[SPEAKER_00]: Greetings and welcome to the way community church podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Dr. Darrell Hall, and I want to thank you for joining us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we're going to continue our financial series called Trust Issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to talk about the importance of investing with wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to encourage you to grab your bibles.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can follow along the transcript in this podcast or you can join us on the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study God's word together.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be an ecclesiasties chapter 11, verse 1 through 6.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word of the Lord says,
[SPEAKER_00]: cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the clouds are full, they pour out rain on the earth and whether a tree falls to what the sound or toward the north, whatever the tree falls, very lies.
[SPEAKER_00]: One who watches the wind will not sow, and one who looks at the clouds will not harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: As issues you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch her sow your seed.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the morning, and do not be idle in the evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: For you do not know whether one or the other will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: First one says, cash a bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: First six says, so you're seed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk today about what the Bible did say about investing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the Bible did say about investing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to get in your mind, one thing that you are thankful for, what is one thing that you are thankful for.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be financial or not, one thing that you are thankful for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got one thing, but there are many things we could list.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am thankful to you for your grace to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your whole spirit that carries me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It helps me to show up as a better version of who I would be without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for letting me be the past of the way community church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help me to do a good job.
[SPEAKER_00]: May you be glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: May your people be identified.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as our gratitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: pours from our hearts to you, may it be like a sweet smelling aroma.
[SPEAKER_00]: In your nostrils, give us wisdom to thank, for our financial management and Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the Bible did say about investing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're the type of person who likes to ask the question, what's in it for me?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not only a selfish question,
[SPEAKER_00]: But the person who lives with a, what's in it for me, Marm said, is likely to be more transactional than relational.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're likely to take more than they give, and they are likely to choose short-term satisfaction over long-term significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be careful of being this kind of person because what you will demand to satisfy you will force other people to pacify you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, I think the better question is, what's in it for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say that together on the count of three, one, two, three, what's in it for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: See, this is a selfless question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the person who lives with this mindset is more likely to be relational than transactional, is more likely to give more than they take, and is likely to choose long term significance over short term satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these questions are important because when it comes to the conversation about investing,
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a what's in it for me mentality, you got the wrong motive for investing before you even start.
[SPEAKER_00]: A what's in it for us mentality helps me to appreciate how the seas I sow has a positive net ripple effect on the lives of the people around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when it comes to investing, the math is pretty simple, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And these people who are more qualified than me,
[SPEAKER_00]: to have a conversation with you about investing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the terms are pretty simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you learn them, you kind of get them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Terms like compound interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've never heard the term compound interest, that is simply the interest calculated on both the original principle amount and on the previously accumulated interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this interest you make off of interest,
[SPEAKER_00]: can affect exponential growth over time financially.
[SPEAKER_00]: And really, it's a powerful force to build well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also a powerful force to bury you in debt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we talk about compound interest, if we say 8%, if you put up $100, 8% of $100 is $8.
[SPEAKER_00]: After a year, that $100 is now $108, and you still get 8% on the original $100 and the additional 8%.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over years, it accumulates the same as true about dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: That if it's not being paid down, that interest makes the dead grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert Einstein is attributed with this statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: The person who understands it earns it, the person who doesn't pay it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when it comes to interest, everybody in this room for naturally is on one side or the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody in this room is either earning interest or paying interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, then there's a time rule of 72.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's simple when you understand it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know y'all ain't coming to church to do math and I get this eight o'clock in the morning, but here we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, compound interest is interest on interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rule of 72 is a simple math equation you can use to try to figure out how long it will take your money to double.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's say if you invest in money at 8%, you want to know how long, if I never touched that money, if it continues at 8%, how many years will it take for that investment to double?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you do 72 divided by 8% and you discover that is going to take nine years from my money to double.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I put $100 in an investment account and it's going to give me an average annual return of 8% and I don't touch it nine years later, then 100 is going to be 200.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all picking up what I'm putting down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you can also figure out what percentage you need to try to get in order to double your money in a time you pre-determine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say, if you say, OK, I got some money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I needed the double six years from now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool, you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you divide six into 72.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what you discover is, if you need your money to double in six years, you're going to have to invest it at 12%.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's simple when I should get it, even
[SPEAKER_00]: Stuff like compound interest rule of 72, we can talk about the math of investing, and we can even talk about the meaning of the words, and there are people more qualified than me to talk to you about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I didn't come to you today just to talk to you about the math and the meaning I came to talk to you about your motive, like the church say motive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because why I do something matters more than if I do it or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you have a great investment portfolio, a West Ending for me out of two will make you morally bankrupt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter six, verse 19 through the 2020, he says, don't store up for your sales.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm selfishly hoarding treasures on earth, where month and rest destroyed and where the thieves break in and steal.
