Jesus said love your enemies so you got to have some I feel sorry for some you got no enemies you know some people they they when you know they pass they say you know at their funeral and Joe had no enemies I'm like too bad Joe wasn't doing anything worth resisting I love Bill's quote I don't know if it's original with him but he said if you if you don't run into the demon once in a while you might be going the same way so sorry how that didn't go as well over in Texas as it didn't California but I so I so we have enemies and and some of them we have for really good reasons and then some of them you know you do stupid stuff and you get enemies and I don't think every enemy we have us because we're so righteous sometimes we just do stuff that's just stupid and when you're a public person everybody finds out about you're like yeah you might as well just make a joke out of it because you really were stupid so but I also want to say that I I began to realize that God actually loves wealth and I wrote a book called povery riches and wealth because of my journey I felt like identity has so much to do with wealth and the first chapter of my book is around just what I just share with you my that stories in there and and I feel like the church and I'm in control statement I love a church by the way got saving I was 18 so I've been you know I've been part of the church I don't know 46 years or something so I'm 64 so whatever that is and so I love the church so I feel like you know like if you're black you can say things about black people but if you're white you better not say anything about black people right and I feel like it's like that in the church you know I'm part of church so I get to say I feel like the church has a poverty mentality I came to Bethel and I came to Bethel well that's a whole long story but I came to Bethel like we were we were bill said we were a little tight but we were 120 days behind on all of our bills and we weren't in taking our payrolls that's a little tight on when uh and God was had me on this journey of learning how to love myself at learning how to also build wealth from from the inside out from the inside out and I figured I realized right away that there's a big difference between being rich and being wealthy there's a lot of people to have lots of money they're rich but they're not wealthy and there are people that have a lot that don't have lots of money but they're very wealthy and as I was I was learning how to build a wealth culture and I I figured out even in even in our church as we started to change things to actually build wealth there was lots of resistance and it wasn't from the people you would think it was from and we went from our budget was 1.8 million dollars and that that was everything that was missions that was anything that passed through Bethel and and 97 no I'm sorry ninety eight point two percent of that was tithes and offerings like what came in in honest on a Sunday and and this last year our budget was 63 million and 18 percent of it was tithes and offerings and we we built businesses and and offered our conferences in schools and and and I think we're slowly slowly building a wealth culture but I think that I think there are lots of things that resist wealth in our lives that are actually a process I think there's a such a poverty mentality in the church I think first of all people think that having having the stuff is wrong and I'm like you know people say things like Jesus was poor that's just dumb I mean if you can make wine out of water in 30 seconds and it's the best wine anyone's ever had and you live in an agricultural age you are not poor I was just thinking about this I'm sorry this may be this is new for you but you know Jesus is standing on the shore which he did it there's at least three accounts of this Jesus standing on the shore and the boys are in the boat you know the one after the resurrection and they don't know it's Jesus you remember this time and and Jesus says to the boys in the boat like have you caught anything you know a normal greeting for fishermen to fishermen have you caught anything he said no we've been fishing all night even caught anything you remember the story and then Jesus says will punish you cast your net on the other side and man Peter says you know we we we've been we've been fishing all night I mean the point is is that I think of you fished all night and you're professional fishermen you probably tried both sides of the boat I can't imagine anybody book Wow why didn't we think of that you know and think of this they catch so many fish that it starts to sink the boat and they had to call their competitor over to help them with the fish right they even count them 152 fish and when John sees the catch he goes it must be Jesus and Peter gets so excited he puts his coat on and jumps in the water and swims to the Lord he's such an idiot can you imagine if they caught three menos and they said don't must be the Lord he's so frugal you don't even get that I'm saying when they saw prosperity that almost sunk their boat they said that must be the Lord and so and by the way you're not gonna like heaven if you don't like prosperity I mean it's gold streets and pearl gates and you know and and some people are like well that's just a metaphor I understand it could just be a metaphor I mean we don't know it could be another dimension that we don't quite understand but how many know that if wealth was inherently evil are you with me if it was an inherently evil can you imagine Jesus describing heaven as gold streets and pro gates I mean can you imagine Jesus describing heaven like opium fields and marijuana gardens in California people like I'd go there that's what it was yeah and on what I'm getting at is that if if wealth was inherently evil there's no way that God would describe heaven as wealthy people say things like you know like wealth has nothing to do with your spirituality and I agree with that unless it does because many people in the Old Testament especially were wealthy because God blessed them it says Abraham was rich in gold and silver and in flocks listen us because God blessed him in the days of Solomon you know the story I'm almost done I'm not gonna take your time Bob in the days of Solomon God so blessed Solomon he remember he asked for wisdom and God said because you didn't ask for wealth or the head of your enemy and all these things you could have asked for I'm gonna make you wealthy I'm gonna make you famous I'm gonna make you and God God all the five things that he didn't ask for God goes I'm gonna give him to you and the Bible says that Solomon was so rich he had so much gold that silver became the silver became not worth it not worthy not no it wasn't valuable they stacked silver up on the sides of the streets it says in Chronicles like stones because there was so much gold you know why because God blessed him in other words his wealth was directly tied to God's to his relationship with God Isaac it says that Isaac sowed in a famine think about that we're talking about agriculture right he sowed when seeds should not grow the conditions were not conducive to grow seed Isaac sowed in a famine and reaped a hundredfold the next verse says and he became rich and the next verse says then he became even richer and the next verse says until he became very wealthy how many understand that that Isaac's wealth was directly tied to his relationship with God in Isaiah 60 arise and shine your light just come the glory of the Lord is risen upon you behold deep darkness will cover the earth deep darkness people with the Lord will rise upon you his glory be seen upon you nations will come to your light Kings to the brightness of your rising look all around they all come to you so we'll come from afar your daughters will be carrying an arm the wealth of nations will be turned to you it's goes on to say verse 10 says and your gates will be open continually they will not be shut day or night so that the wealth of nations will come to you their kings leading their processions this is God how many no no we're called to change the world and I believe that God wants to bless us the way he blessed Israel and God called it jealousy jealousy evangelism I'm gonna still bless you that the world will say I don't know who whose blessing you but I want some of that and I don't think poverty is attractive so anyway thank you very much for having me and I pray God's blessing on every single one of you amen [Applause]

Channel: Sojourn Church Carrollton, TX

Views: 12,624

Rating: 4.8414097 out of 5

Keywords: Kris Valloton, Terry Moore, Sojourn Church, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Christian Businesses, Redding

Id: XZeVTX_vA8w

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2019