In this lesson, Khaleef Crumbley looks more closely at being a biblical entrepreneur or free lance worker. Khaleef Crumbley begins by looking at statistics related to self-employment, discusses the Bible’s principles about being bold with opportunities versus exercising wise caution, and finally examines the character of a godly business owner.
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okay are you muted all right all right am I coming through now okay all right good now just have to put this back in all right so um thank you thank you all for coming we’re on session three of our personal finance from the biblical perspective Sunday school Series going through the entire summer um and what we’ve been looking at so far is this idea that we are stewards of God’s money we’re stewards of God’s resources we talked about that in the first week last week we looked at um one of the ways that God actually turns over those resources to us and that’s looking partially at income one of the things we looked at was uh employees so whether your staff or management the Bible has uh certain guidelines certain things that you should be doing as a manager you should be doing as an employee um your character should look a certain way and here’s well first just to say um today we’re going to be going over the last two which is business owner and freelancer we’re going to kind of look at these as a collective because there’s a lot of crossover between them so just to recap some of the things that an employee should do in order to be seen as faithful we provided this list which just be honest act with Integrity be on time simple things that anyone would do in many worldly managers appreciate employees who have these characteristics be respectful don’t gossip and work as hard as you can so none of these are earth-shattering but all of these are things that God expects and there are things that should be true about our interactions with anyone not just our employers this should be true about interactions with any person that we’re in contact with if we’re Believers right so it makes sense that we just carry the same Godly attitudes from the rest of our Christian Life into the workplace and many times we try to separate those things we try to separate especially the workplace and thinking about how we make money A lot of times we see that as separate as long as we’re not doing anything illegal in society or listed explicitly as Sin in the Bible we feel that hey it’s okay so this was some takeaways that we had from um looking at what the Bible says about employees first our obedience to our employers does not depend on their intelligence or their work so doing what your manager says is not contingent on how good they are as a manager it doesn’t matter if you think your idea is better you know if you have the ability to interact with them and say hey this is why I think we can improve on what you said that’s one thing but Defiance because you think you’re smarter or you deserve the job but your idea is better is not something that that should ever enter a Christian’s mind second if we fell in this area it would dishonor God’s name and the Christian faith and we saw a lot about that last week and third as we already said the same practical behaviors that we try to develop in our walk with God shall follow us into the workplace and then we look quickly in First Corinthians 10 31 rather than you eat or drink or whatever you do to all to the glory of God and that includes how you are in the workplace as one who reports to others then we looked at if your role is that of management and you actually have people under you and here are some of the things that you can do to honor God in that role understand you and your employees are equals in God’s eyes have respect for your employees realize that God is in control and you are his servant set reasonable expectations keep the lines of communications open be consistent and never ask your employee to do wrong and here are some questions to ask about your conduct in the workplace what are some things that you do to make sure you honor God at work if you already have some practices in mind if you already have people you pray with or things that you think about or someone that you text when you’re tempted to disrespect your manager or your employees are tempted to even do wrong or ask to do wrong how can you be a better witness for Christ in the workplace how would you handle being asked to lie or be deceptive at work and do you think it’s possible to receive respect and obedience while still being graceful and is particularly for managers so as we said we’re going to look today at entrepreneurs and Freelancers so before we go on with today’s lesson let’s just um pray and seek God father and God we just thank you that your word is so rich that it instructs us on all of life we thank you God that you’ve given us the grace to be able to do what at times seems humanly impossible we thank you God that you are sanctifying us and developing our character in all these areas and we pray Lord that we will be able to honor you and especially as we look at self-employment and non-traditional income we just pray God that you would move in our hearts God if we are already in these roles that we would seek to honor you in them and for those of us who are considering them that we will be wise in the things that we think of we’ll be able to apply your word to it all and we ask this in Jesus name amen so looking at self-employment today and there are some things that we have to first understand about self-employment and then we want to see what the Bible says about those things that we are trying to understand so the first role is that of entrepreneur and this is one of the common definitions that I was able to find one who starts a business or other Venture that promises economic gain but also entails risk so it’s basically someone who starts a business to make money that’s seen as an entrepreneur the idea of an entrepreneur has a lot to do with