[SPEAKER_00]: But store up for yourselves, that means I'm selflessly solving treasures in heaven where neither Martha nor Russ destroyers, where they use do not break in and steal.
[SPEAKER_00]: First 24.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said, you can't serve two masters.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to either hate one or love the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be devoted to one, despise the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve God and wealth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what's in it for me question?
[SPEAKER_00]: Has me to serve myself or money.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's in it for us is a more God-centered,
[SPEAKER_00]: This question of what's in it for us is a mode of that is moral, communal, generational, and spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you think about what I'm selling and the ripple effect of it, it makes you a more moral person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it makes you more communal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking about what's good for my potten at them.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means my partner and them.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, generational, whether you're a parent or not, until uncle or not, what you sold a day can impact someone who's yet to be born and spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I start to realize that what I sold is tied into what the Holy Spirit is doing in the earth, and that God could use it to advance God's purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So our goals over these lines two months have been to have this conversation about trust issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about money, but it's really about trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about what we do with money, but we're really trying to get to the heart of the issue and so doing to increase our trust in God and our sales and in our church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've discussed so many things about money like contentment and what the Bible didn't say and tithing and we looked at our church's finances.
[SPEAKER_00]: And last week, I give God praise for Kiyari Kendrick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we thank God for key Kendrick?
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, his sermon discipline over $1 was magnificent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew his personal testimony of being debt-free and also that God has gifted him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is a very gifted communicator.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, I'm just grateful that the Holy Spirit aligned things where he could be the one that teach that message.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was blessed when I went back to hear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we thank God for using him to help us have a conversation about how discipline is really key to becoming free
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad that this series has been blessed some people.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sent out the text on the other day and says, generosity, lives, and our hearts, not our wallets, was one way you can show generosity this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody said that they bought six tickets, additional for the movie Sarah's oil, and they invited friends and family to join.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because see now, the women came together for a fellowship, and if you buy six more tickets, you're thinking about six more women.
[SPEAKER_00]: and making it easy for them to come together and to save them by them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And somebody else said, I took a cancer patient, soup, and a hundred dollars, to help with gas, to go back and forth, to Athens for treatments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then last week, we sent this question, God honors discipline, not passiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to financial discipline, what role blind do you need to remove this week?
[SPEAKER_00]: in order to be more disciplined.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody, this person is prophetic.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said, I will delete not that one keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Black Friday starts now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you let them do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't even look at them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Black Friday starts now.
[SPEAKER_00]: How is Tuesday?
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all know this, I remember when Black Friday first became a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: People waking up in the morning, stepping over each other at Walmart, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Getting all these deals, now they keep creeping it up and up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can barely eat your dinner on Thursday before running out to catch some deals.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I ain't judging nobody, but somebody said they're gonna delete the Black Friday starts now emails, God bless you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody else said I've respond to grown children's financial hurdles.
[SPEAKER_00]: We, I've discussed budgets, et cetera, but have not held them accountable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looking forward to sharing financial resources found on our site, more importantly, having intentional honest conversations and making changes that will impact us all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my hope is that as we continue this conversation, and now we talk about what the Bible did say about investing, that that's more to resource you for the conversations that are necessary to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we are in a book of the Bible that is really peculiar.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've ever read the book of Ecclesiastes from beginning to end, you might almost be sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Debbie Downer of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the, if you read it and don't have somebody to die along with about it, it'll make you feel like what's the purpose of anything, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's written by a man who describes himself as the preacher, the son of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: People think it's Solomon because he is a wise man, but he never identifies himself by name, just as the preacher.
[SPEAKER_00]: And his point is, I've been paying attention to life, and I figured I might write down some of the things I learned, and he opens the book saying, vanity of all vanities.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of this is worth anything in a grand scheme.
