(light piano music) - Welcome back to Shabbat Night Live. Tonight you are in for a treat because we are gonna answer
some questions you've had for your whole life. For example, what is the meaning of life? Where does money come from? Why does money cause divorce? What are the four types of people? And are all of those people
destined to be entrepreneurs? Good questions and we have a great guest to answer those questions. He is an author, he is a
national syndicated radio host and Anny, what else? I mean your family's been
involved in entrepreneurship but what else has our guest got? - No, he's a teacher. He's a motivational speaker. He's a mentor of mine, somebody
that I greatly respect, and so we have Josh Tolley. We're so excited to have you join us. Right now.
- Welcome. - [Josh] Pleasure, it is a pleasure. - And especially during this time of year. It's the beginning of our fiscal year for a lot of business owners. But it's also the time that
we budget for vacations and we start considering life,
those New Year's resolutions. - Maybe you want to do
something different this year, something better than
you did last year, right? - We should always want to
be better than last year. - We should, we should. You know then, what's
interesting about that, that's actually what got me started. I remember I was sitting across the table from a couple in their
thirties and they went to bed every night thinking
is this all my life is. So many believers, year after year, is this it, is this really
all that God had for me? So yeah, I completely agree. Great time to bring up this topic. - So what is money? Where did money come from? - Well, it's interesting,
you know, money is something that we have a lot of opinions on. It's one of those three things
that you're not supposed to talk about, politics,
religion, and money. And money is one of those and because we have such a daily need and use of it, a lot of us form opinions
that are kind of contrary to what it's really supposed to be. So if we look at the history of money, it was just supposed to be a medium that represented something else. So let's say, Scott you made pottery and you made furniture
and I had farm eggs. Well, if we were going
to engage in commerce, I would have to bring all of my eggs to see you every time in
hopes that you wanted them and then that would get labor intensive. And you'd have to bring
your furniture every time we traveled, so you need a
truck to bring it all with you. So people realized quite quickly this isn't the way to do it. So they used money, which
at the time was either rice, grain, seashells, we've
used sticks in the past, but we use this medium that
represents something else. And that was the way it
was for a very long time. And all money really is, is
it's a medium of exchange between people engageD in commerce. Now, in the past 100 years or so, we've had a third party
element valuing it for us which some people think is bad
and some people think is okay but either way, we get the
value from another entity but we still engage in it. All it is is a representation
of something larger. Money in and of itself really is nothing which is why God talks about it so much because He wants us to
have a proper understanding that it isn't something in and of itself. It is just a tool that
represents something else. - That leads to another good question, as Christians, should we care about money? Should we even have money? What is our relationship
supposed to be like with money? - Well, it's interesting, you know, a lot of Christians love to
say money doesn't matter. But it does to God. God talks more about money
than He does salvation. He talks more about how to
spend it than He does heaven. So if it was important to God, important enough to put in Holy Scripture, than we at least have to get to this point where we say it's supposed to matter. I think where we've gone
wrong is in Christiandom we've gotten either prosperity gospel which is some sort of weird
buy my magic handkerchief become a millionaire,
or some poverty gospel where money doesn't matter at all but don't forget to tithe
on your way out the door. So we've gotten these two crazy extremes and gone is what God actually
wanted us to see in it and it was a tool, a medium of exchange that it allows His people
to further themselves. And He's never hated it, contrary to what Christianity has kind of adopted. He's never hated money. I mean, think about it. As soon as Adam and Eve left the garden, He gave them a way to
provide for themselves, a provision which means there
had to be a way for exchange. And He even knew that which is why we see Cain and Abel giving sacrifices. You sacrifice something
that was important, in this case a blood offering or something or a first fruit, well that was money. They used grain and sheep
as a way to exchange. So even that first sacrifice, even though a lot of Christians
don't want to admit it, that has an element of being money it just from the very beginning. And then we see the
Hebrew slaves leave Egypt and does God say oh just
leave all your stuff behind? No, He says and not only are
you gonna take your stuff, you're gonna take all theirs too. So if money's not
important than why does God continually use it from
Genesis to Revelation? - Do you think it's a misunderstanding of where people say money
is the root of all evil? And that's not even the right quote. Is that where we get, I mean-- - Oh my gosh. I am so glad you brought that up because what this reveals
to us is a lot of Christians unfortunately, and even more unfortunately a lot of Christian
pastors, wouldn't be able to pass a third grade English class. And I don't say that mockingly. I remember in third grade English that the teacher would give you a sentence and a red pencil and say
circle the action word. Well, most Christians would
circle the word money. Well the action word in
that sentence is love, the love of money. So we have to take a look
and say what is love, right? Like that 80's song. What is love. (laughing) But in reality, when we look at love love is something like let's
say you love your spouse to be, you spend as much time
with them as possible, you think about them all the
time when you're not with them, when they're mad at you it ruins your day. Right? Well, now let's replace
spouse or loved one or fiance with money. How do you love money? You spend all of your time making it, you think about it all the time, when it's not happy with you,
i.e. debt, it ruins your day. So a lot of us love money in our poverty. And we love to pass it off and say well, I don't love money,
I don't have a lot. Irrelevant. He didn't say those who have
a lot is the root of all evil. He says the love of money
is the root of all evil. And it comes as a
shocker to many believers that we are loving money in our poverty. - We just had church, people. (laughing) - Preach it. - No, but really, money is a subject that many people are scared
about, especially as believers. And we don't want to be
judged by one another and it's almost like well, a taboo subject like
you said, like politics. So my question is, where did the biblical, well, let me ask this. What is our current economy? And then what was it supposed to be? What is the biblical economy? - That is such a great question because it's actually
