Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. We're thinking praise you that
you do allow us once a month to come together.
I believe that in Jesus name that we will continue to produce
some things that are going to have people want to come and in
here the different levels in the different areas that we are
wanting to participate in your economic system and that we
begin to see the fruit and others will want to know about
that fruit. Be curious and that we can share
with them regardless of where they are in their careers or
their businesses or whatever it is that they're doing.
I just appraise you in thinking that in Jesus name, your word
has something for all of us and we want a desire to get to know
your word and we thank you in advance for the outcome this
evening in Jesus name, Amen. All right, tonight I'm going to
talk to you about purpose. OK, I, I still think that the,
the, the word purpose, we hear it from the pulpit a lot.
I've had to take a look at myself numerous occasions over
the years. On reestablishing, you know,
purpose and and the whole thing now I've got written down listen
to this at AFC, we talk a lot about purpose, yet we still have
many in our. Church that struggle with
finding the reason they're on the planet.
They said, I want to start tonight by talking to you about
personally about the, the purpose and then we'll wrap up
and apply the things to our business.
OK, so we're going to talk about us personally, you know, tonight
and, and, and I want you to remember that, you know, there's
several scriptures in there that let us know that no matter where
we are right now, no matter how we got there, all right, that
God had a plan for us. OK, you can jot down Jeremiah
15. You may already know this, it
said. But before I formed you in the
belly, I knew you, and and before you came forth out of the
womb, I sanctified you and ordained you as a prophet unto
the nations. OK, Now the Bible tells us that
God is no respecter of persons, All right?
So if there's want something that you find in a promise or
something to one person in the Bible, know this now.
Not all of us in in context of call to be prophets.
I mean, that's obvious, right? OK.
But I can, I can guarantee you this that he formed me in the
belly, OK, before I came out of my mama's womb.
All right? I know that he set me apart for
something and that my job is to find out what that something.
Is OK. Now the next scripture you've
heard before is Psalms 139. Verses 13 and 14 and he said,
For you have possessed my reigns, you have covered me in
my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and
that and that my soul knoweth. It right.
Well, so he's telling us and I think it's interesting because I
looked up the word reigns in there.
You know that he possesses the reigns and really it's funny
because it is the word for kidneys.
OK, But you think about the kidneys as far as in it, they
are in the innermost part of your body, OK?
And and we've all heard it that if the kidneys ain't functioning
right, we ain't functioning right, OK.
I mean, I've had my own battles, OK, with, you know, kidneys
being off and and all that medical science has to help you
and get your strength back and get everything back.
But it it's it. Tell me now.
And who possesses them? It says you possessed OK, the
the most intricate parts of me. You possessed them OK, one by
right of creation. But because he loved us and made
us free moral agents, we can go do our own thing.
But he's letting us know. Listen, I he said you are
fearfully and wonderfully made every one of us.
There's a plan. There's no such thing as uh oh
in God's Kingdom. All right, even that you know,
people that said, well, I wasn't expected.
You know, my parents didn't expect that doesn't matter
because the reason that you're here and you are spirit being on
the planet is because God had a plan regardless of how you got
here, OK? I think one of the greatest, the
greatest examples of getting that understanding, it was a
minister named James Robinson. OK, James Robinson was a a, a
humongous evangelist. His mother was raped and and and
she decided she's going to keep the baby.
How rare is that? OK.
And he became one of the most powerful voices of God even in
that situation. So he was fearfully and
wonderfully planned out in the Kingdom, not necessarily we in
the world. OK.
So I think it's interesting. So one of the ways that I want
to begin is to get a little clarity on our purpose, is to
start identifying a thing. Because when we talk to people
about purpose, you know, and they wonder what is my purpose?
What is my purpose? And unfortunately, you know, we
go to we go to schools, you know, public education, people
are trying to get you into a mold of not so much purpose.
But you know what, what do you want to do?
Because I remember I took an aptitude test in high school and
they said after all of the testing and all the results come
back, we think you would be a great check this out for a
stranger. I said what I said, there is
nothing about the outside and especially the woods that get me
excited. Nothing.
So I don't even know where you get these tests and thinking,
you know, and I finally get to meet a forest Ranger, you know,
and Gunter, I mean, he's a, he's a forest Ranger man.
And and and I look at him and I said, well, I'm about foot too
short and a little bit too narrow because apparently I
picture they all look like you, you know, and he loves it.
And I'm thinking, man, I don't even like getting out in the
yard. And yet, you know, you're going
to put me on in a tower up in some woods someplate.
No, And I'm thinking, you know what, what what is the deal?
So immediately I cast that aside.
All right, but let me give you some questions.
There's three questions that not only we need to train us, we
need to train our kids. We need to train our grandkids,
all right, that they need to start asking all right about
and, and this is to help identify the gifts and the
talent that you have been so wonderfully made with, All
right. And so the first one very simply
is this, what tasks or projects come easier to you than most
other people? What tasks or projects come
easier for you than most other people?
And you sit down and think, what is it that I like to do?
What is it that I can do that it comes easy for me, but yet other
people either struggle or they're not interested.
OK, that's your first question. The second question is what may
feel like work to others, but is pleasurable to me and even
sometimes fun. OK, what is it that feels like
work to others but is pleasurable to you or even fun?
Everybody else thinks it's a drudgery.
Everybody else thinks it's, you know, a work, a task or
something, but you just like it. All right, And here's your third
one. What can you do that leaves you
wondering what is it that you do that leaves people wondering why
most people aren't good at it? OK, let me see if I read it
again. What can you do that leaves it
leaves you wondering why most people aren't good at it?
OK, so in other words, there's something that you're doing and
it comes so easy to you and you wonder other people.
Golly, can't you figure this out?
