Latest / Sacred Men / How Christian Men Can Increase Their Earning Capacity - Vocation and Wealth

Transcript

How Christian Men Can Increase Their Earning Capacity - Vocation and Wealth · Sacred Men

0:00
What's up, man? Recently a young man came into
0:04
my office. He wanted to meet with me,
0:06
wanted to talk about money. Recently married, has his own
0:10
business, and things are going pretty well.
0:13
Gets married, wife comes in with a lot of debt.
0:17
She wants to start staying home, working with the kids and
0:21
discipling the kids. And now he's got some money
0:24
issues, right? He's got some problems.
0:27
Basically, he needs to make more money to provide for his family.
0:32
And so he wanted to meet with me to figure out what's the best
0:35
way to do that. And here's the question that
0:39
most Christian men have never been given permission to ask out
0:45
loud. Is it OK to want to make more
0:49
money? I'm just going to let that sit
0:53
for a second. Is it OK to want to make more
0:57
money now? Why is that a controversial
1:00
statement? Because I've talked to a lot of
1:02
men, good men, godly men who love Jesus and love their
1:07
families. And somewhere along the way,
1:09
they've absorbed this idea that wanting more money is somehow
1:15
suspicious, that ambition to succeed at work and make more
1:20
money is a little bit too worldly.
1:23
That the truly spiritual move was to be content with less, to
1:28
not care too much about income, to treat the pursuit of greater
1:34
provision as at best, unnecessary evil and at worst, a
1:37
sign that your heart was drifting towards the love of
1:41
money. And what's been the result of
1:43
this? I think the result is men who
1:46
are half engaged at work are just kind of going through the
1:51
motions. Men who feel a vague guilt about
1:55
their career ambitions. Men who are quietly frustrated
1:59
about their financial situation but don't feel like they can
2:02
talk about it at church. Men who are under providing for
2:07
their families because nobody ever told them that providing
2:10
well is actually a calling from God.
2:14
It's a part of their vocation as husbands and fathers that we're
2:19
supposed to be, you know, we're called by God to be providers.
2:26
Well, today I want to fix that. We're in this series that we're
2:29
looking at vocation and our different vocations, our
2:32
callings from the Lord. And what I want to do is kind of
2:36
briefly build out theology of work.
2:39
I've already done that in other videos.
2:40
So I'm just going to be very brief on that part.
2:42
I want to look at kind of a theology of a work and a
2:45
theology of wealth. And then we're going to get
2:48
really practical. So I'm going to go, it's going
2:50
to be small in theology in the beginning here.
2:52
And then it's going to get highly practical towards the
2:55
middle of the video because as God's as men of God, we need
3:00
both. We need to understand the
3:01
theology behind it, but then we need just the practical advice
3:05
of basically how to make more money, how to look at money, how
3:09
to view money, wealth, these things.
3:10
So welcome back to the Sacred Man YouTube channel and podcast.
3:16
I'm your host. If you don't know me, I'm Pastor
3:18
Justin Dean, pastor in Bettendorf, IA, and this podcast
3:22
is all about helping us all become strong and virtuous men
3:28
in a weak and effeminate culture.
3:30
Today's episode is affectionately called Show Me
3:34
the Money. And so we're going to look at
3:37
money. We're going to look at a
3:38
biblical, a kind of a biblical theology of money.
3:41
We're going to look at how, what, what, what is money for?
3:44
And then we're going to see how can we make more money to be
3:47
better providers for our family. So we're going to talk a little
3:50
bit about income, ambition and financial strategy.
3:53
And we're going to do all of it from a thoroughly reformed
3:56
biblical perspectives. Now, listen, why do we want to
4:01
do this? Because we've been talking about
4:03
not being consumers. We're talking about being
4:05
providers and producers and not just consumers or even
4:11
destroyers. And I believe that when a
4:14
Christian man understands his vocation, his calling from God
4:18
as a provider through the lens of Scripture, it doesn't make
4:21
him less godly. It makes him more effective,
4:26
more purposeful, and more dangerous in a good way for the
4:30
Kingdom of God. So let's get into it again.
4:33
We're going to start here briefly with a theology of work
4:37
because everything we're going to talk about practically rests
4:42
on getting this right theologically.
4:45
So we know this. You go back to Genesis one in
4:47
the beginning, right before the fall, before sin entered the
4:51
world, before thorns and thistles and the toilsomeness of
4:56
Labor. Before any of that, we see God
4:59
working. We see God working and God
5:03
providing. Right in the beginning, God
5:06
created. The very first thing we learn
5:08
about God is that he is a worker.
5:11
He makes things. He shapes and orders and
5:15
cultivates. He calls the light good and the
5:19
darkness good, and the dry land good.
5:21
There is pleasure in his labor. And then He creates man in his
5:27
image. Imago Dei.
5:29
And immediately in Genesis 128 he gives man a mandate.
5:32
Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion
5:36
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens,
5:39
and over every living thing. Then in Genesis 215, the Lord
5:42
God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and keep
5:47
it. So what I want you to see here
5:51
is #1 God is a worker and #2 man is a worker.
5:55
And all of this happens before sin enters the world.
5:58
This is pre fall, right? So work is pre fall.