more than one answer. See, a lot of people don't even understand what the economy is. We turn on the nightly news and they say the economy is good or they
say the economy is bad. But I actually taught a class, everybody in the room had
an MBA, all MBA graduates, and I asked them what the economy was and none of them had an answer. And I thought wait a
second, if you're all MBA's, you know master's in
business administration, and you don't know what the economy is, then what are we even doing here? Like, how are we saying
oh the economy's bad I shouldn't get a house. So I started asking just
general people on the street what's the economy? Well, it's the thing with the
money and sometimes it's good. Okay, can you take me to it? Can you show me this economy? And how do you know if it's good or bad? The guy in the news told you? So what we need to realize
is the economy is really just like a thermometer. It's a test to gauge how
much exchange is happening. The more exchange that is happening for the mutual benefit
of the person selling and the person buying,
the greater the economy. But that means we don't have one. We have millions. So let's say there's the American economy. It's good, it's bad, hey whatever. But if you just got fired,
your economy is terrible. If your city just got a
bunch of new entrepreneurs to do startups, the city
economy might be great but statewide it might be terrible. So we need to realize that our economy really starts at home. How are we doing? And this is what I liken it to. Whenever we worry about the economy, we have to treat it like
we're on an airplane. When I came out to see you guys, I got in an airplane and
they said in the case of an emergency oxygen masks
will deploy from the ceiling, put your oxygen mask on first. So whenever we say well,
is the economy bad? The first place you have to
look is inside your door. If inside your door the
economy's not bad, okay. But here's the other par of that. We're not supposed to walk in fear. So when the television
tells us the economy's bad why does everybody get afraid? And to be honest, great
economic opportunity is present when the economy is bad. Because when the bad economy exists, it allows entrepreneurship to thrive. And this is what I love
to explain to people, if you're an employee then every night on the nightly news and
they say the economy is bad, I'd worry a little bit. But when you're an entrepreneur, there's nothing to worry about. Because entrepreneurs create the economy. Every situation, every culture,
every political system, entrepreneurs always are
the engine to the economy. So as an entrepreneur, when
I see the economy's bad, I say okay, time to lace
up my shoes and go to work because I get to create it. The only thing they're
measuring is what I do anyway. So why are we letting the
person with the thermometer tell me how the health is. Does that make sense? - It definitely makes sense. That's a different perspective than what we were taught in science
class, our studies, and everything else in school. Which I mean, the
education system is a whole other subject in itself. - It is, it is. But then the answer to the second question about the biblical economy. And this is where it gets really
fascinating for believers. And it's something that I actually learned with Michael years ago. We were sitting together with some people from the Christian Chamber. So we see that Muslims
come into a community and with just 3% population,
they can kind of take over and control the community. And to their credit, well done, I mean you did something right, right? So with 3% they take over a community. How do they do that? Entrepreneurship. The Muslim economy, a
dollar will go hand to hand in that economy 14 to 16 times before it leaves the Muslim community and goes into the general
American population. That's how they're so powerful. In the Jewish community,
that's 10 to 12 times inside that community before it will go into the general population. In the American Christian
population it's zero. Zero, yeah. Zero exchanges. Do we say, well if I need
grapes is there a Christian store that sells grapes? Instead we say, well
Walmart has a sale on grapes and then we wonder why in
Christianity the economy, the biblical economy, doesn't exist. And what we are seeing in churches across the country is
actually an adverse effect. We have more Christians
declaring bankruptcy than graduating college,
7,000 churches a year get foreclosed on, when
it comes to divorce that's an issue too,
we'll maybe talk about that a little bit later,
but you have tithing at an all-time record lows. Why? If the Bible tells us to be
in the world but not of it, then why are we suffering the consequences of the economy that the
world is teaching us instead of forsaking the
one that God prescribed. And that's the one we need to talk about 'cause that's the one we got away from. - I completely agree and I see that as a small business owner. Well, thankfully we're no longer small. But as a business owner, I see that, we try to support local
businesses as much as we can. Like in our household,
we avoid going to Walmart or any big chain as often
as we can for anything that we're purchasing
for that very reason. Because we want people to support us and we are to lead by example. And so we try to go
into the local community or local business and support
them as much as we can. But I agree with you. That's a very good concept that I hadn't thought about as a Christian. How many times have we looked for another Christian business to do business with? - Right, right. And as much as we love to say to these other communities oh shame on you. Even if we look back in history, the Jewish population would get in trouble with the host country because what? They become economically prosperous and everybody else was like, hey
how did you get all the money? Well, this is how they got all the money. They were entrepreneurs. And we used to teach that in this country. I have a textbook from 1929,
it's a seventh grade textbook and in seventh grade we
taught, what 11, 12 year olds? We taught them as soon
as you graduate school you start a business. That was the default career. Well now, it is completely the opposite, especially in church. So the world is telling us go to school, go to college, get good grades, get a job. Then church is saying go
to school, go to college, get good grades, get a
job and then we wonder why we're suffering the consequences
of massive employment. And then people come into
church saying help me and we say ah, do the
same thing the world said just slap a cross on it, you'll be fine. And then the non-believer says well why would I listen to you about anything if you don't understand
how the worldly works. Which is exactly what Yeshua said. He says if you don't
understand the earthly, you're not gonna understand the heavenly. So non-believers come into a church, whether it's a building or a small group, and they say help me. And we tell them the same
thing that the world told them? - [Anny] It's no different. - It's no different. - That's a real shame
because we are supposed to be greater, we're
