Yo, yo, yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose This is episode 204 still in clothes and taking flights We're gonna take a look at some stories really all across the world Wall Street Journal money-wise I'm gonna take a look at a couple of these stories that's happening around the world And we're gonna try to view them through a Christian lens What's the goal look man as believers if we being real it's becoming tougher and tougher to even though like what is a Christian? How should we be thinking and specifically through this lens of faith and business a lot of times like this the business start out We in and you get people that's like we love money so much we love success and motivation so much That's all we focus on and we don't know like really how to be a Christian in these things and in in the same regards Some of us are so heavy on faith, but more so not in a genuine way in like a traditional religious way We're like we so heavy on that. We know how to go to church.
We know how to shout We know how to dance we know how to sing but we don't really know how to apply Christian principles into our daily lives So those are some of the things we're gonna explore today and we're gonna do that by way of looking at stories around the world Unpacking them you're gonna read a couple articles and then I'm gonna talk a little bit at the end about Consumers and contributors and why we should have a contributor mindset versus a consumer's mindset. So look man This is episode two oh four Still in clothes and taking flights look go ahead and like subscribe share this with somebody We don't have a great conversation and you know it is man. We gotta go to this intro I Know guys people what's up, man? How y'all feeling tonight man today wherever you at you know people listen all across the world sometimes A lot of times they listen like let's be honest you might not be on the live stream But hopefully whenever you listen to this you enjoy yourself.
Let me I'm gonna be real strong It's a lot to be going on in the world you feel me and As a believer I'm kind of sitting back and looking and observing the world and all the changes that are happening And I'm realized that especially the church like we just don't know what to do number one We're not really in lockstep, you know, Christian is believe at all various levels have completely different perspective perspectives. I can I can talk people Completely different perspectives about what it even means to be a Christian so we don't take a look at some stories man and try to You know exercise our Christian and our business brain And if you new listening to this show I always advise people go back to episode one Apple podcast Spotify Mostly Apple podcast is where people listen but go there and listen to episode one We like all these foundations over the course of the last four years on inspire guys people So you know exactly where we coming from you don't get like kind of thrown off when we start doing investing or money topics And you understand that the foundation of this show is rooted in the word of God in the Bible and we stick to that Like but we have to build on that this is episode two oh four You know saying so I don't always go back and lay out all the foundational things as we kick it throughout the show If I want to talk about money or business, I just talk about it freely. So let's get it to the first look Let's just jump. I'm gonna just share my screen We gonna get into the first article we gonna read a little bit of it together And we gonna see what really is happening out here y'all All right, so this the first one I got for y'all what you I want do I like this I like that this that All right, let's go here for now.
Um So look y'all y'all really got a y'all really got to understand like It's some it's some interesting stories happening around the world today So this is on insider.com and this this story right here is written by Kathleen Porter Christenson Christensen I can talk Kathleen Porter Christenson. This is written on June 7th We just gonna explore a little bit of this. Let's look at the headline right I'm a mom who flies in business class while my family stays in economy We see it as a lesson on feminism a lesson on feminism. All right, okay, so Let's see what they talking about the whole go today is to really try to explore how people are thinking in the world Not in a judgment away We're not here to bash anyone but we are independent thinkers and I I really like to understand like what is this world?
Like what are they really what are we coming to? So let's just see these these kind of bullet points on a recent flight where her husband and two kids age five and seven She flew business class by herself wanted to show her sons that women are not confined to be or do certain things and her kids were excited when they landed Her husband got to parent them during the flight now look I advise you to come here and check out this article In depth on your own. I'm gonna just get through a couple things Let's see All right So let's go here recent viral tik toks and articles have sparked debates about the fairness of father sitting in solo in business or first class While their wives and children remain in economy being inherently contrarian I decided our family would flip the script and do just the reverse when they're recent flight Alright, so look she wanted to show her sons that women belong everywhere. Alright, all right.
Alright, let me just kick it Which off for a minute before we even unpacked us for real So I think it's a couple of things that are a little interesting about where we are in the world today Right like we have this situation where this um, let's go here This this mom like is first responding to something right? So I think it's an interesting situation because she's saying that she is responding to men who fly business class or solo Bottom sales, so let's unpack that first first things first one of the real challenges We're having in the world today is people are living at polar opposite extremes Right, so everybody is pushing being an extremist and what happens with that is that we lose all balance and a lot of times With balance is rationed out. So it's just like yo like we either live in a hundred degrees outside or two degrees outside With no fall no spring and no in between and so you have this woman that's saying hey, hey I don't know how she randomly like pick men who fly solo in business and first class without their families I don't know if I've been living in a rock family But I'm just gonna be real with you I ain't never seen it never heard of it in my life and here's the reality of it if a man was doing it without some type of context As to what's happening. I would think it was just this wrong on the surface So like let's just start there lady.
Let's just start with the fact that alright We don't see something wrong and then do it. This is what's crazy to me It's like alright, so you're saying like you legitimately saying that It's wrong for men to fly business or first class without their families So my immediate response is to go and do the thing that I see is wrong y'all look That's part of what is challenging and wrong with this world today and how we're living We're just going seeing something wrong and doing the opposite of it. It's like That doesn't make any sense and it actually doesn't solve the problem So that's my very first problem with this article that we look at um, you know Let's let's keep it going. Alright, so she wanted to show her sons that women belong everywhere.
I don't understand how Sinning pops to the back to be with the kids and you being away from them in business class It's showing them that women belong everywhere and I think this is just really like let's just see what else she says The setup was unconventional, but there was a map method to the perceived madness It wasn't about embracing luxury for the sake of it instead It was about my boys witnessing their mom confidently relishing a different space on the plane thereby understanding that Traditional norms and expectations should not confine a woman's place All right people So I really think the real problem that this woman has and again You got to go back and read the full article yourself But the real problem seems to be that she just has a problem with tradition and so She's pointing to me and flying on flights like I don't even I never seen that before so I don't know where she got that from You know, I'll have to be educated on that But it seems like she's pointing at something in order to give an excuse to go to an extreme And I guess as believers the reason that I'm bringing this up is that the world has a lot of movements Right now and there's a lot of extreme movements and what people are doing is they're pointing at something like hey My knee hurts so I'm gonna go and hurt your elbow It's like bro like that's not how we solve anything and as believers I think we got to be super careful as christians and taking on this This kind of weird Doing yourself salvation Self-righteous mentality that seems to be floating around the world of like hey, you know I'm gonna be God the other thing if we be honest, this is a woman that has sons and And we don't get to the father in a second This is a woman that has sons and wants to show her sons that women can belong anywhere and Can't be confined by space or whatever all right cool. That's the lesson you want to teach them I just think there's a better way to do it than you separating yourselves from them on the plane because it seems like what you're showing Them is that women are above just the same way that a dude could potentially be showing if he just want to fly first class Why his family is in coach like he's showing the wrong message too So I just think in the most simplistic way of like when we were kids two wrongs don't make a right You know and if you just jumping on we are I'm referring to this article in in the What is this? The in business insider this article about this mom who flies business class while her family stayed in economy And she saw it as a lesson in feminism And so I just think man like we got to be careful as believers like just adopting everything because number one good intentions aren't good enough You know I'm saying and so like I think we live in a world where people think well if my intentions are good I just want to show my boys that that women shouldn't be confined or mistreated. It's like that's cool But just because your intentions good doesn't mean that your methods are good And so at the end of the day That's not the way that I think is going to be impactful in showing a boy or your son's boys that because number one Which you're showing them is an opposite extreme of like oh it used to be that daddy used to be on a different flight than us or in different seats Then us now mommy has become that new role missing the balance of it of like why isn't the solution that we all sit together?
That's my biggest question is in a situation like this. Why isn't the rational? Like logical solution to the problem be that no daddy you shouldn't be sitting away from your family Right, maybe possibly given the wrong message to your sons about the way that a man is supposed to cover and support and provide for his family And be with his family. No, we don't promote Separatelyness as a family we want to bring togetherness as a family But I'm calling this out for y'all to understand that the goal of the enemy to go of a lot of agendas that I'm learning Isn't actually to solve anything.
