Session 4 - God's Power to Create Wealth

session for God's power to create you guys got your seatbelts on all right this is gonna be good does anyone not get a session for it it was the second half of the handouts did anyone not get that we got oh um all right well here's here let's do this um while we're doing that you don't have to live with this sentence forever okay but the best you can write down right now write down your why for desiring wealth in one sentence it can be a long sentence you'll have to live with it you're not gonna get it tattooed okay but just the best you can right now and for those of you who still need if you guys could hold up your hands you're gonna get session four so let's take let's take 60 seconds on that the best you can that your wife or wealth you know if the wordsmith had just get some ideas down all right you guys ready all right here we go so growing up in the church my only training for finances was tithes and offerings and we were told that God wanted us to prosper we were never told how we were gonna prosper and so I'm gonna spend the rest of this seminar talking about how a God wants to prosper you you guys ready all right so I'm fascinated by the story of Israel in the wilderness and so I started off as slaves in Egypt and here's the lesson of slavery there's no hope you know there was there was there was never enough and so there was no hope of anything more than that so God delivers them out of that and he sends him in the wilderness the wilderness is an interesting place so there was miracles of provision every single morning so they had you know water was coming out of rocks there was manna in the desert so they always had miracles and provision but there was never more than enough whenever they tried to get more than enough it got maggots you know and so here's the thing a lot of people think that wilderness is the highest level of existence in the Christian life you're supposed to live for miracle to miracle to miracle the wilderness was this school it's never the goal the goal was the promised land but you cannot go to the promised land unless you learn the lessons of the wilderness and the lessons of the wilderness is can you trust God when it doesn't look like there's anything there can you trust God and the lacked the the provision for the day-to-day because if you cannot trust God during the times of lack I guarantee you will not keep your eyes on him during the times of abundance what you'll do is you'll turn your eyes to the blessing and then you just have leveled off many believers are stuck in the wilderness the lesson in the wilderness is complete trust in God alone nobody can take better care of me than dad I wish you could say you skipped right from slavery right to the promised land but nobody gets that past you have to learn the lessons of the desert and again if Trust is not a delight then you have some growing up to do okay those trials that are coming in there are God's invitation into a deeper walk or walk with him a deeper understanding of nobody can take better care of me than dad those are the lessons of the wilderness because you need those lessons you need those muscles of trust but when you have great wealth you're gonna need the same trust that you need when there's no provision is the same trust that you need when you have lots of provision you don't suddenly get wealth and all of a sudden you need God less no no you need it more money is just another way to be intimate with Jesus when you don't have a lot you need to draw close to him so you can find out what he wants you to do with what you have when you have a lot of money you need to draw close to him so you can find out what he wants you to do with what you have Jim is that the same thing yeah it's just another way to be intimate with Jesus so the wilderness was this school it wasn't the goal the goal is the promised land in the promised land miracles are no longer there to sustain you they're there to advance you in the promise I thought it was good am i maybe you're writing I'm not and the Promised Land is where they actually begin to slay Giants and take walled cities and expand the borders of the kingdom that's what God's after but he's got to find a group of people who have gone through the wilderness and it passed the test of trust in the wilderness so in the wilderness it's interesting the day that they stepped into the day they stepped out of the wilderness into the Promised Land the manna stopped that day and God said it's a land flowing with milk and honey God began to bless the work of their hands in the promised land this is what God wants he wants to bless the work of your hands let me just say it this way guys said he would bless the work of your Hey it's not your butt on the couch a lot of Christians want to make declarations and Tigh than just wait for checks to fly in that's not how it works see in the promised land it was a land flowing with milk and honey which means they had to get up every morning and milk the goats they had to learn something about bees and learn how to harvest that honey they you know in order to keep the crops going God only gave them the land that they had enough that they could cast seed and steward that part of the land it was all theirs by promise but the only part that they had through through experience was the amount that they could steward a lot of people they make a confession or declaration I'm not sure if you heard of the book the secret supposedly it was like based on Christian principles it's not okay there's nothing Christian about the book you just think positive thoughts and all this stuff starts flying your way positive thoughts are great thinking God's way is great but the Promised Land thinking is God is I'm going to cold labor with God and he's going to bless the work of my hands listen to Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 17 and 18 God talks about the power to create wealth here let me set the context for us the book of Deuteronomy was written to a group of people who had spent 40 years in the wilderness these were people who had learned how to trust God and God makes all these great promises in chapter 8 to them he's like listen I'm gonna bless your crops I'm gonna bless your herds I'm you're gonna harvest a copper out of the fields bless bless but I'm gonna multiply this I'm gonna multiply this okay and he keeps making this statement but remember don't forget remember don't forget him you can almost share God it's like listen I want to bless you but I don't want your eyes to turn to the blessing keep your heart towards me so right at the beginning of this thing there's this call to intimacy so listen to verse 17 Durham 817 beware lest you say in your heart my power in the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth it's been my hard work I went to school for this I got the mentors I read the books I put on the hours that's that attitude he's talking about my power in the might of my hand have got me in this wealth you shall remember the Lord your God listen just because you don't have to depend on God for food every day doesn't mean that you need him any less