6:03
Having a job is pre fall. Adam was employed before he was
6:09
sinful. So the dominion mandate or the
6:11
cultural mandate, the call to cultivate, to build, to develop,
6:15
to produce, to create value from the resources that God has
6:20
placed in the earth and on the earth was given to man in his
6:24
unfallen state. So work is not a consequence of
6:28
sin, it's a part of the image of God expressed in human activity.
6:34
So the fall, now the fall, it affected work, but it didn't
6:38
ruin work, right? It complicated it.
6:41
It made a more toilsome. It introduced frustration and
6:45
futility and the sweat of the brow.
6:47
But the essence of work, the creative, the productive, the
6:52
dominion exercising activity of a man who is made in God's
6:56
image, that was holy ground and remains holy ground.
7:00
It's all meant to be done sacred.
7:02
It's all meant to be done, devoted to God.
7:05
And the Reformers and the Puritans, they all knew this,
7:09
right? Our Reformed tradition teaches
7:13
that every honest vocation, whether you're a farmer or a
7:17
lawyer or a tradesman or a merchant, is a calling from God,
7:22
right? Pastoral ministry is not the
7:24
only vocation. There's not, you know, just
7:27
sacred professions and then kind of unsacred professions.
7:31
Well, you could call, you know, anything unethical and unsacred
7:35
profession, let's say that. But every man who works
7:38
faithfully in his field is serving God and serving his
7:42
neighbor. The reformers called this the
7:45
priesthood of all believers applied to the marketplace.
7:49
Now, this is where the famous Protestant work ethic comes
7:54
from. It doesn't come from greed or
7:57
ambition for its own sake, but from the conviction that a man,
8:01
when a man works with excellence and integrity, he is
8:07
worshipping. He is worshipping at the
8:10
workplace. He's expression expressing the
8:13
image of God that God put in us. He's expressing the image of God
8:17
in man when he works. Colossians 323 says it plainly.
8:22
Whatever you do, work heartily As for the Lord and not for men.
8:28
So doesn't say, you know, work adequately, doesn't say work
8:32
just well enough. It says work heartily with
8:35
everything you have because the one you're ultimately working
8:39
for is not your boss, is not your employer, is not even you
8:43
know, your clients. The one you're ultimately
8:45
working for is the Lord. That's our starting point.
8:48
OK, so quick theology of work there.
8:52
Now let's move on to wealth. Many men have some kind of Many
8:59
Christian men have some kind of false guilt when it comes to
9:04
wealth. There's a strand of Christian
9:07
piety. It's often well meaning it's but
9:11
it's still kind of unbiblical that treats material wealth as
9:16
inherently suspect. It acts as though the godly man
9:22
is the one who earns just enough right to meet his bills and no
9:27
more. And this kind of confuses
9:31
simplicity with holiness and ambition automatically with
9:37
greed. The Bible doesn't teach this.
9:43
Think about it. We go you can just do a quick
9:45
biblical theology of godly men and of wealth, and you're going
9:50
to see that this just isn't accurate.
9:52
Abraham was by any measure a wealthy man, says he was very
9:57
rich in livestock, in silver and in gold in Genesis 13.
10:00
Two, God never addressed this. God never called this a problem.
10:05
He called him righteous. He was righteous by his faith.
10:09
Joseph, by the grace and wisdom God gave him, became the second
10:13
most powerful economic administrator in the ancient
10:16
world. He used that position to save
10:20
nations, right? Proverbs, which we're studying
10:24
at Sacred City Church right now. We're beginning to work through
10:26
a series on Proverbs, which I think is going to really help us
10:28
as men. So if you want to find that, you
10:30
can go to sacredcitychurch.com. You can find the videos on
10:33
YouTube as well. Proverbs is the Bible's most
10:36
direct teaching on the practical realities of life.
10:41
It's training and wisdom and how to live the Christian life well,
10:47
right? How to learn the skill of
10:49
biblical living and Proverbs is relentlessly positive about
10:56
diligent work and the wealth that diligence produces.
11:01
Proverbs 104A Slack hand causes poverty.
11:06
So laziness basically causes poverty, but the hand of the
11:11
diligent makes rich. The guy who works hard, he's
11:15
probably going to make more money, right?
11:17
Proverbs 1322 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's
11:22
children. Wow, that means this guy has
11:24
accumulated enough wealth not only to pass on to his children,
11:29
and enough wisdom as well that they are going to they're still
11:32
going to be an inheritance for the grandkids.
11:36
Proverbs 21 Five The plans of the diligent leads surely to
11:41
abundance. Now many people wonder, are
11:46
these promises like get get rich quick schemes?
11:48
No, they're not are they promises?
11:50
Yeah, they are are they 100% guarantees?
11:54
No, they're not. Many things can happen.
11:56
You can work hard, you can be diligent, and an economic
12:00
catastrophe could happen and take all your wealth, right?
12:02
You can work hard and be diligent and get sick in your
12:04
body and die and not be able to accumulate that wealth.
12:08
But it's the way that God set up the world, and it's the normal
12:13
way of pursuing wisdom and success in the world that
12:17
normally produces a positive outcome right?
12:21
Now this, of course, is all in Proverbs.