All right, you don't believe me like we don't go back to the story Like let's let's actually go back to the story. What is the actual goal? This intentional departure from traditional family dynamics served as a dual purpose She's telling you it was a lesson from my sons and challenging societal norms and a testament to my deafness and navigating the intricate world of travel Awards a steal I home through my business ex-bat points appoints and miles website so Uh, she wanted to show she was taking advantage of business number one But then she was trying to show her son or something by tearing down what I was in this the last thing I say about this story in particular But I want you to understand is that you don't have to tear things down to build things up And until we get to a point in society where our entire goal isn't to just tear other things down because we become destructive when we do that So we can't build anything if our only purpose is to tear down and then what has happened is simultaneously as we tear down the quote unquote traditional things Treating all traditional things as wrong, right? That was also a very tough and challenging thing to do is to treat all tradition as negativity just because something was is A older methodology or mindset meaning that it is now wrong So as believers, I'm just throwing it out there as christians a lot of these movements that's coming around We're pulling them in the church and that's why the reason I'm talking about this right We're talking about faith and business it's important as believers to understand how do we need to navigate this stuff and the first thing is that We don't need to just blindly bring in every concept that the world is throwing out there and I get it women listen Listen, I get it like it's it's a lot of like you you enjoy in a feminine energy is girls rock all this stuff cool I want you to succeed and do well But I just believe that we need to be careful in doing it our own way versus God's way Because I think God like the Bible does not Promote The negative I guess of when you think about being submissive That's me and then women the Bible actually tells me to be submissive We talk about it as if only the woman is supposed to be submissive But really men are submissive too like men are supposed to be submissive.
Maybe maybe we need to go to that in a word Um, I ain't gonna do it now. I'm gonna get through these stories But like we might have to do that before the end of the show and talk about and read the actual bible with it says about submission Alright, cool. Let's let's jump to the next story. Alright, so let's get to the next story what we want to do next Alright, let's do the lulu limit story.
This this is super wild to me I'm gonna be real with you this story is super wild, but it's also kind of showing just what's happening in the world today Alright, so let's go to this where we got lulu limit. This the headline up here lulu limit stands by decision to fire employees who intervene in robbery. Alright, so This is written by a parisia cavellic man cavolans on this is on c&a business. So Um lulu limit if you haven't uncheck out this article they fired some employees who intervene in a robbery And they did it because it goes against their Um employee like handbook or whatever it goes against a rule.
So let's check out a little bit of what happened Lulu limit ceo kelvin mcdonald said the retailer stands by his decision to fire two employees who tried to intervene Intervening doing a theft at one of its stores the incident took place in late april at its stores and peach tree corners, georgia Cell phone footage from the store shows to me and wearing hoodies and face masks rushing to the store and grab arm loads are merchandise Areas closest to the interest of the store in the in rush out one female employee is senior the interest of the store close to where the man Are yelling get out repeatedly it is unclear if the footage was taken by a customer or the employee Alright, so let's let's let's talk about this. Let's let's really uh, let's kick it about this. So Lulu limit right they these two they have a um, you know employee rules or guidelines or whatever That says like you shouldn't be intervening in a robbery, but they had these two girls It was two dudes you could look up the video on youtube two dudes running the store and they grabbed and said oh girl just like no No, get out like no, I'm not I'm not letting you rock with this matter. Fact.
Let's let's see if we can um Is it on here? Let's see if we can find it. I want to show y'all the video. That's what I want to do Let's look for the video.
Um, all right. Let's go to youtube real quick. I'm gonna share my screen on one second people Let me just get to the video. No, I don't want to sign in I don't really want to sign in though.
I just want to hold on I don't really want to sign in my account fam. I just want to go to a youtube video Uh, lulu in there Let's see robbery Atlanta. Let's let's check it out. Let's see what I can find All right, all right Hold on fam All right, so let's share screen Uh, wait, why does someone I don't want this to be Hold on.
Let me sign out family. I'm sorry. I don't want this to be on my joint Just wanted to uh Lulu lemon robbery, Georgia Yeah, I want this on my page. I just want to show y'all to um Do what's the name?
All right, so let me go to share and then let's let's check this out. This stuff be so wild man All right, let's peek. So lulu lemon. Let's check this.
Let's see Uh, I don't stop sharing Let's check this out. If you listen to no apple podcast, I'm sharing the screen So we're gonna check out this video real quick. Let's see what we got Is it gonna play or not? All right, forget it.
We're not doing it. It's like I'm getting technical difficulties You got to look at up on your own. Um, it's basically the dudes running a lulu lemon store They still and stuff and the girls are saying no, no get out whatever it is So my question to you is should they have been fired and the fact that the store Stood on it like the CEO is like no, we firing them So I got a couple of things to say about this First of all, I'm a little speechless if you want me to be real Like the whole idea that if I'm at this store and somebody just walking in and stealing clothes That I can't speak up and simply say to them. No Like all right.
I get it the store's position is they want to protect the safety of the employees At least according to the article and I don't know if it's anything more to it But according to the article they just wanted to um, you know, like they're they're worried about your safety Like yo, we want you safe We want we don't want you to get hurt or anything like that And I'm like man like but still at the same time I'm like if I didn't get hurt And I at least tried to protect your merchandise I just kind of feel like lulu lemon is is potentially wild You know, if if you want me to be real I feel like they potentially wilder just simply off the fact that it seems like There's a different way that you can make this point because I didn't see where the girls did anything wrong You feel me like they were trying to intervene for robbery now me I can see how you would get fired if it's like you were the one doing the robin or you like, you know Set up something but to fire to me seems a little harsh to make the point mostly because I think it's a different way You can make that point like you could have rolled us up, you know You could have suspended me for a week or whatever and I think everybody would understand or you could have gained your promotion I'm gonna just I'm gonna keep it all the way 100 with y'all like I feel like If I would have did that I need I need a good promotion fam because I'm showing you I'm trustworthy I'm showing you that I put the brand above my own, you know, safety and well-being I mean, that's not the right thing to do you shouldn't do that But you know, you show us some courage some bravery some initiative some leadership If you ask me what I want to hire someone that I could trust not only that they wouldn't be taking my merchandise or my goods But they will also be protecting them and would stand up for them I think that is a person I need to go from being a regular team member to management If you want me to be honest, but I'm gonna be real with y'all If you just like google lululemon robberies and some of the way people are walking in these stores They're just stealing stuff I watched the story where two dudes think it was two dudes They walked in the store and the security guard is standing right there Right there fam They take $28,000 worth of merchandise Now, you know, I lululemon that might be three three pair of fans on the shark because lululemon is super expensive I'm a fan of lululemon. I own some lululemon clothing. So I rock which all love but y'all know y'all expensive So they might show so four four things out of there But it was $28,000 worth of merchandise that they stole out of lululemon in front of the security guard In front of them fam. So I'm like and I don't know if it didn't look like I security guard care at all like homie didn't I gotta find that bro.
I gotta find it. I'm sorry. I gotta do it I gotta show y'all because it's the only way It's not going You're not really going to rock with it. You're not really going to rock with it until you really see it Let's see Make sure All right.
No, no, let's can we go back though videos go so quick. All right, let's try to share my screen again and check this out All right Man Man So as you see if you watch the video or even hear the audio Like these women were fired fam Like like that like she just saying no And and and she was they was fired like I would be sick if that was me. I'm not gonna lie. I would be so sick I want to show y'all this other one.
Some of these videos get wild. Oh people might be cussing and stuff y'all know this a family show so You know if they slip up and cuss it's not it's not we don't we don't support it, but it just kind of happened Let me see. All right. Let me find this Okay, peep this here's the other one.
Let me share my screen Man this stuff is so wild Let me share my screen fam Okay All right, let's see At a lulu lemon store is caught on camera. I watched here as a suspect stroll out of the store right past a security guard with sex full of merchandise Happened Tuesday afternoon at lulu lemon's meatpacking district store on west 14th street Investigators say the bold thieves walked out with more than 28 000 worth of clothing No one was hurt though anyone with information is being asked to call a police my man Hey, this stuff is so wild to me. My man is like if you watch the video My man is like He's like Taking his time Like he wasn't even rushing the steel to steal the stuff and the security guard got on he got on his tie his shirt He got his hands behind his back. So This is the world we were living in y'all and I got a couple things to say about this number one on surreal stuff like I just can I just talk to the people real quick This this idea This mentality to take take take to get over on people to steal things to scam Auto things y'all they sound good When it's happening.