than you do in the promised land I'm telling you the truth gang this is where I died a mentor who was extremely wealthy in several businesses and he said Jim for every one person who can um you said for every hundred people who can pass the test of lack there's one who can pass the test of plenty I don't know if that's an accurate statistic but I hope the weight of that hits you we've got to learn those lessons in the wilderness it's a part of the power to create wealth is this called the deep intimacy and Trust because here's what's gonna happen we are we are told don't pursue money pursue wisdom and here's what happens when you pursue wisdom and you seek the kingdom wealth is attracted the kingdom attracts with the world pursues I got a giant magnet in my hands can you guys see it it's one of those giant wild red ones it's shaped like a u and it's got the silver tips can you guys see it here here's how wealth works when it's pointed away from you wealth is attracted when it's pointed towards you it repels when the Christian goes after when a Christian seeks vision and not provision God adds the provision the word provision the prefix Pro literally means for that which is for the vision so you are to seek vision and seek God and wealth has attracted if you begin to turn your eyes and that within the blessing and that wasn't attracted you've just leveled off okay beware lest you say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the power to create wealth some translations say get well some say produce maker create wealth I'm gonna get to that a second that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your forefathers that is this day so why does God give you wealth so that you can confirm his covenant so that you can show this earth what he's really like remember that goes back to that prayer we saw in Psalm 67 1 & 2 if your motive so I think the NIV says gives you the ability to produce wealth I think the English Channel version says get wealth ok we're gonna see this here in a second the word there forget or make or create it's the same word that way the way that God uses to create God creates you and His image then he gives you that same power to create I want you to think of the difference between trying to get wealth and creating wealth getting wealth is like I'm trying to take something from you it's like a business is like we need to get more money no no you need to add more value and money will find you we're gonna get to that here in a second so I want you to just get this we are not trying to get wealth we are creating massive value and wealth will find us okay the power to create wealth is not some magical ability to cause dollars to reproduce the power to create wealth is partnering with God to bring massive value to other people and wealth as a by-product wealth is attracted to the person who creates and solves problems and adds value did the power to create as well as about finding out ways to add more value to people than anybody else's it's about becoming more valuable to your own environment this means that you are growing you are taking training you're learning you are doing more serving more giving more in the operators what's gonna be the result of that you're going to earn more whether you have the best food truck in Columbus or you're the founder of Facebook you're adding massive value and money has attracted to that my son Joshua my oldest son he worked for a sub shop here in the city and he's got he's got that power to create on the inside him he's very competitive and he loves to do things with excellence and so before his first day of work he memorized the entire menu and he memorized the entire cash register so he gets there and they've got different testing on like mayonnaise and slicing and bread and all that stuff and so corporate came in and they're observing him usually you have to take a test assertive Ally on these things and so they certified him in every area of the store just by observing them even though he didn't know he's being tested so he would take his days off and he would go over to other sub shops in the same franchise and he would find out who was the best at different things so he'd find out who's the best of the cash register and he would interview them write down best practices you find who was the best at this and he would take all those best practices this is an 18 year old making a little bit more than minimum wage goes over there and it takes the best practices back to his place begins training his workers and in every store they put him and after that became the number one store what was he doing got Sparta create they wanted to give him the entire store they want him to be the manager over there gonna send him Chicago at age 19 and he says listen I'm not here to work for money I'm here to work for experience when they entered when interviewed and they said what you want to do he's like I want to do what you do I want to own businesses and create culture and so the reason he accepted the assistant manager position he said dad it's an employee he says I can I can affect the I can affect the environment at a lower level but as a manager he's like I can I can shape the culture over this over the store what's he thinking he's thinking of shaping the culture he told me about one time it was five minutes before closing and someone had just come in from Buffalo Wild Wings and they had a gastronomical event in the restroom so they had diarrhea that blew up all over the wall all over the seat Josh was like I don't even know how it was humanly possible to make that big of a mess I said what'd you do he said he's a dad I could have sent one of the other workers to do it he said I cleaned it so well you could have eaten off those toilets what's he doing he's adding massive value recognizing it's God who causes the promotion to happen God is looking for people who have the character to withstand the spotlight and carry the name of Jesus and not bring embarrassment to it when Joshua quit that job and went to another job he found out the favorite candy bars of all the other managers got the McCanney bar and wrapped it in a prophetic award for each one of them boom what's he doing he's adding massive value he's using God's power to create when you think of God's power to create think of creating Wow experiences oh wow experiences is one that exceeds your expectations okay obviously not every heir of your life's gonna create a WoW here's what I want you to do I want you to take 30 seconds each at your table and I want you to think of a time where you had a WoW experience we can all think of Alice and woes but I'm talking where it was like it could have been a restaurant it could have been a movie it could have been an experience as some service that you had come in Disney World could be something that where it was just wow this was amazing okay so 30 seconds and just talking about a time we experienced a Wow 30 seconds each so we'll take two minutes total but keep it moving [Music] how many of you is hard to come up with something yeah so yeah sometimes it's not hard to stand out in some areas so one I mean there's there's so many