supposed to be leaders, we're supposed to be the business owners, we're supposed to be
kings and queens and heirs to the throne, and at very
times we don't act that way. Like you said, there's a lot of foreclosure going on right now. There's a lot of debt. As a whole, as a population. I can only imagine that the Christian population is not exempt from that. - No, matter of fact,
it's almost emphasized because now when I go
and speak at churches they have kiosks in the
lobby where you can just, you know, put your tithe on a credit card. You can actually get into debt to tithe. Or worse yet, you have
pastors that tell you to tithe your way our of debt. Well, where's that in Scripture. So as much as it hurts, and this is the funny
thing about this topic. This issue hurts. There are going to be viewers right now that feel like I just kicked
them in the gut, right? Well, that hurt, what that
hurt actually is is conviction. It is the lie leaving your body. And they're gonna yell things like oh it's not about money
and you don't chase riches. We aren't talking about riches. We're just talking about who controls you. Do you control the money or
does the money control you? And right now, the money
is controlling the people. There's no way to flip it, spin it, we can't argue our way out of it. The money's controlling us. - In your first book,
Quit Your Job or Die, which I love, I honestly love it. It's fun to read, funny to
read, and just an easy read. You made a point about that very topic in one of your first chapters
on being controlled by money. And how are we financially free? And how do we know? And most of us are not because we can't do what we want like you explained. You're not able to live
the life that you want, spend the money that you want. It's still some kind of hindrance that's preventing you from that. - Yes, and interestingly enough, in the Bible it talks about, you know, God gives the power to create wealth. And a lot of pastors will stop right there but there's a comma there and it continues and as we know there were no commas. So what does the rest of
the sentence actually say? It says I give you the
power to create wealth as a sign of my covenant. Well, are we not still under a covenant? So how does this sign go away? But people again will want to reject that and say well it's not all about money, it's not all about money. I agree, it's not. But then stop working 40
hours a week for money. And this is where we get
a little hypocritical. We love to say well money's not important. Then why do you leave the important things in life to go make it? - [Anny] That's a good point. - And it's funny how
the people who tell me that money's not important
are the people without it. Every billionaire I've met says Josh, I don't even think money. Money at that point becomes like air. When you have enough of it
you don't think about it. - [Anny] I hope to get there one day. (laughing) - You're on your way. But when you don't have any of it, it's the only thing you think about. And as pious as we want to sound, money's not that important, well as soon as your kid needs new shoes for school and you have to think well what do
we cut in order to get them? Money has become important. As soon as you have to
have a water pump go out on the car and because
of that you can't make it to go minister to somebody,
money has become important. And what's almost just a stick in the eye sort of hypocritical is I
went and spoke to a room full of men, Christian
men, and I said okay men, how many of you have children? Oh hands go up. If your daughter came home
and said Daddy, I'm in love, I want to marry this guy. What is the first question you ask him? How you gonna take care of my daughter? But I thought money wasn't important? Why does Jesus say hey, when I come back I come back with what? Misthos and apodidomi, payment, repayment. What a second. So why does He even say He's coming with something to give you? So we have to really grasp this and kind of put on our big boy pants because the reason why
faith is dying is because we have abandoned this issue. We've left it to people on the poverty or the prosperity gospel. And we've vacated that
property, sorta speak, so of course that's only
two whacked out messages they're hearing and they're
not hearing the truth. And my position is God
would rather have you poor, living under a bridge,
and with your family than employed 40 hours
a week without them. So when people say oh are
you preaching be rich? Not even close. What I'm preaching is stop
letting money control you. I'd rather have you
broke and in God's Word as opposed to chasing
money 40, 50 hours a week. - Now this is the question I've got. It kinda relates to the whole, you know, our churches are falling apart, less and less people are going to church. You see that especially in Europe. Do you think there's tie between that? And then when you go into
some Christian businesses that they don't get it. They think the people
will just come to them because they're Christian
but they don't do a good job. Is there some connection there where there's sort of a laziness that because we're
Christian it'll just happen and we don't have to try? - Yes, and that goes beyond
just being Christian, too. There's just a general laziness. We have become an internet
addicted sort of society. We think well, all I need to
do is create a Facebook page or a Twitter account and money cometh. No, you'll still have to
be a skilled businessperson which is why God says so much
about being a businessperson. It's funny, Quit Your Job
or Die is half the size of Evangelpreneur. Evangelpreneur takes
what God actually said about how to be a businessperson
and puts it into context. So if we're going to study
the skillset that Paul had, that Luke had, that
Matthew had, that John had, that David had well that's a skillset that we used to teach in churches. We really did. We used to teach how
to be an entrepreneur. Because everywhere west of
Jamestown in this country, every church is the
result of entrepreneurs. They knew it was important
and we've abandoned it. - So one thing that I want to share is, you know, we came from
Mexico, my family and I. We were immigrants and we came
with just clothes on our back and we actually slept on
my father's boss's floor for like six months when we first arrived and then we moved into an apartment where we had no bed and
shared a can of food. I mean it was that intense. And what I'm getting out of all of this is this is about creating your destiny. And that's what my
parents saw the struggle and they said no more and
started their own business. Not with blood and
sacrifice, a lot of hard work at the very beginning. But we've never been in need since. And that's how my husband and I, too, I mean we own a business and that's how it was ingrained in us. Both my husband's parents,
both mother and father own their own business. That's just what we grew up with. We grew up with knowing and
understanding that it's going to be a struggle but
it's worth it in the end because you have so much more freedom, not just financially, but you have freedom to take time off, you have
freedom to go in late, you have freedom to go
