The Challenge || The Family Business Pt.1 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the ALSC podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the lass,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. I'm excited to jump into this new series that we're going

to launch this month, and we're titling it the Family Business. What happens

when our finances align with God's business and God's kingdom, Because the Kingdom of

God is a business. It's not a financial business. It's a business where

God cares about people deeply, and we as people are called into His kingdom

to be responsible over our finances. And what a lot of us don't know

is the Bible talks about finances over two thousand times. Additionally, if you

were in theology school or anything like that, you'd learn that fifty fifteen percent

of all of Jesus's teachings have something to do with finances. Because finances do

show and challenge where our heart is and what we find to be important.

We're going to talk about that over the next four weeks, and each week

we'll build upon each other. But here's what I don't want you to do.

I want to highly encourage you. Don't squeeze your wallet or purse right

now and make a mental note and say, hey, I don't think we'll

be coming to church till December when this whole series is over. Because the

idea is not for the church to necessarily raise money, but it's in a

sense for us to unlock our potential as believers in Christ to understand finances according

to the Bible, to see your finances grow in your personal life. And

that is the goal of this conversation. And so we won't be talking about

how to make you a millionaire in thirty days. I know there are a

lot of great YouTube videos about that stuff and everything like that. We won't

be trying to compete with that. What we will be doing is talking about

what does the Word of God say about our resources and how do we honor

God with our resources, and if it's anything like first service, I had

a line of people with a testimony after testimony of God's goodness, but also

where the Lord was challenging people in their finances, and so I pray that

happens this service as well. If you have your Bible, would you turn

to Matthew chapter nineteen. That's where we're gonna read out of today. If

you have a physical Bible, you could turn there. We'll also have it

up on the screen for you if you'd like to follow along. And when

you're ready, this year we've been standing for the honor of reading God's words.

So as you're ready, would you stand on your feet with me as

we honor God's word with our attention today. This statement is from Jesus,

and it's a story about Jesus. It says in Matthew nineteen sixteen to twenty

six and behold, a man came up to him, saying, teacher,

what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Jesus, how do

I get into heaven? What's the one good thing I gotta do? And

Jesus said to him, why do you ask me what is good? There's

only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

Many of us know the ten Commandments. We learned this in little Bible

school, little Sunday school, when we are children. He said to him

which ones? And Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not

commit adultree, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness,

Honor your mother and father, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The young man said to him, all these I have kept, what do

I still lack? Jesus, I'm perfect. I got these things on lock.

Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go and sell

what you possess and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure

in heaven, and come follow me. When the young man heard this,

he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to

his disciples, truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a

rich person enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, I tell you it is

easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a

rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this,

they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? If a

rich guy who lives perfectly can't go to heaven, then who can. But

Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but

with God, all things are possible. Let's pray this morning. Lord,

We thank you for your word today, Father God, as we open up

your word, I pray that your spirit breathed truth and life into us today,

Lord, as none of us came here today to hear the opinions of

man, or the lectures or philosophies of man. But we truly came to

hear a word from you, Lord, from heaven. So speak to us

today in Jesus' name, a man you may be seated. Thank you so

much. What did we just read right now? Well, we read a

passage about a man who seems to be very good with resources. He has

much wealth, he has many possessions, but he has a concern. His

concern is maybe like many of us, where we think to ourselves, what

happens when I die one day? What happens when I stand before God?

Is there an offering of life after this life? Because for all intents and

purposes, this rich young ruler has had life figured out. He has wealth,

he has possessions, he has status, he has privilege. Everything's on

the up and up. But he recognizes and realizes, but I don't think

I have eternal life. So he approaches Jesus and he says, what good

thing or what action do I have to do to inherit eternal life? Now

here's the thing. At the end of the day, If that man did

go and sell everything that is not what would guarantee him eternal life. What

Jesus was trying to point to him was that his motives were wrong and his

reasons were wrong in his question, because the man was asking what thing do

I need to do to get heaven instead of who is it that I need

to receive to have heaven, which is Jesus. So he's asking the wrong

question. But Jesus, being the great Rabbi teacher and being the son of

God, knew the right answer to give. And he said, well,

surely you know according to the Jewish laws that if you want to get to

heaven and be perfect, then you have to keep the laws. Man said,

well, what are the laws? And Jesus names them for him,

which we famously know as the Ten Commandments, and that man responds and says,

I've done all that. I'm perfect. Imagine that. Imagine you're standing

before Jesus, and as an individual, you tell the son of Man,

the son of God, all of those little rules you got in the Old

Testament. I keep those every single day. I've never lied, I'm never

cheated, I've never stolen, I've never confessed anything. I've never coveted anything.

Man, I've been generous to my neighbor everything I've lived at all.

So Jesus goes, okay, okay, great, great, If you've done

all that, how about we do this. How about you sell everything that's

in your possession and you could come follow me? Now, mind you,

let me remind you how good of a gig that is? All right,

It may not be a naturally good gig, but just think about it.

Jesus only has twelve real disciples following him. There are many times where Jesus

does a miracle and a healing where people respond to Jesus and they say,

Jesus, let me follow you in your earthly ministry. And what does Jesus

do. Jesus says, no, you cannot follow me in my earthly ministry.

You need to go back to your hometown and you need to share about

the miracle I did in your life. So Jesus rejected people as personal disciples

all the time because he wanted them to go and share about the Kingdom of

God in their community. So Jesus tells this, man, if you've got

it all figured out, then I could use a guy like you on my

team. So he says, tell you, what, if you sell everything

that you have, you could be my thirteenth disciple number thirteen. Oh't know,

I mean to me and you they're like, hey, hey, Jesus,

that sounds like a good gig. I give up everything to get you.