just just a micro one is the the chick-fil-a right up the road here on a sawmill I don't know if all the chick-fil-a is do this but this one does and so if you're like you know going through the drive-thru your mom or dad with a car full of kids you can order and tell them that you want it set up on the inside so you order in the drive-through and when you get there they've got the table set so you don't have all the kids trying to juggle trying to pay and get it all in there you sit there and it's waited for you what you guys just say I'll say it backwards there's another restaurant I'll Babel is that restaurant were talking about at the staff that one were they they sweep for a block around it something Northstar Northstar they actually every three or four hours they send their workers our and they pick up all the trash within a one block radius so just as you're coming into the region you begin to experience something different they get down to the micro level so they tell that the the worker is there you need to wear dark dark jeans or dark pants and so that means when you wash him you wash them inside out so they don't fade and I mean just right down to that level of creating culture it's amazing Martin Luther King jr. said this if a man is called to be a streetsweeper he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well guy says what you do in secret he will reward openly he said promotion comes from the Lord not from man it was a book with this title how you do anything is how you do everything I'm ready for the conviction of the gym spirit you ready for this I can tell a lot about you if I were to go inside and look at the condition of your interior of your car or your front yard because how you do anything is how you do everything I'm talking at a mic it's so funny I just taught this in Pennsylvania last week and the girls like sorry she's like not ran out to my car and I cleaned it out I'm getting a start now I was like good good that's awesome I'm talking about when you're walking the dog what level of excellence do you use when you're picking up the dog feces you leave a little bit there or do you make sure that as I'm talking at that level God's looking for you looking for someone with an excellent spirit let me just say a quick word God's ability to create God's power to create wealth the word wealth there that results here's the picture God gives you the power to create and wealth is a byproduct okay wealth is attracted to the person who's using God's power to create alright I think I have a whole appendix at the end of this session of just scriptures that talk about wealth being attracted so um it doesn't say that hey when you use God's part of Crete you're gonna get a big big paycheck it says that you attract wealth okay a wealth is what result results from partnering with God to use the power to create here's what the word wealth means I think I put it in your notes here I was so excited cuz I was doing um I was doing a word study on this and I was reading through Proverbs and Brian Simmons had done a word study on this two different places I was like who better than Brian Simmons the passion translation guided to a word study than Jim Baker so here's what Brian Simmons says it means here's what this word means it means army wealthy strong mighty powerful with substance valiant virtuous or worthy it's more commonly used to describe warriors champions and mighty ones often used to describe military prowess it's used to describe the woman of Proverbs 31 who is the church to picture the church who was prosperous had a blessed family influences City and a blessed marriage I think my favorite part of proverbs 31 again talking about the church it says and her husband was famous in the city what is it this is a woman who was carrying the power to create Walt that's the church so here's the picture you and I partner with God we use his power to create wealth to add massive value to people's lives and the result will be attracted into your life will be resources substance assets and means that will act like a mighty powerful army to establish God's covenant on planet Earth influence cities and transformations and you were just hoping for a raise you and I were created to create you were designed to be a designer you were built to be a builder you were made to be a maker you were shaped to be a shaper and I couldn't think of any other ones it's in our DNA to be solution-oriented people I'm not talking about just fixing broken things I'm talking about coming up with melodies in art that when people see them they encountered the healing presence of God I'm talking about solutions that people haven't even thought about talked about irrigating crops to new practices for business so that employees are more prosperous and there's there's something on the inside so how is this whole thing worth Genesis 1:26 and 27 then God said let us make man in our image this is the Trinity having a small group right here he's talking about the Trinity let us make man in our image after our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over the heavens over the livestock over the earth over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so God created man in his own image and the image of God he created him male and female he created them you were created in the image of the creator and the creator gave you his power to create so that begs the question how does God create I want you to notice the same word used therefore create is the same word that God uses to make man and his image to create man in his own image you seen this the same power he used to create you he now gives to you to create wealth are you getting this picture this is this is bonkers so the question is how it is God create okay what's the first verb in the Bible in the beginning God let's look at how God creates Genesis 1:1 and 2 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness some translations say chaos was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters your power to create will have you attracted to chaos that you are to hover over the Holy Spirit and bring order on into disorder okay I've saved the best stuff here it's about to get so good I can try you were created in God's image the same power he used to create you in His image he gave you that same power to create wealth so you're going to create like God the way God created is he is attracted to chaos and he hovers over that cast with his Holy Spirit and it brings order out of disorder how do most people respond to cast my job stinks the coworkers they're a mess these systems are a mess guess what you are called to that situation to chaos the reason you shine is because you were called to invade darkness so most people curse the darkness rather than hover over it and use the power to create to bring order out of disorder and wealth will be attracted to that the still small voice is one of the most important aspects in God's power to create wealth he's going to lead you into chaos don't complain about the chaos you were born for it you're born to thrive in that environment you hover over that situation with the Holy Spirit and you