to your kids' recital if it's in the middle of the day. And freedom, as you mentioned,
to talk on your phone, when you compared them
to prisons. (laughs) - Oh yes, yes, yes. - When you compared jobs to prisons. I mean there's so much more freedom that comes with just
being a business leader. - Yeah, and what I like to
point out too is the parable of the men with the talents, right? What happened to the
guy that just buried it? - [Scott] Nothing, he was reprimanded. - Not only was his taken
away but he was kicked out, he was punished and his stuff
was given to somebody else. Well, that's what we do. We say money's not important so I'm just gonna bury it. I'm just gonna work 40 hours a week, abandon wife and kids,
and money's not important. Well, good luck with that. And why does Jesus continue to use parables of business owners? The laborers in the field, uh-oh. You know so again and again and again, he's teaching us something
that we want to ignore. And when you talk about
putting in that sacrifice you're gonna have to
pay for it now or later. I'd rather put in the labor now and have the reward and
live the biblical lifestyle as opposed to saying well you know what? Money's not important so let me abandon the biblical lifestyle and work for somebody else 50, 40 hours a week. - Which is half of, or
more than half of the hours that you're usually awake. I mean that's how much
time we spend at work. Believe me, I know, right Scott? (laughs) - Not to mention a commute on top of that. If you're having to go
into someplace and work. You're taking even more time. - Yeah, no, for a long time I drove an hour to work and an hour home. I mean, that's two hours a
day, that's ten hours a week. And I mean our jobs here
at A Rood Awakening, we see it very differently. We see it as a service unto
Yehova and unto the people. But nevertheless, I mean
you have to go out there and make your own destiny,
create your own life. - Yes, and one of the
things that we have to clarify is somebody is gonna say well, I know entrepreneurs and they work even more hours than employees. Only if they're doing it wrong. And that's what we have to teach. The reason why we see business
owners working more hours than employees is because
the entrepreneur is running his business as if he were an employee. They run it as what do I
do Monday through Friday? What service do I provide
Monday through Friday? Well, then you're just
a small business owner. You now become an employee
of the thing you created. That's kind of like a
Frankenstein scenario. And we've gotten away from working an entrepreneurship lifestyle. I tell people if you're
working more than 30, maybe 35 hours a week in your business you're doing it wrong. It's no that business doesn't work, you're not working your
business correctly. - [Scott] Wow. - That's very thought-provoking. Hope the husband's watching.
- Yeah, we're gonna have to get into that in this series for sure. (laughing) So now, you got me really
thinking about that now. 35 hours a week as an entrepreneur? - Absolutely, why would you say, think about this, why
would you say that all of these other things are
more important than money? Yet all of those other things have to fit in the spare time that you have left over? Like is that really how God did it? Did God say hey, Moshe
before you lead these people out of Egypt, you have to
go work 40 hours a week, so just lead 'em like a quarter mile a day and you'll get there in 40 years? Was that the plan? Or did He say hey I'm putting
together an economic model that's going to sustain
you in the wilderness so you can work it,
while they were trading, so you can work it whenever
you need to engage in commerce? But other than that you're
gonna do my will and my purpose. - I have a good question. So there's been a lot of
opposition on this subject with Adam and Eve because Adam was cursed with tilling the ground and that's their fighting argument is that
they were cursed to work. So is that true? I mean, are we, is
essentially work a curse? And if it is, then how is this
contradicting that theology? - Well, we have to look at that and say are we still living under a curse? Well, that's an interesting
theological conversation, right? But even beyond that, it's how you work. You still have to put in hours, you still have to put in time but you work smart instead of just hard. You say hey, if I'm gonna put in effort, how do I get the most yield? Any farmer would tell you this. I mean, the Bible tells us this. You know hey you cast
this into the rocky soil, you're not gonna get much. Cast it into the healthy soil, boom, it's gonna multiply, right? So we need to do the
same thing with our work. Am I doing something that's
just gonna pay me $20 an hour? If so, then I should
never expect it to produce and yield great results. And instead, I say well
Father, I threw my seed on terrible ground, please bless it. He's telling you I can't bless that. You threw it where you
shouldn't have thrown it. So if you threw where you should, now one seed creates an entire stalk, which creates hundreds of more seeds. And that's how we're
supposed to look at work. It's not that it's a curse. Well, it is, but it's not that the work part is the bad part. It's how do we address the work. And again, we think because
we've been programmed since we start kindergarten,
you have to do something 40 to 50 hours a week. Why? Where did that come from? - When did it start? - Well okay, so I'll answer that. (laughing) That actually did start some place. And how we got a lot of that was when we had the Industrial
Revolution in this country. Prior to that, school
was reading, writing, arithmetic, a little bit of U.S. history, and then you were out by lunch. Well, along comes the
Industrial Revolution and you have these titans of
industries approaching states saying I need just like
mind-numb little employee people. Can you create somebody who
can work in our factories? They're gonna need to work from about a quarter to eight til
about a quarter to four 'cause that's when my factory works. When do we go to school? So and they need to
learn a bunch of stuff. They don't really need to think, they just need to be able
to replicate answers. So we went from a seventh grade textbook that taught us to start a business to now a seventh grade
textbook that's this thick and it's nothing but
repetition, repetition, repetition, regurgitate the answer. So we create little employees. And because of that, when
those little employees become business owners,
they run their business as if they were an employee. So it's just a self... It's a continuation of a
problem that we are creating. - [Announcer] The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. But you don't have to be rich to love or be concerned about money. Do you worry about losing your job? Are you concerned about having enough? Would you like to give more
to ministries but just can't? - If you're an employee, then every night on the nightly news and
they say the economy is bad, I'd worry a little bit. But when you're an entrepreneur there's nothing to worry about because entrepreneurs create the economy. - [Announcer] In an eye-opening series on Shabbat Night Live,
syndicated radio host, entrepreneur, and best-selling