managing in general and someone who was able to take on risk um a freelancer a person who works as a writing designer performer or the like selling work or Services by the hour day job Etc rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer and as we’ll see this definition is is limited there are a lot more we’ll see this in a little while a lot more areas a lot more occupations that one can enter as a freelancer but here’s the thing that I think is important because when I talk to most people who don’t own a business they say this doesn’t apply to me I don’t own a business and the way that I view it is that everyone who works is a business owner and this is kind of just this idea everyone who works as a business owner the only distinction is how many clients and customers you have so if you work a steady job for one employer you own a business and you have one customer you have one client that you work for you get all of your money from this one client whether it be IBM or Rutgers or Bayer or Merrill Lynch you have one client that you work for and you are a business owner everything you do the skills that you that you learn are not just for that employer they’re for your business if you go somewhere else you’ll take those skills with you you’ll take those certifications with you for the most part so you have to look at yourself as business owners your owners and if you actually study labor economics in the labor market workers are the suppliers of Labor so we’re actually seen in the same light as in a consumer Market where we’re purchasing Goods that people create people are purchasing your labor and purchasing your ideas so think of it that way that you are a business owner and some of these things may apply especially when we talk about other ways to to earn money so here’s some statistics about um self-employment that I thought was interesting as of there were 15 million people in this country that were classified self-employed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and actually this number is probably a lot higher it’s just very difficult to classify people as self-employed you know there’s a lot of murkiness when there comes to the Divide of whether someone is an employer an employee or if someone is a contractor or someone is their own business owner so these numbers are probably a lot higher but we can say at least 10 percent of all employment in this country is by people who are considered self-employed and that doesn’t include how many people they employ themselves this is just the people who are self-employed and what I think is is great about that number is that those with less than a high school diploma had the highest self-employment rates among the unincorporated that just means people who haven’t Incorporated their business those who work in maybe as um sole Proprietors and if we look at those that are actually Incorporated profession people with professional degrees and doctoral degrees have the highest self-employment rates so think about that whether you have a PhD or you don’t even have a high school diploma you can still be a business owner and everything in between you know I found it very interesting that um no matter which way you looked at the data the people who had the lowest self-employment rates were those with bachelors and master’s degrees non-professional master’s degrees so it seems like going to college and just getting that degree means that you’re just forcing yourself right into the what we call the rat race which isn’t a bad thing nothing I say today means that working for one employer is a bad thing it just means that there are risks involved with doing that as well as risks involved with trying to start things on your own and create your own business but I just thought it was great that those without a high school diploma could still start a business and they actually start businesses at higher rates than those who have mbas or phds and this is self-employment rates by occupation and a couple of things should stand out I think the one that we expected to be the highest is the highest I don’t know if everyone can read this but the one that has the highest self-employment is construction and extraction which really talks about mining so most people I think think of that you know someone who’s involved in construction being being self-employed but consider the numbers almost 20 percent so if you see five people who work in construction at least one of them is self-employed I mean just can just consider that a job site where you have 50 people working 10 of them probably have their own business I know they’re as contractors and are not there all as employees of one person who owns a mega Corporation just just consider how pervasive this is in a good way in our economy that people are are creating their own businesses there are some other ones that I think surprised me I was a little shocked that there’s some office and administrative support of people who you know secretarial clerical who have been self-employed who started their own businesses doing it because they saw a need and they wanted to meet a need and they saw that they were able to do it without going through uh traditional route all right now this one I can’t even tell what colors these are um but the one on the bottom should be blue I want to understand blue right okay all right so should be blue I thought it was purple I don’t know what looks here okay someone sees purple so maybe we’ll vote on this later but these this is looking at firms and looking at the different ages of firms and job creation so the purple bluish one is looking at firms that are at least 10 years old or older and what’s interesting here is looking at these dips I mean they are massive dips in the last recession we lost almost 6 million jobs from companies that were around for 10 years or longer at that time one thing so two things that we see is that they aren’t good at creating jobs you know big companies they’re big they’re huge it’s hard for them to move it’s hard