12:24
It's part of the wisdom literature given to us by God,
12:27
inspired by the Holy Spirit, written for us so that we live
12:31
well. The book of Proverbs expects the
12:34
godly man to build wealth through diligence, planning, and
12:40
discipline. This is not a prosperity gospel
12:43
in any way. This is just Reformed orthodoxy.
12:48
Now, I know what some of you are thinking because, well, the
12:51
Bible, you know, Proverbs got some warnings about wealth and
12:54
the Bible's got some warnings about money as well.
12:56
First Timothy 610 The love of money is the root of all kinds
13:01
of evil. That's true.
13:03
We want to hold that in our other hand, right?
13:05
But notice what it says. The love of money.
13:08
It doesn't say money is the root of all evil or wealth is the
13:12
root of all evil. No, it's not the earning of
13:14
money. It's not the possession of
13:16
money. It's not the desire to provide
13:18
well and build financial security for your family.
13:23
The love of money or the disordered love of money.
13:27
Meaning money is my ultimate pursuit.
13:31
Money is my ultimate value. Money is the thing I love more
13:35
than anything else, right? Money is where I go to, to find
13:38
my security, to find my identity, right?
13:41
Money becomes my God. Well, that's a line.
13:46
There's a real line in the sand there between pursuing, you
13:50
know, God and becoming wealthy or gaining money and pursuing
13:55
money for its own end, right? The the the answer to the danger
14:00
of putting money on a pedestal and idolizing it is not to just
14:05
be indifferent to it. The answer is to hold it
14:08
rightly, to love it rightly, to have a well ordered love, to
14:13
love God more than I love money. Now we'll get to that a little
14:17
bit later in the video, but our goal here, this is the biblical
14:21
kind of theology of of wealth and what we're meant to do with
14:24
it. We are to be we're to see
14:26
ourselves primarily as stewards. Psalms 24 One says the earth is
14:33
the Lord's and everything in it. OK, So it means God is the owner
14:40
of everything, Everything you earn, everything you own,
14:45
everything you accumulate. Ultimately, it's God's right.
14:50
He's eternal. You're not.
14:51
You're going to leave it all behind.
14:52
He's the owner of it. And the reality is we are
14:57
managing God's resources on God's behalf.
15:03
The question for the Christian man is not how much money is
15:06
enough for me, but how much can I adequately steward for the
15:13
king? How much can I adequately,
15:17
adequately, and faithfully steward for the king?
15:22
And listen this when you understand that you are
15:25
primarily a steward, this framing changes your motivation
15:30
entirely. You're no longer pursuing more
15:35
income to prove your worth, to impress your neighbors, or to
15:41
fund a lifestyle. That's really just insecurity in
15:47
disguise, right? You're pursuing more capacity,
15:54
more resources to provide for your household, to give more
15:59
generously to the church and to the poor and to your mission of
16:03
community, and to build something that outlasts you and
16:08
bears witness to the faithfulness of God to the next
16:12
generation and even the generation after that.
16:15
So here's the reality. More income in the hands of a
16:19
godly, faithful steward means more Kingdom impact.
16:26
That is righteous ambition. The Bible condemns selfish
16:33
ambition. Right?
16:35
All right, so let's move on here to Our Calling, our vocation as
16:42
a provider. Before we get practical, I want
16:46
to say something directly from Scripture that I think most men,
16:50
a lot of guys I know, have never heard, just read from the Bible
16:56
in a straightforward way. First Timothy 58.
17:00
This is what the apostle Paul, the inspiration of the Holy
17:03
Spirit, says. But if anyone does not provide
17:08
for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he
17:15
has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
17:22
What a verse. That's one of the strongest
17:25
statements in the entire Bible about the obligations of a
17:30
Christian man to be a provider for his household.
17:34
Paul's not being hyperbolic here.
17:36
He's saying that failing to provide for your household is a
17:40
denial of the faith. It's a more serious failure than
17:47
the unbelievers around you who don't know Christ.
17:51
Why? Because the Christian man says
17:53
that he knows who God is. He says I am saved.
17:58
God has already provided my salvation and given me
18:00
everything I need for life and godliness.
18:03
And somehow when I'm not being a provider for my family, I'm
18:05
denying the reality that God is my provider, right?
18:10
I'm denying that he is a God and a Father who provides for me.
18:18
So when we put our faith in Christ and God becomes our
18:23
Father, one of the things we have to realize is now that when
18:26
we're a husband and when we're a father, our job is to provide
18:30
like God the Father provides for us.
18:33
And when I fail to do so, and I'm of course, I'm not talking
18:36
about genuine circumstances, losing a job, getting sick in
18:41
your body, financial crash, all of these things.
18:44
I'm talking about when I fail to provide because of laziness,
18:48
maybe because of fear from just being passive in my pursuit of
18:54
wealth or in my developing of a vocation.
18:57
What I'm doing there is I'm actually contradicting with my
19:01
life the God I claim to believe it.
19:05
So I'm contradicting who I say God is and who I say I am.
19:13
But I'm a provider now. Provision is also more than just
19:23
finances. It's bigger than a paycheck.
19:25
I want to say clearly that I'm so I'm not misunderstood here.
19:30
Providing to your family includes more than just money.
19:35
It includes your presence. It includes your protection.
19:40
It includes your availability. The stability you create in the
19:45
home by being a steady, faithful, trustworthy man is a
19:49
part of your calling to provide. A man who earns a high income
19:58
but's never home has not fully provided for his household.