author Josh Tolley reveals the truth that believers are meant to be financial leaders and how to do it. - So when people say oh are
you preaching to be rich? Not even close. What I'm preaching is stop
letting money control you. - [Announcer] Order Faith
and Finances with Josh Tolley right now on DVD, Blu-ray, or USB. You'll get both episodes as
seen on Shabbat Night Live. Order Faith and Finances
now by phone or online. - Do we want to really
support our school system the way it is this day and age? Because we were just talking about school, what kids learn in
school before the break, and I know that I went to school, you know, those hours eight to three or whatever it is every day of my life, I went to normal school. And my kids have both been homeschooled but they are far more
entrepreneur-minded than I am. And they're racing ahead and
one's got a full scholarship to a university and the other
one's a budding entrepreneur. And I look at that kinda thing and go oh gee, that's too scary and
what if this and what if that? And they just go ahead with it. Is it because of the
schooling I got or what? - Oh absolutely. Absolutely, it is. Because if you think about it, kids are naturally inclined
to become entrepreneurs. You don't have to teach them how to do it. They figure it out on their own. They start trading baseball
cards with their friends. Well, the baseball card becomes money. They learn how to do this all on their own because that's what God designed. God designed us to be entrepreneurs. Then we actually teach it out of them. So we teach them oh no, no, no, no, no, don't be an entrepreneur. There has to be a system. There has to be you know, go
to school, get good grades. Well, there's a reason
why even this past year Vanderbilt University
followed around a ton of valedictorians and saludadictorians, saluda, whatever, second place people, you can tell I wasn't one of them, and they followed them
around and said okay, in 10 years where do these people end up? And they found out that
these people end up in a pretty precarious situation. Because they left school
thinking there had to be a way to just replicate answers
and keep getting rewards. Life doesn't work that way. And what they found was that A students worked for B students, B students worked for C students, C students managed the company
that the D student owns. And your odds of becoming
a millionaire are actually higher, no joke, your odds of becoming a millionaire are actually higher if your grade point average was under 2.5. Because what you had to do
was you had to get creative when it came to problem-solving. You had to. In order to even get the
D and get the diploma, you had to become creative. So now when you're in life
and you have to pay rent you automatically start to
think how do I get creative? And you start businesses and that's, it's such a powerful tool. And a great example of
this and how we've lost it. So in 1929, like I mentioned,
we had that textbook that taught kids, unless
you were the dunce in the corner with the dunce cap on, you're gonna leave and start a business. The dunce goes and becomes an employee. So we went from that to
everybody's gonna be an employee. Well, in the mid-80's
when that generational switch is taking place, we're
on the second generation of teaching everybody
to become and employee, Legos almost goes out of business. And when you look at Legos,
toy that's been around forever, they're thinking well, there's still kids, why are we going out of business? And what they discovered was
nobody's playing with them. Because we taught the kids
to lose their imagination. So then there was this guy
at the board room of Legos and he says well, tell you what guys, before we close this puppy down, just give me a month or
two, let's treat them the way they're being raised. If parents are going to
raise little employees, let's treat them like little employees. So they came up with the first
Lego kit that was something. See before you could
just buy a tub of Legos and make whatever your
little imagination desired. We lost our imagination. So they releases the pirate ship. So now in this box, this
is what this is kid. Be an employee, follow the instructions, and that's your playtime now. Now if you go to a big box store, you cannot buy a tub of legos. They're all kits. Because we're raising little employees so now they're even playing
like little employees. But when you homeschool
kids it's way different. Because now they're figuring
things out on their own and they have this
natural tendency to want what God provided which
was entrepreneurship. And it's funny how
Christians love to criticize this topic and say well I
trust the Lord to provide. Great but the Lord loves us more than He loves the sparrow, right? Well, the sparrow doesn't
just get to sit in his nest and magically, poof,
birdseed ends up in his gut. He has to go out and
get what God provided. Well, entrepreneurship is that tool. That is how you go out
and get what God provided. Because if you're an
employee, the only thing you're getting is a portion of
what God provided your boss. So then that leads into
an entirely dark place where we realize not only are we teaching our kids incorrectly,
we're living incorrectly and the Bible tells us do
not be unequally yolked. And we love to say well that has something to do with marriage, right? Oh, that's marriage. Yes, it applies to
marriage but as listeners and viewers of this show know, Michael goes a little
bit more in depth in that and actually talks about
yolk is a method of work. When you yolk two oxen together and they're not equal and one pulls ahead and breaks the neck of the other one. You actually kill the other ox. Well, okay, let's look at
it from a work context. Let's say that I'm working for Anny. And just for examples sake,
I say I'm the believer money's not important but
I'm gonna leave my wife for 40 hours to go make
the non-important thing. And she's paying me. I am now yolked to her. What is she spending the money on? How many believers say
well the Bible's important yet never interviewed
their boss to say hey boss, are you even a believer? 'Cause think about it. If your boss is not a
believer and they're spending money on drugs or prostitutes or whatever, then that means in order
for me to pray to God and God please bless
me and give me a raise, my boss would have to be
blessed by God, right? So God would have to
bless my boss in his sin in order to give me a raise. Find that in Scripture. And this is what we're talking about when we talk about unequally yolked but again, people are probably
nervous in their seats and yelling at the TV right now because they're mad. And the reason they're mad
is because it's the truth and nobody likes the truth. But what do we know about the truth? It sets us free. So it's one of those painful topics that we have to talk about. And unfortunately, because we haven't, we gotten to the place where we are. - No, I love this topic. You have no idea. Like I told you during the break, I have little happy emojis
going on right now in my body because I just love the fact
