What is the purpose of wealth? Why does God give someone five talents to other to another one? Because it’s interesting, the man that had the five talents and was obedient with those five when he took the one talent away from the man who had one talent, what did he do? He gave it to the man who had not produced 10 talent.
Do you know what I’ve said, Lord, if there’s someone not accessing their talents in this area, I will gladly receive that talent that I might multiply it. He wants us to be faithful. So what is the purpose of wealth? It says in Deuteronomy 8:18 but you shall remember the Lord your God for it is He that gives you the power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant, which He swore unto you, unto your fathers, as it is this day.
See some of the reasons God is so emphasizing the marketplace, there’s going to be a transfer of wealth in the last days. of unrighteous mammon and those that have used it for wrong purposes, for kingdom purposes. So wealth is anything you have beyond your means, like your daily necessity.
If you have more food. You can be wealthy with food, you can be wealthy, and your clothing and your housing and your recreation, your healthcare and education. Wealth isn’t just about money. When you have more than enough for yourself, you have the ability to be generous and give away things to other people.
Wealth is way more than money. So the single reason that God gives you anything beyond what you need for your daily necessities and enables you to have more so that you may have freedom. See a lot of people are in financial bondage so they don’t have freedom. So God’s purpose for wealth is to release people to freedom.
We’re not supposed to use freedom to heap it upon ourselves. See, I’m, I’m, I’m free. I’m free to swing my arm or I, I’m free to swing my arm, aren’t I? When does, where does my freedom stop? Right about there. Right. Or he’ll stop it. He looks like he’d stand up and stop it. So God has given us freedom to serve others and it’s really interesting.
Wealth removes the constraints and the limitations that we have in our lives so that we can do what we really want to do. See, a lot of people in the body of Christ have a poverty mentality and it keeps them from doing what God called them to do, and they say things like, well, Jesus became poor for our sakes.
There’s only one time Jesus became poor that was on the cross of Calvary. He wasn’t standing by the side of the road going savior will work for food. When He needed a supply for 5,000 His father supplied for Him. There was wealth. Wealth isn’t just about money. It’s really important what Tom said, cause we, we still think in, in, in the, a lot of Christian businessmen still think if they just learn business principles, their business will succeed.
But see, God wants to give us, well, to establish his covenant and to build his kingdom and to be generous, to be kind. And it’s really important that we understand that it’s dangerous to have freedom without knowing the purpose of freedom. See, some people have freedom, but they don’t know the purpose of freedom, so they don’t use their freedom wisely.
So it’s very important because if we don’t use our freedom wisely, we, we turn. We turn it on ourselves and we, we have a lust and we less for more and we want more power and more money and more things and more of this and more of that. It’s all right from time to time to have more things and get new clothes and God wants to do all those things.
But if you start to lust after those things, there can be problems. See the true purpose of you. Don’t get anything else. Listen to this next little little part. The true purpose of freedom is to worship and serve God the creator through our time, talents, and treasures. The true purpose of freedom is to worship and serve God the creator throughout with our time and our talents and our treasures.
See, God wants to give you wealth to enable you to use your time wisely.
God wants to give you well to enable you to free. Up the use of your talents to do the things that please him. There’s a lot of people that are using their talents, not to please him, but just trying to make it through the day and struggle through. But when you receive the wealth that God can give, then you’re, you’re not only free in your time, but you’re free to release your talents.
And then God gives us freedom to, uh, to use our treasures to do the things that please him in advanced as well. It is so much fun to be a giver. It’s so much fun to be generous. It’s so it’s so great to have enough that you want to give it away. We just started a better business blessings group at our church and had 13 key business people, and so we want to build a foundation.
We want to build relationships. A lot of them right away wanted to go into business mode. What’s the plan? How long is this going to take? How much is my time? And I said, no, we’re going to build a relationship with God and one another. First. Oh, but that’s not a good business practice. I said, it’s a good kingdom business practice to wait on God and ask God what he wants to do with this.