You don't like doing this. This is easy because we all have
those little things. I mean, you know, one of mine
now because I train myself is bookkeeping.
I like it. I mean, I, you know, I've become
very proficient at it and, and I'm looking at everybody else
trying to get them in QuickBooks, you know, get them
in some kind of accounting. Program for their lives and
their businesses. And, and, and they give me
9,000,000 reasons why they don't do it, why they don't like it,
why, you know, and I'm thinking, man, that's, that's weird.
I didn't like it. I didn't even understand it.
But you know, I had some desperate situations come up and
now I like it. I mean, you know, it, it paints
a picture for me to get an understanding.
I until I understood that, you know, the simple things like
accounting paint the picture of where you are financially, OK,
and how much strength I got out of that, of not being ignorant,
but in the know, you know, it made a world of difference in my
life. All right.
And and we're going to talk more about that here in a minute
because there's some things that I think that we can do all
right. And so, you know, if you can't
answer those particular questions in your own self, you
know, you might need to do what I've done before is ask friends
questions. What do you think I'm good at?
What is it when you think of me? What is when you think of me?
What do you think comes easy to me?
What do you think that you know you have?
Is there ever been anything said?
I wish I could do that like I do that.
OK. Is there anything?
Ask questions, ask, you know, friends, business people, you
know, whoever you have relationships with.
If you can't figure it out, you know on your own that somebody
might be able to tell you. All right now.
And once we start, once we start identifying the gifts that that
we have, it may take some time. But here, here's another person
that you really need to check in with, if not first, is the Lord,
OK? He knows why he made you.
He knows what he gave you gifts and talents in and he knows what
you would be good at. I mean, all my entire life, all
I ever wanted to be from elementary on was an artist.
That's all I ever wanted to be was an artist.
I didn't care. I didn't even know that the
desire to have an artist, you could make money or you could
lose money being an artist. OK, You know, you have you heard
the term starving artist? That's because most of them are
all right. They they just they love to
paint. Now I the thing was, is that as
I grew older and I met more and more artists that are, you know,
bent toward the arts, the weirder they got in my eyes that
I didn't really want to hang around them.
I mean, I had great aspirations, man.
When I when I was in junior high, one of the most depressing
times in my life was 7th grade. I had put out an elective.
I want to take art. Well, guess what?
Art was full. I couldn't get in.
I went, I went to the Molly Grubs.
All right, No kidding. I mean, it was terrible.
And and so I found another, I found another little passion
which allowed me to get that creative flair inside of me.
And it was wood shop and metal shop and I, I got to take those
and fell in love with those because of all the cool things
that we could make and, and, and the teachers.
But then they changed my border of my school in in 8th grade and
I had to go to a whole new school.
But guess what? I got to take heart.
I'll never forget Gary Gory. That was his name, man Gory.
Gary Gory love the class. 9th grade, he lets all of us know
you all are going to East Central High School next year.
You want to get in with a teacher named Linda Wilson and
she is a screen printer and she teaches screen printing one.
OK, I don't even know if it had a number on it because it went
until my senior year. They decided to do screen
printing too. But I took commercial art my
junior year. I'm ready to go.
I get through third year, I'm going to college.
I'm going to Linda Wilson's college, Tulsa University, to
get a commercial art degree. That was the plan.
I get there. They freaked me out.
I mean, talk about weird. They had a load of it, that the
art, the art people there, they were trying to get me to go to
art education. I don't want to teach it.
I just want to draw it. And this is no computers.
There's no such thing as computers then.
OK, 1979, we didn't know what a computer was.
I mean, they were big as a room. Yeah, you know that.
And and I thought, you know, but they wanted us to teach, and
they kept putting the pressure on for teach.
And I tell the young, I tell the young people I did a what do
they call it? Chat and chew.
Have you heard of that chat and chew where you talk to the
students while they're eating? Like, that's a great idea.
I'm thinking, man, I want to try some, you know, and you can't do
it. You're.
You're supposed to be chatting while they're chewing.
And and I looked over at Abby and Coco and I said, should I
tell them the story of Bob? And they go, oh, yes, please
tell that story of Bob. Bob was in my class in college.
Now, Bob was old, older than us. I mean, there was most of us
were right out of high school. And he he was kind of old.
And I'm thinking, how did he get in here?
I didn't understand that it didn't matter how old you were,
you could go to college. I mean, I had a guy in one of my
classes. It's called rhetoric and
writing, and that's where you wrote papers and stories and
like that. And I couldn't compete to the
guy next to me because he was Indiana Jones.
He'd been everywhere, done everything.
And his papers were phenomenal. They were like novels.
And I said, how do we compete with that?
I mean, I ain't even done nothing.
I'm 17. Give me a break.
And so it was so funny. So here's Bob, you know, Bob
comes to class and this is where I learned how different school
is in college. He come to class with overalls.
No. Shirt.
Long greasy hair. A backpack before backpacks were
a thing, and a flute in it. No shoes.
He comes in every morning before the teacher gets there, pulls
out his flute, I think they call it a recorder, OK.
And he starts some kind of funky Indian type blowings every
morning. Well, one day the teacher said,
listen, you know, we want you to bring Ziploc bags full of
different colors of dirt. Bring some cardboard boxes, a
bottle of Elmer's glue, some paper sacks.
I mean, not paper, but plastic bags.
Bring them Monday. OK, what?
In the world. So we're sitting there and he
goes, OK, first thing we're going to make is what we want to
call a dirt sculpture. Get you a piece of cardboard, 9
inch by 9 inch. You're going to coat it
completely with Elmer's glue and you're going to take those
different colors of dirt and you're going to start making a
sculpture and it's going to stick on there and you're going
to have a sculpture when you're done.