20:03
A man who spends his career chasing maximum earnings while
20:06
his children grow up with a without a father has confused
20:10
the means of provision with provision itself.
20:15
We're going to come back to that at the at the end here.
20:18
But for most men, the problem is not that they've.
20:20
Prioritized income over family. The problem is that they've
20:23
accepted a level of provision that is less than what they're
20:28
capable of, and they've called it contentment, Right.
20:35
Real contentment is not settling for less than what your family
20:39
needs. Real contentment is peace with
20:43
God, whatever the circumstances, right?
20:45
While still doing everything in your power to work excellently
20:50
and to provide well. So both of those things are
20:53
true. Like we can be ambitious and we
20:55
can pursue and we can be content.
20:57
We can be both of those at the same time.
21:01
We got to hold them together. All right, next step here, this
21:06
is where we're going to get practical.
21:08
This is where we're going to learn how to actually earn more.
21:14
We've got the kind of, you know, our theology in hand here.
21:19
So now let's get to work and let's put some flesh on those
21:22
bones. I'm going to give you 4 pillars.
21:27
These are not hacks. They're not get rich quick
21:31
strategies. This is not a prosperity gospel.
21:34
These are 4 timeless principles that Scripture and wisdom
21:40
consistently point to for the man who wants to increase his
21:44
earning capacity and his value in the marketplace.
21:48
OK, they're all deeply rooted in the Reformed tradition and our
21:52
understanding of vocation and stewardship.
21:55
So here's 4 pillars for making more money.
22:00
All right #1 master your craft. Proverbs 2229.
22:07
Do you see a man skillful in his work?
22:11
He will stand before kings and not before obscure men.
22:16
Solomon wrote that almost 3000 years ago.
22:19
It is still the most reliable career advice ever given.
22:24
The single most reliable path to greater income is to become
22:30
genuinely excellent at something.
22:34
Not good enough, not average. Excellent, skillful.
22:40
That is rare and valuable. The man who is the best plumber
22:46
in town, right, is going to more than likely get more work and
22:51
make more money. The most reliable contractor in
22:55
his county is going to get more work and make more money.
22:58
The most knowledgeable consultant in his field is going
23:02
to get more work and make more money.
23:05
That means listen here. Here's the reality here.
23:09
If you can become excellent at what you do, that man who is
23:14
excellent in his work does not struggle to find work.
23:19
Work finds him, Work finds him. That means you have to be honest
23:27
about where you are in your vocation.
23:30
Where are you at in your craft, right?
23:34
Are you OK? What are you, you know, are you
23:38
kind of coasting along and you look around and be like, I'm
23:41
pretty average. Are you, have you accepted that?
23:45
Are you OK with that? Or are you learning?
23:49
Are you growing? Are you becoming better at your
23:52
craft? Are you investing in skills that
23:56
will make you more valuable? What does that mean?
23:59
You can get further certifications, You can get
24:02
further training. You can get further experience
24:06
by getting mentors that are better than you.
24:08
You see a guy who's better than you, Get around that guy, right?
24:12
Meet that guy. Get some training from that guy
24:15
so that you can be developing yourself.
24:17
Are you reading books on the topic or books that would help
24:21
you develop the skill? Are you listening to podcasts?
24:23
Are you putting in the hours? If it's you want to be a
24:26
Carpenter, are you putting in the hours in the workshop to
24:31
develop genuine mastery, to be a master Craftsman at whatever it
24:36
is? So ask yourself that, right?
24:42
And then kind of do an inventory on where you're at with the
24:46
skills that you need to develop that could make you more money.
24:48
And here's a practical challenge.
24:51
Identify a skill. So we're going to start with one
24:54
Identify a skill that if you developed it over the next 12
24:59
months, it would increase your earning power exponentially.
25:04
One skill, it might be, maybe you are an expert at your craft,
25:10
but you're not great at communicating.
25:12
You're not great at selling your product or advertising your
25:15
product or convincing other people how good your product is,
25:19
right? And you need to work on public
25:22
speaking. You need to work on your ability
25:24
to communicate, to sell, right? Maybe that's it.
25:27
Whatever it is, identify one skill and then build out a plan
25:33
to develop that skill over the next 12 months.
25:37
It might be reading a book or more.
25:40
It might be taking a course. There's all kind of online
25:42
courses that you can take to develop these skills.
25:45
It might be hiring a coach. I have a coach.
25:49
I have a pastoral coach that I meet with twice a month.
25:53
It's through just a phone call. I have a phone call anything I'm
25:57
struggling with anything I'm I need some an outside perspective
26:00
on. I'm bringing it to my coach
26:03
either. Well, I don't have the money to
26:04
do that. If this if hiring a mentor would
26:08
you know, and to develop this skill could actually improve,
26:12
improve your income. You're kind of betting on
26:15
yourself here. I'm I'm investing in this
26:18
relationship so that it could bring me more results in the
26:22
future. It's a wise investment or maybe
26:25
it's I need to take on this project.
26:27
I need to take on this project that will help me develop the
26:29
skill, whatever it is, create a plan to develop that one skill.
26:35
The diligent man plans Proverbs 21 five the plans of the
26:40
diligent. The plans of the diligent lead
26:44
surely to abundance. And I know some of you think,
26:48
man, this just doesn't seem very spiritual.