But what does the young man respond with? It says he walks away

sorrowful because he had great possessions and he didn't want to let them go.

So for a guy who claims to be living a perfect life seems to have

a lot of earthly material mindset and a lot of earthly desires that are not

Kingdom approved, that are not God approved, that he's not willing to release

to gain Jesus. So, in other words, what Jesus is saying is

he's saying, hey, if you want me to get in your business,

be about God's business. Be about God's family business. What's God's family business?

To save, redeem, and sanctify humanity. So Jesus says, why

don't you leave all that behind and you come be about my business, the

family business. I think to myself, when I said yes to Jesus,

I joined a lineage of a family business. Romans Chapter eight says that we

are heirs with Jesus Christ, And that means if you're an err with Jesus

Christ, it means that you are in his business, his family business,

which means what God cares about. I meant to care about, which means

what God says. I'm supposed to take as word and a agree with.

But I often think in my life sometimes God's family business is the last of

my worries, and it's all about what's in front of me. Just like

the rich young ruler, the me me me statements, how do I get

to heaven? How do I keep my riches? How do I keep everything?

But also get eternal life? Jesus challenged his motive and his character in

such a way. You may know many family businesses. I personally love mom

and pop shops and family businesses. I personally in my own life, I

choose as much as possible to choose a family business over a big conglomerate as

much as I can, I like to as best as I can choose local

coffee shops. The dog food I get, I don't get it at a

big box real teller. I go to a place up the street that sells

natural dog food, and so as much as I can, I try to

go to a family business, so mom and pop shop as much as possible.

Well, believe it or not, there are a lot of big brands

that are still family businesses still to this day that maybe you consume on your

daily life, and we're gonna break down what makes what makes a family business?

How can these principles matter to us in our faith and according to the

Word of God. Here's a family business. Many of you guys may know,

there's a small little mom and pop shop called Walmart. You guys ever

heard of that place before? They're everywhere in the United States and on every

corner some of the in Forbes' Top one hundred billionaires, there's more family members

connected to the Walmart brand than there are of any other family members that are

billionaires. And that's because of Sam Walton in nineteen sixty two started Walmart,

and he's kept much of it leadership within his family still to this day.

Another brand that you may know or you may drive is the Ford Motor Company.

A lot of the Ford family are still involved in the Ford Motor Company.

So whether you like the F one fifty or not, if you drive

one, you're supporting a small family business, not really small, but family

business nonetheless. Another brand much very famous, especially for many ladies, is

LVM, who owns Louis Baton, Hennessy, this Bernard or not, and

they own a conglomerate of watch companies. It's all in the luxury space handbags,

watch companies, cosmetics, perfumes, cologns. What Bernardo not does is

when he buys a new company, whether it's a watch company or whatever,

he takes his nieces, nephew's childrens. He makes them all CEOs, presidents,

all that stuff like that. He's kept most of these brands within the

family. And so a lot of those big luxury named brands are owned by

a family now. And so another company may be aware of this family business

is the Mars Incorporated. I don't know when was the last time you had

a Mars bar, but I don't even know if they're readily available. But

Mars Incorporated still owns a lot of other brands of confectioneries that the family still

associated with. If any of you guys have any Samsung products in your home,

Samsung is actually a family business still and the family is still involved in

Samsung. Another one that's still involved that's a motor company. Again is BMW.

If you drive a BMW, that's still part of a family business.

Started off as an airline manufacturer. They would make airplane engines to then eventually

went into motor vehicles, and so the center of the logo is actually a

propeller spin a spinning propeller, exhibiting where they started. Their family is still

deeply involved in that. And then lastly, another company is Estay Lotder cosmetic

company. The Lotter family from nineteen forty six is still very much involved in

the cosmetic industry in the Estay Lotter family. Why do I share that?

Well, I share that because number one, those are big, big names.

We recognize that our family businesses. But when we tend to think of

a family business, we expect it run and operate a certain way. And

what we do expect is we expect it to look a lot different than a

big conglomerate company who's just working for the bottom line of the dollar. We

know that family businesses have deeper intrinsic principles that try to maintain it within the

family. It's not just about getting the most dollar out of everyone. Family

businesses tend to have a deeper product. A lot of it is around customer

service, a lot of it is around quality, a lot of it is

around taking care of people. That's what makes a great family business. I

wonder if I paralleled God's Kingdom to great family business principles, does my life

reflect one that takes God's Kingdom very serious. Here's some principles and values that

family businesses tend to have. Number One, they have shared values and vision.

Everyone seems to understand what they're trying to accomplish, whether it's customer service,

whether it's a great product. But we have a shared vision and value.

I wonder when it comes to God's Kingdom do I share God's vision and

values from the Word of God? Does my life reflect the values and the

vision that are held in this word? When I say I'm a Christian?

Is it more than just the cross around my neck, the verse I put

in my Twitter or Instagram bio, or is it deeper to say this word

I take very serious. And God's vision and values that's said in His family

in this book, I apply them into my life because I'm part of His

kingdom. Do I share those? The next one is do I have a

long term perspective. Family businesses tend to want to be in it for the

long haul. Other businesses want to make as much money as possible, sell

it so that they can go retire and kick their feet up. But someone

who says they want a family business for generations, they try to think,

how can I keep this in the long term. I'm thankful that God did

have a long term perspective in the kingdom, that Jesus came over two thousand

years ago to redeem us, to save us, to sanctify us, and

that work that God did two thousand years ago he's still doing to this day.