And man, I'm starting to think now, how much was this class?
How much did I pay to come? So anyway, we're all going,
right? Bob is over there.
And Bob being older, think probably a little more than us.
He goes to the bathroom and gets a little bowl of water and a
stack of the old brownish Gray paper towels and sets him there.
And he begins to go to work. So he is, he's taking the dirt
and he's making a little, you know, little mountain, little
different stuff like that. And then he dips his fingers in
the water and he gets a paper towel and he wipes it and wads
it up and throws a paper towel upside.
And he's going. Well, you know, we get about 30
minutes into this and the, the, the professor comes over and
says, everybody, everybody, stop what you're doing.
Come over here, said I want you everybody gather around Bob,
gather around Bob. So we're going.
Bob has the coolest looking topographical map on a 9 by 9
piece of cardboard with a little volcano and a Little River and
some and some, you know, different little mountains and
stuff like that, which I thought that's cool.
And he goes, this is not what I'm looking for.
He goes over to the pile of paper towels and goes, this is
what I'm looking for. I said what?
I'm looking at my friends what? And he says he's thinking too
hard on this sculpture. You need to create a sculpture
that is spontaneous. I want you to be spontaneous
just like this pile of paper towels.
He didn't think about how to throw them in there and how to
stack them and stuff. He just threw them over there
and. That is the piece of art that
we've got. OK, I almost blew a gasket, but
we had two more. We have two more sculptures to
do, one out of ripped cardboard glued to a square and plastic
bags shredded and glued to a square.
All right, I made it through that class.
I made it through that semester and then all of a sudden I said
I'm out of here and I'm dropped out of college because of them
people. I mean, they were the weirdest
bunch, the weirdest bunch. And it didn't end with.
That one because I had another episode with Bob once,
one-on-one. OK, he had like a 1963 GMC
pickup. I'm failing in art history.
Like F test F test F. Went to the Dean of Arts and
Sciences, said I needed withdrawal pass.
The instructor won't give it. He said you go back over there
and tell him. I told him to do it.
OK, no problem. So I get over there and and,
and, and before that happened, I'm making an F and all we're
doing is watching slides on a in a dark room and I'm watching 700
slides per. Test and I have to recall seven
of them. What is the chances of that
happening? I I always studied the wrong 7,
always FFF. And he goes, you know what you
need to do. I don't think you're trying.
OK, He goes, he goes, you need to study with Bob.
Are you kidding me? Bob is getting this, but he's
old Miami. He ought to be able to figure
something out. He's probably around when half
that stuff was created in in Rome and Athens, Greece and and
all that stuff and and they go, no, you need to study with him.
I said Bob, he said. I said.
The professor said I need to study with you.
You've got some kind of system or something that might help me.
OK, He goes. OK, man, you meet me tomorrow at
my truck. The truck's in the parking lot.
It's running. It's cold outside and it's a 19
in the in the a place on it that doesn't have a cave in place
dent it paint's falling off of it.
I get up and I open the door and it smells like an old.
Pickup truck, nasty seeds, the whole bit.
I'm, I pop up in there, I got my book.
And he goes, OK, and he starts, you know, he starts talking and
telling me, you know, if you'll do this and this and, you know,
remember this and all this stuff.
All of a sudden he reaches under the seat and pulls out a milk
carton. And in the milk carton I just
happened to glance at it, trying to get it like what's going on.
And in it was something about inch and a half deep dark brown.
And something a little lighter brown on the top that was
swishing around a little bit. And he pops the top off of that
and starts drinking it. And he goes, you want to drink?
I said, I'm good. I said, what is that, Bob?
And he goes, oh man. He said every morning I, you
know, go to the Creek and I fill up this jug with Creek water.
I said, have you ever thought of getting the dirt out first
because it was an inch and a half of dirt in the bottom of
it. I can't even imagine what it
tastes like. But he was another reason.
It was kind of like strike one Bob, strike two Bob.
All right. I didn't wait for strike three.
I just went ahead and and and moved out.
OK. I left everything when I left
college. I let all my art supplies and
all my high dollar stuff in the locker.
Lock on the lock gone left, all right.
But I didn't lose that desire to be an artist.
I just thought it's going to have to come another way.
And fortunately what happened was I got a job OK working in a
screen printing. Firm.
So I already had I already had it and all of a sudden I start
growing and developing in the love for screen printing.
Now this is the weirdest thing in school.
It was in an art form, like oil painting.
You had to make up something in your mind and then you had to
get it into a screen printable format.
And, and, and this is what we did.
But then I met a guy one day in school, he was a senior when I
was a junior and he said, I said, man, you got the nicest
car of anybody in this school. It was like a 6667 Mustang.
Completely redone, but he had the giant mags on the back, you
know, like racing tires on the back in the whole bed.
And I said, how'd you get that car?
He said, well, me and my dad have a business together.
And I said, what kind of business?
He goes screen printing business.
I said what? And he said, you know, he said
it's a screen printing business and we print football jerseys.
I didn't know you could print football jerseys with screen
printing and I didn't know it'd make money.
Had no idea. So, you know, I just listened to
him talk about it and stuff like that.
And I thought, well, maybe there's some places in town and
got several of my first jobs where screen printing places,
printing shirts and different things, you know, like we do
today. All right, well, here was the
thing that, you know, in in seeking the Lord and then being
evolved into, Hey, I love the arts and Lord, how can I, how
can I use that for you? I mean, I don't even get it.
Well, you know, when I started my own business in 83, there
were, you know, I had a great vision of being able to do
Christian radio stations. OK, bumper stickers for those
radio stations. What the radio station did was
sold advertising on the back. And then that would pay for the
stickers and then they could get their stickers on all the cars
in, you know, in the surrounding areas of the radio station.