So I'm sure I'm sure these people that went in lulu lemon and they stole $28,000 worth of clothing Merchandise and maybe resell it and all this stuff. I'm sure when they got their little $28,000 They were so happy or whatever they cut was from all of that But you know what I'm just here to believe especially as christians God is watching you So even if even if you get away from the security guard and nobody's sending you to jail Jail, isn't the actual judgment You give what I'm saying like the real judgment that we should be fearing is from God seeing that and Knowing your character and who you are and like think of how many blessings in your life that you block in because you want to get $28,000 like look look It doesn't make sense to me But I'm gonna tell you what I'm seeing out here of this victim mentality It produces these type of individuals the source of this type of thinking is A person that believes they deserve things that they haven't worked for So they see people Businesses that have worked for things that have earned the things that they have and they're telling themselves because I don't have I deserve that Like I deserve to scam you out of your money Think about scammers who steal people's credit card information and stuff They're still in it with no emotion or no soul not realizing it's a person on the other end of who you're still in front That worked for something right they worked for something they earned something and you're taking it and you haven't earned it And I'm just telling you as believers especially you could go and walk down that path if you want to Even if you don't go to jail, even if they lessen up the laws and allow you to be out here while and out Your character and your integrity ain't gonna take you far from that I promise you like those type of people they're not gonna be successful for real So hit your lid get your couple thousand dollars, but you never gonna see nothing more than that It's gonna burn in your hands It's like You have to be careful when you're planting seeds that your planting seeds in good ground Because whatever seeds you plant is the tree you're gonna grow So you go ahead and plant seeds of scamming and stealing and all that and you're gonna produce that type of tree That's my belief on it And I think we would do ourselves much better to work hard for something and earn something Then to try to get over on other people who have worked for something You don't know who the limit manager of that particular story is that maybe trying to maybe they was in second place trying to get the first place for the month Maybe it's a single mother single father or whatever a college student somebody saving money for their car And if they if their store hits number one then they are gonna get a bonus that's gonna allow them to do something This person with the work they work hours And you just walk in the store why probably because they're lessening the laws Um on on death And so what do you see you see an increase in theft? And i'm telling you all as you're voting and getting into politics and things make sure you're looking at the entire picture A lot of the things that we want to do to lessen the load and make it easier for people to commit crimes and not be hard on them and stuff We just put ourselves in danger you make it harder for yourself because what if you open a business What if you um get a become a franchisee of a larger organization, you know Some of these fast food restaurants and things like that like a lot of stores a lot of change stores have franchisees So you're you thinking you're stealing from the name on the the logo on the door you really stealing from a person There's a person on the other side of that and i just think That we need to think about that more as we go through life And this whole scamming thing is just to me. I just don't respect it.
I don't respect Um, you know, that's that's a level of money. So I don't respect it. You know, I want to make money the right way I want to make strategic business deals. I want to invest and you know have ideas And if I fail, I fail, you know what i'm saying?
And if I fail that I take accountability responsibility for that I get up I dust myself off I try again But this idea that I should take advantage of other people in order to get ahead I believe is a mentality and a lifestyle that serves to really be a cancer later in your career your life Whatever it is if you try to do wrong to get ahead All that's gonna happen is the wrong is gonna catch you and pull you back So you never actually got ahead maybe temporarily you think you're killing it or you're doing something But i'm telling you if you out here and you scamming and you take it from other people God sees you God sees that so you might get away the security guard ain't gonna take you to jail make like but you're not really getting away And that's what we got to understand is believers like it ain't about just getting away to people It's about God looking at your heart and your character and your integrity and God might be like, you know, um, Let's look at it from the biblical biblical lens. I can talk people. I promise I can talk If we look at it from the biblical lens, um, the bible said you've been faithful over a few things I'll make you ruler over many and some of us can't be faithful over the few Because we're allowing the world to turn us into victim mindset entitled people who think we deserve something that other people have worked for And I don't rock with it Why because guy gave you a gift he gave you something that you can work your own gift and move ahead in your own gift So you don't have to take advantage of what someone else has going on in their life because he gave them a gift It might be more than you it might be less than you it might be the same but it doesn't actually matter What actually matters is that you actually operate and walk in your gift and when God sees you He says you've been faithful over a few I will make you ruler over a mini and so many people today Will never be the ruler over the mini because they're not faithful over the few What we doing is like so in the same way God is looking at you when you're going to steal somebody else's and he looking like What do you think he's saying? Let me just ask that question What do you think God is saying when you try to take advantage of things when you try to Get things that you haven't worked for and you haven't earned and you take from somebody else as a christian as a believer Do you actually think God is going to bless that?
Like we got to get out of this mindset of hitting a lick or a hustle or like just it's this temporary Success that people get caught up in because they love money and they want to stunt for a minute or you know You want to make a post on instagram or act like you got money that you don't have So many people out here fronting like they have success that they don't have they literally don't have it And what i'm learning is the less successful that you actually are the more people try to show And and kind of that insecurity is that look at me look at what i got and a lot of times it ain't even a lot Like okay, you stole some clothes from lulu lemon bro Like You don't even you don't even exercise like so okay now you got to go sell these clothes you selling them hot So maybe let's say you come up you 10 g's up you went in there you stole some stuff and less than five minutes you work less than five minutes And you 10 g's up That's $10,000 ain't worth it bro Somebody ain't even worth it like like some come ups ain't even worth it And that's what i think we don't realize like when you do the wrong thing to come up like god ain't gonna bless it It's a dirty seed. I should have named this episode dirty seeds because that's what some of us are playing I'm not judging you. I ain't judging you if you've been on hard times I'm not judging you if you found yourself in a tough place and you did it before but I am urging you to change it now I am saying like bro You can't live like this forever since you can't live like this forever Like you don't want to live that life of just constantly doing wrong and expecting right to happen to you guys sees that We got to grow up. We got to change.
We got to look at x god What did you give me god? Because here's my biggest problem is that When you go and steal something you ain't even using your gift Like some of us guy gave us a gift and we won't use it. We won't cultivate it We won't we won't work on it. We we want um, you know, uh, Nurtured we won't like live with it live with your live with your gift and really try to work through the ups and the downs A lot of us won't do that any of it But we are going perverted and going and going steal something and god looking like bro I gave you a gift and make a hundred thousand and you went and stole 28 Give me my hundred All right now now now I would plan to do this but now we got to go to the bible That's what we do here now.
I got to go to the bible. Let me let me pull up this scripture Oh y'all didn't got me started. Oh, they didn't got me started What i'm looking for Matthew. Yep, let's do it Matthew.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Uh, Matthew we gonna go 25 I mean, no, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There we go.
Um, let's do it We about to go to the word now y'all got you man started. Why y'all do this y'all just triggered me y'all I think we do not just got triggered off of that story. Yeah, that's still in man Because that stuff is listen that stuff is just super wild at the end of the day. It's just wild It's a wild way to live.
All right. Let's look at it. We looking at Matthew um chapter 25 This is in the nlt versus 14. This this is 14 through 30.
I believe parable of the talents the way it's written here parable of the three servants in the nlt Let's read And I love this because this is jesus talking all right jesus talking Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. Let's pause right there People want to know why I talk about money. Why do you talk about money? I am a christian.