God had a long term plan to say, every single year, every

single day, I'm going to still continually save and redeem humanity. That's part

of God's value and part of his long term perspective. Most people in a

family business have a commitment and passion. It's not just about personal opportunity.

They have a commit in a passion for what's being accomplished. Am I passionate

about God's plans for humanity and for my life? Am I passionate about that?

Somebody that's not connected to a business, and you may have had that

period in your life before where you've just been an employee, where you've said

I'm just living for the first and the fifteenth, Like, I don't care

what's going on in that company. I don't want to talk to nobody.

I don't want to look at nobody. As long as that paycheck hits my

direct deposit on the first and the fifteenth, I don't care what they do.

I wonder if we treat God that way and say, God, I

don't care about what you're worried about. I don't care about what you're trying

to do as long as when I hit you with those prayers on the first

and the fifteenth, I expect that as an employee of God's kingdom that when

I get to asking you get to do it. I don't care about what

your business is and what you're trying to accomplish. God, I just know

that I'm here to do what you ask me to do so that could get

something from you, God. And so if we're gonna connecting God's family business,

God, I'm concerned with what you're concerned with. God. I'm concerned

with how you view these circumstances in our world today. God, how would

you respond to our neighbor's issues today, God, what would you say?

And so therefore a couple other things is flexibility, not flexibility in time,

but flexibility to know that in a small family business they can pivot faster.

Big companies, big corporations, they got boards of directors and advisors. But

family businesses. I remember one time I went to a family business and they

were selling something and it was one store. It was a mom and pop

shop, and I was looking for a particular brand of something, and I

said, oh, I used this brand. And then the next time I

came, the owner was like, hey, I remember you from last time.

I went and got the brand you asked for, and I have it

here on my shelf. I never knew if you were going to come back

or not, but since we didn't have it, and I went and got

it for you, and so if you're interested in it, I have the

brand here for you. This time, I'm like, oh, I'm supporting

you, you know, like you care, you care about who comes in.

I wonder am I flexible in that same way with God's kingdom to say

that as people have needs and prayers and hopes, do I take mental notes

to him to remember that as God has called me to serve people and be

a blessing to people. Well, I remember and care for people the way

that God does for his business and his kingdom. We have flexibility, there's

stability, there's strong relationships. That's why we have neighborhood groups here at our

churches. Being part of God's Kingdom is that we're great with relationships. We

try our best to know our neighbors, to care for our neighbors, to

look out for the people in the church and outside the church. Because relationships.

Life travels at the speed of relationships. So as far as you're willing

to go in relationships, that's how far life will travel for you. Loyalty

to employees. A lot of family businesses are loyal to the people that work

with them. It's great atmosphere for working. I'm thankful that even though when

I mess up in God's kingdom, in his business, God still continually loves

me far more than I ever love him and show him love. God has

been so gracious to me, so good to me, even when I fall

in short. God has shown more loyal to me than I've ever showed the

Lord loyalty in the same way. And so that's God's kingdom. That's his

business model, that's what he cares about. And then lastly, a community

involvement. Great family businesses, they're often involved in the community needs like God

has called us to in the kingdom. He says that we're meant to go

to the highways and the byways and share the love of God and share the

gospel of Jesus Christ. You know. Proverbs chapter twenty one, verse twenty

says, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwellings, but a

foolish man devours it. A wise man cares for his precious treasure and oil,

but someone who's foolish. When they get a dollar, they spend a

dollar. When they get ten dollars, they spend ten dollars. Everything they

get they devour. Dave Ramsey says, this money is not the answer for

everything, but it's not evil either. It's just a tool. It's a

piece of paper that we use to buy the things we need and give to

causes we believe in. It's not that it's bad, it's not that it's

good. It depends on what we do with the resources and the dollar that

we spend. That's what determines where our heart is at in twenty and fifteen.

You know, over the years, I've done work in Silicon Valley,

so I've always kind of been around tech people for the past decade. And

it just so happened in twenty fifteen I started hearing a lot of murmurs about

this thing called cryptocurrency. Has anyone ever heard of cryptocurrency before? And here

all five people thank you so much. Well, you and the other five

We were the ones who thought we were going to get rich together, you

know. And we see where cryptocurrency's at today, not so good. But

there was a time during COVID it was doing very well. And so in

twenty and fifteen I heard about a particular cryptocurrency called bitcoin that you may have

heard of before. And basically, it's not connected to our central banking system.

It's a digital market, and so it's away from what, however,

America's dollar does or doesn't do. And so in twenty fifteen, I had

five thousand dollars left over for my wedding, and I thought about whether I

was gonna put in my savings or buy piece of furniture for our house since

we newly got married, or whatever, and so I said, Hi,

five thousand dollars to an vest I called a friend up who works in Silicon

Valley. I said, hey, man, I'm thinking about buying five thousand

dollars worth of bitcoin. This thing that people are starting to murmur abound talk

about. It's four hundred and thirty dollars for one bitcoin, which means I

can get eleven bitcoins. And my friend says, now, I don't think

that's a good idea. I don't see I don't see cryptocurrency going anywhere.

I don't see that that would be a good investment. I don't think you

should do that. Well, from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty one, one

bitcoin went from four hundred and thirty dollars to sixty eight thousand dollars for one

coin, which means if I had boughten eleven in two thousand and fifteen,

in twenty and twenty one, I could have sold eleven bitcoin for seven hundred

and fifty thousand dollars. God, why did you give me that friend?

