Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. OK, Jesus said this, and and let
me give you a little back story before we do it, because Jesus
talked about living in the Kingdom, and that our our
success is related to some keys. OK, And in verse 11 this is what
he said he said unto them, Because it is given you to know
the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not.
Here's what the question was in the previous verse.
He said, Why do you tell everybody parables?
Why are you letting them know about parables?
And so Jesus goes on and he answers them.
In verse 11 he said, He answered and said unto them, because it
is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of
heaven. Now here's the thing we need to
know. This word mysteries basically is
the word secrets, and it's translated sometimes in other
translation as the word secrets. So he's letting us know in
advance in the Kingdom that there are secrets or there are
mysteries that he wants us to know that will help us navigate
in in into the Kingdom. All right.
So we have we have that account. But here's here's the thing that
I want to get to also is jot down Matthew, chapter 16 and
verse 19. He's walking with the guys and
he asked him a question. He said, Who do men say that I,
the Son of Man, AM? And they started answering.
They said, well, something, you're Elias or Jeremias or one
of the prophets. And then he stopped and looked
at them and said, who do you say that I am?
Peter answered, 1st And he said, well, we believe you know.
He said, I believe that you're the Christ, the anointed one, or
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him and said,
you know, he said, you're blessed, Simon Barjona.
Why? Because flesh and blood did not
reveal this to you. But my Father, which is in
heaven, revealed it to you. And then in the next verse is he
says, He says this, He said, And I will give to you the keys of
the Kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven. So he's telling them that they
are giving them keys. And here's the thing.
Who's I'm. I'm kind of curious.
Who did not have the most keys on them?
Who's my guy got how many keys you got?
I got. I got these keys.
And then I got another set of keys, but I don't have them.
You got a lot of keys. That's not a lot of keys.
All right. That's a lot of keys.
OK, That's not a lot of keys. OK, You got a few keys.
That's good. All right.
When we talk about keys, see, this is one thing that I, I, I
wanted to meditate on for so long.
I said what? Jesus, what are you talking
about? Keys?
I mean, it says that you have given us the keys to the Kingdom
of heaven, the Kingdom of God, and that that we can bind and we
can unloose. But really, what keys are in the
Kingdom of God are laws and principles in the Kingdom.
He has given it to us to unlock the truce or the mysteries that
we just talked about. All right, The secrets that we
just talked about. Because you know what makes it?
You know what makes my key secrets to you.
You have no idea where they go. I could give them to you and
they'd be useless. You give me yours.
Be useless. Why?
Because I don't know what they go to.
But they they're a secret. It's a secret.
There's a secret behind this key.
Now, it has a Chevy logo on it, so you could probably narrow it
down pretty good. OK, all right.
But when we look at we, we get an understanding.
Jesus said, I'm going to give you keys, if you'll remember
When he whipped the devil. He said, I have the keys, OK.
I have the authority. I have the the, the principles
and the laws. All right.
I oversee all of that now. Now I want us to.
I want us to take a look at because we're going to talk
about in the very beginning tonight, we're going to talk
about principles and laws of the Kingdom, all right.
And how important they are to you.
And I've got I've got a few things and they're numbered to
make it easier for you, OK. Because keys are basically are
are are just like a system or a law or a principle in the
Kingdom of God. Once we find them and begin to
activate them in our lives, we will begin to see what Jesus
said we could have, but most of the time we're not.
We're not clear in our thinking on what did Jesus, what was
Jesus all about when he was talking to people?
I mean was he just telling them good stories or was he giving
them the secrets that he tells us?
He's given us to be able to unlock and get the the things
and mostly in the arena of business and finance and
provision out of the Kingdom of God.
That's what we're all looking for.
We want it. We want to do it his way.
So let me give you a few, a few things that you need to know
about principles and laws. All right, one, principles and
laws #1, they're universal. All right, now let's take a
let's let's equate this to a product.
OK, let's say any product you want to think of.
All right, Have anybody noticed in their the any of the owner's
manuals or the operation manuals?
They're in multi languages. And how have you noticed that?
OK, so the basically you don't have to be here and and and and
and to get only instructions no matter where you go in these
universal and worldwide products.
They have the ability, They're universal.
OK. They're in a in in, in.
The thing is about those manuals is if you obey the rules or the
the, the laws of that product and not do something weird about
it, all right. It's kind of like you can't put
orange juice in the car and expect anything to go, 'cause
there's a universal law in automobiles, you know, internal
combustion engines. Anyway, it takes gas or some
type of flammable fuel in there to be able to go.
So you can't violate that law. All right, When the Kingdom of
God, there's laws in the Kingdom of God that we can't violate
either. All right.
And so let me give you the second one.
The second one is that principles, laws, they're
they're permanent. They don't change.
God said I change. Not so when God speaks his word
and he tells us this is a principle, this is a secret,
This is something that you're going to need to do all right
when he does. And he tells us that these these
are permanent things. I mean, you know, you might get
an upgrade on a product. You know, if they're adding
something to it or taken away or whatever the case may be.