The seat. Sometimes we’re so, we’re so quick to want to start a plan to do something that we start plans without God and we ask God to bless what we already planned. You know that God doesn’t want to bless when we’ve already planned. Jesus only did what he saw the father do it. Jesus never did anything unless the father showed him to do it.
That was his life. So it’s very important. So what is wealth created for? It’s created for our work. Do you know the word in the Hebrew for work is . You know what it means? It means worship. The word work in the Hebrew means worship. You know what your work. Is it about worship? Worship is just not singing those songs.
Songs. Worship is not just singing, you know, my save, yo dah, dah, dah. You’re work is to be worshiped under God. Your work has to be an offering to God. It’s all about worship. See, we were created for worship. If we do not worship God with our work, we will not worship God with our wealth. If we do not worship God with our work, we will not worship God with our wealth.
Think about that.
If my work or my business is not started with worship in mind, do I need to change my work or business in order that I may worship God appropriately? No. Unless God directs you otherwise, worship God. I’ve gone to many different nations and I’ve had businesses, businessmen come and say, will you bless my business?
I said, yes. Well, we’re going to go to your business. You know what? I always say, do you have a place of worship in your business? Have you built an altar? This is, this is a business. I go, I go, I know it should have an altar. my pastor. This is a business. This isn’t the church. I said, well, this is your, this is your place of worship.
I want you to build an altar. I was brought by a businessman in Korea who had in the middle of one of the biggest Korean buildings where the library is for Korea and Seoul, Korea. He owns all of the food shops and the first thing I did, so we’re going to go in there. When is it open? Before and we’re going to have a worship service and we’re gonna make an altar here.
We’re going to dedicate this whole food court to the worship of the Lord, our God.
I went to Korea and during that time when we started doing things like that, a woman showed up. There was, I found out was a multimillionaire, and I got to prophesied over her brother and sister that weren’t saved in the. The grand Hyatt in Seoul, Korea, they had violins playing and cellos. There was an Arabic Sheik standing there with his Prince son with all their regalia on, and I’m sitting there, it’s supposed to be my day off to rest.
She said, you’re going to go prophesied over my sister. She’s not saved. And her brother, they’re very well to do dressed in nice Korean business suits. And I’m sitting down in the lobby sitting there and I’m trying to talk to her in the presence of God is coming on in the lobby and she’s . The Holy spirit.
She gets laid on the spirits laying on the couch. I’m wondering, what is she? And then she gets up, says, we’ll go ahead and I go, go ahead and watch. She goes, that’s my sister. That’s my brother. You’re sitting here like this with not very happy. It looks on their face. May begin to prophesied. I said, well, Lord, I might as well just go for it.
Music’s playing. I said, right here in the lobby, and she said, yes. So I prophesied over her sister. I shut my eyes. Little easier to concentrate that way with all this stuff going on. And when I opened my eyes, she was weeping uncontrollably and I said, would you like to receive Christ? She got saved there.
Her husband was sitting over here and I walked over to him. The same thing happened. And here’s, here’s one of the princes of, of uh, one of the Arabic nations with the full regalia of his being a Prince in his Prince son watching this whole thing is the presence of God is invading. The grand Hyatt hotel.
She then invites me to our company and says, they told me she makes over $1 million a month in her company. She said, I want you to come and prophesied over my company because I’m going to open my building to 300 young people that don’t have a building, and I want you to pray over this $4 million building to see if I’m supposed to buy this building or not.
That was my day off in Korea. Let’s see if you make your place a place of worship. If you make your business in your workup, a worship unto the Lord out of a, the Hebrew word for work is worship. See your, your work is to be worship unto the Lord. It’s not just about singing songs. It’s not about having the best lights in the music.
It’s about my whole life is to be an act of worship. So I always ask them, where is your place of worship? I also asked him, where are the intercessors that are praying for your business? Where are the people that are partnering with you to say, I want to see the kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So we got the 13 business leaders together and then we for four months, and then we invited everybody in the church that wanted to come and 56 business owners showed up. I had, we had to turn the lights off on them. They got so excited. see, a lot of times we separate work from worship. That’s not God’s concept.