And I, I did that. I marketed for that.
I did that. But then they got to plan the
nickel and dime deal on me. And they said, you know how, how
many 20,000 stickers, how much you're going to cost?
And and I'd tell them seven and a half cents, OK per sticker.
OK. And they said, OK, we'll get APO
over to you in a little bit. Well, the next call that I got
was, hey, we found somebody to do it for seven.
Can you do it for 6 1/2? I didn't know this was an
auction. OK, But then another phone call,
it'd be down to a nickel. So I really wasn't making that
much money. I was doing a lot of stickers
and working a little hard. But then it wasn't until one day
a guy came in with a safety sign.
They said caution do not. Use water hose.
I had no idea what that is about his metal sign.
He said, can you make this? I don't want it on metal, I want
it on sticker. I said, yeah, man, I make it.
I go, how many? Me, Just a couple of dozen right
now. Well, I found out he worked for
an oil company and that oil companies need those kind of
signs and different things, man. Immediately I found the niche
that has made me literally millions of dollars and it's
still in Business Today. And then, you know, I asked it,
OK, but is that, is that my my total purpose?
Because I have been involved in different organizations,
Oilfield Oilfield, Christian Oilfields Association, where
I've been able to go and I flew down to Houston and spoke for
them at one of their conferences and the different things.
So everybody knew that, you know, I was a believer.
But you know, when we, we, we take a look at, you know, those
gifts and those talents and we asked the Lord, how do you want
to use this? How is it that I can make a
difference in the people I come in contact with?
For me, most of it was just to ask the Lord that when I meet
with someone, start a conversation, Lord, start the
conversation. And I've had that done so many
times where people just ask out of the way.
What do you think's going on in the news?
You know, I heard something about, you know, this might be
in the Bible and they don't know me from nothing and then they
get to know me and I'm all about the Bible.
I want to talk to Him about the Bible.
So when we think about the purpose and the things that
God's got in, it got us into the question that we have to ask is
what is his purpose for me being in this?
How am I going to expand the Kingdom of God?
Just one person at a time if necessary to be able to do it
now. Two elements that we all face.
OK, that will help us understand where we need to get into the
place God wants. Us OK in our purpose, they're
just two simple things. It's all the things we can
control and all the things we can't.
And this is the this is the part because there are some things
and I've taught this, you know, to you guys for years when we
talk about the tithe. OK, what was the purpose of the
tithe? The purpose of the tithe, Yes,
to take care of the fivefold ministry.
In our day, it was take care of the Levitical tribe.
But when he said in there I will control the things you can't if
you'll just do what I've asked. You to do so there is a control.
We can control the tithe. We bring the tithe.
And then there's things that happened in our spiritual life,
in our business life, that sometimes we can't control, like
an unhappy customer. OK, you know, those of you who
read my book, I have a chapter in there called Diffusing the
Disgusted. OK, I learned how to do that.
All right, because the Bible's true.
It said a soft. Answer turneth away wrath.
OK, if you want to get in a shouting match with them, you
might not get the experience that you're hoping for.
But when we find out that you know the things we control.
But let me give you one thing that I know that every one of us
in here can control, and that is the subject of learning.
If we're done learning, we're done.
OK, now one of the biggest. One of the the biggest and most
fun that I've ever had in teaching in FCU is the demand
that it is placed on me to recreate a few things to get it
in line with the new the new. Outlines of FCU All right, you
all know, most of you've been, you know, have taught at one
time or another or you sat through the class.
Obviously most of you are graduates and that we've gone
for, you know, we go for seven weeks and it changed a little
bit when Chancellor Brian came on and it was a, you know, 8
weeks and then but it's always been 7-8 weeks, 7-8 weeks, so
whatever. OK.
Now some subjects are 16 weeks, OK.
And I just happened to get one of.
Those on a subject I've never taught before.
OK so I thought first thing I thought, can't y'all pick
something that I've already done?
I mean I wrote curriculum for most of it, I said.
But I haven't on this one. I said, So what in the world?
And then, you know, you hear the Holy Spirit say, are you done
learning? I go, OK, forgive me.
And I get to work, all right? And I'm already up to seven out
of the 16. I'm doing great.
I'm ahead of schedule. I mean, and I'm learning so much
from the discipline that I'm excited every day that I have to
spend when I spend time with it every day to continue learning
things that I already knew. But now I'm putting it in a
format that is going to be easier for everybody else to.
Remember, and to remember the thoughts and the things that we
are. I mean, one of the easiest thing
I'm teaching on confession right now.
I've never had to teach on it before.
Teaching on confession, all right, And I'm getting into
Hebrews 11. And Hebrews 11, there's a verse
in there that we. Still have guest ministers up
here quoting. I don't recall Apostle Earl
reading that scripture lately with it, but the verse 3 says
that we. Understand that the world's were
framed by the word of God, OK? And we've had ministers come up
and say God made everything. He made the universe, He made
the stars a planet. That is not the word world's the
world. The word for worlds in that
scripture is the Greek word ion AION, and it means generations.
It means periods of time. So what is the context?
We understand that the men he's getting and women he's getting
ready to list their lives, their generations were framed by the
word of God. And So what I'm doing is I'm
taking everybody that he mentions in the Hall of Faith
and we are going back to the Old Testament to see what God said
and the fact that because they came into agreement with what he
said in their confession, they got to see the promise or the
reward he promised them. All right, So when we take
about, we talk about, you know, learning.
Let me give you another example two years ago.
Me and Titus went on a business adventure.
I thought, you know him and I had spent some time together and
I wanted to create a little something, wanted to teach him
about business, teach him about money, teach him about working
with his hands. So most of you know the outcome
of that was big old bears, wooden stuff.