that we're addressing an issue that is ruining our lives as a whole but as a people as well. It's crushing our dreams, our desires. Like you said, you feel fear when you're considering opening a business. And for a lot of people,
that's a common thought. - Right, but like Josh has explained and that made me feel a whole lot better because it's going out and getting what God has already provided. - That's right. - So it's not what if
I can't get customers, what if, what if. Nevermind the what if. It's already there. If you're a believer, it's
intended for you waiting for you. - And you can't tell
me that God is with you in all things except business. So God is now your business partner. And there might be people say well, yeah, but I had a business and it failed once. Employment is guaranteed to fail. There's no success option with employment. Because you only have three options. One, you die. Two, you retire and get a pension that's never gonna work and if we had time I could explain how no pension has ever kept up with inflation. Or three, you get fired. So all three options,
the only three options that are possible at
your place of employment lead to failure. So when we see a business and they say well, I tried that once and it failed. Great, try again. Because at least this one
holds the potential to succeed whereas employment
doesn't even have a shot. And then if you're gonna be somebody who doesn't have the spirit
of fear but spirit of God then you have to start saying to yourself well then what am I actually afraid of? That's He's not gonna catch me? This is why He says I'm
a light unto your feet, not unto your path. Because He wants you to take a step right where you see your next
step and that takes faith. And that's what we don't want to do. If you look at most Christians, why don't you start a business? It's too risky. So you'd rather find security in your boss as opposed to security in your God? Good luck with that. - Now let's, if we may, could we get into the four types of people? - Absolutely. - This seems like a great opportunity. You sort of set the stage here. So there are four types of people and that end up in employment or making money one way or another. You're either this one, this
one, this one, or this one. What are they and how do
we determine where we fit? - Well, here's the interesting part. When I went to my Strong's Concordance and looked for employee,
I couldn't find it. So I needed to figure out why isn't an employee in the Bible, right? It's not in the Hebrew,
it's not in the Greek, it's not in the Aramaic. So when I started researching this I realized there's only four
types of people in the Bible. Masters, laborers, servants, and slaves. Masters we understand, he's the
rich guy on top of the hill. Got it. Slaves we understand,
don't have a choice, right? 'Cause you're whipped or whatever,
you don't have an option. But that leaves us with
two: servants and laborers. Servants were not slaves. Now this is a very big distinction. We love to say that
they're the same people. They're not. Now, before we get into what it is, we need to get a little bit of context. The Book of Matthew tells us that you cannot serve God and money. Not that it's a sin or not
that's it a nanabooboo. It's says you cannot do it. It's impossible. You'll either love one, hate the other, hate one, love the other. So you cannot do it. Okay? Now that we know that, let's
go back to what a servant is because if it's telling us
that we cannot be a servant to God and money, again
circle the action word. What are we doing? Hey, we're being a servant so
let's figure out what that is. A servant in biblical times,
a servant in biblical times, they started their shift
when the master told them to. When do you have to go to work? When you want to or when the master says? A biblical servant would work
an eight to 10 hour shift. They were not a slave. They worked an eight to 10 hour shift. How many hours do you work? The servants didn't get to go
home when the job was done. If there's time to lean,
there's time to clean. There's always another project right around the corner, right? So the servant only got to go home when the master said it's time to go home. When do we get to go home from work? The servant, if he saved up enough money, he could buy his freedom. Today we call that retirement. Oh honey, if I could
just save up enough money I can get free. If the servant loved his master enough, and Michael actually teaches this, if the servant loved his master enough he could go to the city gate,
put an awl through his ear, take his master's mark,
and be his for life. Today we call that tenure and pension. See, we are being servants
to money through employment. And we love to say I'm
not a servant to money. Servant to money is one
of those rich people and rules their life. No, it's not. No servant had a lot. Kinda the clue that you
were the servant was that you were the guy without the lot, right? So this idea that we are
serving money in our poverty, that's what you are doing in employment. You don't control you which means you are being controlled
by something else, other than God 'cause
God would rather have you with your wife and kids,
nobody can disprove that. So He would rather have
you with your wife and kids so you are being a servant to money. It doesn't mean you have a lot. And then the worse part of all, not only are we being servants
to money in our poverty, but we're teaching our children to do so. What does the Bible say about those who teach the young ones the wrong way? Right, what does it say? Better a millstone tied around your neck than to 'cause one of these to stumble. Holy cow. So in Matthew it tells us you
cannot be a servant to God, or to money and God, right? And then it tells us
that if we teach against what He's saying it's
better a millstone be tied around our neck and then
yet for 40 hours a week we go do the very thing
He tells us not to do. So that's a servant biblically. Now a laborer was a little bit different. A laborer was like those dudes, the Bible doesn't use the word dudes, but the laborer was those dudes who were coming to the field after those other guys were
already in it, right? Jesus uses this as a parable. And Yeshua says what? They're getting paid
what you're getting paid. And He uses it as a
parable, you know the guy who gets saved near the end of his life, goes to heaven just like the guy who gets saved early on, got it, great. But why did He use that parable? Why does He say that the
workers and laborers? Why are there two different distinctions? Because one's a servant
and one's an entrepreneur. As a laborer, an entrepreneur could say hey, you need a field
that needs to be plowed. I'll plow the field for X amount of money and when the job's done, I'm out. And then you need fishing
nets that need to be repaired so tomorrow I'm expanding
my skillset fixing your fishing nets. I get to control my time. I get to control the hours I work. I get to spend time with my family. And if I want to save up and
take six months off, I can. Whereas a servant needs
to save up enough money to buy freedom. So now the goal of freedom and being led by God is way closer
than if I were a servant. And this is why He says well done to you, good and faithful servant