26:50
Listen, when you're pursuing excellence in your work, we're
26:55
not doing it just to serve ourself.
26:59
We're doing it to serve our neighbor.
27:02
We're doing it to love our spouse, to provide for our
27:05
children. You are serving the people who
27:08
hire you, right? And so by making these
27:11
investments in yourself, you're actually going to give a better
27:15
product, You're going to do a better job to those who hire
27:17
you, who buy from you, who rely on your skill, excellence in
27:21
vocation, whatever that vocation is, as long as long as it's an
27:25
honorable vocation, is an act of love to others.
27:29
It's the image of God in US working itself out, right?
27:33
God who does all things well, who provides for us in millions
27:38
of different ways. That reality is expressed
27:42
through our hands, our mind, our vocation, our work, our
27:48
providing. All right now, second pillar,
27:52
right? Second point on making more
27:55
money. Build a reputation that's worth
28:00
more than a resume. Build a reputation that's worth
28:04
more than a resume. Proverbs 221-A good name is to
28:09
be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than
28:13
silver or gold. In the economy of God's wisdom,
28:18
your character is your most valuable financial asset.
28:24
It's not your credentials. It's not where you've worked and
28:27
what you've done and what school you've went to.
28:28
It's not your network. It's your reputation.
28:32
Your reputation for integrity, for reliability, for doing what
28:37
you said you would do, for being the man people can call on in a
28:41
crisis because they know you won't let them down.
28:45
This matters practically in every area of your economic
28:50
life. In employment, employers pay a
28:54
premium for trustworthy people. The man who shows up on time, he
28:59
delivers what he promises, he tells the truth when it's
29:01
inconvenient, he handles responsibility without being
29:04
micromanaged, is worth far more than his technically equivalent
29:10
but unreliable counterpart, right?
29:13
In business, customers return to and refer others to men they
29:18
trust. Word of mouth built on a
29:21
reputation for integrity is the most effective and least
29:24
expensive marketing that exists. Think about when you're making a
29:29
deal in negotiation. The man who's known to be honest
29:33
and to deal fairly, who knows how to, you know, he's got, He
29:36
possesses the virtue of justice, has far more leverage than the
29:41
man who plays games because people want to do business with
29:44
them. And our integrity at work is not
29:49
separate from our Christian witness.
29:52
It is a large part of our Christian witness.
29:57
The watching world evaluates your God in large part by how
30:04
you do business. Now, a practical application
30:07
here is, are you someone who over promises and under delivers
30:13
even in small things, right? Oh, yeah, for sure, I can meet
30:16
that timeline. Oh yeah, for sure.
30:17
We're going to do that. You show them a picture of
30:19
something. Yeah, we can build that.
30:20
We can make that. And then you under deliver,
30:25
right? Your product doesn't look like
30:27
the picture. You don't meet the timeline,
30:30
right? You go over budget, that's going
30:33
to destroy your reputation. Instead, become a man who under
30:40
promises and over delivers, right.
30:43
I don't really know if we can meet that time that we will do
30:45
our the best we can, but it's probably going to be two weeks
30:48
or it's probably going to be this and then get it done in 10
30:50
days, right? Yeah, We'll do our best to to
30:53
make it look like that or whatever, and then go over and
30:56
beyond and over deliver and do that every time.
30:59
Do that consistently. Make that a discipline until it
31:03
becomes a part of who you are, until it becomes a part of your
31:06
character that you know under promising and over delivering
31:12
will pay you back in ways that you cannot put on a spreadsheet,
31:16
you cannot fully calculate, right?
31:18
It's a huge pillar of being able to make more money.
31:21
All right, next one, pillar three.
31:25
We've already kind of talked about this one.
31:28
Think like a steward, not a consumer.
31:31
Think like a steward, not a consumer.
31:34
Here's the financial reality that most men never confront.
31:36
Clearly, income is actually only half of the equation, right?
31:44
What you keep and what your money does matters just as much
31:50
as how much you earn. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the
31:55
parable of the talents, and the parable of the talents is a
32:00
stewardship passage. The master of the house gives 3
32:06
servants or three stewards. Different amounts of money,
32:10
gives 5 to 1. He gives 2 to another, he gives
32:12
1 to another. And then he sends them on their
32:15
way to to use that money. And he comes back later.
32:19
And he evaluates not what they had been given, but what they
32:25
did with what they were given. The servants who multiplied
32:31
their master's resources, you know, they invested it and they
32:34
made more of it, took five, made 10, whatever.
32:37
They were praised and they were rewarded.
32:40
The servant who buried his talent in the ground.
32:44
And so he just gave the master back exactly what he gave him,
32:46
right? He did nothing.
32:48
He did nothing with what he was given.
32:50
That guy was condemned. What does that mean?
32:53
God expects us. He's given us gifts.
32:55
He's given us talents. He gives us money and resources.
32:59
And he expects his men, his stewards, to make their
33:02
resources work, to bring an increase.
33:08
This means several things, practically.
33:11
First, let's do some big principles here.
33:14
Number one, we need to spend less than we earn, period, All
33:21
the time, without exception. The man who spends everything he
33:25
makes, regardless of income level, is always one crisis away
33:30
from ruin. The man who consistently lives
33:34
beneath his means is actually building security and capacity
33:40
to meet the demands of something tragic.