But the main thing, most of those internal laws on how this
thing operates, they're permanent, all right?
I mean, I've never seen a car converted to orange juice, OK?
I mean, as far as you take a look, we bought one of those not
too long ago. Bought a.
Anybody know what an Opal is? It's an ice maker.
Little chunk, little chunk ice maker.
My wife's always wanted one. We finally got one right, And
it's got a manual. And you know what I decided to
do this time? Read the manual in advance, I
mean, before we start plugging stuff in.
And it has a way to clean it. And it says don't do this and
don't do that. Guess what, You better not do
whatever they say don't do if you wanted to keep working.
And so you know, following those.
So when we look at it, you know principles and laws, they're
permanent. Another thing that is is common
about principles and laws. OK, they work everywhere and
anywhere. I mean the laws in the Kingdom
of God especially. You don't have to change
nations. The same laws will work for us
here as it does over in Africa. The principles of God, the
Kingdom of God, they'll work anywhere, All right.
It said Laws and principles, they're not partial, OK?
They don't work for one race of people and then don't work for
another race of people. They're not partial.
God tells us he's not partial, all right?
That once he sets up a law or he sets up a principle in the
Kingdom of God, it is for everyone that will come to him.
That's that's the thing about principles and laws.
All right, the next one and think about this, that
principles of laws guarantee success in In other words, your
future is predictable if you'll stick with the laws and the
principles of God. He lets you know how it's going
to turn out. Just like the products that we
talked about. You know, as if I follow all the
rules, it's predictable. This thing's going to make ice
for me. It's predictable.
I mean, if I do everything they say to do, now, something goes
weird. All right?
I got a call the manufacturer and they're going to tell me
what I did in violation or they had a defective part or whatever
the case may be. But you know, the the main thing
is that when we take a look at the, the, the principles and the
laws of God, he gave them to us to guarantee our success.
All right, Let me give you the next one.
All right? He said principles or laws can
never be broken. You can't break a law.
Now you may think that you can break a law and and and get away
with it, but sooner or later that law is going to catch up
with you. OK, they said they and here's
the deal. Laws can't be broken, but they
can break you. Me and Melanie were sitting 312
and US1, right. We're sitting there.
It's we're next. I I don't know how fast them
lights go. I I can't even get over it.
But I'm sitting there and we're parked.
All of a sudden we see coming toward us the other direction a
a police officer lights going and flashing and sound.
We could hear him. Well, somebody didn't hear him
and hit him right in the side, right in front of us, knocked
him out of the way. They were swerving and coming
towards us and then all of a sudden they just kind of peeled
off and went off into the other lane.
Well, I got out of the car and started running over to the
police officer, you know, because I was going to make sure
if anybody's OK, he's going to be OK.
And he and the first question he asked me, he goes, hey, he said,
did you all hear me coming? And I said, yeah, man, we heard
you come and all of the rest of us stopped.
And we saw your lights. It's black.
It's pitch black, dark. It's in the night.
And he said, OK, you know, I'm just making sure.
Are you OK? Yeah, He said kind of hit my
elbow pretty good. But I'm, I'm, I'm OK, you know.
And so we waited until, and I tell you what it's like a a call
for help. I mean four or five cops showed
up. Pam, you did the deputies, you
know, showed up checking on him and and yanking him people out
of the car. And it was, it was quite thing.
But you know, you can you think you might get away with
something if you just continually do it.
But sooner or later it's going to break you because there's
certain laws and certain things that you can't be a violator of.
All right, Let me give you the next one.
All right. Principles and laws are
inherent, and the judgment is in there, OK?
The judgment is built inside, such as, how about the law of
gravity? See, you don't have to worry
about you jump off this building here.
You don't have to worry about God killing you.
The law is automatic. It'll do that for you.
Certain laws that you cannot violate or they will take your
life. And God doesn't have to do it.
It's just built into the law. Don't do that.
Don't be jumping off the building.
You know, I think about how cool that air, air travel is, You
know, just it blows my mind when I see that big hunk of metal.
And I think you got a little engine on this thing and 1:00 on
the other side powerful enough to lift this thing up and they
don't fly by sight. I mean, how you going to see
what does it look like at 35,000, you know, feet in the
air? It's all electronic and they,
you know, they know where they're going.
It's all based. A plane listens to what's going
on and it is amazing, absolutely amazing.
But you know there's that is a law that supersedes or can
supersede the law of gravity. But as sooner or later you got
to get the gravity back in this this the equation if you want to
land. And so there's certain laws, you
can't go around breaking certain laws because they have certain
things. Now what does pastor always
said? He said, Listen you God will let
you do whatever you want to do, but you will pay the
consequences. You that you're going to have
the consequences to pay. All right, let me give you the
last one. All right.
Principles and laws protect the product.