for them to change the economy changes technology changes productivity changes it takes a while to take a company with two million employees and change and move in that direction versus a company with 20 employees it’s a lot easier to shift with the way things are going in the economy another thing to look at is when a recession hits it hits the larger companies a lot more which I think would be surprising to many of us you know many of us would rather be working for IBM than working for a local bookstore if the economy goes bad but according to this data it may be better to work at the local bookstore another thing that we see the top yellowish line shows job creation for companies that are four years old or younger and what’s interesting here is that not only do they create more jobs when the economy is doing well oh and the middle red one is in between between five and nine years but we see the yellow line it does better when the economy is doing well these smaller companies and when the economy tanks these companies stay strong or at least that entire area of employment stays strong so it’s another thing to think about when we think about self-employment and why am I saying all of this I’m saying all this because a lot of us are in positions where getting a second job or starting a business or even doing freelance work can really help us meet some of our financial goals and we’ll see even with what the Bible says about this in a little while um but a lot of us have fears or a lot of us think it’s not viable or only only that person can do it well we just saw that the highest rate of self-employment is among those who haven’t even finished high school and now we see that whether the economy is doing well or not doing well it seems to be better and there’s more ways to look at this data but just looking at it in this way seems to be better to start your own or work for a business that recently started has fewer employees there are a couple examples that we thought of of people who we know who have who have done just this um there was a young lady I met named Crystal I met her actually blogging she has a personal finance blog and she started making a lot of money from it um so much money she decided to quit her job and work at it full time and then she started doing advertising management for other people but just because she likes to talk this is really it she says I like to talk and other bloggers are introverts they don’t like people they hide behind their computers and they don’t like to talk so whenever you have to negotiate a deal with an Advertiser I’ll do it for you and take 25 percent and at one point she had 400 clients who all wanted her to do this for them just because one person posted in a form that said oh I hate this part of vlogging I hate having to negotiate with advertisers and she said hey I’ll do it for you just give me a cut and that went from that one conversation of 400 people because she kept thinking what can I do what skills do I have that I can take and and try to make extra money with then things started to change because of evil Google and they changed the way certain things worked with the internet and with advertising and search and all that stuff I’m a little bitter about it so I’m just going to move on um so she likes animals so then she said you know what when people go away they have to go to these kennels and they have to you know put their pets in these places or some people just leave their pets and hope leave they leaving with food for a day and hope they don’t get sick by just eating up all the food you know I’m gonna see if somebody wants to pay me to just visit their pet a couple times a day while they’re out of town and she started a pet sitting service that has grown so much that she has to Outsource work oh and I forgot to mention that her husband was also able to quit his job and they both just work at home doing pet sitting blog advertising management and um he refs local high school sports and that was all because of the way that they were thinking we have a friend who um I don’t know how she got introduced to this but she started making heating pads that are just stuffed with rice and apparently because it’s it’s rice and not whatever heating pads are usually made out of it can fit the Contours of your body better and it retains heat heat better doesn’t burn and she makes them kind of in a decorative way and she just sells these things and makes good money doing something that she just likes to do and sits there and does it passes the time hanging out with her teenage daughter doing it together reminded me of a guy who’s in our Mastermind group um he’s a teacher and the student asked him if he knew how to design a Star Trek ship in Photoshop he just wanted I I don’t know why you would want that but I guess he just wanted to see it hang it up I don’t know I’m not into that stuff but he said he didn’t know how to do it but he’d figure it out so in the course of figuring it out he figured out some other things that he can do and he decided to open the Etsy Shop um creating other art like that and selling it so now he just goes into Photoshop and says hey I want to create another ship or some other weird fantasy thing and he does that and people pay him now something they can do themselves but he just said hey and we play around with it I like this somebody else may too and it’s easy for me to set this up we know people who tutor and music and in other subjects um I was telling Sherry Ann about someone who his son is I guess he’s going to be a senior now he’s taking all these AP courses so you know this guy’s big brain stuff and um he already has scholarships so his college is set whatever College he chooses to go to but in order to have spending money and extra money he started tutoring people and so much so that he’s actually creating a full business out of it and is teaching others that are very very good at it how to do it themselves so he’s not only tutoring people but he’s training tutors and getting