[SPEAKER_00]: You like, well, why isn't this in the Bible?
[SPEAKER_00]: We can mistakenly think the Bible is making the pick us up.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can mistakenly think the Bible is making us a positive word, and on the Bible is making sure it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: and to help us situate ourselves in the truth, so that we can see divine interjection in reality just like people did in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Ecclesiastes is not a sad book.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a grounding book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ecclesiastes helps us to keep our feet on the ground to appreciate the realities of life, both doing and bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and discuss in many different things that he viewed and money and how he used it and misused it, he gets now almost to the end of the book and just gives practical advice on how to sew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is not the same advice that a certified financial professional would give, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm gonna give you all this disclaimer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna read this out loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a financial advice consultation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dot the hall is not a certified financial planner.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way community church is not a financial service company.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any application you make from this sermon should be done soberly with professional advice and of your own accord.
[SPEAKER_00]: T-W-C-C is neither liable,
[SPEAKER_00]: nor entitled to the outcome of your personal financial investments unless you tie up or make the church a beneficiary.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we got that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the first thing we'll know, number one, the Bible did say diversify your investments.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's just practical knowledge, diversifying your investments.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to invest, diversify them.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, I want to say it's cashier bread on the surface of the waters for you will find it after many days.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, two says the viral portion to what church said then, oh, wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you don't know what may happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That term cash, it means to send the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love the fact that the Bible said bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the Bible knew that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to let the bread go if you want the bread to grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to hold on to it, it's going to decrease in value as long as you keep it in your pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want it to grow, you got to let it go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the text says cast it, send it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you do, don't send it all in one place, send it seven or eight different ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this could give the idea of investing in international markets, but when we put it in the original context, many of the commerce that came in and out of spaces like this came in and out of ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, we live in a time where commerce travels on planes, trains, and trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't need to necessarily live near a port.
[SPEAKER_00]: But last Sunday, I was preaching that Savannah and Savannah has the largest ship ports on the eastern seaboard because all those ships that's coming from overseas with cargo on them go to Savannah, they take them off those ships put them on the back of trucks and when you see trucks moving, money is moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a truck driver tell me this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can always tell when the economy is about to go down because 18 wheelers stop moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they said you can always tell when the economy is about to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause you start seeing an 18 wheelers on the highway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those 18 wheelers aren't empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: They feel a cargo and that cargo is money for somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when it says cash or bread on the waters, if it was within in 2025, it would say
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cargo is moving to info ships are coming to info.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you invest, they go to a foreign soil and come back with a benefit for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why the Bible says of the woman, the wise woman in Proverbs 31, it says she is like merchant ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: She brings her food from afar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now notice the verse says, cash a bread and after many days, you will see it come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially what it's saying is, if you're gonna sow, you gotta be patient to let it grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: After many days, it's saying, you know, after awhile, how long is after awhile?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sooner or later?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what else you can't watch?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't watch a orange tree grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go so or orange seed in the soil, you can't stand there and say, okay, little seed, I gotta watch you grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: You saw that orange seed and go about your regular life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sooner or later, after a while, one day the seed you sowed is gonna turn into a tree
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, a major key is that debt is using tomorrow's money to buy today's stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But investments is using today's money to buy tomorrow's money.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you only ever think the way you can make money is to trade time for money, you're gonna be working forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you trade today's money, you can use today's money to buy tomorrow's money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad is using tomorrow's money to buy today's stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need you some today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have cash for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just take my money for the next 48 months.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you need, a TV.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I want us to be free of finance and TVs and Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I enjoy the number of my body.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those of us who are fortunate enough to be in the position to invest should apply this advice of diversify and our investments, which means we should sew our seed in different places and in different spaces.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Bible does say, if you're going to invest, make sure you diversify seven to eight portions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you all know what may happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may put your stuff on two ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those two ships may go out in the middle of the ocean and get shipwrecked, but you got five more ships with stuff on it that belong to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully of those five ships they'll come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know what may happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you divide the portion and cast it on the waters, you don't know what's going to happen on the waters because you're going there to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just going to wait at the dock for the ships to come back to let you know what your seed has now become harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then on the two, the Bible also did, say, embrace the limits of your control and understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we could talk about fear when it comes to money management, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: How many of us have ever felt fear when it comes to investing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or say, you know, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially if you hear horror stories like, people who work for a company like WorldCom or in-run.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they work their whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they pinching is tired of in this company they've been working for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And coming to find out, the people at the top, what the people who's supposed to be managing the phones,
[SPEAKER_00]: and robbing those people, blaring the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why in our culture, our people don't tend to be too trusting, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Black people don't go to the doctor because black people don't trust the doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I won't go to the doctor, but I'm just talking about historically.