I don't want to talk about money I'm a christian I didn't want to talk about but listen I talk about money because the bible talked about money Money in and of itself isn't evil the fact that we shy away from talking about money allows the people who are Manipulative and bring up money to continue to take advantage of you and to continue to either take your money or put you in positions Where you're constantly depending upon them and you never actually get to make money and be you know become free and self-sufficient So there's this cycle of poverty that a lot of us live in I understand it I come from you know inner city to trade like and like there are issues and deep rooted in poverty in some of our communities Maybe not everybody you might be from somewhere different But I'm passionate about learning the right way to think about money because I think so much of my life I saw just in behaviors the wrong way to think about money and so I could never grow and then I get to the bible and um Then you have jesus all right talking about money so he called together His servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone 15 he gave five bags of silver to one All right, so one person got five cool two bags of silver to another. Okay, somebody got two bags And one bag to the last dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip All right, I got to speak to this y'all. I got to speak to this family like so that we got two things happening now jesus is telling this parable of um This master that leaves then entrust um people with his money Don't be so thrown off with the terms master and servant some of us here those type of terms and then just take it somewhere else Like just your boss whatever it is.
Okay, somebody's entrusting you with money. Let's focus on that So one person gets five another one gets two another one get one. So what's the first thing we want to say? The person with one let's focus on them They're probably feeling upset because the master only left them one And they're too busy looking at the five and the two that he left the others And then you find yourself in a cycle of now you're living a life of comparison You live in a life where you can't actually be happy for the things that god bless you with Because you are way too focused on what he's doing in other people's lives And so the first thing i'm going to tell you is In our lives we have to learn y'all like we have to actually learn how to be okay What will god gave us because right here in the scripture it says literally he gave it to them based on their abilities Can i be honest with you?
Our abilities ain't all the same we are created equal, but we are not the same We have different levels of gifts different levels of capabilities some people can you know they're intellectually You know, wise or smart or whatever maybe some people are physically stronger whatever it is Like at the end of the day like I can be mad about it, but I can't beat Mike Tyson in a fight Like I can't put harder than Mike Tyson. So that's not what god left me with that That is not my ability like I don't need to be in a heavyweight fight Like it's not gonna happen i'm gonna get knocked out you feel what i'm saying And so I can either sit here and go through my life upset that god didn't give me the physical strength that he gave Mike Tyson Or I can figure out what what did he give me So the first question you should be asking yourself is what did god give me so what I love about this show people is we talk about a Lot of things, but we start pulling out practical things This is the practical part right here where you can ask yourself this question right now What did god give me right not not in a selfish way? I'm not telling you to be selfish, but you do need to focus on yourself in this instance to understand what god gave you Then it isn't understanding what god gave you that a you can be content and say okay, he gave me one So I got one bad so then you can move to the next step which is what should I do with what he gave me The problem with some of us people is this some of us are not asking what did god give give me because we're too busy looking at what he gave everyone else And because we're not asking the first question of what did god give me We can't get to the second part of what should I do with what he gave me Are you feeling me? I got to look at my gifts.
I can't look to the left can't look to the right a lot of people are good at a lot of things Here's something that I became very comfortable with in life You are not going to be the only great thing great person in the world come on man You got to live with the fact that god when he was creating people god was creating some great people He was creating some dope people that are gifted that are talented and you have to be comfortable and content with the fact that there are other good people out here There is somebody cuter than you fan and if you don't become comfortable and be able to live with that You're just going to live a life of discomfort and a life of trying to prove things to people This one of the things that's interesting to me in the world is I see people like People who view themselves simply through their looks a lot of times is so obvious and I don't know that they know or realize it The problem with that I'm like wow she's playing or he's playing a very interesting game You're playing this game where you're going out into the world And even if you are drop-dead gorgeous if you're beautiful if you got a crazy body whatever it is Like whatever you excited about yourself. You'll hear you in shape your physique whatever it is But there are billions of people in the world So if you walk around and have a nasty attitude towards everyone that you view as not as cute as you Right because that's what some people do if you're not at my level I treat you like dirt But then what happens is out of these billions of people in the world you are then going to get to someone else Who's better than you and how do you think you're going to treat yourself as not better than them? Not as good as them you are going to look down on yourself because you have put into motion A mindset and ideology of I view life through the lens of who looks good and whoever is the best looking person is the best person And whoever looks doesn't look as good as them. They are lesser than so you constantly comparing yourself You can never find peace or comfort even though you're beautiful I've heard many beautiful people struggle and say that they're ugly or not feel attractive I have I know this war of fact that I've talked to people that are like this and the thing is you can be talking to them and thinking like wow This person is like they got all the gifts like they look great Like if I just look as good as them, but the thing is because because of that mindset of viewing life strictly through the lens of looks There's always going to be um Something that's a little off you feel me?
So all right you got to get to a point where recap you asked god What did you give me? What am I gives god? What am I supposed to be doing in this world? And then like what do I do with it?
How do I do it right? So it's like what do I have what did you leave me? Oh you you bless me with the gift to To write okay, then it's like well, how do I use this gift? What should I do with this gift?
Okay gave you the gift to write so you write you start off and you write poems Maybe you started off writing journals then you you go to poems and then all of a sudden you be able to hope Portfolio somebody actually hey you want to do spoken word and now you're doing spoken word and maybe you write for someone else's album or think like God has given you gifts to unlock the things you need to do in your life But you have to be comfortable with the fact that your gifts are your gifts They may be more or less than others, but they are going to be more and less than others If that makes sense like they will be more than someone less than someone So you have to learn how to live in the contentment of being okay with what God gave you and maximize the gift That's how you can be content, but still go after the maximum value and find out exactly who the God creates you to be Who am I God? Who do you want me to be? I don't need to be better. I'm not I'm not trying to be better than them at what they do I'm not trying to be better than them at what they do I am trying to become the best version of me And then if I become exactly who God created me to be and then I exercise those gifts to their full potential Yeah, I'm comfortable where where we went where we land I could talk Let me take a sip of my water fam.
I need some water water All right, let's jump back into work. Why y'all give me your track though. Like I don't even I don't even understand how y'all got me like way off track. All right, so Pete So now if we go back to the word, all right, let's get through this verse 16 The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more in this The money in this the money in this good money Why do you invest your man?
Why do you why did you just come up with a Well, why don't you come up with an entire episode about investing Why are you talking about investing buddy? The Bible talks about it. I just listen. I don't even come up with this up I just be reading the word and the stuff be there like it's there It's like this is Jesus talking giving an example about investing.
I can't make it up I can't I can't make this up people. All right, y'all don't rock with me Let's go back to it The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money earned five more The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more Wow, so so the servants that were left with the most amounts Went and actually invested those amounts and doubled what they were given They used their gift to increase and bring value That's amazing Excuse me Verse 18, but the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money That is very interesting to me The servants that had the most did the most And the servant that had the least said, you know what? I'm just going to dig a hole and hide the little money I have in the ground Now maybe logically or emotionally to you that makes sense because what you're thinking is what we do is this Oh, they already got money. So you point to people who are successful You point to people that have obtained something you say well, they already got money You take money to make money and I don't got no money.
So I can't do that. Well, you know, you make enough money So that's why you're doing that or you got this. That's why you're doing that. No, you're lying to yourself This is a lesson in character my people Character you are who you are See, this is what we don't understand like you are you so at the end of the day You can blame someone someone else's action on their circumstance or their situation But it is not until you look in the mirror and realize I'm making these decisions because I'm me I have a flaw in my thinking I have tricked myself or allowed people to trick me by making me a victim The person with the one bag of silver allowed themselves to become a victim and say since I don't have that much I'ma just bury what I have not understanding that it is the ideology in the mindset in the thinking that is the cancer or the sickness In this scenario it has actually nothing to do with how much you have if that was the case the person with two bags of silver Wouldn't have done anything because they would have looked at the person as five and says he has over 50 percent more than what I have Over double.
I only have two and you got five. Why did God only give me these couple of gifts I ain't doing nothing with them. Why did God make me grow up in the hood? This ain't fair Why did God give me this like oh, I don't have this and we create all these excuses that seem legitimate on the surface because on the surface One is less than two, isn't it?
One is less than five isn't it? So you would think that this mindset of hey, you didn't give me that much. So I ain't doing nothing with it God you you look I grew up in on seven mile in Detroit. All right, that's where you want to put me I didn't grow up on Wall Street and I ain't grow up in Santa Monica or whatever in the half-ins and like oh Parents here.