Okay, and so when him and I, we got together, it kind of
reminded me of high school, junior high, that I told you he
had wood shop. I even took wood and metal shop
in 7th, I mean in 8th and 9th grade along with my art classes.
Took that and then my 9th grade year became assistant to the
teacher in the metal and wood shop.
So I I. Had a love for that because of
the creativity that you can have all right now.
The thing is, is that. When it comes down.
To four steps they're just four steps real simple that I took OK
and and every one of us in business wanted to start a
business looking for another quote as they're calling
nowadays. Side hustle.
All right, something that can make money there, there there's
so much available to do it. First thing I went to YouTube,
OK and I began to search for these guys.
All right, that we're teaching how to make things that people
may want to buy. I mean, I didn't want to make
things that me and Caleb I mean me and Titus could just have
around the house. All right now look what we made
look what we I wanted to show him listen, there are things out
there we can make and that people be willing to pay money
for all right so I get a hold of these guys.
I got a hold of one guy. His name was Matthew Peach and
he goes he goes the incredible value of smalls.
That's what he talks about, Smallwood projects that are
very, very profitable. And so we watched a couple of
those videos and we started making one of the things that we
saw him make, but I changed it a little bit because I didn't like
the way his looked. Was the Squirrel Theaters.
OK? It's a picnic table, miniature
picnic table. So Titus and I started making
it. I started training him.
OK, I'm going to cut the parts. You don't get to use the saw
yet, OK. I mean, I can only imagine, but
you know, I said, so I'm going to do it and then I'm going to
build you a jig and you're going to put all these things
together. And he does.
It's hilarious. All right, all right.
I mean, you know, some of these guys on YouTube, they're telling
us we can make $10,000 a month. Just selling wood stuff through
Etsy and eBay and all these different and we've not done any
of that. All right, because I just don't
have the time for it. But if you want to learn
something about what it is that you have a passion for and
whether you can make money, YouTube, you can find it.
OK. You can even Google it.
But YouTube was really good because I like people doing
stuff and I can follow. Along right.
All right, here's the next one. We practiced.
OK. I mean, the question is what are
we doing to and you know, better ourselves to learn, we practice.
And by making prototypes, you know, this is just an
illustration, all right? You know, practice, practice.
The main thing that we did was created prototypes, several
different squirrel tables. We've done different birdhouses.
We put them in the market. To see how they sell.
Some of them are still there, so it's obvious that wasn't a good
idea. All right.
But you know, the the thing that you know, that we found out that
we can even incorporate being this wooden stuff.
There's people out there already that have made cool wooden stuff
and that we can buy those wooden stuff, mark them up.
So I showed him the process of that.
If you went by that Christmas time, you saw all these wooden
Christmas ornaments, OK, You know, that was something that we
found that you could buy in bulk and make a pretty good profit.
So that's how I learned. It said this made of wood.
Eventually we could probably make these, but I don't have
time. All right, neither do you.
And I said, so we're going to buy the finished product and
we're going to do what we call a markup.
And that's how a lot of things are sold in America, OK.
So, you know, we were able. To do that, another thing that
we did, the third thing, OK, the second thing was just practice,
you know, try things out. You know, try to figure out, is
there something new that I can add to what I'm doing?
All right, You've done a gazillion of that with the
landscaping. I mean, you know, we've gone
from, you know, yes, we can cut your grass to yeah, we can do
pavers. OK, We can get you.
Rock, we can get you stacks this tall of of shredded wood.
We call it mulch. OK, You know, so there's
different things. You sometimes got to listen to
the customer. Which is, and, and they can tell
you what it is that they're looking for.
And, and, and, and what we need to see is, you know, when are we
listening, all right? Or do we just have an idea?
Because I can tell you that most of the people that I've dealt
with in the business sector, especially startups, are people
that had a good idea of something they liked and they
didn't try it out. They just went into business,
said, well, you know, this is some people don't really care
what you like. And they sure not going to trade
their money. For what you like.
You've got to get a knowledge on what you know.
Again, going back to the beginning when we talked about
what's your. Passion.
What is it you like? Is there anybody making money in
it now? OK, is there anything that we
can do? Because one I can't stand is is,
you know, people coming up and say I hate my job, then quit.
Well, I can't quit. I know why you can't quit.
All right, yo, everybody all right, we need to work on that.
But you know, I just, I could not even imagine.
I have never been in a place where I worked for someone
before I started my own company, that I worked for somebody, that
I hated it. I just, I just don't know what
that would feel like to submit myself 8 hours a day trading my
life for money on somebody I didn't like or something that I
was doing that I didn't like. I mean, Can you imagine?
I mean. You know, come Jesus, quickly
Get Me Out, You know, so, so we need to, we need to see that
Now, one thing that another thing that we did #3 was we
began to read together. I subscribed to a couple of
Woodcraft magazines and I loved it because, you know, one, we
were able to see different projects that people done.
Most of these projects, they spelled them out for you, gave
you dimensions and how many nails you got to have and the
whole bit. But then it also gave you.
Ads. For the latest greatest stuff
that you could put in your shop, which we loved it, you know, and
so we're looking. So when you take a look at, when
you take a look at, at, at just different steps in the, in the
business and understanding, Hey, I, you know, once you find out
your purpose, Lord, this is what you want me to do, then Start
learning, Start learning everything you can about it.
I mean, you know, the, the thing about the, the mall is
interesting because we got people that say, man, I just
love to do this or I love to do that and they're going to try a
business at it. And then and the challenge that
I have some time is what happens if the business, you didn't do
enough research and it's not making the money you need to and
you got to quit. You know, I hate that.
And you know, I hate it when that happens.