[SPEAKER_00]: Historically, I get it, because you talk about the experiment on the Tuskegee, you know, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one that people don't trust the doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, this is why our grandma and grandma will keep their money in an old coffee camp in the back of an old TV.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we just didn't trust financial institutions because we can't control it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or we don't completely understand how everything works.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to keep the money safe, we'll just put it in an old Chrisco camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's still there, but it's a sea that wasn't saw on so it didn't grow, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And this text is clear that when it comes to life, there are some things which is what I understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even in investing, even in sewing, we gotta be willing to embrace our limits.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really an act of faith is what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse three, he starts to get philosophical.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, if the cows are full,
[SPEAKER_00]: They plow around on the earth and whether a tree falls toward the south or the north, wherever the tree falls, they realize.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that have to do with money?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like verse five.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, just as you wet church do not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: The path to the wind, or how bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you what church do not know the activity of God who makes everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not given philosophical what he's doing is he's given us examples of stuff you can't figure out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's bringing us to the limit of our understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we may say because of technology and sonograms, we can see a baby being formed, but
[SPEAKER_00]: baby and bones are formed in a baby in a womb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even now without a technology we have it's still a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he's saying is it's some things about this worry you will never understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if something's about this world, you can't control.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't control when you're in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can't control if a tree fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: If a tree fall, that's where it's going fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it reigns, it's because the clouds is full.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the babies, bones are formed in a mother's womb.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the way we do not know, we just appreciate the miracle of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he saying is, don't allow what you can't control and what you don't understand to make you not do what you can't control.
[SPEAKER_00]: what you do understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when it comes to financial management, sometimes we let what we don't understand and what we do not know stop us from doing what we can do with what we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all picking up what I'm putting down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's also very honest about the fact that calamity will strike, and you don't know if it's gonna strike.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why you should divide your portion into smaller parts, because that's how you hedge against calamity.
[SPEAKER_00]: That term hedge means put a hedge in protection, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can hedge your resources by getting an insurance policy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a hedge.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also hedge by diversifying, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I spread out what I'm putting a little here and a little there, I'm putting up a protection.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the one thing fails, the other one succeeds only lose everything at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the truth, y'all, calamity will happen in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not me, as your pastor, speaking to a curse over God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not cursing you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't curse who already blessed number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, I gotta tell you the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times when we get to the subject of money in church, it get real, real prosperity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the preacher gave a real, who I declare wells and I declare, man, you got to prepare people for calamity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just giving people pardon the sky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh God said, if you so, God is gonna bless you, protect you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if that only means sewing in church, you've already robbed that word of his true intent.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, what it clearly says is, yeah, so in church, but also so in the market, so into the future, so into this, so in the net, diversify where you so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause you don't know if calamity gonna happen, but you do know if you can, so to try to hedge against it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not fear, this is a real grounded faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let the church safe faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because faith can say, hey, I can't control what's going to happen, but I can control how I prepare myself for what may happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why James said it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, someone may say, you have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without works.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll show you my faith by my works.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I believe God gonna bless me financially and I ain't gonna never have a need in this earth, he don't supply, then I'm going to work with my money in a way that agrees with that faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to have my actions with money be opposite of my belief.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if I say the law going to provide for me, but I squander everything he put in my hand, then my actions prove I don't really trust God, the motive lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me say it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: A hurricane does not care if Christians live in the neighborhood is going to destroy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you see one coming, board up your house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me say it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: AAC unit will go out in the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I promise you, y'all, we got two right here on the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those AAC units don't know that they are at a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those AC units will go out and y'all are coming in this church one day and it will be hot as fish grease in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'll be up here trying to make some cute connection like, well if it's hot in here, you don't want to go to hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And y'all ain't not around, did you pay the bill?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've given you these times.