It's easy for her because her daddy are doing there. Maybe so I don't know you know I'm saying But at the end of the day what I do that's probably not the best example So, you know anyway, it's just I just said all right Don't judge my point at the end of the day is we can always look at other people and make excuses for why they are successful While they're flurching in their gift or while they're moving or doing anything in life And I am not saying that simply having money makes you successful That is not the point where the purpose contextually of what I'm talking about here So please don't take it to me now. Let's get back to the word of quote Verse 19 After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account for how they had used his money Whoo, man Remember when I said that you shouldn't be out here scamming you shouldn't be out here stealing or scheming because God is watching He will hold you accountable. He's going to have you to give an account for all right I left you with these gives what you do Oh, you went scheming like I gave you to give the creativity and you creatively came up with away The steal people credit card information and oh, yeah, okay Well, well, I got I got a reward for you.
I got you. Let's read Verse 20 the servants of whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more Excuse me and said Master you gave me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more The master was full of praise well done my good and faithful servant You have been faithful and handling this small amount So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. All right, let's pause real quick people We got a pause right there fam So many of us we can sing a song.
I want to hear the Lord say well done my good and faithful servant We can preach a sermon. We like this is my question of sometimes as Christians Why do we take one line out of the bible? Never preach the rest of it Never try to think through or understand the rest of it and just take this well done my good and faithful servant And now we line the people like we got people thinking I just want to hear God say well done my good and faithful servant without ever understanding Why did Jesus use that line in a bible in the first place? He used that line In conjunction to a parable about someone who had taken money that they were left and invested it and doubled their investment And then Jesus said well done.
I good and faithful servant You've been faithful over a few so I gave you something and God considers faithfulness Increasing it isn't that amazing? So you're telling me that if God blesses me with 20 000 right now And the only thing I do is go out to the stores and buy everything that costs You know thousands of dollars up to the 20 000 I want to oh, I always wanted a Gucci scarf Uh, I I deserve, you know, some yeezys And I go and spend 20 000 on things that are just things that I love or I'm addicted to or I worship the things I want I worship my wants so I go out and spend my 20 000 and buy everything I ever thought of and get my kids everything We spend all the money on Christmas. We don't have nothing saved up. Nothing invested You mean to tell me That wasn't well done No It wasn't well done according to the bible people Because Jesus Christ himself considered well done to be if I leave you with an amount And I love that this parable specifically relates to money because it causes you to think about money differently than you have before No, we're not talking about loving money We're talking about properly understanding money and applying the principles that are biblical to money as well Although this is a parable there is a deeper message that is hidden in here that we're going to pull out in just a second But Jesus used the example of money he used money for the parable like you cannot deny that So there must be some things that I need to understand about money Faithfulness in regards to money is the ability to take what God blesses you with and increase it Specifically in this example by way of investing now.
I know some people are thinking like well, why that doesn't make sense Well, to me business and investment, that's why this is a faith and business show business and investing is very much aligned with biblical principles and faith Because at the end of the day in order to take, you know, five silver five bags of silver or $20 000 let's just talk in terms of usd what we understand at least understand to take 20 000 And then go and turn it into 40 000 means a that I exercise discipline with the $20 000 That means that I was able to deny myself the Bible says to pick up your cross daily deny yourself and follow Christ So this christian walk must require me to be able to deny the things that I want at times in life And by exercising this in money is just one example There'll be deeper things that God will want me and need me to be able to exercise this level of discipline with So now you're just using your money and your finances as a way to really grow in various areas of your life because your character is being built Through now disability to want something we all want something, you know, I want things But to be able to not have to have it right now or at all depending on what it is or the situation That is exercising a level of discipline that God is pleased with because God said that this servant who took five and may 10 Was good and faithful. All right In order to be faithful, I'm going to need to be able to deny, right? It is good to double and to increase so God saw this that way. Jesus saw this as good and faithful and the other thing is Delay gratification.
There's a lot of examples in the bible of the value of delaying gratification Because when you delay gratification the thing that's crazy about it is if I take $20,000 today and below it all That's me taking advantage of instant gratification I need to be I need to be pleased right now So give me the Gucci bag give me the Louis Vuitton and give me whatever right now because what I'm saying when I take that little bit of money And spend it on today. I'm saying that right now is more important than forever Right now is more important than sustainability most of us focus on obtaining when it comes to money We want to obtain money. I give me this bless me with this like I want to obtain $20,000 But no one ever teaches us how to sustain Sustained $20,000 to grow it to make it last longer than right now to delay your back gratification So do you ever say you know what I do want a Gucci bag cool But I'm going to delay that one In first I'm going to be good and faithful and let me go and do this thing that God wants me to do that may take some time Right because it says the master went away for a long time and then came back and and wanted to hold them accountable Giving account for what you did while I was gone. So we need to take advantage of the time we have like in the meantime All right, so let's let's go back.
Let's go back to the body end like if you believe me, let's rock with it So 21 the master was full of praise well done. My good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amounts And I will give you many more responsibilities Some of us want more but we haven't done anything with what God has given us already How can I be asking God for more? Give me a bigger podcast.
Give me more God bless me with a bigger studio. What like bro You haven't even consistently recorded videos or continue to grow or what like you got to maximize this verse Come on people some of us are just asking for more and more and more and we haven't shown improving ourselves to be good and faithful Come on, bro verse 22 though The servant who I received the two bags of silver came forward and said master you gave me two bags of silver to invest and I've earned two more Master said well done. My good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling that small amount So now I will give you many more responsibilities.
Let's celebrate together. I want to say something people Notice how in this example of the good and faithful servant It didn't matter that God gave one of them five or one of them two This should be great news to you because what this says to me is even if God gave me less gifts I can please him Just the same amount as someone he left more gifts to so my actions can please God I can live up to what God called me to be even if he only gave me one bag of silver Even if he only gave me two bags of silver and a person next to me is killing me and they got five bags And they look better than me they talk better than me They got more money to me all these things don't matter because the ultimate reward is to hear good Well done my good and faithful servant and what you've been you've been faithful over these small amount of things So now I will bless you with many more so at the end of the day I am not in competition with a person who has more of me more than me So I shouldn't be living my life looking around and making excuses because somebody has more This is why I love the Bible. This is why the Bible guys how I think through the world in the lens of like how I Read new stories or look at like things that are happening in the social world And like all the world is cramming all these things and throwing them at us and confusing us in some areas We need to just step back and say what does the Bible say about how we should think this is a way of thinking This is a doctrine at the end of the day the biblical doctrine seems to be less about who has more and who has less and more about who does What with it? Wow?
What if you give him you got and what should I do with it? That's what should be we should be asking God for it. What if you give me what is my gift and what do you want me to do with it? Instead of what we do is we just ask God for more Okay, God you bless me with this.
I want more now. Give me more and God is looking like but give me more God I want more. I want as much as they have. Yep.
I want as much as them. I should have more what that guy over there is worth a hundred million I want to be worth one-on-one. We're missing a whole principle. We're missing everything Oh, that girl looks like this.
Oh, her body's like this. I want to go and get my body like that. Oh, this guy body like this I want to go and get mine like that. We're so caught up in the wrong thing the superficial thing that we're missing What God actually want us to get y'all like and it's actually kind of scary.
So let's get back to it verse 24 In the servant with the one bag of silver came forth that came and said master I knew you were a harsh man harvesting cramp crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate I was afraid I would lose your money. So I hid it in the earth. Look. Here's your money back I gotta take a break.
I gotta say this. I'm sorry So many of us live our life like that We live our life and we say all right look God I gave you back exactly what you left me You ain't leave me that much. So bump it like you ain't make me a millionaire You didn't bring me up in a certain family. So I ain't working that hard for you either Whoo, that's a dangerous place to be y'all That's a dangerous place to be and what ends up happening verse 26 But the master said Do wicked and lazy servant if you knew our harvesting crops I didn't plant gather crops I didn't cultivate why didn't you deposit my money in the bank?