What the Bible talks about having a good brother and YadA, YadA, YadA,

but this guy amy the worst of Now, in the long run,

it tended to be pretty good advice, but in the short run, had

I not had him in my life, And unfortunately he's still in my life

today. Not unfortunately, he's still a good friend. But I look back

at that and I thought to myself, if I would have made that investment,

and I could have made that investment, I would have went from five

thousand dollars to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars richer. But as I reflected

on it longer, I thought to myself, well, why did it not

happen? I could easily look at God and say, God, did you

not want to bless me? Why didn't you give me a good friend who

would give me good advice to multiply my dollar by that much? Or why

didn't you give me a word from you to go ahead and do it and

make me more wealthier than I am? And then I felt like the Holy

Spirit asked me and told me. God told me. And God doesn't speak

from the windows or the room or anything like. That's just a small subtle

voice in your heart where I felt like God challenged me and said, Adam,

if I gave you that money, what would you have done with it?

And I felt like God said give me your honest answer, Adam.

And I said, well, I think I might have uh might have upgraded

the car. UH. I might have bought a nice gift for my wife,

might have paid down some of the debt on my house, could have

paid off my house. I could have uh went on a little vacation to

Maui with my wife and my family. And I felt like God said,

Adam, and any of your answers, what in that had anything to do

with my business but didn't have anything to do with my kingdom. I'm glad

you wanted to enjoy it, and it's good you can't enjoy it, But

how come I would have been an afterthought? And I said, no,

no, no, God, no, God, I would have I would

have tithed. I want to tithe. I want to gave you seventy five

thousand dollars. I would have tithed. God. I felt like God says,

said, oh, for Adam, for a blessing like that, that's

that's not good enough, at least for me with what God would have challenged

me, Because God said, Adam, in that time, you would have

been tipping me, not tithing me, because that's money. You weren't expecting

that would have been money you weren't expecting, And so don't get don't give

me a tip. You didn't give me a tithe, a real tithe.

And so then I started to say, God, I'm thankful then that you

didn't give me what it was that I look back as a missed opportunity,

but really it was a God opportunity because I wouldn't have really honored God with

my finances the way He's called me to biblically, had he given me what

it was that I'd hoped for. And I wonder how many times are we

not realizing and dealing with missed opportunities, but rather disobedience of finance, and

we're perceiving it as missed opportunity and we're not being responsible over the resources God

has given us, or responsible with the word and the sweat God has called

us to for resources. So with just a few moments that we have together,

I want to share with you just really a couple points about when it

comes to God's family business first and foremost, if you're taking notes, let's

just talk about for the moments that we have in this message, God's purpose

with finances, God's purpose with resources, because this matters. We may know

the purpose of a dollar, the purpose of dollars. I go out,

I perform a task for someone, or I own a business and I provide

a service of some sort, and then I get the money. And then

from that I can pay electricity bill, water bill. I can go out

to eat with my family, I can go on a vacation, I can

put my kids in school, whatever it may be. I could buy shoes

if I need them, or whatever. That's the natural distinctive of the purpose

of money is that. But what is the biblical reason of money? If

the Bible talks about it over two thousand times and fifteen percent of Jesus's teachings

are about finance, then what does God view the purpose of money? What

does it do? Well? Here's the first thing is purpose of resourcing us.

Number one is very true. Is God's way of resourcing our resources is

for blessing. It's a blessing. The resources we have is a blessing from

God. It's God's desire to richly provide for us. This is an offering

that is for believers and unbelievers. There are some people who make their wealth

through con corruption and greed, but for all intentsive purposes. For the person

that works hard, provides a service, sweats on their brow, God will

open up the door for resources for their life. You can trace it all

the way to the book of Genesis. In the Fall. All it says

is, Adam, in the curse, you're now when you work hard,

you're gonna sweat. It's gonna be difficult. In other words, you're gonna

earn your money through hard work. Now, Adam, it's not gonna just

fall on your lap. That's part of the original fall. So we see

that any resources we have is a blessing from God. And God does bless

those in the kingdom who are about king dumb business. That is something God

does. Isaac planted crops in that land, and the same year reaped one

hundredfold because the Lord blessed him. The Lord blessed Isaac, and the man

became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.

He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.

Now go trace the life of Isaac. Isaac was the younger brother, and

he was obedient to God. He loved the Lord. He prioritized the Lord.

So God, in return of his faith, blessed him. Naturally.

Isaac was planting crops and he was going to get a return. God returned

it one hundredfold because of Isaac's obedience of being a representation of who God is

in his life. So God said, Isaac, I can trust you with

more because with more you will do more for my kingdom. That's what God

desires do. So resources are a blessing from God. The next thing we

see the purpose of finances and resources is re sources is a test of character.

How we spend our money and what we spend our money on tests our

character, and God is looking to test our character through our finances. That's

what happened with the rich young ruler. If you think that the rich young

Ruler came about his finances on accident, he didn't. They were blessed by

God. But when God asked for it back, when Jesus said give it

back, sell it, give it away, I want if you follow me,

I don't want you to have any of that, he said, never

mind, I'm good. I'll find a new rabbi. Because his character was

revealed on how he views finance, which it goes finances first, Jesus second,

that was the character of his heart. My material possessions first, people's

second were for God. People are first in His kingdom. And so what

happens is we see Francis Chance says this one of the great pastors of our

generation. He says, our greatest fear should not be a failure, but

of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. You know, you

could work hard at something at the end of the day and have swept,

but if there's no eternal purpose connected to it, if there's not a kingdom

purpose connected to it, then it will fade away one day. You know.