[SPEAKER_00]: A AC unit don't care that it's at the pastor's house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me and Emily's AC unit went out last September.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think that A.C. unit knew I was the man of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: The AC unit do not care.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maintain it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: A nail will find this way into the tire of a believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: a nail do not know that this car was driving to the way community church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: The nail don't care if you was driving to the way community church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So have a row side of systems.
[SPEAKER_00]: See what we do sometimes is we like use faith as an excuse to miss manage when really if we have faith it would make us manage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so instead of waiting for perfect conditions or being distracted by what I can't control, let me sew what I can to try to make good on what I got.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, being distracted by elements that aren't and always will be out of our control will keep us from sewing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you watch, if you don't know if the win is gonna do this, you don't know if it's gonna rain, you don't know if a tree gonna fall, but don't worry about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: have faith in what you do know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the Lord is going to provide.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to use wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to seek some professional help because Pastor Hall is not professional help.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the way community church is indemnified from anything I do with this sermon today.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, a pair of other talents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus talked about money more than any of the subject.
[SPEAKER_00]: In his parables, he used money more than any of the subject.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he knew what we know now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Money is something we can easily relate to and he emotions a text to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus gave out, he told the story of a man who gave out these talents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talent's means is money and a mountain money.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said somebody got five, somebody got two, somebody got one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 24.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, now the one who received one talent came up and said, master, I knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: You to be a hard man, Replanweight you did not so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gathering where you did not scatter sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see that?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's using fear to make a money decision.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went away and I hid your money in the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, you still have what he's yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as Masa answered and said to him, you worked with this lazeless, lazy slave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you what church?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: For real?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did I read why I didn't know so?
[SPEAKER_00]: And gather what I did not scatter see?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you didn't know, you should have at least put my money in the bank.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on my arrival, I would have received my money back with what y'all interests.
[SPEAKER_00]: This Jesus telling the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, therefore, take from him what he has and give it to the one who has ten.
[SPEAKER_00]: for to everyone who has more shall be given and to the one who has and abundance.
[SPEAKER_00]: But from everyone who does not have even what they do not have shall be taken away.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like a savage, don't you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't talking about politics.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about stewardship.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we were talking about politics as a whole in the conversation, this is not about politics, this is about stewardship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, good story is gonna get more because they can never have too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And bad stewards are gonna get less because one is one too many.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you come to me, Tom out, oh I knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, did you for real?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause if you really knew what you said, you knew the least you would have did, is brought me back some interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord don't expect us to figure out what we don't know, the Lord expects us to be faithful over what we do know.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, if you didn't know, you would have invested.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you would have, you would have least gained me back in my initial investment with interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a money parable, but a deposit every area in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: What has God given you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he came back today to take account, would you give it back to him better than he gave it to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you mean, Ralph?
[SPEAKER_00]: My body as a vessel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would I give it back to him better than he gave it to me?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you married your spouse.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you got a business, you got a church, the Lord gave me this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If the Lord going to give me this church, if the Lord come back and check, I don't want him to find the way community church is better three years after he gave me to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, if you give it the least I can do is, grow in, so it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, number be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, diversify your investments number two, embrace the limits of your controlling, understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let the fear of what you can't control and don't understand, make you not do what you can do with what you have.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a competition.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got compete against other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: This ain't get rich quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is stewardship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to be faithful over what I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, I'm going to let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible did say so diligently without perfect conditions.
[SPEAKER_00]: So diligently without perfect conditions, verse number four.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, one who watches the win will not sow and one who looks at the clouds will not harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're seated in the morning, verse six, and don't be idle in the evening for what church you do not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether one or the other will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, you so seed in the morning, you so seed in the evening, you don't know, the morning seed may work and the evening seed may not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you may get blessed and both seed work and you end up getting a double harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's his point, be consistent in your sewing, even when it's an inopportune time.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, that's real faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real faith is, I'm gonna do what I can, even though this don't feel like the perfect time to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you always waiting for the perfect time to do something, you'll never do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: When is the perfect time to start a business?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna start a cafe, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: When is the perfect time to go back to school?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but if I need to go back, I'm gonna go back.