listen for that still small voice every step in obedience to that voice is a step towards wealth the God who rewards what's done in private he rewards it openly let me ask you how are you responding to the chaos in your life you guys see the power to create is not some mystical far off double portion anointing come and get whacked and shake on the ground I love it when people get whacked and shakin the ground I just wish dude they walk straight when they get up I don't care how high you jump I want to see how straight you walk when you get when you're out of here I want the world to see what dad's like how are you responding to the people and the challenges in your life John 16 says Jesus the Holy Spirit is gonna come in our life to speak what he hears from the father and to tell us things to come do you know what an unfair advantage you and I have access to it says the Spirit Himself searches the mind of God you think Google's an amazing search engine the Holy Spirit is a search into the mind of God and he's good at everything he knows how to rearrange the water molecules into wine he knows how to suspend matter and or suspend gravity and walk on water he knows how to create matter out of energy yeah he was able to multiply food they've got cyclotrons I got one in Sweden they had another or Switzerland they got another one it didn't work in Texas these giant huge machines that are able to fire electrons together high velocities and they can create matter at a few minutes for a few seconds jesus knew how to access the energy of the heavens energy something that gets work done you know how to access that other realm to multiply food I'm he did things like this all of the time he knew how to take the molecules of a severed ear and reattach it to a head I mean you see I'm saying he knew how to curse if he knew how to slay a living tree with just his words and he's the same guy who spoke the worlds into existence said let there be light we know that the universe is expanding at the speed of light because he never told it to stop I mean there's billions and billions and billions of galaxies not stars not planets of galaxies of which we are one small part and then there's a microscopic level though as we discovered the universe is getting bigger it's getting smaller at the same time smaller and smaller he says that he holds all things together with his word the chair that you're sitting on to the hairs of your head they're numbered he's got it all - the galaxies that it's expanding he's holding the whole thing together any ain't breaking a sweat and he says I have come to you and I want to tell you things to come he's saying will you hover over this chaos with me will you steal your spirit along and offer you stop cursing the darkness and recognize you are born for darkness alike spear what are you doing here my kids are a mess I need I need some ideas our finances are a mess Holy Spirit you just begin to hover one of your greatest tools is gonna be tongues and as you hover in a situation he whispers ideas in brilliant concepts and reminders and wisdom from on high ingenious solutions and creative strategies and witty inventions and you will add value and solve problems that people are having and see new solutions and wealth will be a byproduct listen to proverbs 8:14 when I when I read this verse I most danced I believe that I'm an excellent dancer they just haven't made music yet that I can dance to my staff described my dancing as a baby giraffe taking its first steps while wearing roller skates and dry heaving so I don't know what it means but I'm offended anyway okay proverbs 8:14 the passion translation listen let this be as if God wrote it to you you will find true success when you find me for I have insight into wise plans that are designed just for you I hold in my hands living understanding courage and strength they're all ready and waiting for you let me just add this they're ready and waiting for you to hover over that chaos with I've got these plans stored up free I've been dying to share free will you slow down long enough and tap into my power to create God gives you the power to create something of value for somebody else you'll be rewarded with wealth money is just an indicator of how much value you're creating I'm gonna ask Kevin Costello to come on up here let's give Kevin a big hand kevin is one of the fathers of this house he's been at the highest levels of leadership here and he's what he's one of my wealth heroes one of my just I just I just love him his faith in everything and he actually was on the board that hired me so I've always admired his ability to hear from God he's just this guy can nail it and so I'm just gonna ask him to hit to tell his story it's one of my favorites well Jim asked me to come a part of my career uh I worked for a company for ten years and part of the arrangement was if we reach certain levels I would own 20% of the company and I achieved my goals a company merged with another one and they bought out my contract I left and in two years they failed financially so and I lost our entire retirement plan all our company stock everything almost everything except we did always learn the principles of you know living the lawyer means our parents taught us at so we did have our savings and we decided that we'd seek the Lord on what was next we sat down and made a list of things I could pursue you get when you're in your 50s and 60s not every company is willing to replace your income but you get to that point in your career that's your higher earning years usually so there are a few opportunities and none as far as I could see the employment so we decided to start our own business and what was that gonna look like you know at our age and so like I said we we were praying about it and we came up with some ideas what some of those ideas I bounced off a couple of business associates that I had and they said well they're good ideas we don't really think that they'll work and why because one we weren't willing to borrow money we weren't willing to borrow money to capitalize the business we weren't willing to put our savings at risk and so it's a little hard to start a business with no property no plant no equipment oh and by the way no employees because we couldn't start a business and then end up having to lay people off if it didn't work well I just was gonna work so anyway we heard about a company that had laid off all their sales force because the cost of selling got too high cost of distributing marketing got too high and I had met another gentleman we were considering buying a business and trying to save it you know redevelop it and we looked at this and I said Diana I said I really think this is I really think this didn't you have a list of different things and kind of one stuck out to you I had a list of we came up with like ten different and I came up ten different things I could do I could sell real estate you know I could be a consultant I could travel you know for a living things like that so this one of the one of the things were on the list just happened to match this opportunity so we wrote a letter I wrote a letter and the guy I want