So do you have a place of an alter where you worship at your work? I remember looking at the Korean man. He said, but, but I can’t do that. And I said, why not? You’re the boss. You own the business. You can do whatever you want. You can dance in here if you want. You can do whatever. You own this business.
You’re the owner of this courtyard. No one can stop it. There’s 12 principles. You might want to write these down. If God’s economy. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. In Matthew 25 14 Tom read God has given each of his talents.
Each one of you in this room has been given talents by God, summits in the form of gifts. So there’s, it’s in the form of skills. Others, it’s treasures that are based on our abilities. So God’s given you, each one of you to challenge. What are you doing with your talents? Are you developing them? Are you learning about them?
Are you becoming more skilled? I’m 65 years old and I’m constantly reading and constantly learning. I have mentors in my life that I meet with regularly. Say, do you see anything in my life that needs to change? As Tom said, don’t get the same fight people that if you told them you were gonna jump off a coast, they’d go, praise the Lord.
Hallelujah. Amen. And people that give counsel like that are not wise counselors. When people come and say, pastor, I’m thinking about doing this. What do you think? And I said, well, you just told me I’m gonna. I’m gonna need to pray about this. I’m just going to talk off the top of my head. You can go into almost any church service and have half the people just go Holy amen to anything anybody says.
That’s not wisdom. So when people ask me about something and say, I’d like to pray about it, I must, God clearly speaks to me. You need people that will help you develop your talents, that will tell you things about you, that will tell you the things that you’re not gonna like to hear people that will correct you.
People that will challenge what you’re doing. Hopefully they’re doing it in love. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, but it’s good for you either way. Secondly, we each have a responsibility to exercise. Why is stewardship over those talents through train? What are you doing with your talents? See if I’ve been given a gift of prophecy and I just said, well, I’m not in the business world.
I’m not gonna prophesy over business people. I would not be a wise steward of the talent that God gave me. Sometimes people say, well, I’m a businessman. You don’t understand business. I said, no, am I understand like you, but I do have a business. I have 31 employees. I started from scratch, eight and a half million dollar building.
We have worldwide outreaches. I think I know a little bit about business and see, we need to be open to learn and what are you doing to take the talent God’s given you? What are you doing to expand it? What are you doing to multiply and don’t ever get to a place where you think you’ve arrived. get to that place where you see how I want to keep growing.
I want to keep learning. I want people to help me. Thirdly, whenever, wherever, whenever there is a trade, there must be a prophet. See, when I use my talents and my gifts, I want to make sure I want to go to places. If I go to places and they don’t listen to what I’m saying, I’m probably not going to come back.
I want to go to places where I see they take. One of the reasons I like to come back here is a, you take what the Lord has given us to bring in. You multiply it. So it’s a wise use of my time and my talents and my treasures to be with Bishop Frank and Edith to be with Tarlac first Baptist church. Cause you’re eager and you’re hungry and you want to grow and you want to learn.
There’s some places I go and they just sit there like this. Like I’m not going to waste my time, my talent, my treasures at 65 years. Of age. I want to see a profit and the profit I see is people being equipped is when Dylan stands here and said, I’m a scared to do what I’m doing right now. When Heidi’s prophesied, when Diane’s, when my wife’s teaching, when Tom’s doing different things, when I watch you fulfill what God’s had for you, that’s my profit is to realize my talents are being used to equip and empower other people to do the work of the kingdom.
That’s my joy. Fourthly. Profit is the fruit of proper stewardship and not the reward. Profit is the fruit of proper stewardship and not the reward. See, we want to be good stewards of what God’s given us. One of the young men in the church, when I was walking out last night, he stopped me and said, can I pray for you pastor?
And I said, yes. He said, the Lord says to you, pastor down, well done, thou good and faithful servant. That’s what I live for. Then when I stand before God, he’s not gonna say, Oh, you preach good sermons, or Oh boy, you can prophesied that. He’ll say, well done, good and faithful servant that I was faithful to what God called me to do.
And each one of you in this room has a different call and you have different talents and treasures like Tom, Sharon, if you use those things, don’t multiply and help others.