paid for that and lastly there was uh a guy his name was Jeff I don’t know his last name he created a Blog called deliver away debt why because he was in debt and he said I need extra money so he started delivering pizzas and he got it got so popular that he was making money from the blog and from delivering pizza when he paid off his debt he said I don’t need the blog anymore and he sold the blog and went on to do other things so why bring all that stuff up again just to show that this isn’t something that only those people can do and it’s something that we all should consider if we’re looking for extra income if we’re looking to hit goals pay off that we’ll actually look at some of the reasons why people do these things um in a minute so one more group of stats and then we’re moving on between March of 2014 and March 2015 you can see almost 800 000 businesses closed in that one year almost eight hundred thousand of those 55 of them were around for 10 years or more 16 were firms that were around for five to nine years and then 28 were from firms that were less than four years old and this this is the thing that amazes me remember almost 800 000 businesses closed in one year 000 of them were firms that had 500 or more employees that close shutdown not what part of mergers they’re actually closed 000 companies that had 500 or more employees close in in the last year or in a one year period so we need to make sure that we’re not trying to avoid Risk by doing something that seems non-traditional and at the same time taking on more risk because we are a business owner with only one client so as in most things that we say when we ask questions about things Christianity the answer is usually it’s a balance right and that almost becomes a cliche to say we have to balance this it’s a balance but it is our Viewpoint can’t be slanted in one One Direction or the other and as I said this this was actually a study that was done they’re going to do another one soon but I don’t think the numbers will change that much um this is the reason why people work more than one job and why do I bring this um out because even though I would love for 20 of the people in here 30 who are listening to do other things besides a 9-5 to earn money it doesn’t mean quit your job if you have one and just go out on a limb and start a business many people who do this have their full-time job and work until they get to a place where they can um leave the full-time job or if they’re making enough money to hit certain goals here are some of the goals as we see the big blue one 35 percent of people work more than one job to earn extra money and the way this survey went is they were asked what is the primary reason so a lot of these people probably share two or more reasons but they were only allowed to give one 35 percent of people working extra jobs to earn extra money that seems to make sense 28 do it to meet expenses or pay off debt so think about that’s that’s not just paying off debt this is meat expenses there are people who and this is primarily what we’re going to be looking at next week the balance between income and and expenses and adjusting our lifestyles um there are people who have income from a full-time job and it’s not enough to support their Lifestyles not enough to support their expenses so they have to get a second job 28 of the people who are serving here said that’s the reason why well that and also to pay off debt because they were living a life that at one point at least their lifestyle and their expenses were more than their income and they had to borrow to make up the difference in order to pay back what they borrowed they have a second job now even if their finances are in order which is one of the dangers of debt that you know we’ll be looking at in two weeks 17 of the people enjoys the second job so I don’t know if anybody here Works two jobs but does anybody work two jobs we can just figure that out no okay so at least one person Works two jobs do you work the second job because you enjoy it no okay all right so so we don’t have any of that 17 here one of the things I looked at when I looked at the data is that of this 17 percent 48 so basically half of the people who answered this way were 45 years old and older and that’s typically what you would expect I actually looked at the data saying that I bet you these people are at least 55 or older who are saying that people who have had time to have more experiences and develop more skills and to try different things and actually enjoy what they’re doing for different reasons you know a lot of people we know say they couldn’t imagine retiring and not working I don’t know what I would do with all my time and so they work a job because they actually enjoy doing it they enjoy the interaction with people they enjoy feeling as though they are contributing and five percent um do it to build a business or get experience in a different job and that’s also a great way you you take on a second job or you even start a business to develop skills and then use them in some other application later in life or in a full-time job so it’s not just about jumping ship and leaving a job so I don’t want anyone walking out of here quitting your job and then saying Khalif said on what’s what’s the date the 24th July 24th Kylie said we should quit our jobs because that’s what God would want us to do that is not what you’re hearing but you are hearing that a good option is to start something while you have a secure job so there are some directives in the Bible um for us to take risks so Ecclesiastes uh chapter one I said chapter 11. I keep saying that Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 1 and then verses four through six and actually really that this entire sixth verse section um so Ecclesiastes chapter 11. verse 1 says cast your bread on the surface of the waters for you will find it after many days verse 4.
He Who Watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap now what is he saying in verse especially in verse 4.