to partner with he's is really one of those very well disciplined in in contracts stuff like that so we put this letter together and mailed it to the CEO of this company and I told they said well that happens that well if you can answer that letter that'll be your first miracle but we did get an answer letter and it involved an opportunity to have a conference call about what our ideas would be how would we else force and um so to make a very long story short over the next year and a half we had almost we had almost 50 conference calls it took us two years support so we got savings we could live on we got a contract and we worked for that company up until a year ago when they sold the our company let me hit the pause button so this company decided to let go of a whole division and you're like hey we're gonna propose that we do that division for you the division that you just said no to and so for two years she spent convincing them because he had a list of things and there was some weight on this he's hovering over this list feeling God on it and these guys who had canceled the business told him no for two years yeah they said it took two years to convince them that they would put their reputation on the line with essentially two guys from Dublin Ohio we didn't have an office building we didn't have a staff we had no employees oh by the way we told her we weren't gonna have any of those things we're gonna hire any people we were gonna find people that we had entrepreneurial spirit would that would partner with us if we had success they would have success if we didn't have success they wouldn't have success but they wouldn't have to you know put their life savings at risk or anything like that we would take all the financial risk and so anyway make a long story short it became so successful that they came to us and said hey we want to start hiring more people to do what you're doing it was it was kind of a virtual business everything was I didn't have any training in computers or anything like that but I had to learn how to use one because everything was being done 15 years ago on the Internet conference calls we'd have money to travel so of course we couldn't have any meetings with anybody we had to do it all over the phone but anyway it came to the point and then they came to us and said oh by the way we gave you a exclusive contract but now we want to hire people how would that work out so the end of writing is a good a nice check so that they could get back in the business and all that came from like Jim said we were just sitting down trying to learn how to partner with God and say what do we do next because a job isn't on the Rison for us I've never owned a business and I really don't want to I borrow money to start a business so it's kind of like our miracle it's remote happen for us thank you coming Jeff something else want to say oh yeah I wanted to ask Kevin two questions two questions what advice would you give the 25-year old version of you so five years ago yeah I would say you need to search the scripture because it has all the principles you need to know about what being taught here today I never owned the Bible until I was 27 years old I never read it but I did have a minor in theology believe it or not I'm from the University if I never read the whole Bible and I wasn't saved but all everything you need to know about business and how to handle wealth how to avoid debt you know how to build it's all in the scripture and I got that from taking my boys to a conference when they were about 10 or 12 years old and the speaker one of the speakers said what you need to do every day at the beginning every day is get just get your Bible and if you drink coffee or tea or whatever sit down and before you do anything and search the Scriptures because in that you'll find your direction for the day it's so good you'll find the answers for what you need to do and that's how we build our business we would look up and say you know God continues to say don't borrow money you'll be a servant and when we talked to the bank said well we'll give you the money to start the business and we were tempted and then the fine for him was we had to mortgage our houses so I said no we're not gonna do that and the business grew without any outside capital we never invested any of our personal savings into it what we did was we just gave up a salary to start it but I say to my 25 year old person search the scriptures every day so good because what the Bereans they said about the Breeden's they were more noble than anybody else because they searched the Scriptures every day to see if what they're being told was true and that's where you really find out whether your ideas are really lining up with God one more question what's the most important book you've read besides mine in the past five years actually a book that you introduced me to 40 days Steve back --lens Steve one you bagged Tory's mindsets no and knighting faith and 40 days 90 faith and 40 90 faith and 40 amazing book I would encourage everybody to read this book reread this book you can use it as part of your devotional but it's absolutely so powerful on a personal level for your personal spiritual life that's an amazing book and in addition of course the gym the book and the numbers it's also a book by randy Alcorn called money possessions and eternity that you will find it's amazing quite amazing yeah thank you Kevin let's give Kevin a hand what a remarkable story of hovering I mean here it is man died what do we do Lord they make this list that begin to hover over this list and things are getting crossed off and then all of a sudden here comes this opportunity that's something on their list and they begin to follow it up and it's amazing so we want the end suddenly and suddenly it's happened after the seed time then harvest by the way those are two great questions to ask when you're just around somebody who's farther than you or is where you want to be what advice would you give the 25 year old version of you and what's the most important book you've read in the last five years just I just I just love asking people that okay so how does God create he hovers over the chaos with his spirit and brings order and wholeness number two Oh Sookie Genesis 1:31 how God creates and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good the word saw there doesn't mean to see with your eyes heard what that word saw means to look after to see after to give attention to so he hovered over the chaos and saw that it was good and he looked after it until he could say behold it was very good many of us we get excited at a conference we hear a sermon podcast we read a book we hear a testimony something comes alive on the inside of us and then we come into the chaos and we push away from the chaos and we may even we may even hover over the casts that we get heaven solution but the power to create wealth is not just about adding value it's about persevering until it's well done it's it's a mess sometimes you gotta tend the garden the solution isn't enough it's the execution listen to the amplified bible of Genesis 1:31 and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good