Resources the third one resources is a responsibility. God has called us to

be responsible with our finances. Proverbs chapter three, verse nine says, honor

the Lord with your wealth. And this isn't talking about wealthy the way we

would in our sense. Wealth is just whatever you have financial, the finances

you have. So it says, honor the Lord with your finances, with

your wealth, with your resources, and with the fruit's first fruits of all

your produce. That second part is about tithing, is about giving God your

first fruits. And so what it says right here is resources God gives us,

we are responsible for it. In other words, if God would have

given me what I wanted in twenty fifteen, I would not have been responsible

over it the way that God called me too. So therefore I believe for

myself for Adam, it would not have been good that God gave me access

to that resource because I would not have been responsible for it the way God

has called me to. In the same way that I have a son in

my name Atthias and kindergarten and here at uca Upping Christian Academy. At recess,

they get a little lunch card and they can get little snacks for a

dollar, And so me and my wife we always ask him what snacks did

you get? Because that little resource card is not made to get candy.

That's not what we give. But that's not what we put twenty dollars on

it for. We put twenty dollars on it for him to get a good

healthy snack for himself during resource during recess. So what happens is if what

happened if I came to Matthiasis said what did you get today during your recess

time at Thiast with the twenty dollars on your card. I've loated. If

he said, well, I got Sara Patch kids today, I'd say,

okay, Son, you're not gonna do that. Tomorrow, you're gonna get

a banana. He says, okay. Then tomorrow, say Matthias, what'd

you get at recess? He says, I got two Sour Patch kids today.

Okay, tomorrow, it's not gonna happen, Matthias. No, you're

gonna get an apple or a banana or some type of vegetable something. Okay.

The next day he comes and he's like, what'd you get? I

got sour Patch kids, a banana and apple and cookies. Right, wait,

hold on. At some point, I'd start to say, listen,

Son, we're gonna start you get. I'm gonna pack your snack for you,

because that recess time is a luxury that to have that be able to

buy. I can give you the banana. So if you're not gonna be

responsible over the finances that I load on your card, or if you're gonna

spend all the twenty dollars in one day that's supposed to last you a month

or whatever, then what happens is is at some point, as a good

Father, I'm gonna start limiting your resources until you can be responsible over what

it is that I'm giving you. And sometimes we're living in limited resources because

we have not been responsible of what it is that God has given us already.

And so therefore we're asking God for more. Like Matthias, Daddy,

load more money on my card. But if I said, Matthias, tell

me what you're spent on that card, Daddy, that's none of your business.

Your job is to be the money man. Load my card, and

in my job is to spend it on whatever I want. And how often

do we talk to God like that? God, it's your job to provide.

Is my job to do whatever I want with your provision? That's not

what it is. And so we see also resources are a temporary possession.

They do come and go. You can you can do something that has an

eternal or generational impact with your finances. But overall, the dollar is not

the same that it was ten years ago or twenty years ago. Our country's

dollar is different than another country's dollar. Some are better, some are worse.

There is a limited temporal element to resources, to money, and so

what we have to recognize first John three seventeen says, but if anyone has

the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against

him, how does God's love abide in him? How does God's love abide

in someone who allows someone else in need to be hurt and harm? Just

this best Wednesday I was challenged with. That was late at night after a

Wednesday, and I tied a lot of long conversations with people at church,

and so I had to stop at the gas station to grab something before I

went home, and someone walked up to my car and I said, he

excuse me, sir, I'm sorry. I don't mean to bother you.

And you know, it's eleven o'clock at night. It's dark in the gas

station. So so at first I'm like, man, am I gonna have

to get down? Am I about to get robbed? So? But then

I figure out he's like, He's like, my account is overdrawn. I've

no more money in my account till till the first won't get paid. And

so he said, is there any way I can get fifteen dollars? I

just got to make it to Pasadena so that I can get enough gas to

make it home. And so in that moment, Here's what I could have

done. Number one, I could have said, what a perfect opportunity to

educate this man on finances. So I could have said, let's first talk

about why you're overdrafted. Let's pull up your account. Let's see your reckless

spending for the month. See that right there, that's Starbucks. You didn't

need that last week. There's your fifteen dollars right there that you need for

gas. Or I could have said, well, it's not my problem.

Or I sat there and I said, I have fifteen dollars I can give.

That would not be a stretch for me that I could help this man

out, And so therefore I gave him a little more than that said why

don't you try to fill your take up more than as much as you can.

And that moment, as I said, God, bless you man,

I hope the Lord takes care of you. He responds back, he says,

are you a believer? We have a short conversation. He goes inside

and he fills up his gas to and he heads his way down to Pasadena.

But in that moment, those are moments that God will challenge you to

say, how are we going to treat someone who has a need individually for

us. Oftentimes we think it's a church building, our church community that's meant

to care for everyone's needs. No, it's meant for each other to care

for each other's needs. A lot of times. That's a lot of the

role is for us to be on the community and love our neighbor and know

our neighbor and help them when they have a need to look after them.

So God's resources are meant for good. And last one in terms of the

purpose is God's resources are a gift to be enjoyed. They are a gift,

and God does richly provide so that we can enjoy resources. One Timothy

six seventeen instructs the rich to put their hope in God, who richly provides

us with everything for our enjoyment. So what first Timothy does? Paul reminds

Timothy to remind the church if you are wealthy, not hope in your finances,

hope in God. God's given you resources as a gift to enjoy it.

So you want to go on a vacation, you want to buy new

shoes, you want to go out to AMC theaters, you want to drive

a motorcycle. Those are all great things to have. Those are all blessings

from God, and you can enjoy them. They're meant to be enjoyed.