33:44
But also if a business opportunity comes up, he's
33:47
actually got the resources to maximize that business
33:50
opportunity. Second big principle, eliminate
33:54
debt. This one should be pretty
33:55
simple, but in an era of rising consumer debt, credit cards, car
34:02
payments on vehicles you can't truly afford student loan
34:05
payments. All I mean we you can have a
34:08
credit card to every nearly every store that we shop at
34:12
these days. Debt is a form or or let's say
34:17
consumer debt is a form of financial bondage.
34:21
Proverbs 22 seven The borrower is slave to the lender.
34:26
What does that mean? This means we need to work
34:28
aggressively to get out of debt and to stay out of debt.
34:33
Now, if you want to know some practical advice on how to get
34:36
out of debt, I would say look up Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball to
34:41
learn more. It's a very helpful strategy for
34:44
getting out of a lot of high consumer debt.
34:49
Third, so we're living below our means.
34:54
We're eliminating debt. Invest consistently now.
34:59
You do not need to be a financial expert here to invest.
35:02
You just need to be consistent. Compound interest is, in a very
35:08
real sense, built into the structure of the universe that
35:12
God made. Small, faithful, disciplined
35:17
contributions to your future made consistently over time
35:21
produce results that seem almost miraculous.
35:26
We all we should know this. You start young.
35:29
The younger you start, the better.
35:30
Stay consistent. Don't stop when things get
35:32
difficult. Keep making investments into
35:36
your future, right, All right, we could do a whole maybe we
35:38
will do a whole video on that in the future and we'll bring in
35:41
some experts. All right, next principle here.
35:44
And this one, guys, if you're a Christian, this one, I cannot
35:48
stress how important it is. And it's this give generously.
35:55
Wait, I'm trying to make more money.
35:56
What are you talking about? Giving money away.
35:58
That seems counterintuitive. Yeah, it is counterintuitive.
36:02
But this is what this is one of the beauties of the life of
36:05
faith, giving generously. And by that I mean, tithing 10%
36:11
of everything God sends your way is not optional for the
36:15
Christian man. And this is something that the
36:18
financial advisors won't tell you.
36:20
And maybe if you don't have a Christian financial advisor,
36:22
he'll definitely say, no, you shouldn't do that, that want you
36:24
to invest more in your retirement and, and do these
36:27
other things. But here's what my experience is
36:30
and what the Bible teaches. Generous men are often the most
36:35
financially free men I know. Generous men, men who are giving
36:42
10% or above are the most financially free men I know.
36:47
Now why is that? What's the way God set up the
36:50
world? Generosity and tithing breaks
36:55
the grip of money on your soul. If money is an idol, the only
37:00
way to dethrone that idol is to use money to worship God, to
37:04
give a a sacrificial amount 10% or more back to God's church,
37:11
right back to God's work in the world.
37:14
That breaks the grip of money on your soul.
37:16
It trains you to hold money in an open hand, and God, who is
37:22
not mocked, honors the man who honors him with the first fruits
37:28
of his increase. Proverbs 3, verses 9 and 10
37:32
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all
37:37
your produce. Then your barns will be filled
37:39
with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
37:42
What this means first fruits in this modern economy means when
37:46
you get paid, when you get a paycheck, that right away, the
37:51
first thing you should pay is not your mortgage, is not your
37:54
car payment, is not your consumer debt.
37:56
The first thing you should pay is your tithe.
37:59
Check to God's Kingdom. That's your first fruits.
38:03
Don't pay all your bills and then wait and say, oh, if
38:06
there's enough leftover, I'm going to tithe.
38:08
All right, I'll tell you there probably won't be enough
38:10
leftover. Pay your first fruits.
38:14
OK, some practical advice. Now we, I, I want to get on to
38:18
the fourth pillar here, 4th pillar.
38:21
Take courageous action. This is the one I think most men
38:25
need to hear the most. You.
38:28
What does it mean? All right, if you're doing those
38:30
things that we've already talked about, right?
38:32
You're living below your means and you're, you've eliminated
38:36
debt and you're being generous with your giving.
38:41
The next thing you need to do and you're, you feel like I'm
38:44
not making enough money is you need to go to your boss and ask
38:49
for the raise, right? If you're already skillful,
38:54
maybe it means you need to increase the price for the
38:57
product that you're giving, right?
38:59
You need to make the call. You need to start the business.
39:03
You need to pursue the promotion.
39:06
You need to have the hard conversation with your boss
39:08
about your career trajectory. What you need to do is you need
39:13
to take the calculated and well planned risk.
39:18
Hear that calculated, well planned risk.
39:21
You need to do the thing that you've been talking about or
39:24
dreaming about or thinking about for years.
39:26
Go back to Matthew 25, the servant who was condemned.
39:32
He wasn't lazy in the usual sense of the word.
39:35
He had a reason, right? He was afraid and fear, you
39:41
know, dressed up as caution and prudence.
39:44
And I'm just being responsible. So I'm just going to hide this
39:46
money away so I don't lose it. It's one of the primary reasons
39:50
men under provide for their families.
39:54
Now, Biblical wisdom is a real thing.