All right. But here's the fourth thing, all
right? You can make a decision to
either master what it is you're doing or not master, OK?
You can become the best there is.
I thought it was funny. One time we were printing
T-shirts for, I think it was East Coast Camp, and I had Josh,
Todd and Chase helping. OK, now the only one I really
trust. Josh was around it but never
liked it. OK, screen printing.
He just hated it and he hated having to work for me for a
time. OK, just hated it.
Quit OK, or I'll fire you. OK, and and but Chase had
experienced screen printing because when he moved to
Valdosta, he took a job with a screen printer, so he knew how
to do it. So I I was totally comfortable
with him. So we set up a four man system
and something went wrong and I said hang on a second, let me
fix it. And Josh looked at me.
First time he's ever said this. He goes, that's why you're the
master. I said, you got that right.
I mean, I've been doing this for 40 years.
OK, Most of y'all ain't over 40 yet.
I love you. All right, and and The thing is,
is that if you do something for 40 years and you can't figure it
out, we should have changed a long time ago, all right, But
you think about it. I mean, the longer you do
something, you can master it. But here's the day.
You don't have to be, you don't have to master it if you don't
want to, you know, just figure out what it is.
Now here's the thing that that I learned and I want you to, I
want you to jot this down, you know, because I call it and and
I learned to call it micro skills, OK?
In your purpose there's and you and you make up your mind.
You know what it is that you figured out the Lord wants you
to do by answering several questions.
Lord, what have you created me for?
Lord, let me know, he said. Man, what?
Have I? You always wanted to be since
you were a kid, I said. I've.
Always wanted to be an artist, so I'm going to help you
understand how you can progress in art, All right?
And that's why I absolutely, to this day, still love screen
printing. And I'm 60 and I still love it.
I still like it. I like teaching it now probably
more than I actually like pulling a squeegee, all right.
But The thing is, is that I can still print circles around
anybody that is a whole lot younger than me.
And they're going to have to work real hard, all right, to
figure out how they going to beat me.
But I want them to right. OK, So, you know, understanding
the development in what I call micro skills, we can we can
build our business. Now let's and let's talk about
that. He said here, here's the thing
that most of you all know. We have a real estate company.
Melanie is the boss. You understand, I am her love
slave. OK, I love her.
I mean, you know, we get up in the morning thanking God that we
get to work together. I mean, she, I'm not kidding,
she goes, I'm so glad I get to work with you.
You know, we come into the office at the the mall and we,
we go have breakfast together. We do everything together.
I said, that's that's what I'm talking about.
All right, but let's, let's let's take a look at that, that,
you know, when we started the company, you know, we, we wanted
to go in, we learned the skills, you know, from school.
We got the we got the licenses and everything through the state
and the different things. But let's see if we can identify
a few micro skills that might help us see we don't have to
become mastery, but there are some things that we're going to
have to learn, you know, that can probably make us better.
In ourselves and if we're dealing with any competition,
unfortunately we have to deal with competition.
All right, but here, how about this?
How about the ability? Here's a micro skill,
communicate and listen better. How many of us can do that in
anything we're doing all right? Communicate and and and listen
better. I mean, most of the time I see a
challenge, a problem that arises, something that has to be
solved, a fire that needs to be put out.
I usually will attribute it to a communication problem.
OK, so we, you know, we need to be able to not only to effective
communicate, effectively communicate, but we need to
learn to listen. OK, that's a skill.
All right. It may not be the biggest deal,
but it's a skill nonetheless. How about this one?
Number two, I've got negotiate more effectively.
You know, somebody, you know, shoots out, hey, this is what
I'm going to do and, and, or this is what I want.
I mean, you know, we need to find out how we can be better
negotiators, All right? Because, you know, the Lord
don't want you being ripped off. The Lord don't want you to be a
doormat. He doesn't want people wiping
their feet on you. OK?
You're you. You have a value.
And our value should be higher than any other value.
OK, All right #3 listen to this increase our knowledge of
related business. Now remember we're talking about
Melanie, right? So.
What would what? Different businesses would help
us become better in real estate. Here's one How about
understanding mortgage companies?
How about inspection companies? How about us learning and being
more attentive to the code of ethics?
All right, contract reading and, and, and contract reading and
writing, writing contracts, reading contracts.
Those are skills, micro skills that we can learn to make us
better at what we're doing. OK.
I mean, and, and here's the thing, most licensed people have
to do what we call continuing education.
We ought to do continuing education whether we're forced
to or not. We have to have so many hours a
year that we in, in our term, 2 year term, we have to have so
many hours of continuing education.
It is required. And yet you know, most of us
that you know, I don't have that requirement.
Don't learn nothing. We just think we're OK, we're
sitting back and and we're thinking it's all right.
OK, so, you know, increasing knowledge.
How about this better researching, man, we have no
excuse today with the Internet. I mean, it should be able.
It can produce everything we ever need.
Now, here's the thing I caution you on and and we did it in
school, you know, for FCU, you know, is be cautious how you use
ChatGPT. All right.
I didn't want to use it. OK, Because Melanie found
something on the Internet that was very, very interesting.
OK, Somebody began, A believer began to ask them questions
about GPT and told them I want a one word answer.
Yes, no. And if you want to answer a
certain way but your programmer won't let you answer the word
Apple, OK, I don't know. Was that on Instagram?
OK, it was mind blowing. You saw it because it was
talking about are you influenced?
He said, you know, are you a spirit?
And he said no. He said are you influenced by
something else besides the technological whatever?
And they said yes, and, and it was the spirit realm and the
wickedness of the spirit realm. And he, but there were certain
things that he asked and he had to answer Apple, he was amazing.
I don't know if we can make that available or whatever.