It's meant to enjoy this life. But what he says is it is not

meant to hope in those material possessions for this life. So he admonishes Timothy

remind the church put your hope in God, because God is the one who

can richly provide. If you put your hope in finances or material possessions,

then all I have to do is remove those things from you, and then

I can steal your joy. I can steal your hope. But if you

hope in God, if the enemy ever comes to attack, or something ever

happens, if your hope is always in God and your trust is always in

God as the provider, then if you lose the provision, you always have

the one creating provision if your hope is in Him. And then and then

the last thought is this last point is this is is resources truly reveal.

Where we spend our dollar reveals what it is that we truly love. Where

our money goes goes to the things that we love and we care about.

There's some things that just necessity you have to. I mean I don't.

I don't love paying my electricity bill, but I love electricity. I mean

I don't love paying the gas bill, but I love hot water. I

mean I'll take a warm shower. I'll take it. So I do love

those things. If I didn't, I could go without hot water. I

mean, I could survive without hot water. I can survive without that.

But I spend it because I love it. I do enjoy what I come

from it. So in the same way, if I took an audit of

my finances, believe it or not, if we audited our finances for the

month, we can tell where each person, each person loves the most.

And I'll tell you this. If God's Kingdom and your local church is nowhere

in that, and it pretty hard for you to leave somewhere and say you

love your church. Because if finances have never followed that, and and we

love Disney Plus, and we love Verizon, and we love La Fitness that

we never go to more, and we love our local church where we get

fed and we get poured into that and serves the community, then it would

be hard pressed for me to say I love this place. Be tough,

be tough to say, because our money follows what we love. In twenty

fifteen I got married, and a year later it's twenty sixteen. My wife

in her car. One night, she accidentally left her car unlocked. Something

about my wife and vehicles, good luck. It just whether she's messing up

my rim or now leaving her car unlocked. She leaves her car unlocked,

and that night someone breaks in. Well, they don't really break in because

it was unlocked. They opened in so we noticed the little thing was sticking

out the door, and so they opened in at night. And then at

night they decided to smoke four cigarettes in the car, ash all in the

car. I know it's four because they left the butts behind so I could

count, car could blee. These smelled like cigarette. And then they stole

everything that was in the car. Not much of anything was of a value,

except for one thing. In twenty eleven, I went on a trip

with my grandma. She takes all of her grandchildren on one trip of a

lifetime. And she's done it now now all her grandchildren are older, but

she's done it for she had done it for about the past fifteen years.

And she takes us to Europe and she takes two grandchildren at a time to

just spend time with them and spend so she does it. She's done it

till every single grandchild she has the fourteen or fifteen ub that she has.

So twenty eleven, she took me on one. We went to Europe for

three weeks and I saved money all summer for this trip to have money to

buy one nice designer wallet from place called Goyard in Paris. That was my

goal. And so I go there, we go to Paris, I buy

this wallet and it represents the trip I w with my grandma. So it's

not really the name brand, it's not it's a quality craftsmanship and that's what

I cared about. But it was really, hey, this represents the trip

that I went with my grandma. Well, that was stolen in the car

that day. I was I was upset. I was heartbroke. I wasn't

mad at my wife. I was just mad that. I mean even me,

I was like, I shouldn't have left it in the car. I

should have brought in the house. And so I was really upset for months

because the only thing I bought on that trip with my grandma six years prior,

five years prior, and so that six months later it's my birthday,

my wife says, hey, let's go to lunch in Los Angeles, but

let's first stop at the mall. Let's go shopping a little bit. I'm

like, okay, great. I show up and there's a little goy yard

shop in one of those little designer, you know, department stores, and

standing at the doorway is my grandma standing right there. And as I walked

out and said, Grandma, what are you doing here? She said,

I know we can't replace the wallet that was stolen, but how about we

replace the memory attached to what was taken from you? And so she took

me in the store and she he bought me the same wallet I had,

and she said, I'm sorry your original was taking Now, mind you the

first one. I bought this one, she said, I want to buy

it for you so they can now mean more that when you look at this,

you can remember what was stolen from you has been given back to you

and to me. Not only does exhibit the love my grandma used because she

used her resources to buy me something to show me her love, but additionally

it reminds me that whatever the enemy does steal, whatever the enemy does take.

Whatever anyone does your neighbor, anyone steals from you, it takes from

you. God can return, God can give back. God can restore.

God can redeem anything that has been robbed, stolen, or disgrace from you.

His love is richly there to provide for you and I, regardless,

regardless of the story, regardless of the history. If you would receive your

father's love, he can give back what was been taken from you. All

I gotta do is be a bet out my father's business, be about the

kingdom business of God. And God can show where his love truly is,

and his love is with us, and it's near us. Charles Virgin said

this, and I'm gonna We're gonna do one challenge together, and we'll close

and leave here together. Charles Fern said, if you said, if I

had a little more, I should be satisfied, you make a mistake.

If you're not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if

it were even doubled. It's not about being satisfied. It's about being content

and responsible for what God has given me. So as we're gonna close right

now as a church, we're gonna do for the next month. For November

and December, we want to do a finance challenge with our entire church community

amongst all of our campuses, Rancho, Pomona, and online. And I

want us all if you take notes, you write in your phone. I

really want to encourage you to write this down and really pray ify take take

on this challenge. Some things may apply to you, some things may not.

The first to apply to all of us. So this is what we're

doing for November and December. Together, we're gonna celebrate in December what God

does within our church through this program. Here's the first thing we want to

encourage everyone to do is to identify and redirect as a church community. We

want to pay off five hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars of debt as

a church. Get this not the church's debt, your personal debt. We

want to get to a pace where all of us start to limit our credit

cards, limit reckless spending, get out of debt as fast as possible,

get out of debt as best as possible. And here's how we're gonna do

that. As a church. We're gonna identify together independently, but together as

a church. But we're doing this, like with the Lord is reckless spending.