Profit is the fruit of proper stewardship and not the rule. save for the time of lack, reinvest in the business, fulfill God’s covenant. Feed the hungry. Nourish the thirsty house, a stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit those in prison.
what have you done for someone that’s naked? What? We had a cold spell come through Seattle and I was wondering, I was so cold and I was starting to think of what’s happening to all the homeless people in Seattle. There was a young man in the church, it was on the streets for a number of years, and I would drive by and look for him.
His mother was crying out day after day after day for him for many years. He just showed back up in the church. I cried when I saw it. Thank God for a praying mother. But what do we do for people that are, are, you know, Jesus will bless people that take care of the poor and the hungry. And then what are we doing to take care of the poor and the hungry and the needy and the orphans and the widows.
I love what one of the pastor friends I have in network in the United States shared at one time, he was just starting and every business, every church, every enterprise, all of them started small. There’s not one enterprise that started large. They all started small. He said, Lord, you’re giving me the lowliest people, the worst people in the city, and he was kind of discouraged.
You know what the Lord said to him, if you’ll take care of all the people that. Nobody wants. I’ll give you all the people that everybody wants. That’s the kingdom. That’s saying, I want my business to help those who have no one to help them. I want to raise up people that are homeless and broken and needy and naked and sick.
The fifth, his talents are given to be traded, not hidden. Don’t hide your talents. I see so many Christians, they have these incredible gifts and they get intimidated by somebody else. I can’t preach like him. So what? Preach like you. Well, my business isn’t as big as her business. Well, so what? Hello? You have a gift.
You have an ability, you might touch thousands and thousands of lives through your business, through your kingdom, talents and treasures, and quick, the Bible says, don’t compare yourself with it. And what do we do all the time? Oh boy. I wish I could speak like her. Can I tell a funny one? Can you tell it?
Diane’s a real gifted teacher and a real gifted prophetically. She’s very gifted. I remember the day my wife had a women’s ministry a number of years ago, and I am sitting here and her friend, her friend, uh, Dina is up speaking. Well, Dina is up speaking Diane sitting next to my wife going, well, I sure wish I could.
Excellent. Speak like Dina. She is just so good. I can’t speak like her. Oh boy. And she’s just really good. So she gets done and she comes and sits down here and Diane goes up to speak and what Diane’s up speaking. Guess what Deanna saying that my wife, I wish I could speak like Diane. She’s so good at speaking.
They’re both looking at each other, wishing they could be like each other. I don’t know if she can even do that in that funny. So quit comparing yourself. Take your talent, your ability, and start to use it and will grow and you’ll just be happy. Then it grows in, multiplies and cheer other people on. We’re all in the same business.
We’re all in the same family. The kingdom business is a family business. We support each other. We help each other. We cheer each other on. It’s not about who’s the biggest and the best. Jesus is the biggest and the best.
Then sixthly each of us must render an account for the use of our talents. I’m not going to be responsible for Bishop Frank’s talents. I mean, I’m going to be responsible for what did I do with mine? He didn’t save the man with two talents. You should have made 10 towns like him. If you have a two talent gift and you produce two talents, you’ll receive the same reward of a person with a thousand talents who produces a thousand talents.
That’s how the kingdom operates. We have to break this world. II thing of success is money and numbers. I watched Christian, Oh, he’s got the biggest business. So what you mean? He has the biggest business, but he’s unfaithful to his wife. He doesn’t have any character. He treats his employees terrible. He’s not building the kingdom.
He’s building his own empire.
Next one is that number seven. Hello, the County, right? One, two, three, four, five, six. Seven. The reward of our stewardship is the increase of our responsibilities and the entrance into the joy of the Lord. The ultimate fulfillment would be to have God say, I’m pleased with you. He won’t say, boy, I’m so glad you made $50 million in your lifetime.
It really helped my kingdom. There’s going to be people that have made $50 million. It will stand before him. He’ll say, I never knew you. Depart from me. Please hear about what kingdom wealth is. It’s about taking the talents and the treasure that God’s given you and multiply them and to pour it into kingdom purposes and helping the lives of other people.