At least I could have gotten some interest on it Then he ordered take the money from his from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver To those who use well what they are given even more will be given and they will have an abundance But from those who do nothing even what little they have will be taken away Now throw this useless servant in outer darkness where they will be there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wow All right, let's talk about it. So You mean to tell me I'm wicked and lazy and useless If I don't use the gifts that guy gave me So you mean I shouldn't just simply go around and complain to the world and want people to feel sorry for me And when everybody else to work harder than I'm working or walking to lulu lemon Steel clothes that I didn't work for I didn't earn like you mean to tell me that God is going to call me wicked and lazy simply because I don't use the gifts He gave me That's why this show is about guiding you to your purpose And why I spend a lot of time trying to figure out all right What are the things that God is calling to what are the things that God have called you to and how do we live out that purpose? And it's a lot less about having more than other people and it's more about being a good steward So if God bless you with a job and you make 30,000 a year great We're talking about money so that you can manage the 30 so that you can invest and grow and please God If God bless you with the ability to speak You don't have to be the greatest speaker in the world or have the church with 50,000 people But if you only have 25 members what God is looking for is how do you cultivate the 25?
How committed how dedicated are you to the thing that I gave you in growing that thing? You don't have to worry about trying to have a thousand member church because the person across the way has a thousand member church So we've been focusing on the wrong thing the pastors have been focused on the wrong thing Everybody's focused on having the most growth. Hey, I want to that guy got 5000 members He the man this guy doing this he the man like no If you only have a hundred members but you started off with team and God saw you cultivate those members Do the right thing by people not manipulate people and take their money Maybe even teach them how to make their own money and be self-sufficient and y'all become the strongest most cohesive 100 people in the world You know how much damage you could do with a hundred people and I mean that in a good way Like do you know how much impact you can have in a community on a state on a city with a hundred people going in the same exact direction With with on one accord Not like we could we could accomplish so much If we connected and were committed to growing the thing that God gave us instead of being so Just drunken with all of how much the next person has Man when I tell you like these type of people dream and and I just got to be real it exists a lot in church Like it exists a lot in church a lot of churches are competitive a lot of pastors are competitive and everybody's trying to have a most Everybody's trying to have a best building the best this and it's like what what about like yo If you gave me 10, I'm just being real with y'all like I don't want to be no pastor I like that seemed like a hard job. I'm good on it, but I'm just telling you like for me It's more about a cohesive unit and if it's five of us like and we really on the same page I'm good and we gonna like us five people we gonna like we can build something big But this idea that because the next person has 20 I gotta have 20 no I'm good on that And that's that's simply because of the bible now There's another hidden hidden aspect of this scripture in Matthew 25 that I want you to understand When you look at the fact that you know the master because remember this is a parable so there's a deeper spiritual meaning I look at it like this.
This is this is how I applied this to my life God gave me some gifts And his expectation is that I'm going to use my gifts while he's gone To grow his kingdom because his kingdom Is is what he's trying to grow to grow his people right? So what God is saying is like all right I bless you with some gifts I bless you with a gift to speak. Let's say that was hypothetically one of my gifts is that I can talk. Let's just say that was it.
All right Let's just like hypothetically if God bless me would have give to speak And then I said okay, God. I know what you gave me Now, how do you want me to use it? And if God said all right do a podcast and I want you to call it inspire God's people And I want the podcast to be about faith and business and all right, you may hear understand this your purpose is literally to inspire God's people That's what I gave you Purpose doesn't matter what the next person's person is purpose is I can talk It doesn't matter if their purpose is to to grow a podcast with 10 million followers It doesn't matter if the next person's purpose is to have a church and be a pastor with 500 members like I gave you something Now you're going to take this podcast you're going to focus on faith and business topics You are going to grow this and focus on the process over time of honing and sharpening this to be a resource to the body of Christ To christian influencers christian creatives christian business professionals This is going to be a resource to people in the faith Entrepreneurs whatever it is who are looking for ways biblically sound ways to operate in the world of faith and business They want to understand money or investing or career growth right or understanding like how do I think about certain aspects of business? Should I be an entrepreneur should I go to corporate route like that's what you're going to do with this podcast and then when I return When I return because you use this gift, there's going to be people out there who heard Your usage of the gift they're going to hear the messages.
They're going to hear the podcast Iron sharp and iron you are going to speak to somebody and awaken a dormant gift in them And when you awaken that person and you awaken the dormant gift in them Or when you guide them to your purpose through inspiring them and to speak in life in them and encouraging them and not manipulating them And not worried about money like I've let you with your own ways to make money So you don't have to like try to manipulate people for money cool So all right cool like you got your own thing going over here. You're in business Like I gave you these other things to be self-sustaining So you don't have to use your gift your gift ain't always about giving me more money or getting people tricking them out of money No, you're going to do something different. You're going to actually speak to people and you're going to awaken dormant gifts in them You're going to teach them how to operate a money Then those people that you use your gift to speak to are then going to go and use their gift and speak to other people and bring people in them When I come back there will be interest on the gift that I gave you because you will have used the gift that I gave you spoken to someone else awaken the dormant gift in them Encouraged and inspired them when their journey to use their gift They will have gone out use their gift to encourage and inspire someone else and in though they will draw people to the body of Christ People will literally come back to Christ people will bring their gifts to Christ people will bring their businesses to Christ They will think like christmas they will act like christmasmas We will no longer just be trying to be motivational or inspirational for the sake of our own game We will be givers people will leave better tips like people will go places and start looking to bless other people And we will build a culture in a mentality that we are not victims But we are victors in Christ and this what this process because you use your gift It will start to compound interest and when I come back it won't just be used in there But when I come back and see you There'll be all these people that you use your gift to bless and they use their gift to bless And then I will then have made interest on my investment in you and that is the underlying Really in-depth part of this scripture that is way deeper than money and this is why I love investing Because it teaches you yo use your gift. You're not going to have instant gratification There's going to be risk you don't always know that you're going to be successful overnight You're going to put out a podcast some videos are going to get 20 views Some are going to get a thousand views some are going to get 200 views Some I get six views But you are not worried about having the most than the next person We need to be worried about using our gift sharpening our gift becoming better growing learning Having character respect honor integrity growing in these things if you fall get back up again If I will talk about that, I'm not perfect Don't don't think that I'm just this perfect being I've been perfect my whole life I haven't I've had to learn these same lessons, but I want to learn I want to get better when you do that what happens is we continue to grow together We cultivate one another as believers and look lo and behold who knows then maybe I'll give you an example I'm gonna give you a real example Um, tanisha johnson She's been a guest on this show.
Maybe 20 episodes ago. She was a guest on this show I met tanisha 10 years ago We were both speaking at an event or whatever I remember and this is just an example off the top of my head because this happened today Or it comes recent as of today When I met tanisha, I was um, I had built with a fashion the clothing company I remember I was selling shirts million her mindset. Um quick plug I'm working on the million her mindset series that's gonna bring all these things about finances together I'm this is a labor of love that I believe is going to literally change lives That's gonna be a multiple part series that i'm working on But tanisha was buying she loved the million her mindset shirt She bought one for her son. I believe it was a great one with black letters million her mindset tanisha bought that that day so on that day she invested in me cool.
I had just met her Fast work. I had her on my podcast recently cool that all right bet then guess what happened Um, some other I had I had two situations recently where some people were um booking me for Some things and I realized like my bio is just outdated like and that's just ridiculous I can't operate at the level i'm operating now and I haven't updated a better bio and it can't just be some I threw together so what did I think about first thing I thought about is like oh the person Oh, yeah tanisha. Oh, yeah tanisha writes bios cool. I hit up tanisha tanisha.
Can you do this bio? She had a bio. I hit her up friday the bio is today. I got the I got the whole thing It's like 99.9 perfect like we talking a little bitty at this one two little words or something But like she killed it.