there’s actually a proverb and I meant to put it here and I didn’t that talks about the lazy man as being someone who hides in his house and says I can’t go outside and work there’s a lion outside my door and that’s that’s his excuse probably isn’t a lion from miles away but that’s his excuse you know there’s a lion outside so I can’t go out and work so I’m just going to stay inside and be lazy and it points to someone who’s who is so overly cautious that they never take action and and how that can be very very very very very very simple especially for those of us who know God so this person it says He Who Watches the wind will not sow if you’re constantly looking for the perfect conditions to sow seed you’re going to say the wind is too strong if I start scattering the seed it’s gonna just be blown away so I’ll just wait for tomorrow oh the wind is too strong can’t go you’ll never so and he who looks at the clouds will not reap the one who is always looking to find a reason not to do something to not do something will never do it so this is talking about and and we have to really Define risk which I think we’ll we’ll do after we see this but uh risk it’s not just saying I’m gonna go for it and close my eyes and just run out there and you know I’m gonna run across the highway and hope I don’t get hit just gonna close my eyes and just say God will take me across that’s not what what risk is when the Bible talks about this type of risk when the Bible points out that a lazy person always looks for excuses to not um excuses to not do something it’s talking about someone who’s not calculating whether that risk is something they should worry about you know they’re not calculating the probability of the risk they’re not calculating the amount of damage that will happen if the things they worry about actually um comes to pass verse five just as you do not know the past of the win or how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things so what is he saying you you don’t know ultimately in every individual instance what God is going to do you don’t know if you’re going to start a business you don’t know if you’re going to take your craft and it actually becomes youthful you don’t know if you’re a great cook and if you start some type of catering business they’ll be successful or not you don’t know if you work at IBM where they have layoffs you don’t know those things you don’t know which way God is going to take you when you go on a certain path just as though you you don’t know the path of the Wind so that also is not an excuse you can’t stand still because you say God is not going to take me in this direction or I don’t know which way I’m going to go well you never will and as we see that’s not what we’re called to do and that’s not why we’re giving gifts and abilities and talents and ideas to stand still verse 6.
sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening for you do not know whether morning or evening sewing will succeed whether both of them alike will be good so he’s repeating the same idea the fact that you don’t know is not reason to stand still and not do anything and if it is something that you believe can have benefit and will still be in line with the idea that God is the owner of these resources and you’re a steward of these resources then do it there are some things to consider that we’ll talk about but do it this this is what what we see here Ecclesiastes 9 10 because whatever your hand finds to do do it with all of your might why for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom and shield where you are going you’re gonna die and when you die it will be too late what are you waiting for that’s that’s really what Solomon is saying here whatever your hand finds to do do it with all your might you only have one chance to do most of the things that you’re called to do so what are you waiting for I mean that’s that’s really I think that’s you know if I can paraphrase Solomon I think he would be happy with that with that paraphrase do it what are you what are you waiting for and has anybody ever seen the movie Predator or Arnold Schwarzenegger there’s a scene at the end of the movie where he’s set to trap for the predator right does everybody know that scene right he sets a trap for the predator and he wants him to come into the Trap but in order for him to fall into the Trap he has to attack him so he’s standing there and he says kill me kill me I’m here do it now kill me and you can just that’s what I see Solomon saying do it now God’s giving you the gift he’s given you the ability he’s giving you the opportunity do it now what are you waiting for like I said there is balance right so we’re going to balance those things out with um some things that we should consider and here’s a couple more uh passengers to talk about risks that we’re not going to read um you will remember Matthew 25 through 27 is a section of that parable of the talents where the master rebukes the one that he gave one talent to we talked about this a lot last week and that one the guy had one talent and instead of using it he buried it in the sand and he gave an excuse for not using what the master had given him and he was the only one that was rebuked so here’s some things to consider so this is why you don’t just jump and do it now or at least some things to think about before you do God’s will now then we just say that it’s impossible to know whether God will take you in this direction or not uh Ecclesiastes said it’s it’s impossible to know whether you’re mourning sewing or your evening sowing will succeed so it’s impossible to know but we can pray that God will show us his will we can do two things we can of course pray we can look at scripture we can look at principles the Bible presents us and we can also seek counsel so Proverbs 3 5-6 since we don’t have it up there anymore since Greg wanted to rip it down for a TV it says trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight in Proverbs 12 15 says the weight of a fool is right in his own eyes but a wise man is he who listens to counsel so we consider what God’s will is for us just because we have a certain ability or we learned a certain skill at some point in life doesn’t mean that our life should revolve around that skill number two the impact on our family and Church Life Hebrews 10 24 and 25.
says and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds for not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near is this new job is this new activity is this freelance opportunity is this business you start going to prevent you from obeying this command are you going to be able to stimulate your brothers and sisters to love and good works are you going to be able to carry out all the one another commands of scripture if you do this the impact on your family life is another one to consider and I want everybody to turn to proverbs 31.