because we're supposed to be His servants and not money's. Which means we should be
using money for His purpose and that means if we're
being employed to somebody for 40 hours a week,
we're actually controlled by the boss's master and
who knows who he's serving. - So what is the distinction between, because a laborer sounds to me like okay, if you own a landscaping business, you are the owner of
that landscaping business and your employees are the servants. So now who is the master
in that kind of scenario? - Well, there's no master
there's just an employer. So now your master can be God because now I'm only offering my services for a predetermined time,
a predetermined rate, and a predetermined job. And people love to say
well if that's the case then who would fill the factories? Laborers. There is nothing legally
stopping a factory from saying hey I want
you to make 27 widgets, when you're done go home,
I just want 27 widgets. So we have been taught
in our American mindset that well, if roads are gonna be built, if factories are gonna be staffed, if stores are gonna have workers, they're gonna have to be employee workers. Lie. That is a lie from the devil. And it goes back to way in the beginning where he says surely
he didn't mean, right? Because we are being led astray. We're being taught to be servants and saying well surely he
didn't mean that's a servant. Good luck proving otherwise. Because that's exactly where we are and you can twist Scripture
any way you want it but at the end of the
day let's just be honest. You're not giving as much to ministry, not because you don't
want to, 'cause you can't. You're not giving your
family the education that they deserve. Not because you don't want
to but because you can't. Anybody, see this is where we
get kinda messed up with this. Anybody will say well
money's not important. Okay, then just do a simple experiment. Go find your fellow believer
who didn't watch this program. First, tell them they
need to watch the program. But beyond that, ask them if you were to get a 10% raise at work,
what do you do with it? All of them will say something like oh I'll buy a new TV, get
new tires for the truck, or you know, whatever,
me, me, me, I, I, I. I thought money wasn't important. Then let about a week go by and say hey pretend you had a rich uncle
who just kicked the bucket, left you a bunch of money,
what do you do with it? Oh I'd build a homeless shelter for vets, I'd get a private nurse for my mom so she doesn't have to get into a home. Well wait a second, now that
you have more than enough you're not greedy? See, this is how we've twisted it. We've actually convinced ourselves that if I get more than I
need, then I'm greedy. What? If you get more than what you need that's when you actually can start giving. You can't give until you have excess. Which is why the parable of the women with the two widow's mites
is such a powerful parable. Because love to say look,
she was poor and she gave. She was actually wealthier
than over 90% of this country. Because what do we know biblically? If she was in debt she'd
be in debtor's jail. So she wasn't in debt. So even though she only
had two widow's mites, 90% of this country is in debt, so that woman was actually in
a stronger financial position with excess than most people
watching this program. But yet we've twisted
and lied to ourselves and we said oh well I'm doing better because I can charge it
and I can get a mortgage. Where are any of these
things in Scripture? The Bible tells us do not be the debtor. Yet what do we do with our churches? Well, we need a new church,
let's go get a mortgage. What? He would rather have you poor
teaching under a fig tree than to have a church that's in debt. Yet we don't see that. And then we wonder why
we have the problem. And instead of addressing the problem people are gonna yell at me
and say oh well how dare you. But they can't yell too often because they gotta go to bed to make sure they're up for work in the morning. - Listen--
- Well this-- - [Scott] Go ahead. - I was gonna share, that was our goal, my husband and I's goal in 2017, was to completely get out of debt. So and I can say that we are which is a huge accomplishment. I mean 100% because we felt that way, too, was you're not supposed to be the debtor which we got ourselves in there. But I mean, we're just utterly grateful that we have that financial
freedom at this point to say that we're debt-free and hopefully never get back into debt. - And that brings us to our next question. The thought is then that
well because we have all these twists in our thinking that right now we think
well entrepreneurship is for those special few that
have those special skills and if you have the right
luck maybe you'll make it but you say entrepreneurship
is for every family. - Yes, every single family. I don't care if you're from Yale or jail. I don't care if you're white or black. I don't care if you're
handicap or, it doesn't matter. Entrepreneurship is actually
the great equalizer. I said this last time
that I was on with Michael and it's a great example. The first female
millionaire in this country, not only was she a female
which is hard enough, she was a black woman in the 1800s. So you start thinking well
how's that even possible? She was an entrepreneur. That entrepreneurship equalizes things. We had black landowners,
we had black slave owners, but they were entrepreneurs. And entrepreneurship regardless of where you're at is always the great equalizer. And it gives you the ability
to keep up with inflation. Inflation has been 10%
every year since 1871, documented it in the book,
it's been a three-time Amazon number one bestseller,
never been discredited, it has been 10% every year
on average since 1871. Which means if you are an employee who gets a 4% cost of living increase, you went backwards 6%. And if don't believe me just
look up the dollar index, prove I'm wrong, look it up right now, and if you looked it up today, like I did before we came out here, your dollar is worth 6% less than it was at the start of last year. So automatically, you
just lost 6% there even if everything I said was wrong. So you need to get to this point where we start saying to
ourselves what are we doing? Let's say if somebody watching
disagreed with everything, fine, but why are yo going to work for money and abandoning the things that are supposed to be more important? You can't spin that. And that's why it's for every family. It allows you the opportunity
to keep up with inflation, and it allows you the at least potential to get beyond where you are right now. And I'm not saying if you're a servant to money you're sinning. That's between you and God if you have the option to get out. But my point is everybody
has the option to get out. People tell me all the time, oh well there's so much regulation how can somebody be an
entrepreneur in today's America? Folks, you can be an
entrepreneur in prison. If you've ever known anybody
who's been to prison, you know, not yourself, wink wink, but if you've ever known anybody else who's gone to prison
there's somebody in there that can get you a girly
magazine, pack of cigarettes, cellphone, drugs, whatever, right? If that person can be an entrepreneur in an eight by eight steel