I paid her for the bio her regular price. I didn't ask for a discount anything What am I saying? When you use your gift when you put the right thing in motion is compounding We all get blessed then you want to bless other people and then you start referring people like oh you need your bio written Cartanisha and it like there's this cycle that happens when you get your mind So much off of the amount or so much trying to take advantage of people the bible says it is more blessed to give than receive More blessed So for me inspiring guys people is even more blessed than receiving something from guys people But so many times we have the mentality of take take take I'm gonna go and lulu lemon and steal clothes I want to steal from people I'm gonna take from people and when you have that mentality you are not the most blessed If you want it to be the most blessed then you will be going to buy lulu lemon and give it away to people You would find someone to bless if you want to be the most blessed You have to give something and the problem with so many of us is we live our entire lives Only from the perspective of taking and this is why I always talk about the value of being a contributor versus a consumer A consumer can't invest they just don't invest a consumer's mindset is not to invest because a consumer needs to consume things A consumer sees a thousand dollars and says I need to go buy three pair of two hundred dollar shoes All right, that's 600 and in you know watching the bill I need to go and consume something with this thousand a contributor is a grower a contributor as someone that says I want to contribute to society I want to bring value to people so I need to go and grow and cultivate the thing that I have and grow it and double it and create more of it Then I have more to distribute then I actually also have some to say for myself Some to say from my future my legacy but for emergencies whatever it is like But when you are a consumer you want to go and take take take all you think of consume you just think of what you can consume But contributors a contributor mindset you contribute to the people around you You contribute to your church you contribute to your community you contribute everywhere you go You're a contributor it is a mindset and in that inspires and it rubs off is flammable on other people it catches them And then they go and contribute but when you are a consumer everyone you come in contact with you are taking taking taking taking It's the people that only call you when they want something it's cool to want something sometimes But there are certain people that literally only call you when they want something they only call to consume they never call to contribute They never call to see how you're doing and so bless you or to you know to invest or whatever it is I'm gonna tell you this like shout out to my sister Michael man Michael and I got other brothers and sisters that call me You always you know it's always dangerous when you start naming names This is a shout out to Michael and but not a shot at anyone else Michael and is one of my siblings that if nobody else don't call me for no reason I'm talking she don't want nothing at all like we said on the phone yesterday for 40 minutes And I can't tell you if it was anything meaningful anything this girl said we laugh we joke we talk junk Like she calls me all the time and don't want anything it ain't gonna get nothing anyway But you know what I'm saying? I'm joking.
I've given a lot to that little girl You're like but my point is people like that are a blessing Like you don't realize that that bless me because it's like yo when I see her name pop up and she calling like I know that she not calling to consume She's contributing. She's shaking on me. What up. How you doing?
She don't want nothing. She ain't rushing I'm like what are you she ain't never in a rush when she talking to me? And she like face time. I don't do it face stop face time Man, my point is you need people in your life who are contributors.
All right, cool. So let's I got this a couple more stories. I actually want to look at so let's let's look at these other two stories real quick What's this one about? Oh, let's go here to rich young americans.
Let's let's talk about this since we talking about money Since we talking about money All right, so this is one money wise Um, and this is gonna be a quick one But I just want to touch on this rich young americans have lost confidence in the stock market and are betting on these assets instead Of what are the young people now investing in? So let's see what this article says the stock the stock market has been a long Those two choice for people looking to invest their money But that could be about to change as a younger generation with the preference for alternative investments outside the shaky stock market enters the scene According to a recent survey from bank of american individuals age 2142 with at least 3 million assets Only have 25 percent of their portfolio invested in stocks compared to 55 for wealthy investors over the age of 43 So what assets do rich millennials favor? All right, what this is saying so far is just simply that the younger millennials age 2142 I'm in that age group with at least 3 million dollars and assets have only 25 percent of their portfolio invested in stocks Whereas the people who are over 43 have 55 percent of their investments in stocks. So just really quick Um, you got real estate with those fine art their investment in fine art masterworks is a very popular thing i've been hearing about And cryptocurrency so real estate fine art cryptocurrency.
I'm not gonna go deep into Um, this particular article But what I wanted to show you I want to say a couple things about this Um, and a it is just the fact of what I find really interesting about wealthy people Is wealthy people view their financial, uh, pie and slices So they have portfolio allocations notice the the people with 3 million dollars of assets in the age group of 21 to 42 have 25 percent of their Um, portfolio their their assets invested in surreal estate So the very first thing like we just finished looking at the scripture and it's parable where um, Jesus is Um, encouraging you to be and have an investor's mindset And so we need to learn how to think like an investor and how do we do that? What is one of the aspects of an investor's mindset? That's why I want to look at this article one of the um, attributes of an investor's mindset or characteristics, whatever is the correct word I don't know but I can't talk It is to not to slice up your pie. So what am I saying?
A lot of times broke people or people with poverty mindset They get a lump sum of money A lump sum of money is one of the best ways to Um, judge your financial literacy your discipline with as it relates to money to me When you get a lump sum of money what happens is this is an emotional situation Because most people get a lump sum of money and think about everything they wanted that cost that amount or less But wealthy people with an investor's mentality, they view their portfolio in slices So here's how you can start if you have a thousand dollars in a bank Stop looking at that thousand dollars as just one whole pie. That's where I believe we go wrong We just have one whole pie. It's not sliced. It's not allocated in different ways And so we find ourselves in a position where this there's this all or nothing We have no hedging right?
No using something else, um, to offset the risk of another thing So this is an investor's mindset. So if you want to have an investor's mindset, the first thing you're going to have to learn how to do is slice the pie All right, I have a thousand dollars Okay, just this is not financial advice. I'm not telling you to do this This is an example you should seek a financial advisor a professional before you make decisions And you should also understand the risk involved I'm just talking about the mindset of an investor and using examples But if you give me a thousand dollars and then I take 250 dollars 25 and then say I'm gonna go invest in stocks All right, cool. Well, here's the first thing I've exercised I've exercised now that I have other money working behind the scenes I took that slice out of the pie instantly and now I'm working with my 750 And maybe I'll take another 25% of that and say I'm gonna invest in cryptocurrency Understand and a volatility understanding the risk involved and so on and so forth But I've done that let's say I take another 25% and put it in my savings account Um, maybe the savings nowadays you can get up to about 4% interest, you know, because uh, you know At the times when you end the banks are increasing some of that if you be like an online bank or something like that Just looking to that But my point is now you gain a 4% interest on 250 and you think oh, that's not a lot But look, we're starting with the mindset Remember the Bible says you don't have to think about the amount per se It is the principles behaviors and actions that you're taking which are money that speaks to your mindset And we were just worried about us.
We weren't about it the next person got 10 000 or 20 000 So now you have allocated you slice your pie and you've got 250 dollars to work with My point is you got 250 in the bank You have the other 500 slice between stocks and cryptocurrency that are working for you That are gonna go up and down up and down up and down But if you wait over time long term if you have researched and purchased the Processed and the proper um businesses and portfolios that is all up to you and there's risk involved and you can't blindly do it And it's not to get rich quick skin But my point is if you do all of those things now over time instead of instead of taking a thousand Dollars looking at it as one slice going about a PlayStation for 500 and spending the rest on birthday money and all that and having nothing Now you have properly sliced up your pie and you can see it in like yo these smaller increments Excuse me now you're working with 250 and you think of what can i do with that What the thing is if you have a little fun with the 250 or you Treat yourself to a nice dinner The best thing is knowing that for the first time This is like how it was for me for the first time in my life when i go and have that dinner or do that thing because i based a budget on a smaller Allocation of my money now it doesn't hurt me Now i can be broke without being broke So now if i take my 250 and let's say i treat my my wife we go to dinner and it was 75 Dollars and we left the 25 dollars 10 for something where whatever it is like all right i spent the hundred I got 150 left and maybe we just do everything we need to do Food you know pay a couple bills whatever not now You ain't paying a couple bills at 150 but you get the principal my point is now somebody hit me up the next day Let me borrow hundred dollars like i don't have a hundred dollars i'm broke i thought you just got a thousand dollars Oh, first of all don't count my money. What's that? Well, yeah, i do but we'll see that money is working for me So that when the master returns and wants to know what i did to grow my money I didn't just give it all out so that you can go abuse it I didn't just like so this is a mentality that it doesn't matter how much money you have you can start here It's the millionaire mindset that is the millionaire mindset it is stepping outside of the poverty and all of the um, the toxic behaviors around financial literacy that we have learned over time and it doesn't matter where you from y'all like i like i've had a 500 credit score i've like i've had no money i've like Over drafted accounts hundreds of dollars multiple times like i've had bad financial behavior in syndices but in 2012 i changed my mind And over time you continue to grow you continue to build make good decisions And you do it on and on again. There's a lot of people with more money than me a lot of people with more success than me I'm not worried about that.