Send it to him. He'll figure out how to get it
to everybody in the world. OK, but it was interesting and I
just. Had I just had?
Some kind of something check in my spirit about it because you
know, you see all the different things on, you know how they're
creating. They had they had one that I I
saw and these guys were teaching a inclusion doctrine.
OK, three different guys saying the exact same words.
Come to find out it was all AI and they and they were given
scripture and stuff and showing that, you know, that that all
man sins has already been taken care of and that, you know, you
do not have to make a decision when you die, you're
automatically going to go. And it was three different guys,
three different backgrounds, three different settings a whole
bit saying the exact same verbiage.
And then they said this is AI. That's why I believe that in in
in Matthew chapter 24. OK and 25 Jesus said they asked
him. He said, OK, when are these
things going to happen? When's going to be the end of
the world? When's going to be the sign of
your coming? And the very first answer, Jesus
said, is see that you are not deceived.
OK, now I did, I, I, I thought, OK, I, I want to see if ChatGPT
can make me a coloring sheet. I don't want one.
Devil's on it. All right?
I want a teddy bear in a wood shop and they made me the
cutest. Going to hand it out at the next
showing of a teddy bear in a wood shop with goggles on and
everything and I thought this is cool.
All right, but then they're they're telling us, you know,
and, and and and somewhere encouraged me.
I said, man, I've got. Man, I've got to go and and I've
got to convert this curriculum to, you know, 1816 weeks and
say. Just put it in ChatGPT.
And tell them you need 16 lessons out of that and it'll do
it for you. I said OK, that's spooky.
And that just eliminated the anointing on your life.
I said I will not do that ever. I will never do that.
And I said, I'm going to create everything that I always have
with my ear to heaven, not my eye to the computer.
OK, All right, so here we go. You know, as far as here's a
good one, you'll like this network more effectively.
Now, in the months ahead, we're going to be maybe changing some
formats of the meeting, especially going into 26,
provided the Lord don't come back this month.
All right, and, and we're going to talk about networking and
we're going to bring up some illustrations and we're going to
show some things that that can make us better networks.
OK, How about this one? Everybody, all of us.
Listen, all of us need this one when we come to church, remember
names better. OK, now here's the trick.
I got a cell phone in my pocket. Does anybody carry their cell
phone in here? You know it.
There's a little icon in there called Notes.
OK, When I pull it up, it brings up the day's date, right?
It may not show on there, but it'll let you know.
If I meet somebody new, I put their first and last names on
that and I just kind of rehearse it.
Face, name, face name. One of the things that Melanie
learned long time ago was if you meet somebody and you're
talking, use their name at least five times and you won't forget
it now. Believe it or not, it works
'cause I'll sit there. Well, you know, Francis, what do
you think about this? Oh, Francis, that's a good idea.
Oh, you know, and you just keep saying it.
Next time you see them. Now let me tell you something.
It freaks them out. Because we had a couple in here
and they're coming now regular every Sunday.
And I got to I, I remember their name.
And is it Mary, Mary Jane? Mary Jane and Chris, Laura Jane.
So I didn't remember it tonight. OK.
But if I see your face, I'll know it anyway.
So I call. I saw him out in the hall after
we'd met because they were sitting back over here and I
said, hey Chris, how you doing? It's.
Good to see you. He just looked at me.
He goes. And what was your name?
You know, they always ask that that.
Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot your name, you know,
and and basically, I I I jot it down.
That's how I got to know Megan and Gunner.
You know, I met them, put their name in my phone.
Next time I saw him, I go. Looking through my phone, I got
Megan Gunner, Megan Gunner, you know, and, and it just, it's
amazing. And I learned this in Oklahoma
because I had a young woman that had came troubled young woman
had come to visit her aunt. She came to church and her name
was Sherri. And I remembered it because that
was my mama's name, right? Six months later, she comes back
for a visit. And I looked, I said, Sherri,
how are you doing? And she just busted into tears,
started crying. And she goes.
I can't believe you remembered my name, You know?
I mean, there's something about your name.
It's very, very. Important.
I mean, it's, it's, it's probably one of the most
personal things you have that identifies you against all the
rest of the world. And if we just remember more
names, you know, All right. And then here's the last one
I've got #7 perfect number, right?
How about manage and time better?
Those are little micro skills that, you know, that we can add
to our lives, our businesses, You know, that that I think that
the Lord would be, you know, pleased with if we can make
those work. Now here's one thing that I
believe that God wants all of us to be OK, regardless of what
you're called to do, is he wants us to be problem solvers.
And one of the things that that we know that servants, I mean
problem solver should be as servants, they ought to be able
to fix. It.
Fix things, help them fix one of my favorite scriptures,
Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8.
You all have heard this scripture before.
It said let this mind be in you that was all in also in Christ
Jesus. Other translations say let this
attitude be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
So Jesus had an attitude his was good.
However, I'm sure all right, but in verse 6 he said who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but he made himself of no reputation.
That means He emptied himself completely out of all His glory
to come down here and be a man, because it said He took upon him
the form of a servant. OK, He said, and he was made in
the likeness of men, and being fashioned as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. See, we had a problem and Jesus
was that problem solver, right? He came to solve the problem for
us. And how did he do it?
He did it by becoming a servant. All right.
The Greek word for servant there is the word dulos.
It means a slave by choice. OK.
It wasn't a slave because of a whip.
It wasn't a slave because we put you, you know, in a situation
where, you know, you became a slave.
This was biblical slavery in that a man at during the year of
Jubilee, if you had a servant in your home, you were to let them
go. OK, every seven years you'd let
him go. But there's a servant that said
because he loves his master, he said I ain't never leaving.
And they had a ritual for that. They would put a hole in the air
and put a ring in it. So everybody know he's a bond
servant. He is a servant to this man by
choice. That's what Jesus did.