Begin to limit credit card spending, Cancel digital subscriptions. So if there's

any subscriptions you have that you aren't utilizing. If you sign up for Roadblocks

that one time for your kids and it's been five months and you've been saying,

I need to cancel that thing. They don't ever even use that app

or whatever. We cancel digital subscriptions, we're gonna audit luxury spending. So

November and December we're gonna say, hey, we don't need to do that.

We don't need to do this. We don't need I can make coffee

at home. I can do it. We're gonna start to limit and use

it towards paying off credit card debt. So if you're gonna buy six dollars

Starbucks coffee, go on your Chase app right there, put six dollars towards

your credit card. Get get get really finite in it, get deeper in

it, and so then we're gonna pay down credit card debt. As a

church. Here's what's happening. There's a there's a program called Financial Peace University.

If you go to their website, it cost eighty dollars to do it.

A bundant living family church. We pay that for every member who chooses

to take it. And so the way you can get it, it's free

from us to you. It's a gift from the church to every member.

And the way you do it is if you go to Financialpeaceuniversity dot com,

you're gonna get charged. The way you'll do it is you'll go to ALFC

dot faith slash resources. There you'll see a link for Financial Peace University.

What that is for those debt don't know, it's a digital course that breaks

down how to get out of debt as fast as possible. Because a lot

of people we aren't out of debt because we don't know, we've never been

educated on how to get out of it. And so Financial Peace University,

I'm telling you there are people in our church who we have met who have

limited, limited incomes, who have been able to pay off car payments,

who've been able to pay off credit card debt just by simply learning from Financial

Peace University. So this is not a game for people who have money already.

This is for individuals who say, hey, how do I get out

of student loans fast? How do I get out of credit cards fast?

And how do I break it down? ALFC, dot Face, slash resources.

It's our gift to every person at a church. We always have it

on rotation. So even if you meet a friend who doesn't go to ALFC

and you want to bless them, you could take them to that website and

you can give them that link. We'll still cover for your friends. But

that's something we want to do as a church. So we're gonna identify and

redirect and payoff debt, and the next week's to come, we're gonna have

a link up that says, as you pay off debt, we're gonna have

you submit how much you've paid off in the months of November in the sent

and we're gonna celebrate as a church what that equals at the end of the

year. We got two more months left till the end of the year,

so we want to do that together as a church. The next thing is

this very important, is create a blessing budget. So we all have car

budgets. We have our house budget, we have our bill's budget, you

may have an education budget, whatever it is. Start taking steps towards a

blessing budget. That may also include a blessing budget with a little man.

I know a guy in our church that always keeps one hundred dollars bill in

his sock, and if you ever see someone in need, it doesn't happen

often help. And he's someone who owns a business, but he gives it

to someone if he ever sees someone in need, and it's part of his

blessing budget. But that's not his only budget. And so create a blessing

budget where you say, hey, financially, this is where I'm at,

where I'm gonna be responsible over money, and I'm gonna give this much away.

Because what that does is that breaks a yoke of bondage. If you

read the Old Testament, there's a spirit called Mammon. With just spirit creates

an addiction and agreed to money. When you and I give a percentage of

our money away, it actually breaks that spirit, actually breaks that addiction.

So it's less about what. It's less about, oh, okay, the

church needs this present or that percent. It's the fact that says when I

give, I break that yoke, I break that bondage that says I have

to live by every dollar. And so the best place to give for us

that fellowship together is in our local church, because giving in church is in

the scriptures. And God does say test me, and I will show you,

And that deals with finances. He says, test me in the local

church. Give in your local church, and I will show you that.

I will put give a return, and I will bless you, and I

will look after your finances. So here's how we want to challenge ourselves.

If you've never given before, start with moving from zero percent to two percent

of your income. Two percent of your income that may even still be a

big jump for you. So maybe starting at sixty five dollars. So all

you would do is go to the website ALFC dot faith slash give and you

can set a reoccurring giving through push pay. You could put sixty five dollars

and then just month, just like anything else you're subscribed to. It would

take that out without asking you. But what I lean more towards because the

Bible does talk about the ten percent, that there's a blessing behind giving God

as we want to grow to that. So if you give zero percent,

pray about going to two percent. You gotta be aware of where your finance

is at, and so go from two percent if you're giving two percent,

give five percent, and we're saying, just do this for November and December.

See what the Lord does. Test them with your finances. I know

Christmas is coming up. Test the Lord with your finances. See what the

Lord will do. If you're giving five percent, move from five percent to

eight percent, and move eight percent to ten percent. And here's the thing.

This is a biblical principle. So this is not some type of thing

churches do to make money or anything like that. It's a biblical principle.

So here's what we've always said as a church. It started with Pastor Diego

in this biblical principle. If you do this for the next two months and

move towards this for November December. If by January you're worse off than you

were in November, then you can call the church and say I want those

two months back, and we'll give it to you. We'll give it to

you because we believe this is a test that the Lord puts, not the

church puts. This is like we had. Your local church facilitates the giving,

but the blessing is up to God and the responsibilities up to God.