I guess I should too okay all right Proverbs chapter 31.
if you’re using one of the Bibles in the Pew it’s page 669.
so I want us to look at two themes that are going through this presentation of this woman the first is looking at her as a freelancer in Proverbs 31 verse 13 it says she looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in the light verse 16 says she considers a field and buys it from her earnings she plants a Vineyard in verse 24 says she makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the Tradesmen excuse me so we see much of her creative activity is used to make money it’s used in business Endeavors she has these different skills she has disabilities and she says this is a way that I can supply the needs of the people around me and they’ll find Value in it and they’ll in turn give me money and she’ll be able to better even support um her husband’s endeavors but there was I think an even stronger theme in looking at this woman and that is how she cares for her family and her household while doing all these things verses 11 and 12 says the heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain she does him good and not evil all the days of her life verse 15 she Rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens verses 20 and 21 she extends her hand to the poor and stretches out her hands to the knee she is not afraid of the snow for her household for all her households are clothed with Scarlet verses 27-29 she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness her children rise up and bless her her husband also and he Praises her saying many daughters have done nobly but you Excel them all so we see that even though she is very busy even though she is an entrepreneur even though she has different businesses set up and different people in the town depending on her her primary focus is her family and if we’re going to consider taking on another job we’re going to consider trying to earn more money even if for something Noble like getting out of debt or even just earning more money so we can give more whatever it is we have to make sure that it does not stop our ability to minister to our family it is not severely interfere with our family life so we need a lot of wisdom when it comes to thinking about starting a business or just trying to do things to earn more money a motivation do you have the proper motivation do you think wealth will save you do you desire to have something right now that you may not need and that’s why you you want to get this extra money do you think that once you hit a certain level then you’ll be secure and that’s what your banking your security in are you still trusting in God Proverbs 28 20 says a faithful man will abound with blessings but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished expertise do you know what you’re doing it’s great to see a need and say somebody should do this but if you don’t have that ability don’t do it you know if you’re not a really good driver working for Uber probably isn’t for you just because it seemed like a good idea or you may have the time doesn’t mean that you have the expertise necessary to carry the thing out and this is where Council comes into play as well because others are usually better at evaluating out gifts than we are Proverbs 19 2 says also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge and he who hurries his footstep airs so doing a proper evaluation of yourself to make sure that you can do this and do it for the long haul and do it well and do it with Excellence that’s something that that’s required as well not just a warm body throwing out efforts that aren’t guided cost are their startup costs involved are there things that you have to do before you can actually launch this business before you can start creating this product are there licenses or certifications that you have to get do you have to register with the state or with the county these are all questions that we have to ask what is it going to actually cost us to start this and if the if it’s an investment then you can you can consider it but it’s something that needs to be in your mind Luke 14 excuse me 28-30 says for which one of you when he wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it otherwise when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish all who observe it begin to ridicule him saying this man begun began to build and was not able to finish so we don’t want to be in that position we don’t want to be in a money pit and honestly I think a lot of sales jobs can be that way or jobs that require us to put out money up front and then get reimbursed or put out money up front and then earn commissions later and those commissions will hopefully be more than the money we put out you know for doing the job just consider those things and and understand what’s involved research is this something that’s actually in demand are you fulfilling a need can you take something that already exists and improve on it like we mentioned Uber before I can’t imagine driving in any airport seeing a thousand taxi circling and then saying you know what I should create a taxi service I can’t imagine that but the makers of uber and Lyft saw a need and decided that there was something missing and there’s a way that we can improve on what’s already there Proverbs 21 5 says the plans of the diligent lead surely to Advantage but everyone who is Hasty come surely to poverty and I think the one theme that we’re getting out of this is that we shouldn’t jump into anything so even if Solomon is screaming do it now that’s also tempered with the rest of the wisdom in the Bible and much of the wisdom that Solomon wrote that tells us that we need to take our time that we need to evaluate all of our opportunities that are in front of us we need to pray seek God’s will seek Godly counsel see how it will impact our family and another thing is just to think about future considerations what do we want to do ultimately do we just need a couple of dollars now do we just need to get through a tight spot do we just want to pay off this last credit card debt or get rid of our student loan or do we think this is something that we’re going to actually build and one day be able to step away from our full-time job and just do this if you’re someone who maybe is