[SPEAKER_00]: When is the perfect time to go to the gym?
[SPEAKER_00]: anywhere if I was when they got a deal after the holiday soon right they come get on money every day we're because we looking for the perfect time when is the perfect time starting in vests in real yesterday but since yesterday is gone today first force is if you watch the win you also
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're looking at the crowns and you won't harvest, you know what they're saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's saying you got seed in your hand, but you're trying to predict the wind.
[SPEAKER_00]: When is the best time in the wind going blow this way for me to sow this seed?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're trying to look at the clouds.
[SPEAKER_00]: When is the best time it's going to rain?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to make sure to put my seed in right before it rains.
[SPEAKER_00]: While you're trying to predict weather patterns, you should have been sawing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should have been sawing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let it rain when it rain.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't control and understand what you can't control and understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't predict seasons, all you can do is be sewing consistently.
[SPEAKER_00]: That term, so many is to scatter your seed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means to put it in the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you've ever heard the word, so in church, and it only meant offering and ties out
[SPEAKER_00]: and it applies to every area of life of a generous person.
[SPEAKER_00]: A generous person always doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one way or another, true.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just the money I saw, it's the words of encouragement.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the warmth that light I bring into a room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the trust and confidence I give to people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's support, it's love, it's encouragement.
[SPEAKER_00]: A generous person is doing this,
[SPEAKER_00]: So I see, not, I'm gonna put one seed at church and not so none else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the prophet told me that the Lord said, in 30 days, I'm gonna get 30 bless us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm so in church, but I'm so in everywhere I go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because generosity is who I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a religious duty on Sunday mornings at 7th or 30 or 9th or 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: A generous person is always looking to sow something of value in every areas of their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's why we do it, because we don't know what may work, and what may not.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
[SPEAKER_00]: But you sow today, you may reap a harvest of moral that you forgot you sow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, man, it was packing because if the Lord says the same, we don't be at the game that day in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Lord says the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I'm gonna be in there and ran him black.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actin' real unpassed door on tell me right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're seeing young TV or social media, already know I'm ATA-lean the day, all right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Once they've been to Dixie, I almost passed the hallstand, right here, Darrell going to New Orleans.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we packing and she found $20 in some clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know as better than finding $20, you forgot within the pocket of some pants, and you forgot, you had to show up 10 years into the future and get a harvest from seed, you forgot your soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody gonna come to you one day and say, one day, I was discouraged.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you said some of me didn't encourage me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you didn't know that it changed my heart and changed my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't know that it kept me from putting the bullet in my brain.
[SPEAKER_00]: somebody gonna come to you one day and say, tell me, you thought you was just serving me coffee, but that too was the worst thing in my life because I just found out Monday night that my mom was sick, but when I came to get your coffee, you encouraged me, I prayed for my mom and she got healed and she lived long enough to see me have a grand baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you always saw him, you go out so your ability to remember, that's why blessings go over, take you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the Lord gonna ask a prayer to you for God to pray it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord gonna give you a fruit you forgot to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's generational too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, I can't take credit for the stuff happening in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how the good just found me.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I do know he is somebody, some generation ago sold, and I just walked into a harvest of grace and mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't wait for perfect conditions because they're gonna never come.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you wait in, you ain't gonna never sell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us are saying real, but it's hard for me to sell because I'm sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible said in Psalm 1286, five to six and I'm gonna let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who sow in tears,
[SPEAKER_00]: share what church harvests with joy for childing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's hard to solve.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it's easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard emotionally, the leg go of, what's valuable to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is money, support, time, energy, but when you so interiors, what does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: That means I'm supporting you when ain't nobody supporting me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave somebody $10 for lunch and I had the fast because that was the only $10 I had.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave somebody an encouragement when I was discouraged myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so an interiors.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not giving to you because I got too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm giving to you because what I got is precious and I need this to grow to secure my future.
[SPEAKER_00]: Generosity is not for the rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: Generosity is for the generous.