39:59
Not every risk is worth taking. Not every business idea is a
40:04
good one. Not every good business idea is
40:07
going to be executed well and is going to be a success.
40:10
Not every job job change is the right move.
40:13
We have to count the cost, just like Jesus said.
40:16
We have to seek counsel. We have to pray, but then we
40:20
have to move. We have to take the risk.
40:22
We have to actually do it, pull the trigger, get it done.
40:27
The Reformed tradition has a robust theology of Providence,
40:33
and that theology is meant to liberate men to act boldly.
40:38
It's not to paralyze us with caution, you know, because we're
40:42
we serve a sovereign God who holds our lives in his hands.
40:47
So we don't have to live with the fear of failure.
40:50
We can take the step, we can make the ask.
40:52
We can absorb a loss if we lose and we can try again.
40:56
God is never surprised by our failure.
41:00
Failed business, a failed project?
41:02
No, learn from the failure, move on.
41:06
He is not undone by your rejected sales pitch or your set
41:11
back at work. God, through His Providence,
41:15
promises to work through all things for our good.
41:19
Romans 828, right? That is something you can bet
41:23
your life on, right? It doesn't absolve us of our
41:28
responsibility to act right. The servant who buried his
41:32
talent because he was afraid of his master.
41:34
He has a deeply wrong theology of God.
41:37
We don't want to be that man. We want to have such a robust
41:41
theology of Providence that we know.
41:43
All right, you know, I'm using biblical wisdom.
41:46
I'm getting counsel. I'm seeing what's happening.
41:48
I'm going to take the risk and I'm going to make the ask.
41:50
And if it doesn't go well, I'm going to trust God in the midst
41:53
of it. And God's going to work all
41:55
things out for the good of those who are called according to his
41:58
purpose, right? Who love God and called
41:59
according to his purpose, right? Saying all that, usually when
42:06
you, when a preacher talks about money, he's going to talk about
42:09
all the warnings first. I purposefully didn't do that.
42:13
I want to talk about the blessings and the benefits and
42:16
the theology of it before I talk about the warnings.
42:19
OK, But there are warnings, significant warnings in
42:23
Scripture, right? I promised I'd come back to the
42:25
warnings and I will. The man who pursues greater
42:31
provision at the expense of his household, of course, has made
42:37
provision or money an idol. He's taking a good thing, the
42:41
duty to provide the good thing, money and wealth, and he's made
42:45
it into an ultimate thing, right?
42:47
And when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, it becomes a bad
42:50
thing. That's the nature of idolatry
42:53
becomes destructive. Jesus says in Matthew 624 no one
42:57
can serve 2 masters, for he'll either hate the one and love the
43:00
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
43:05
You cannot serve both God and money.
43:09
The word he uses for money there is mammon.
43:13
Many of us have heard that in the King James Version, mammon
43:16
is not just currency but a kind of competing Lord.
43:20
It's the love of money. It's a false deity of security
43:25
and status. And Jesus warning is that this
43:28
false deity has enormous pull on the human heart.
43:34
Now, how do you know if you love money too much?
43:38
If money has become an idol? Ask yourself some of these
43:41
questions. Is my pursuit of money causing
43:46
me to be too absent from my family in ways that are damaging
43:51
them? Do I make it home for dinner?
43:55
Can I make it to the kids? Sporting events provision,
44:00
right? Our Calling to provide, our
44:02
vocation to provide is meant to be in service of the household.
44:06
It doesn't replace it, right? So you've got to be there.
44:10
You've got to be there to shepherd your kids.
44:12
You got to be there to protect, right?
44:14
A paycheck is not a substitute for your presence.
44:19
Ask yourself, am I working this hard because I genuinely want to
44:24
steward well and provide for my family?
44:27
Or am I working this hard because I'm desperately afraid
44:31
of failure? I'm afraid of being broke
44:35
because I'm I'm afraid of not feeling significant if I don't
44:38
make this money or some people. I'm working this hard because I
44:43
don't want to go home, right? I'd rather be at work than at
44:48
home. Well, if money and success at
44:52
work is becoming the metric by which you measure your worth as
44:55
a man, then brother, you don't need a raise.
44:59
You don't need more money. You need the gospel.
45:03
You need the gospel more than you need a raise.
45:06
Here's the test, Jesus says at Matthew 621.
45:09
Where your treasure is, where your money is going, your time,
45:13
your talent, your treasure. There your heart will be also.
45:17
If you are always at work, right, your heart might be at
45:20
work. If you're if you're always
45:23
chasing money, your heart is actually in money.
45:26
Now, this isn't just what you spend your money on.
45:31
It's what you think about, what you desire, what you pursue,
45:34
what occupies your imagination, what you're afraid of losing,
45:41
where your sense of security actually lies, where your
45:45
treasure is. There your heart will be also,
45:47
right? And we, where is our treasure?
45:49
Our treasure is in God and that's where we want our heart,
45:53
right? We want to be pursuing God and
45:54
God's calling on our life, not just pursuing money.