a student or it just came out of school and you’re thinking about going into a career is this something that you’re going to do for the Long Haul should you invest in in developing yourself to be better equipped to do it these are all things that that we have to consider don’t just look at what you want to do in the next month but look at what you want to do down the line and ultimately how you think you can glorify God in all of this one great thing especially if you’re in the service industry about these opportunities is that it allows you to meet people that you probably never would have met it gives you opportunity to share the gospel with so many more people than if you were just working with the same five people every day so that’s another thing to consider as well how can you have an impact on the kingdom not just through making that money but also providing a service for people and being able ultimately to share the gospel with people so there are four words that we see in passages that talk about business owners and when we look at the passages most of them are negative most of the passages are speaking about characteristics that God hates we see these four themes running through honesty fairness integrity and honor as a business owner as someone who provides a service we have to have all of these if we’re going to honor God Proverbs 11 1 says a false balance is an Abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his Delight and this was a huge problem and actually probably still is that Traders would trade goods and they would have scales imbalances that were always in their favor you know they would and we’ll actually see I think two scriptures now we’ll actually see an example of how that was done Jeremiah 22 17 but your eyes and your heart are intent only and this is um God actually talking to uh Kings here um King obviously unrighteous Kings but your eyes and your heart are intent only upon your own dishonest gain and on shedding innocent blood and on practicing oppression and extortion there are less checks and balances when you’re the owner you’re usually the owner and the accountant and everything else in that business it’s you and very easy or it’s easier to fall into the temptation of being dishonest to make an extra dollar you know giving less of your product or tainting it in some way or doing things to raise prices and um when it’s unnecessary to do so because you see you can take advantage of someone who is in need you know these types of things may seem to make sense in a capitalist Society like ours where the motivation for greater gain is what has really driven this economy but as Christians we can you can still believe for capitalism as a Christian but you have honesty Integrity fairness and honor and that’s how you interact with everyone Deuteronomy 25 13-16 is actually going to be on two slides so you may want to turn there if you need to see it easier you shall not have in your bag differing weights a large and a small you shall not have in your house differing measures a large and a small so again depending on what they wanted to happen in the business transaction they could say this is I’m giving you a talent of silver and I’m going to buy this let me weigh this Talent of silver and there’s already weight in that scale so they put on three quarters of a talent and it chose to be at one full Talent and those are the types of things that they would do you know they would do the opposite when people gave them money you know somebody has a bag with a certain Talent would be a bigger bag but you know somebody would would have a bag with money and they can say well I’ll put it on my scale and it’s not what you said it was I could have sworn I had enough money in this bag I waited before I left the house well you waited on a good scale but this business owner wants to take advantage of you and puts it on his scalp and the same things with the goods that they sold he goes on to say you shall have a full and just wait you should have a full and just measure that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you for everyone who does these things everyone who acts unjustly is an Abomination to the Lord your God this isn’t just trying to make an extra bump this is something that God detests God hates this type of action God hates when you try to take advantage of someone if you’re going to sell a house and not disclose things that you know are wrong and going to cost someone money God hates that type of activity he hates in our personal lives he hates it in our business Affairs he hates it when we’re working for other people or whether we own our own God hates that type of character Amos 8 4-6 I thought this was a fascinating one almost eight four through six um it says hear this you who trample the needy and do away with the humble of the land saying when will the new moon be over so that we may sell green and the Sabbath that we may open the wheat Market so look at what they they want they’re just sitting there waiting for these days of rest and these religious festivals to end so they can open their business again they just can’t wait to sell why because they see there’s a need they see that there’s people who need grain and need wheat and so they just can’t wait to supplies and eat and help out the neighbor no why do they want to do it to make the bushel smaller and a shekel bigger and to cheat with dishonest scales so again they’re going to give you less product and they’re going to take more money from you verse six so as to buy the helpless for money and the needy for a pair of sandals and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat which is you know the chaff that’s usually blown away because you want to purify your product and hear their their actually making it impure by mixing in something that’s impure and we see that a lot with metals that that was done as well and other items of value if you found a way to cut it and mix in something that was cheaper you do it you have some filler put that in and then sell it as a pure product and then you use less product and you make more money so all of these passages uh we see that God expects us to be honest fair and honorable and to have integrity in how we deal with customers suppliers and creditors and how we even present our goods