suitable and pleasant and he approved it completely a friend of mine I didn't get permission to share but it's actually Kevin one of Kevin's first Jobs was detailing cars at a car lot did you get a dollar a car is that what it was dollar an hour dollar an hour and so here's how it worked in that and the business back then but apparently there weren't child slavery laws back then but I mean he would detail the car and if the car had like a water spot on or something like that you wouldn't you wouldn't just clean up the spot he had to wash the entire car all over again okay so Kevin learned how to approve and see that it was good that's what I'm talking about here there's this power to create you're hovering and getting solutions but you're working in that solution until it is good until it is done until it's just the way God wants it to be Thomas Edison said this opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work any fool can start with a blaze of glory but the power to create also in Laurel involves the perseverance to complete okay here's something super exciting I'm gonna give you the the four step process to grow anything or there's your personal finances your business we're gonna apply it next session to your personal finances here's the here's the four-step process Genesis 1:28 and God bless them he said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth or replenish the earth and subdue it you guys ready there's that there's the four steps right there you're fruitful and then you multiply that fruitfulness and then you replenish and refill the multiplication system until you're able to completely subdue the market let's look at an example that we all love LeBron James somebody just got blessed LeBron James there was a time in his life when he was fruitful he was effective at one thing is probably offense he was taller than everybody he was bigger he's strong he was fast or he was good at offense but then he multiply that effectiveness so that he was good at many different things he was good at offense and defense rebounding driving the whole but then there was a time that he needed to replenish he needed to through ongoing training and refining this is where they make some of those minor tweaks this is where he got good at his short range jumper this is where he got good at driving the hole this is where he got good at man-to-man defense and zone defense so he was already good generally but now he got specifically good at these things until he could subdue the market dominate the entire NBA this is the same process that Apple computers has gone through or Amazon or Nike and so think of it like this your fruitful and then you need to multiply that fruitfulness because if you don't learn the lessons of the fruitfulness you're going to multiply dysfunction okay this is a common mistake so many people make when they're trying to grow something God gives them a vision for a church or a business they got this idea this is gonna be amazing guys give me this vision and they start it off and it's a hot mess and it's like what's going on there's chaos here yeah however over the chaos I have a friend who's I'm flipping houses that's his business he and he told me he's like Jim I am going crazy I've got five houses I want to be able to handle fifteen but I'm about ready to kill myself with five it says I just can't handle any more and I said dude you need to understand you're in the fruitful stage you you don't have systems you don't have contractors that are reliable you don't have funding sources that can scale this thing like if you had 15 houses you would be multiplying dysfunction embrace the fruitful stage the fruitful stage is the messy stage it's where mistakes are made it's where you waste money on things you wish you hadn't wasted on it's where relationship to get tested so where you don't get the product right it's where you're not getting the sales that you need so the fruitful stage is where you make the mistakes but this is where the learning happens this is where the development happens this is where you're investing in the right people for your team you're learning to put the product out that's worthy of more intention this is where you're refining your processes this is where you're adding massive value it's more business they talk about the Minimum Viable Product you don't need to get the product 100% right and perfect this thing and spend all this money get a 50% right then let your customers give you feedback and get another 50% another 50% until you've got a product that's worth scaling and the fruitful stage you're making the world around you your home your classmates your workplace your church you're making it a better place this is where you're being productive this is where your co laboring with God to make those things around you a better place you're becoming more valuable in the process because you're learning and developing we all know in cases of somebody who was put in a situation for which had no experience and they weren't that good at it some of you're just thinking that names are running through your heads but former bosses that you've had who write what happened they were never fruitful maybe they got a degree and got a position based on that but they didn't have the wisdom and experience of how to deal with people how to solve problems how to resolve conflict so this what you're learning in the fruitful stage you're not working for money you're working for the Lord and you're working for wisdom understanding experience you're not using God's power to get wealth you're partnering with God and his power to create to add massive value in whatever environment you're in and wealth will be a byproduct of that again when you pursue money over serving others when you start pursuing money rather than serving others and adding massive value you've taken yourself out of the kingdom path you're now on the earth curse system path which is every man for himself when you begin thinking our business needs more money you're chasing money you've forgotten that your core business is value creation you forgot that walking the floors and hovering over the chaos with God is your place of learning and creativity it doesn't mean you don't think about cash flow and generating money to help on the next project you need working capital for your life in your business however money gets tight people leave the place of hovering and creating and begin going into panic mode and the fruitful stage this is where you're beginning to get those skills and what it looks like to partner with God outside of ministry time at the church you need to be fruitful before you can multiply because God does not want to multiply dysfunction he has not called you to run from chaos he has called you to hover over it and to transform it I thought this over in Uganda in a village with no running water no electricity very impoverished someone asked me how could you teach this in such a poor country I said how could I not this isn't some American business principles that only works in a capitalistic society this is God's a power to create wealth and so on so this is