box under 24 hour surveillance don't tell me you can't be. And when we talk about things
like the mark of the beast and you can't buy or
sell without the mark, guess what the only thing God can use to help you around that system is? Entrepreneurship. Because it's gonna be the
black market at that point but it's still a form of entrepreneurship that He's going to use in
order to get you passed the mark of the beast system. - So how does someone choose then? You say okay great, I got me fired up now. What do I do? What skill, how do I
choose what skill I have to turn into a business? How does someone decide that? - Well, step one is you don't go to where you think you would knee-jerk go. Knee-jerk reaction is to start a business in something you know, like, or desire. - So I can't own my vineyard? (laughing) 'Cause that's my next goal. (laughing) - Not if it's the business
that you're hoping that just gets you free. I had a guy tell me once that Josh, can you help me start a business? I said sure, what do you want to do? Well, I want to own a bed and breakfast. I said great, do you have 300
grand that I don't know about? He says well, no. I said well then don't do it. Well, see I knew it took
money to make money. No, it took money to
own a bed and breakfast. And that's where we kinda
get this picture wrong. When I ask them what business
do you want to start? They always tell me
something that they desire, the passion, the end-goal
business, maybe the vineyard. But that's not where you start. You start at what can I start today with what I have that
gets me out of employment. And everybody can do that. I've helped homeless people do it. I've helped 94 year olds do it. I've helped people in wheelchairs do it. It doesn't matter. Everybody can start that sort of business because it's not limited
by what just you can do. You start getting involved
in real entrepreneurship and in some cases, you don't
provide the labor at all, you just provide the
facility or the training or the space or the computer or something that allows the engine to run
and for that you get a part. And sometimes you just start with a part. But a little bit is better
than nada though, right? And that little thing can grow because now you have
something that God can bless. And it's amazing how entrepreneurship has been such a blessing. And I'm not a theologian. Like somebody's gonna
say, well it was actually this verse instead of Matthew. That's not the point. The point is from an economic standpoint I do know what we're talking about. And where we find ourselves
is a very perilous position. And as long as Christianity
goes down this path of blind employment, we are
going to continue to suffer. - Well, I'd like to know your opinion on where is our economy today? It's a new year, it's
2018, what can we expect? - Oh, well, let me put on my little hat and make a prediction, right? I think what we're going to
see is we're going to see a rise in alternative currencies because people are
realizing hey wait a second, the American economic
system is based on a bubble. Nobody's denying that the stock market right now is a bubble, it's over-valued. Even though everybody's happy
and yeah, record numbers, it's still over-valued. I mean, when you have Tesla,
a company that I like, but when you have Tesla
that is valued higher than General Motors
who is actually selling way more cars, there's a bubble. And it is gonna correct itself. So you're gonna see a rise
of alternative currencies. Some are hour based, some are crypto-based but there's lots of 'em. You're gonna see a rise of that. You're also gonna see a call
for more massive employment which is always a bad sign. I don't care how people vote politically. But when both parties
are saying hey we want to be the party of bringing
mass employment back and jobs, jobs, jobs. That can only consume an economy. No economy can last more
than three generations if it's based on employment. We are now in that third generation. So what I would say is, I
would say the people watching this program and reading
their Scriptures are going to have to look for a Godly solution. And that Godly solution is
to start creating a culture which is something we don't have. You know, Christians look no different than non-Christians, right? So we'll create our own culture and in that start creating
our own economy too. And we see it throughout cultures. I mean, I was just meeting with one of our associates who is from India. And he says well in India we
don't have to go to the banks we have what's called a chitty. And a chitty is where they have people in their community all pour into a pot, let's say everybody pours in $1,000 so now there's $50,000 in a pot, so now we have $50,000
to start business one. Now next month we have
$50,000 to start business two. And he says this is why my culture has so many entrepreneurs. This is why you don't
see a lot of us working at the stores for 10
to 20 dollars an hour. We're all starting businesses. So we have to get to that. And if we see that in 2018,
it's gonna be a good year. - That's actually very common in the Latin American community as well. So I've actually done
it a handful of times with me and 10 other people. When we do it for 10 months,
we all commit to $1,000 and at the end of it you get $10,000, it's a huge chunk of money that you can do whatever you want with. - You know, that almost
brings to light the wrong thinking we have in
America about independence. Everybody being independent. We're not independent, we
need to be interdependent where everyone puts something in so that we can all benefit eventually. - Well, and that's why God created tribes. I mean, you have to remember
when Israel wanted a king, He actually said don't do it, don't do the king thing, don't do it. He created tribes and tribes
work exactly like that. And that's why we see cultures who come into America are so successful
when they stay tribal. They stay tribal on purpose
and it allows them to thrive. And we need to get back to that. Instead of arguing about
well I love my job. Well, stop it for a second. Even if you do, which I disagree with, but even if you do, what are you doing to promote the culture, your beliefs? I mean, for goodness sakes, you referenced the comparison
I made in the book, in prison they give you a Bible. Well, in all 50 states you're not supposed to take a Bible to work. So tell me again how this
is what you love so much. We have to get back to that
cultural, tribal society and use entrepreneurship to our advantage. - Thank you, Josh. Well, you know what? Time's up for this episode but come back because we're
not done here in the least. So we're gonna come back and next time we're gonna talk about
the meaning of life. And that is where we're
gonna start our next episode of Shabbat Night Live. Until then, we thank you
Josh for being with us. And thank you Anny for asking
all those great questions. And I can't wait to learn more and I bet you can't either. So until then, until next week, we'll bid you shalom, shavua tov, and we'll see you next
time on Shabbat Night Live. (light piano music) (dramatic music) - [Announcer] Like this video? Watch more at MichaelRood.tv. (upbeat music)