Number eight, each of us will receive equal rewards in spite of the number of talents we start out with. According to Matthew 25 next one. Fear is often the root cause of poor stewardship of the challenge God has given us. What is the fear when we compare ourselves? The fears were not as good as them.
The fear is, I’m not good enough. I don’t have what they have. Boy, they’re smart and they’re, they’re better than me, and they’ve got education. They’ve got, they’ve got a family behind them. They’ve got all this. You know what that’s all about fear. . It’s about fear of I’m not good enough or I don’t have what it takes.
Those are all lies from the evil one. When I began preaching, my face shook like this. Every time I preach, my face would shake like this. it’s not very fun to be speaking in front of people and have your face going like this.
I was there for his first sermon. It wasn’t very good.
See if you have an ego, you get bothered. I think it’s funny. It doesn’t bother me. We need to leave our egos at the door when we come in. We need to leave our egos at the door when we come in, right? Very important. Fear is often the root cause of those things. Number 10 those who hide their talents are considered wicked and slothful.
God says to the person who hides their talents. Because they’re afraid of what others and other say. He said that they’re wicked is, these are the words of Jesus. This is what the loving savior said. If you don’t use your talents and abilities, you become a wicked and slothful servant. We all love, you know that he’s the good shepherd, but you know, he’s, he spoke some very hard words to his followers and the people that he was hoping would follow him.
Number 11 God’s economy rewards productivity and punishes unproductivity. He rewards productive people. It takes discipline. People said, what’s the secret to your life? I said, everyday, the first thing I do is spend time alone with God.
pastor, I want to be like you and I will. I said, okay, well come, come meet me at 6:00 AM in the morning and at the front of the front of the church, six o’clock in the morning. Do you mean like am I said, yeah, like am. Oh, well, I don’t wake up til 10 and I said, then don’t expect to be like me.
See, watch successful people, and don’t copy them, but look at the disciplines that got them to where they are. It wasn’t because they had charisma or the catchy, a sane on the billboard is because they were faithful to God and everything he gave them to do, and they were disciplined. They were disciples, disciplined ones, followers of Jesus.
And 12th God’s economy’s not fair. God’s economy’s not feared, but it’s just Matthew 25 what does a biblical law, what is biblical entrepreneurship? It’s using your gifts, your skills, and your treasures. To establish God’s kingdom by meeting a market need or serving something. See, this church is meeting a need by serving people’s spiritual needs, and you’re going to more and more be released into the marketplace to meet people’s needs practically and spiritually.
Yes. See, if you utilize your gifts and your skills and treasure the Lord has given you to meet those needs, you establish a kingdom business and you’ll be known. He’ll be known as a person where God’s presence is. God’s kingdom is working in you and through you. People want to be around you. What is a kingdom business?
It’s a transformational company with measurements beyond the triple bottom line to include. People were in the people business. God cares about people. If you’re going to have a business serve people, if you care about people. Susan chins shared last, last time. She just started their fourth Patty’s eggs nest.
I’ve been mentoring her husband and she’s part of our better business blessings and I love to pray. Deuteronomy 28 over every business leader. I prayed over every member of my family every single morning over all my grandchildren. They will be blessed in the city, blessed in the country. They’ll be blessed when they go out.
They’ll be blessed when they come in. There’ll be the head and not the tail. I declare the blessings of 20 Judy Ranomi 28 one to 14 over my church family. Cause you know what? If you’re not blessed, you don’t. You’re not able to bless other people. The bottom line is people next. It’s the planet. We’re here to reach people, to redeem the planet that Jesus died for.
We rehearse here also to bring profit, but most of all, the fourth of the bottom line above the triple bottom line is Aternity. A kingdom business is thinking of eternal principles. what is my business doing to see the kingdom come in? What in the light of eternity will be done? I had a friend that he had a business, he had one machine shop.