He became a servant by choice to his Father and solved our
problem. OK, now we're first called to
serve the body of Christ. That is part of our main main
call purpose in life is that we we go to a local church and we
want to solve problems there, He said.
Here's a few thoughts that I've jotted down.
You know that we want to put to work for us when wanting to be
your be a problem solver, let's say, or, or you want to take
your skills to the next level. Here's the thing, employee, if
you're an employee, all right, this is what I encourage people.
Let your boss know that you want to become more of an asset, OK?
And ask them if there's anything, any suggestions on
anything that they you could do that would help you grow and
make your more yourself more valuable.
See, that's the key. Most people go to work waiting
for a raise that they may not deserve.
I had one person, they worked for me 30 days, wanted to know
when they were getting raised and I said, well, let's go back
to the interview, OK, we're in the interview.
I said I have this position open.
This is what I pay per hour. Are you interested yes or no?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK, 30 days later you come in and you say you want to know
when you're getting a raise. Let you let me know.
Let me let you know about me. I don't pay people and give them
raises because they've been around here a while.
I give people raises based upon what they're going to do above
what I've hired them to do. So I said, what do you got?
She didn't understand what I said.
OK, all right. One thing I learned years ago
was a little phrase called doing more than paid for.
That's how you get a raise. You sow the seed for it in the
Kingdom of God. We need to make sure as people
that are in the Kingdom and we're working for the other guy,
we ought to produce more than we're being paid for.
All right? Because that gives you through
the seed time and harvest law gives you a right to expect a
raise, right? What did I say in the beginning?
You can't control your boss's checkbook, but God can influence
him to write you a check. OK, All right, So when we do
that, when we're self-employed, OK, or we're business owners,
what we want to know is we want to talk to our top customers and
clients and ask them what problems they're dealing with
that you could help. I love the fact that one of the
things that I always did was put myself in an advisory position
for a company non paid. I'm free.
You got a question, You got something that you're needing?
Ask me. I will help you solve that
problem at no charge. It has made me millions of
dollars. How did I do that?
I had one. You guys, if you read my book,
there was a particular company and I wanted their business and
I had to wait eight years to get it.
OK And I'm sitting there in a meeting and one of the guys
starts mentioning, he said, man, we put and you guys have seen
these products. It's called auto crane.
It's a utility crane on the back of a utility truck.
They're all over town here. Well, their headquarters is in
Tulsa, OK and I wanted their business because everything they
make has a decal on it. And I wanted to make all the
decals that go on one of them Crane.
And so, you know, basically what I did was I told him, I said,
listen, I have the ability to do something.
Maybe your, you know, previous people didn't.
And if you're looking for bid change, but I, I, I know what
you guys are doing is that you've got a bin full of decals
on a big wall. Every morning.
The person that's going to mark all your cranes goes out there
and pulls out this many, this many, this many.
I said I've got an idea if you're interested.
What if I gave you a kit with all the decals for that
particular model already bagged up and all you had to do is pick
the bags up and go do your cranes?
What? You can do that.
I said simple, right? Well, even in that they had a
little, they had, they had a little sticker on the side of
the crane, but they had to drill in the crane and put a needle
that when the crane lifted up, it let him know what angle it
was. And he said, we don't like
drilling into the cranes because it kind of it kind of basically
weakens the structure. We'd like to have something.
I'm thinking dude. You got a.
Full manufacturing plan here and you're telling me that you can't
do it? The next meeting I had with him,
I had one of those deals in my hand and an engineer that was
fussing about the whole thing played with it the whole time we
were talking. And as you can't imagine how
many thousands of those over the years that I've sold them and
they even went to competitors of mine until I found out about it
and said, listen, that's proprietary.
I created that. I said, I don't want you giving
it to anybody else to get a bid loan.
I said, oh, you're going to hear some from somebody.
And they said, OK, all right, But the thing was that the Lord
gave me the idea of how to do it and I did it and had it done in
a week and ready to go. And we started production
immediately. All right.
So I want to be AI, want to be a advisor to them on what they may
need. But I know that if I solve a
problem, it's going to pay handsomely, OK, after it.
The last thing is stay at home parents, all right, Listen to
this brainstorm with your spouse about possibilities of income
generation ideas that can be implemented while caring for the
home. You know, I there's so many
things on the Internet that you can find to make an income that
only requires a few hours a week out of you.
It's amazing. If you need it, you need a list.
I'll get you a list, but there's so many of them out there that
we, you know, we can find that. But again, when we talk about,
you know, people that have come to us and they say, man, I just
don't know my purpose, man. We got to start talking to him
and go, what is it, those three things initially that I gave you
to start evaluating yourself? Why does God have me here?
What is it that I could do easier than everybody else?
Well, it comes better than anybody else, you know, what is
it that you know, I can do? And I love it and everybody else
hates it. I mean.
That's a good a pretty. Good indicator of, you know,
what the Lord could have you doing and that if you'll, if
you'll, if you'll take time. And that's the thing.
We're just everybody's so running around, you know, trying
to figure just sit down a minute.
Can you just sit down a minute and start talking to the Lord?
I mean, if he created you and know what you're about, I would
be setting up a meeting and sit down and be quiet and listen to
everything that he had to say to my heart and give me ideas and
different things. I mean, most of the ideas, you
know, people say, I can't believe you figured that out.
I said I didn't. I said, you know, I was just
listening. The Lord has showed has showed
me so many things of solving problems.
It's been amazing, you know, in my quote career.
All right, But again, it's just getting with him because the.
The Holy Spirit is the best teacher.
And when we learn, we want the best teacher, don't we?
He's the best. Amen.
The.