So if you get to a place and say, hey, I gave this

much over November December and God didn't do anything in my personal life and my

finances and my relationships in my spiritual walk. I want it back. Our

CFO and our finance team, they won't even ask another question. They'll send

you a check back for whatever you gave. Because it's not about fundraising for

the church. It's about us being responsible of our money and breaking those bondages

in our life. That yo, That's what it's about. And so the

best way you could do this is you go to the website. Many of

you have given already, but we want to be able to increase our capacity

and celebrate what God does. And then here's the next three and then we'll

close out community Challenge. Not only we want to give our resources, we

want to give our time. So if you haven't thought about serving for our

family to family, come out and serve with us. Love people who are

in a tough financial Buinduse, you're gonna be people who come out who are

really dealing with poverty, and we want to love on them together as a

church, even with our smiles and our music and our grace. So November

eighteenth and sixteenth, you could do that on the website ALFC dot Faith or

AFC dot Faith and then the events tab you can register to serve with us.

Next thing we want to do and we'll talk more about these in the

weeks to come, is we want to start an opportunity. We believe we

have one of the best private education schools in America at UCA, one of

the best, and we recognize that private education is expensive and it's not our

choosing. We have actually one of the most affordable competitive rates of any other

private education. But the government doesn't help us. They don't give us big

grants, our funds or anything like that. So and on average costs about

eleven thousand dollars a year to send a child to private Christian education here at

our campus. What we like to do is start a fund where we offer

for low economic families either percentages or full right scholarships to private Christian education.

So that's our heart. This is something that's launching and starting. And so

this may not be for everyone to give to like that's you're like, oh

man, that's not for me. But there may be people here that are

retired or grandparents who have finances and say, I don't really have a great

relationship my grandchildren. I don't have grandchildren. I would love to sew into

the next generation. What what we'd like to do is these young children who

are either in poverty, single mother homes. We want to build out a

program. This is gonna help us do it. We're going to build out

a program where we now offer scholarships to these individuals and then now kids that

come from the other side of the block who normally couldn't get something like this

is going to be able to get scholarships and into private education. So this

is in a November and December thing. There's something we're launching that and you

can give on our giving page. There will from the now moving forward,

it'll say U see a scholarship fund and you could give to that anytime you

want, and it will fully not a dollar we'll go to anything other than

a child's education who needs help at our UCA program or apl program. So

that we want to do as a church and launch as a church. And

then the last two is this thank you guys for being patient. This is

just the launch of this, so it just takes a couple of minutes.

Over we want to do business as missions, so One of the things we're

relaunching is our Kingdom Builders, and we believe we have great business people in

our church, and we believe we have an untapped community within our business leaders.

So we want to view business as a mission, as a missions field.

So if you're a business person and a corporate leader, we're going to

begin to start a new program of neighborhood groups and annual gatherings, actually quarterly

gatherings that we're going to launch with Kingdom Builders, where you as a business

owner or a philanthropist or a Kingdom person can be connected and we as Christians

can be more business minded together. So that's going to be starting together.

So just know by the end of this month we're going to have next steps

for our Kingdom business Leaders. And then the last one and we'll close is

generational transformation. We call it the lagacy giver. It's the person who has

the gift of giving, who gives over ten percent because they have a spiritual

gift. You could study it on your own, but Romans Chapter twelve list

spiritual gifts. Some of the spiritual gifts are like prophesying, and we're encouraged

to speak out. It also is serving and we're encouraged to serve. It's

teaching, and we're encouraged to teach. But there's also one on the below.

It says, if you have the gift of giving, then give generously.

So we have a mandate to tithe by the word. But there's also

individuals in the Body of Christ who God has actually given them the gift of

giving resources, and so we want to be able to legacy giving looks like

a person who connects deeper not only in the church, but we can connect

that person deeper into Kingdom things like the orphanages we're doing and the missions we're

doing. If someone says, hey, I feel like I take care of

my church, but I want to do some big, broader kingdom stuff,

then we're able to going to help connect the dots for them to say,

here's how you can give more into the Kingdom of God, like helping children

in poverty in third world countries, helping women education empowerment. Those are the

things we're going to be doing as a church as a legacy giver. So

these are the start of the challenge. We'll talk more about that than the

weeks to come. But thank you guys so much for being so patient and

generous sitting in in the launch of this let's pray today, God, we

thank you so much for this word, Lord, and we pray as we've

sat here together. Father God, we thank you for the work that you're

doing in our church community. Father, thank you so much that as we

leave this place we can view more of the resources you've given us today as

an opportunity to not only honor you, but honor others. Lord, I

pray for anyone who's in here who is going through a tough financial circumstance,

Lord, that you begin to provide for them in such a deep, rich

new way, that you prove your grace and your love to them through provision

today, Father God, in the way that you've told us to look at

the birds of the air, they're not worried about how they're provided food.

Surely, how much more we're our Father take care of us. We thank

you, Lord that you take care of us today. In Jesus name,

Amen and Amen. I just want to invite you guys real quick if you're

here. Sorry, sorry, guys, we're going a few minutes over.

But if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, I just want to

encourage you. We're gonna say this prayer out loud together. But one day

you and I will stand before God, and will stand before God either as

friend or foe. It's not God's desire that we be a foe. It's

actually God's desire that we be redeemed and we be renewed in Jesus Christ.

And so salvation is for every person who would call upon the name of Jesus.

The Bible says that Jesus stands at the door and he knocks, and

whoever answers, he will come in. So, if you're in this place

today, could we repeat this prayer of salvation as some will say this for

the first time today, giving their life to Jesus Christ. Would you repeat

after me, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I confess my sins.

I believe in my heart that you rose from the dead and you died

for my sins. And from this day forward I give you my life and

I commit to follow you for the rest of my days in Jesus' name.

Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you said yes

to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and give you a free devotional

to help you walk out your faith. Click the link in the description or

head over to grow dot Faith to download your devotional. Oh and be sure

to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening to ALSC

podcast and we hope you tune in again