He ended up selling for 15 million. I started chilling, challenging my sedan. Do you need to become the pastor of your business place? He goes, pastor, I’m not a pastor. I said, yes you are. You have a hundred people in your company. I said, you’re the shepherd. Any good leaders, a shepherd leader cares for his people.
How do you treat your employees? If you go to Susan, Jim’s business, her employees love her. They love to be there. They’re joyful, they’re cheerful. There are a lot of fun. I love to go there just cause they’re so happy. I hate to go to businesses where people aren’t happy.
You go to some businesses where people act like you’re bothering them to be served.
excuse me. I just came to do my dry cleaning. I go to the dry cleaning place cause it’s cheap. It’s the only reason I go there. Cause the lady at the dry clean place, every time you walk through the door, she’s sitting on the side like we’ll have to get off my rear to get your business. I feel bad. I’m trying to get an opportunity to pray for, I want to just tell her she’s younger.
I said, sweetheart, you don’t look very happy. I’m a 65 and I’m really, really happy. Do you know why? I’m really, really happy because I get to bring my cleaning here in one day. I think God’s going to touch you and today might be the day. Hello
people at Trinity. He God’s businessman. He’s God’s way by God’s stewards for God’s purposes in the world. That’s a transformational business, and if you do business based on God’s word, God’s word is full of business, principles of service, of all those types of things, and being a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ in your business.
What kind of witness are you can I go into some business places with Christians and they’re screaming and yelling at everybody and they go, praise God, hallelujah. This is God’s business. I go, are you kidding me?
Your employees see the way you act, the way you talk, the way that you treat them. We should be the best business owners. We should treat our people better than anybody else. People should want to work for us. I tell people that our church, if you’re not having fun, something’s wrong. I want you to have fun at the church.
I want you to have fun. I want you to be happy to be here. It’s a privilege to work here. God’s doing some incredible things. See, the world sees entrepreneurship as a mean of a means for self driven individuals to participate in a free market economy for the purpose of controlling resources and wealth for themselves.
That view is what creates the unhealthy things that happen all over. That’s why government officials take money from people, why they do underhanded thing. We see it in our government all the time. The way this person talks about this person, they’re all doing corrupt things. Why? Because it’s about, it’s about them and how much wealth can I get.
I was prestige. But man, when you find somebody that’s a public servant that really wants to serve people, it’s amazing, isn’t it? That really cares about people that’s in the office because they care about the government. They’re serving the people they care about. The people. Remember, we’re all in the people business.
The kingdom of God is a people business. It’s about his presence and it’s about his people. The biblical entrepreneur newer per ship is, it’s hard to say that biblical entreprenuership is about exercising stewardship over God’s resources. How are you handling the resources that God gave you? If you’re not handling the little real well, he’s not going to give you more.
In Luke 16 it says there’s three tests. If you’re faithful in the little things, you’ll make you faithful. Love her. If you’re faithful with unrighteous mammon, if you’re faithful with money, if you’re not faithful, he’s not going to give you true riches. If you’re a faithful, he’ll give you, if you can’t handle money, why would God give you a spiritual riches to handle?
Then he said, if you’re not faithful with another man’s goods, don’t complain about your boss. It says, even if they’re wicked and evil, don’t complain about them, but keep serving the Lord you’re serving the Lord is you’re serving them, but thank God for the many good bosses are in this place. Not many.
Good people that God has here. We’re going to pray in just a minute. I’ve got some more to share, but I’ll leave a lot of it out and we’ll close here.
If you’re a biblical entrepreneur, you learn to identify the opportunities. You identify an opportunity from God when you have prepared yourself and God’s timing meets your preparation.
need you take calculated risks, need to count your costs. Do you have adequate resources to finish? Do you need to solve problems? If you’re going to be a biblical entrepreneur, what? What is your business or what is your service? What problem are they solving? We had a young man, I think Bishop Frank told you, I heard about, he lived in quarter lane, about five or six hour drive from Seattle.
He heard there was a big snowfall and somebody said to him, you have a snowplow in the front of your truck. Why don’t you drive over to Seattle? He’s a young man, and he says, Lord, do you want me to go to go over to Seattle? And he looks on Craig’s list, which is just a list of jobs that you can click on.