45:58
If you ask, if you, if you ask yourself those questions and the
46:01
answer is, you know what? Honestly, I find my worth, my
46:04
value, my significance, my security in money, any amount of
46:08
money there. Then there's there's you're
46:11
never going to get an income increase that's going to fix
46:13
that, right? You've got an empty hole in your
46:16
soul and money won't fill it. Only the gospel can fill that
46:20
hole right now. Last, my last point here, I want
46:27
to speak to the man like my brother who came in to meet with
46:31
me as I started this video off, who is in a hard season
46:35
financially. Maybe you've lost your job,
46:39
maybe the business failed. Maybe you're doing everything
46:42
right and you're still coming up short because the economy sucks
46:46
and you don't understand why you're making the same amount of
46:50
money you made last year. But just you know, ends aren't
46:53
meeting, right? You're not meeting your ends
46:54
right now. Like you're you're getting to
46:57
the end of the month and you're in the red.
47:00
And maybe you lie awake at night with the specific dread that
47:07
only a provider knows. The fear that oh crap, like I
47:13
suck. The fear that you're not enough,
47:17
that you're failing the people that you love, that you're
47:23
inadequacy is written on the faces of the people in your own
47:27
household. You feel like you're failing
47:29
them. Listen, I know how you feel.
47:32
I've been there before. I've been there several times
47:35
before where I feel like I'm working as hard as I possibly
47:38
can and I just don't have enough money.
47:41
And maybe I made a bad, bad financial decision.
47:43
Maybe I took a risk. And I remember when we bought
47:45
the home that we currently live in, I took a risk.
47:49
And I looking back now, great risk, great investment,
47:55
everything worked out. But for a season of about six
47:58
months when I bought my home and I was trying to sell my other
48:00
home and everybody thought it was going to sell quick and it
48:02
didn't. And I was making two mortgage
48:03
payments. I would wake up at 2:00 AM
48:06
thinking, I am a failure. I am, I have destroyed our
48:10
family. We're going to be financially
48:12
ruined. I'm never going to financially
48:13
recover from this, right? I, I remember thinking those
48:16
thoughts, right? And so brothers, I know that
48:20
feeling and I want you to hear me.
48:23
The gospel speaks directly into that fear and that shame that we
48:30
feel when we can't provide well for our family.
48:35
Paul writes this in Philippians 411 through 13.
48:37
He's writing this from a freaking prison cell, right?
48:41
So he's got no income. He's got probably no savings.
48:44
Of course, he has no 4-O1K. And he says this quote.
48:47
I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content.
48:53
I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and
48:56
every circumstance. I have learned the secret of
48:59
facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
49:02
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
49:07
OK, said this earlier. Contentment is not the absence
49:12
of ambition, it's the presence of peace.
49:16
It is the deep, settled knowledge that God is my
49:20
provider, that he owns a cattle on 1000 hills, that not a
49:24
Sparrow falls out of the sky without his notice, that he
49:29
clothes the Lily of the fields, right?
49:31
And he's numbered the hairs on our head, and that our family's
49:35
ultimate security does not rest on our income, right?
49:39
It rests on the Providence of an omnipotent, fatherly God who has
49:45
promised to take care of us and provide for us, right?
49:50
That's where it ultimately lies. Now, of course, we got to hold
49:54
it in balance. That does not mean we just stop
49:56
working. It does not mean we resign from
49:58
our duty to provide. It means you can work without
50:02
anxiety. You can plan without a sense of
50:06
despair. You can even face a set back
50:09
without concluding that you are an ultimate failure and that
50:13
your family is doomed. Think about the, you know,
50:17
again, go through the whole Bible.
50:20
God has provided for his people in deserts, in exile, in poverty
50:27
and persecution. He's going to provide for yours.
50:32
And in the meantime, you know, while you're waiting on that
50:35
provision and you're waiting on that opportunity, be the man
50:38
who's still putting in the work, developing the skill, building
50:43
the reputation, thinking like a steward, taking courageous
50:47
action, and trusting that the God who called you to this
50:50
vocation is faithful to sustain you in it.
50:57
Now let me close. Let me close with this.
50:59
Bring it home. You are made in the image of a
51:04
God who works and provides. You've been given a mandate to
51:09
cultivate and build and produce, to exercise dominion over the
51:13
earth for the glory of God and the good of your neighbor.
51:15
Providing for your household is not a secular distraction from
51:20
your spiritual life. It is a large part of your
51:24
spiritual life when done for God's glory.
51:28
So be excellent at what you do. Be a trustworthy man, think like
51:33
a steward and not an owner. Act with courage, earn more so
51:39
you can give more, provide more and build more for the Kingdom
51:44
of God. Hold your wealth with an open
51:47
hand because it all belongs to God anyway.
51:50
And if you are in a hard season, don't give up.
51:55
Keep working, keep building, keep trusting.
52:00
The same God who clothed Adam and Eve after they screwed
52:04
everything up, who provided grace to them, who provided
52:08
manna in the wilderness to the Israelites, who sent his own Son
52:13
to redeem a bankrupt people. That God is not indifferent to
52:20
your needs. He will meet them.
52:23
He's met them all in Christ, and he will meet them.
52:25
Put in the work and trust the provider.
52:29
All right, man, thank you for your time.
52:31
If you made it this far, you are one of the real ones.
52:34
You're one of the sacred men. I appreciate that if this was
52:38
helpful to you and I would really love it if you liked us,
52:41
if you subscribed, if you shared it with to with someone that you
52:45
think would be blessed by it. And until next week, go act like
52:50
men. God bless dudes.