how we taught it over there is um first you get a chicken and the chicken lay some eggs and you take some of those eggs and you eat them and you feed your family some of them are fertilized and was growing to be more chickens you take some of those chickens you you keep that process going that fruitful process going you take it you sell the chickens and you buy a goat now if you had goats and you've got chickens replicate the process we've got several goats several goes turns into a cow several cows turn into land you begin to get crops now you begin to hire employees who can handle these things for you I had a fisherman it was funny because I don't like to go outside and so is you know they don't have like indoor office jobs in these villages you know there's there's no indoors there's no doors it's like it's just like an opening it's just like a walk through it you know it's just like okay and so I kept getting these questions from like these farmers and fishermen and it was hilarious cuz I'm like I I prefer filtered air I don't like fresh air it's just it's unnatural I like the air conditioning and so this fisherman is like how do I grow my business how do I grow my fishing business I thought you know what um the biblical principles work in any country and I said here's what I would do I would hover over that situation and say God where do you want me to fish actually got some pretty good precedent for hey Peter why don't you go out here cast it and I said here's what you do is you've got God where do I need to fish that it would be the greatest catch of fish for for I'm at and then you're gonna take that and you're gonna feed your family you're gonna take some of it and you're gonna set it aside you're gonna build up a fund until you can buy a second boat and you're gonna hover over that situation say God who is the right person I can I can bring along here that will partner with us and create value for other people and not just ruin my business and try to steal my boat and then you multiply that process guys it works in Uganda had a farmer asked me he says hey I'm planting my seed though the crop comes up in the Scorch what do I do what do I look like like I read books all day and talk to people that's it I said you know what this is where you need to learn the place of wisdom here's what we discovered that and Uganda they don't have a rich fertile black soil they've got red clay let me tell you how to make bricks you till it up you add water and then you bacon in the Sun so here's what we discovered this man was telling up the red clay watering it and baking in the Sun so he's basically trying to plant seed into bricks which doesn't work well so through wisdom he would we came to discover that there needs to be this different technique where they kind of do this mounding technique you just see like these mounds and that's how it grows there that's the fruitful stage it's you're gaining wisdom you're hovering you're gaining understanding you're beginning to you can think scale but you need to start with what's in your hand I've watched people get bitter that no one's buying their product no one's investing in my business no one wants to fund my CD project that's called entitlement and until entitlement dies blessing will kill you I'm not against the go fund me things and all that stuff you know just make sure you're not doing go fund me because you're not trusting God fund me and you need to recognize there's two economic systems in the Bible that and they're both diable not one's not better than the other there is a sowing and reaping giving and receiving that is one virtual thing there's another one buying and selling and so when you take a Christian product and you're trying to sell it but you're bringing it into the giving and receiving fund my project but I'm not going to give you any of the profits of it and you're getting upset because people don't want to fund it you're mixing up the systems and you're gonna have a mess yes tell my friends when we finally get to where it's fruitful and profitable and we're creating something we know the market will respond to then we can multiply that fruitfulness when you're multiplying you're adding additional products services locations so that you can serve a greater number of people not so that you can get more money it's critical to your business success especially when your business starts to grow quickly define superstar people that can help you grow the business and here's the tough lesson they may not be the same people who worked with you in the past okay you're fruitful then you multiply that fruitfulness okay things are beginning to grow now you're not just good at one thing maybe you're adding several services several locations you get in the picture then you're going to replenish replenish this is the third stage this is where you're optimizing or maximizing your business every business can be my business is a game it has rules and it's winnable okay there's rules to it so this where you're looking at areas like a lead generation sales and prospecting sales conversion you know you got leads coming in and how many of those please coming and actually turn into customers you know what's the per business what's the transaction value of each sale that we make you know what are we doing to follow up and retain those so we have lifelong customers because it's a lot easier to have a lifelong customer then you get the picture they're you'd your offers to lead to higher prices and upsells of things that are going to add additional value you've ever tried playing golf okay my golf stories are like my farming stories so if you notice when when I saw Tiger Woods was the greatest call from the planet at the time and he had a coach analyzed them and says we're gonna change your swing now when you when you're when you're changing someone who's already performing well swing they're not like hey shift your hips 45 degrees we're talking two degrees and three degrees shifts here that's what we're talking about optimizing your business around like we're gonna redo everything it's like no no no okay how what can we make some tweaks to our our sales page so that when people come on you said I'm saying you're making these little 2 to 3% tweaks here and this part of the funnel these two news 3% tweaks here how can we do this one of my favorites is this toothpaste company this guy says listen I've got a million dollar idea I just want a small percentage of the profits here it is and so this didn't add more value but it's just kind of a great story it's not my notes and so um he said make the hole in the toothpaste tube bigger so they're still doing the same amount across the brush but Moore's coming out so they're getting rid of it quicker and you'll have more sales that's optimizing I'm not saying that's adding value but you disseminate it just it was a small tweak that led to bigger profits it's the same in business because it comes down to the fact that some of the smallest changes have the biggest results and then subdue this is where you're providing more value than anybody else you are preeminent in your field you're constantly and strategically