[SPEAKER_00]: I chose to be generous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not cause I had too much, but because what I had was precious.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I sold it with tears, I gave away time, I ain't half with tears, I gave away years, I didn't have with tears, I gave away money, I ain't half with tears, why did I do it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because one day I'm a harvest enjoyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: One who goes here and there with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: carrying their bag of sea, shell in deep, come again with a shout of joy, bringing sheaves with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: See being a Christian is all about being a part of the divodan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus sold his life so that he could bring a return on investment back to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus sold his life so he could get a divodan of souls.
[SPEAKER_00]: To come back to God and say, I brought you back more than you lost when they failed and sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here is your ROI.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my last investment term.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a financial metric that used to evaluate the profitability or efficiency of an investment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus then dialed on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus invested on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we put our faith in him, we agreed to become the dividends that paid God back for soaring his son.
[SPEAKER_00]: God says, I sold one son, but I reap the harvest of sons and daughters from every generation from every corner of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good return on investment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave the one to bring him, many ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was a seed.
[SPEAKER_00]: John 12 says with Jesus answered them by saying the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Truly, I say to you, unless a seed falls into the earth and what church dies, it remains alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if it dies, it does what church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time you so see, it dies and every time it brings your harvest, that's a resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time you release something of value,
[SPEAKER_00]: It dies and every time it brings you value back it's a resurrection, that was a transaction in the heavens.
[SPEAKER_00]: With Jesus and I'm a soul my life, but when I get up, I'm gonna bring them back with me, and I'm gonna bring you back in more and more than you gave.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's my question, before I get to my question, am I talking about spirituality or am I talking about finances, the answer is yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: to both, because what I do with my money really proves was going on in my spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not investing your money, why not?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to get to the bottom of that, is it fear, is it doubt, is it ignorance?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have enough, wow, think I have enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the action I don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: The financial action item is to talk to a person you think
[SPEAKER_00]: and ask them how they got started.
[SPEAKER_00]: Start or continue your own investment strategy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the financial action item.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you apply today's message, the way community church is completely indemnified from the results of your sewing, but you got people in your life, whether you know it or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't look just for the flashy, because it could be the millionaire next door saying, right on a pubeside you, driving a paid off toe Yoda.
[SPEAKER_00]: who you'll look right over because you don't think they shine in flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the one you need to say, can't you give me something, fine?
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, my best friend is my barber.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm his spiritual mentor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's my financial mentor.
[SPEAKER_00]: We the same age born in the same year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm past him spiritually.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's past me financially.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do we do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I read the Bible to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Line by line.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went through the book of Genesis on the phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a member of the Wake Community Church now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going through the way he found us for a gram.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got married.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he's pattering his spiritual life after my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is my portfolio look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I go get my haircut, I show him my portfolio.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey man, Remy, you told me this would look appreciated.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what else you got?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me see your portfolio.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know the check, check, check.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't got the numbers you got.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can mirror the actions you've taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he following me spiritually, and if I follow him financially, we both help we need to other the girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you saying, Remy, don't have pride because of what you don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not investing, because you don't understand investments, go ask somebody, don't wanna have a pride.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't look at it like I should have this by now.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you should have.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should have what you have, based on how you manage it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can always start today to do better tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the spiritual action item.
[SPEAKER_00]: Invest your faith in Jesus alone to reap the dividends of salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you sow your soul and faith to Christ, the return you get in this life and the next is something, nothing else in this world can give.
[SPEAKER_00]: For what would it profit a man, a woman?
[SPEAKER_00]: To gain the whole world and lose their souls, that's a bad ROI.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I give my soul that I gained in the world, I lost what was really valuable.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I give my soul to the lower, regardless of what it cost me, he said in this life, and in next, if you lose family, I give you back family, if you lose houses, I give you back in my preacher, I give you back houses, and this life, and in next.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 30, Psalm 60, Psalm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 100, Lord, we receive your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray for your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe you want them to be whale in every area of the life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The finances are a key part of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for the person who's a free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for the fart person who feels convicted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for the person who feels challenged.
[SPEAKER_00]: That by your spirit you will connect them with somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: who can help them start to be the right things financially.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray for the person who's already applying everything I talked about today, make compound interest the rule of 72.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our OI may have worked in their favor from now until eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made a cease-save song I have a ripple effect that will far outlive them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless us a day, and Jesus let me print.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, give them a little hand cup of praise if you would church.