Somebody said, I’ll pay you $1,000 to clear off my driveway. She said, well, it’s probably worth $1,000. He said, Lord, I’ll give you 20% of whatever I make. He drove from quarter lane six hours to Seattle, and in four days he made 35,000 us dollars. Pushing snow, just pushing snow off so people could drive into their businesses.
He saw a problem. Most of the people just complained about the snow sliding around, but he saw the problem as an opportunity to serve people and he made 35,000 us dollars. There’s a lot of businesses in four days and he gave 20% of it to God.
And how are you steward in your business? It’d be in a wise steward or you’re learning new ways. Are you improving? You’re asking people, how am I doing? Is there a way we can improve our service?
every week after our Sunday service, we sit down with staff and say, what could we have done better? I was the worship time. The preaching go too long. Did we connect with the people? How? How did we serve the people when they came through the door? We’re in the people business. When say, Oh, I’m the leader. I can do whatever I want.
No, we, we say, what could we have done better? How could we have developed a better way to reach people? How could we make things simpler for people? We’re constantly looking at how are ways can we improve to serve people and care for people? And the biblical prophet is the spiritual and natural gain remaining.
After all costs are dead, uh, deducted from a business transaction. You know what? If you’re going to be an entrepreneur like Joseph, can I tell you something? You’re going to go through some pits. You’re gonna go through some prisons, you’re going to go through some difficulties. You know what? As a young man, I believe that Joseph was arrogant.
I mean, who would go to their brothers and say, guess what guys? You’re all going to bow down to me. You know the favorite son? I’m the spoiled child with a special cook daddy. You only gave me the special coat and you’re going all bow down. Mom and dad are going to come and bow down to me. I had a vision from God.
It’s not always wise to tell people your vision from God until God tells you to tell it. and he was arrogant, I believe, and I believe he was spoiled. I know it doesn’t say that, but you read through the lines. He was a young dreamer. Some of you business people are going to raise up young dreamers in this congregation.
he was a man just destined for greatness. But look at Joseph. He had a wilderness experience. A wilderness. Listen to this, you might want to write it down. A wilderness is a combination of trials, tests, and temptations allowed by God allowed by God. You always want to blame the devil for everything. But a wilderness is a combination of trials and tests and temptations allowed by God to repair and perfect you to carry on his plan for your life.
Joel Joseph wilderness had four phases before he was ready to rule Egypt. We just want to name it, claim it, scream a few times, amen. And think it’s all over. So he said, boy, you’re living your dream. I said, yeah, I’ve been at it 43 years. I’m finally living my dream. There was times I wondered if I was ever going to see my dream.
Joseph had four phases. He went into the pit and the place of hopeless despair. When God says, this is what I’m going to do for you, I can guarantee you that vision is going to die. If it’s God’s vision and he’s going to put it into the ground, it’s going to die. He was put in the pit. I remember when he said, you’re going to all be bowing down to me.
You’re gonna all be looking up at me and what happens? Joseph’s in the pit looking up at his brothers. What’s wrong with his vision? More. Uh, there’s, well, I’m supposed to be up there and they’re supposed to be down here. God was preparing him and then he, then he, um, none of the second phase he gets put in slavery.
was this the devil’s work? some of it was, but ultimately it was God’s work. He said you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. There was this 50. And then he went into prison for something he didn’t do. I’ve heard people say a lot, pastor, that I didn’t do it. God would not. I said, well, Joseph went to prison.
Sometimes God allows some unusual things to prepare people. Then the other confrontation face to face with the people who’d be traded. But do you realize something? He became the steward over Egypt. How much of Egypt did Joseph own? None. see the reason that God could use him as he realized, he now became the steward over the greatest nation on the earth.
And what did he do? He served God and he served people. He took all those resources, didn’t keep them on himself. Yes, he got blessed, but guess what? He helped all the people. See, when you realize God’s giving you a business, he’s giving you gifts and talents. It’s to serve him and serve people. And your work is worship to the Lord.