innovating innovation is not a once a year weekend retreat innovation is done regularly and constantly in a way that the customer cares about and is profitable they're willing in other words they're willing to pay for this innovation let me ask you is innovation important ass black buster if they saw Netflix coming so there's a great book called power to create by Tim Redman he is actually I the the be fruitful then multiply I was hot on the trail this power to create Genesis all this stuff and the four stages and I just couldn't get any revelation on the four stages in the be fruitful then multiply actually got that from him and so I think I footnote it in your notes such it's always good to give credit and so he's got a so he's opening you know what it's in your brilliant resources but there's the final page is called brilliant resources so the he's got a story and it's the opening story on his book and he calls it the pancake lady story so it's a true story so this pastor is preaching up a storm in Costa Rica and he's talking about the story of the parable of the talents and so this this owner gives some people some money and they multiply it so the end of this message oh this is the most one of the most impoverished villages in Costa Rica so the pastor then it pulls out some money out of his pocket starts giving it to people say I'm challenging you to take this and multiply it take something that you're good at and multiply this money was giving people money so they're excited he gets to this one single mom she's got several kids her husband had left her and she's the one who's always in need in the village she's everyone knows where this lady is dirt poor broke she's always on the receiving end pastor comes to her and says I want you to take this and multiply she's like why are you doing this to me you know that I'm the poorest purple person in the church how could he do this and he's like listen see all that times people so then she begins to turn on the tears a lot of times tears are just a manipulation technique so that you'll stop trying to get to the real issue and so that was free so he's so here so she continues to cry in and everything and he's like listen you're good I'm not good at anything there's nothing I can do listen God has made you good at something what is it that you're good at I can't do anything except make pancakes for my kids and everyone knows how to make pink what did you say you know how to make pink I did everybody knows how they did it listen cuz you're gonna you're gonna take this money you're gonna go buy supplies for pancakes you're gonna feed your family and you're gonna take the leftovers you're gonna go to the market it's a picture of market in Costa Rica you know like a almost like a farmers market so it's all open people doing business you know outside and so he says people a lot of the people they don't eat breakfast they just go right to the market go there selling the pancakes and so um so she goes there and the next day she comes skipping into the pastor's office he said what happened and she tells him he's like that's great he said what are you gonna do she says what do you mean he says take the profits go buy more supplies rinse and repeat go do the same thing again so she begins to go through the fruitful stage where she's learning you know what if I cook him this long they burn you know I'm tweaking the recipe you know if I stand over here in the village I'm able to make more sales and if I stand over here she's learning the fruitful stage and then she begins to be successful then she multiplies and begins to add menu items to her menu so that she can serve more people and add more value she gets so good at this she actually opens a catering business she replenishes she opens a catering business and it becomes the most successful catering business in the entire area she begins to inspire other people and they say hey it's not the lady who was the the single mom who was always the one in need what's going on hey if she can do it what how did this happen she says listen I partnered with God he made me good at something he's blessing the work of my head well God can do it for this lady he can do it for me it begins an economic revival in the region that gets the attention of the president of the nation presentation comes down and investigate and he's paired sit down there was this pastor who preached this message that started an economic revival in the past and he the president said pastor what you have done for this village will you do for our nation what if this region's waiting for an economic spark in an entrepreneurial explosion it comes from people that recognize you know what there's castes all around me there's chaos all around me but God's looking for people who were not run from the caste but the hover over the caste you were created to create you were designed to be a designer you were born for difficulties the next time somebody tells you it's dark out here it's so hard tell Daniel how hard you have it Daniel Justin didn't just survive in an ungodly environment he thrived in that environment every believer has the privilege and responsibility of invading chaos the reason you shine is you are born to an evade the darkness God's power to create here I want you to we're gonna do an activation I want you to pick a question or two out of here and talk to the Holy Spirit how are you responding to the chaos that God is leading you into what are some areas of your life you can partner with God's power to create this week what would that look like again it can be cleaning toilets with excellence you don't have to wait until you have a business you can begin adding massive value today and God's the one who rewards what are some situations you might need to hover in with the Holy Spirit what would it look like for you to make God your business partner I think Kevin Costello modeled that unbelievable for us with that story and your homework is actually brainstorming ways to add more value so I want you to pick one or two of those questions with the Holy Spirit me to give you two minutes I mean have you discussed it we're gonna call it break time so I'm good all right two minutes [Music] hey guys take about three minutes and just kind of talk at your table is about what it was it hits you and then we'll law take a break [Music] before we take a break is there any questions on the material especially the last session or just anything that's come up so far any questions so to come up anybody all right let's take a seven-minute break but before you go I want you to get this picture we looked at God's power to create wealth now we're going to look at how to do that what's that look like in your person what's it gonna look like to be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue in your finances what are some mile markers along the way and what's a plan to actually make it happen sound good see in seven minutes

Channel: Zion Christian Fellowship

Views: 2,223

Rating: 4.6666665 out of 5

Keywords: zion, christian, fellowship

Id: NCfp3axAbz4

Length: 55min 48sec (3348 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2017