and services how we sell ourselves a lot of salesmanship is based on dishonesty and deception and we can’t have any part of that the last thing I just wanted to look at is I tried to give it a nice title in the email that I sent out most people will say get rich quick schemes but there are jobs there are opportunities or that’s how they’re presented where you’re told you can make a lot of money pretty quickly with not much risk and one thing I’ve seen is that these things really get a foothold in the church I don’t know I don’t know if it’s because we just want to be trusting like we just want to think everybody’s a good guy and anyone who knows one or two scriptures and can sing to him we automatically think wow whatever they have to present to me has to be a great idea and and we don’t think through things as much you know as as Christians a lot of times because we think that we don’t want to be unfair in our judgment and we want to give that person grace even if we think there could be something that doesn’t sound quite right in what they’re presenting so a lot of times Christians seem to be the ones that that fall for these things I can’t tell you how many presentations that I’ve sat through in different churches you know talking about various things that you know any anything that you want they tell you that you know all of your joint problems go away if you just slap a magnet on your on your wrist well you want customers go to the church and sell it to them you know if you want to do some type of pyramid scheme some ponzai scheme go to the church and tell them it’s a way that their members can all get rich and then they can give a lot more to the church and the church will become wealthy and so the church says sure come in here and present this great idea we can get out people some money so here’s some things that the Bible has to say about chasing after wealth Proverbs 23 4-5 say do not worry yourself to gain wealth cease from your consideration of it when you set your eyes on it it is gone for wealth certainly makes itself like wings makes itself wings like an eagle that flies towards the heavens so don’t wear yourself trying to get wealthy why it’s going to fly away as soon as you look at the wealth that’s gone and Proverbs 28 19-20 we read verse 20 earlier says he who tills his land will have plenty of food but he who follows empty Pursuits will have poverty in plenty so look at the promise if you work hard then you will have plenty of food and as I said there are things in the Bible that talk about Provisions for people who are not able to work and said we’ll get to those we’ll cover those in this course but those who are able and especially have the opportunity if you have land fill that lane and if you do you have plenty of food but if you follow empty Pursuits instead of trying to work hard you’ll have poverty in plenty you’ll be living as though you’re in a famine while everybody else around you is feasting there’ll be plenty in the land and you’ll be living as though there is a family in verse 20 again a faithful man will abound with blessings but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished so the Bible is clear that wealth should never be our goal God provides for our needs and for the responsibilities he has given us as stewards so if God’s given you more than you need for just your uh basic you know food clothing shelter then that means that your responsibilities are higher than just providing food clothing and shelter for your family so God provides what you need for the responsibilities that he’s given you and the Bible teaches us that if you’re faithful in those things and fulfilling those responsibilities then God gives more and that’s how it works not chasing after wealth in the primary way through which God provides Us by our hard work by our labor which we looked at last week and so that was actually a blessing from God it’s not through empty Pursuits about chasing wealth and we’re going to close on two verses that I think really show us what our Pursuit should be and of course Matthew 6 33 but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you well if you look at the previous verses what is he talking about talking about your food and clothing and shelter and I think last year maybe 2014 Dave caposhi preached um two messages out of this this passage so if you want to see all those things that God provides promises to provide and will be added to you go listen to those messages and Mark 8 36 but what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul seems like kind of an obvious question right there is no profit there is nothing that should be more important than honoring God your relationship with God and we see that God will provide all we need through our hard work or even through others but God never promises to provide through us dishonoring his word or disobeying his commands and as always if you have questions you can email us there and we’ll make sure to either answer them or include them in a future lesson to make sure they get answered let’s go to the Lord’s Prayer our great God we thank you for what you have given us we thank you for how you’ve provided for us in every way God we thank you for our gifts our talents our abilities we thank you for the opportunity to provide value to others we thank you God that everything that we do even if we think about starting a business or creating a craft and selling it is something that can’t honor you and it’s part of your plan it’s part of the stewardship you have given us and Lord we ask that you would help us to be mindful of these things and not just look at the way Society prevents presents these Financial um topics to us but that we would want to know from your word how we should View every aspect of our life including our personal finances help us God to implement these things and God if any of us have an attitude that um causes us to seek after wealth or look for security enriches God move us to repent and move us to turn towards you and seek first your kingdom and we thank you God even for the for everyone who is serving today we thank you for those people who are sacrificing their time and their energy to make this service happen so that we all could come together and worship you as a body and we ask it in Christ’s name amen