I'm only worried about hearing will done. I good and faithful servant You've been faithful over a few things I can make you ruler over many That that should be our concern. All right. I got one last um, I got one last story to look at This is a deeper one.
This is a deeper one people Man, this right here. Um, let's see. This right here. Let's see this This is on uh christenpost.com from last monday jon 5th uh a new gracumar Bible removed from utah middle school elementary middle school bookshelves for six and violence So the bible is removed from elementary and middle school bookshelves in utah because of sex and violence Let's let's look at the article.
Let's see what the article is actually saying. Um, Utah Davis Utah's Davis school district has removed the bible from the libraries of his elementary and middle schools. Um Sorry, I was making sure I didn't have a text. Um, from his elementary middle school citing passages described in sex and violence as inappropriate for those age groups The decision has created a national star since his announcement The process began when a parent filed a challenge to the continued presence of the bible in school libraries the salt lake trivial reported The complaint argued that the bible has one of the most sex-ridden books around features multiple instances of content including incest, onanism, Visibility, prostitution, genital manipulation, rape and infesticide The complaint further asserted that such content clearly violates the Utah code Uh, okay passing 2022.
We don't skip over some of that which bans books with pornographic or indecent content from schools Man So after a detailed investigation the committee announced his decision The bible will remain on the shelves of high schools in the district what will be removed from the libraries of elementary and middle schools Christopher William spoke service for the Davis school district, uh was quoted as saying that the decision would take effect immediately It is believed that seven or eight uh elementary and middle schools within the district currently hold copies of the bible that will be removed As it stands, Davis school district libraries hold other religious texts such as the book of mornantora and coron Available for students to check out without age restrictions. These have yet to face challenges similar to the bible Following the removal of the bible from many Davis school district libraries a request was made to ban the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-saint's book of mornant due to his violent content This religious text named a volume of of holy scripture comparable to the bible by by the lds will now face a review to determine its suitability for a school libraries The bible challenge and subsequent review occurred amid a national a nationwide wave of book removal from school libraries Under the same Utah code books such as the bluest i-by-no-bell prize winning author Tony morrison and genderqueer a graphic moral novel Exploring authors journey of self-identity have also been removed from Utah schools Although the committee did not find a bible to contain sensitive material as defined by the Utah code the decision to limit the books availability was based on age appropriateness of his context The decision has faced backlash with one appealing one parent appealing to keep the bible accessible for students of all ages Whoo. All right. That is a deep one.
So I'd be curious to know what y'all think about that Um, I got a couple thoughts first things first, you know, you read through it and it's like, okay What I would be curious that's not covered in an article is I would be curious to know about the person who made the initial complaint And i'm gonna tell you why the quote of the bible is one of the most sex written books out there is ridiculous First of all, it's a very like vague. It's one of the most sex written books out there How is that possible when there are literally books novels that are literally all about sex? So I just think that is like extreme I don't have kids. I haven't been in the elementary or school middle school librarians since I was in elementary or middle school So I don't necessarily know the content or nature of all the other books there I would tell you that actually don't also know how many elementary or middle school students are actually reading a bible Which is actually the reason why I'm concerned about the person who made the initial complaint They don't seem to have integrity with the reason why they're giving the complaint to me This sounds like it is open the door for a precedent Um to go down a path similar to the first story with a lady who wants to go on the plane and you know Going this opposite direction and breakdown tradition and societal norms There seems just to be more of a desire to take anything that is normal and tear it down as if to say that Everything that we did to get to where we are as a free country today has been bad And that is just pouring a what is it the baby out with the bathwater to milk out with the cereal Um the juice out with ice.
I don't know. I'm just making up stuff now But my point is that's my concern is extremist mentality that we have in a society Um still in clothes and taking flights. Look, this has been episode two of four men Um, we need prayer in schools again. Um, I will say that i'm at least happy to hear that there have been some other books Um that are also taken off the shelves if we're going to take that approach of yo This isn't for kids.
There's a part of me that's like, okay cool I can understand that aspect of it, but can we have a kids or children's bible? Can we have a study bible? That would be my initial response Are you saying that there is no version of the bible that even if a bible is Handcrafted for kids that we can't have it cool. You want to take the you know, became James and normal Okay, all right.
Go. I got you these kids. I promise you, you know elementary school kid reading a song asylum in anyway At the end of the day I do think it's important to have the bible in school biblical principle in school So I would love to be able to say okay if we're going to try to guard children in that right The problem is we're going to go down the path where most of the things that you see happen in the world today That are really based around sex are inappropriate for children And there's no way you're going to tell me that the bible is so bad because it's about sex and violence in particular I mean I don't know does Harry Potter have violence? I've never seen it, but I'm just saying like these are very vague claims that seem almost impossible Today's society to actually live up to so that would be what I would push back on is like all right Let's put the bible aside If you're going to create these standards show me where we are being consistent with um this mentality of protecting kids from sex and violence and if that is truly the go all right fully on board there But do I trust that you have the proper intentions?
I would also check how many times have the bible been checked out Like I would take all the books in that library that have any reference to sex or violence and then say which ones have been checked out the most I'm just going out on a limb and say yo I don't know how y'all get down to Utah, but I was in elementary middle school and I never checked the bible at one time So my thing is like I bet if you just took books that cross sex and violence and said which ones are being checked out the most It's probably not the bible to start off with so it doesn't make it the most important books of ban for something like this again This is where I think people are just more concerned with deconstructing and tearing down So then I would say well What book is about sex and violence and have been checked out a hundred times in school year or a hundred days a school year Then I would start with those books that to me would be logically fair It would be inconsistent with the idea of protecting the children My problem definitely is not the idea that you want to protect children from sex and violence But it is the idea that you want to point to the bible and kind of use it as a scapegoat to simply say hey This is about sex and violence. Excuse me. Let's get it out of here But then you turn around and promote sex and violence to children That's where the inconsistencies of the world are today that are challenging to think through as a believer Right whether it be, you know, you got to go out here You're carrying yourself as a professional you're you own a business you work in a corporate world You want to be fair you want to love all people and all these things But these inconsistencies that are happening in the world Um are really starting to be more and more attacks on Christianity That's why I urge christians to you know, a deeper in our relationship with the lord with his word But also like let's be smart Let's be voices and leaders and properly thinking through these things so that we can properly think through them and not be extremists They go all the way left just because there is one problem Doesn't mean that the solution is the opposite of the problem the solution a lot of times isn't to do the polar opposite thing of the problem But it is something in between because if you do the polar opposite thing you're just creating a new problem So my entire point with today's episode Hopefully you've got something out of it. Please do like subscribe share all of those things But my entire point with it is to hopefully encourage you to think as a believer to push back respectfully intelligently to Know how to communicate with your children through these things with your family your friends because the world is becoming weirder and weirder And I think being silent about it is not saw that anything Um, so we have to properly think through and discuss these things with intelligence respect Um and with the goal and the agenda of truly like, you know, solving things and putting them in guys hands not to destroy things And you know the bible says that enemy comes to kill still and destroy so when I see people that constantly want to destroy destroy destroy destroyers Destruction all around them.
I can't help but to ask myself who's behind this like If we know who comes to steal killing destroyed like you still in out of lulu limit You you know destroying the biblical family destroying these concepts is like, well, you I don't know It's looking like a duck and it's cracking like a duck to me. That's what's up Looking like a duck like looking. I don't know why I do that. I don't know.
It's just not a good song It's not a good it was nothing good about what I just did listen Thank you so much for rocking with inspire guys people where we balance faith and business the guide you to your purpose Hopefully you enjoyed this discussion as we're thinking through Um, just how to be a believer in our everyday life with all these stories and things happening across the world I've enjoyed my time talking to you today. Um, hopefully you know I'm saying I could be a blessing to you You could be a blessing to someone else and we can keep this thing going and growing as believers in our walk Look none of us are perfect. I truly am not but it's about trying to grow and become better every day looking at me Or seeing where I could do better seeing how I could be better and then just genuinely genuinely trying to walk that out in our lives So look I hope you have an amazing amazing amazing day and amazing