When you obey the laws down to you know that are laid down by
the manufacturer, you don't need to worry about protection.
They protect you, those type of laws.
I mean if you follow the rules and you've read and you've gone
through and you take a look at your car and and you're, you
know, changing the oil and you're doing the different
things on that. We were talking about the lifts,
you know, and just take care of the lifts, use them.
Why? Because they sit there, the
batteries will go dead in them. Can't resurrect it, you know,
you got all kind of money and batteries.
Batteries are the most expensive thing in the world, it seems
like. But you know, taking care of,
taking care of those things. And when we understand how laws
work, how rules, the rules and laws work, we have to understand
that, OK, Now when you know, I want to read a scripture and
then I'm going to. And then and this is just to get
us an idea of understanding how important it is for us to be
people that search out. When God said seek first the
Kingdom of God, OK. It wasn't like we were going
somewhere to look for a new city.
OK, what he wants us to do because what is the word in the
word seek in the Greek language is the word to inquire, to ask
questions. So he said, I want you to seek
and ask questions about the Kingdom of God.
The questions we should be asking is, Father, what laws,
what precepts do we need to be able to navigate ourselves in
your Kingdom and receive from your hand the provision that you
said you could get us? All right, that's what we have
to find out. Now, I'm going to read a
particular scripture because this is what I found out, and I
want you to jot this down. The most important principle
Once you come into the Kingdom of God, one of the most
important. There's several most important,
OK. But one of the most important
Kingdom, law, or precept that we have to understand is in one
word. And this word is the word
management. OK?
Management has got to be the number one thing that we're
thinking if we want to navigate and we want to make sure that
we're doing everything the Lord tells us.
Listen to this verse. When I first got exposed to this
verse, blew my mind. This is we we all know Genesis
126, right? So let's go to Genesis, Chapter
2 and see what's in there, All right?
Because this is what this is in there.
Verse six he says. And every plant of the field
before it was in the earth and every herb in the field before
it grew. For the Lord had not caused it
to rain on the earth, but there was and there was not a man to
till the ground. Interesting.
So God created the systems. In chapter one he let us know
he's going to create man. He tells us in chapter 2 how he
did that. Chapter one he said he made man.
So to me, chapter one is basically like a a table of
contents. It just kind of lets us know day
one, he did this. Day two he did this.
Day three he did this. Day four he did this.
You know, he gets to day six. And he said, you know, and he
said he made man male and female.
He told them what he said. Let us make man in our own image
and in our likeness and he said let them have dominion over the
earth, over the, you know, birds, fish and and all the
animals. All right.
Then in the next chapter he tells us how he did that.
But notice what he said when it came down to the the, the fruit
of the ground, the herb, the trees that said the Lord did not
allow anything to grow. And then he tells us why.
Because he didn't have a man to toil or till the ground.
And I got to think about that. You know, I mean simply the word
till basic just means, you know, to work, to serve, to labor over
the ground. But God says I'm not growing
nothing. I ain't letting nothing grow,
not getting anything started until I get a manager.
He wanted a man to come, and he wasn't going to do anything
until he got that man to be able to take care of the things that
he was providing. All right.
Now here's a few things that I want you to jot down.
Well, you know, actually, I like the the fact that, you know,
what is God saying? I don't allow anything to grow
until I find a manager and he actually stops the growth where
there is no manager. I'm going to give you 3 things
about God's view of management. But I think it's interesting
that we need to find out that he.
That was probably one of the biggest motivators that we can
find. Why he wanted man.
Yes. Did he want a relationship with
us? Yes.
He wanted to create somebody that love him back.
Yes, but the motivation is found in verse six.
He needed somebody to take care of all these things.
He spent six days creating, so management was very important to
him. Now listen to this three things
that I want to show you about his thoughts.
One, God protects his resources from bad management.
He'll protect his resources from bad management, bad managers
#2HE withholds resources from bad management.
Now when I started hearing this and there's the last one, he
said God won't allow any growth where there is bad management.
And I immediately started thinking about myself, How am I
doing as a manager if I'm not seeing growth in things that I
need to? Am I managing?
Is he withholding from me because I'm not a good manager?
All right, I've come to the conclusion that the principle
and the key, that God's talking to us about management is one of
the most important, especially if you're wanting to be in
business or you're in business. OK, now everybody say the word
management after me. Say management.
Got it. Management.
Here's the thing you need to know about.
And I think religion and how many times have we talked about
a pastor has always given us comparison.
Religion really is a killer. OK.
I mean of all kinds of things. It it it's a it's a killer it
and and here's the thing about it it says it takes, it takes
away from us. The very thing we need the most
is management. Religion takes that away.
What does it do It it it sits and waits on God.
It sits and says well God's in control and he's not OK.
The fact that he and and here's one thought that I had and I
heard a man say it and boy it made sense.
He said that some people you know prefer miracles over
management. They wait until they get in a
big mess, you know. And then they're asking God here
help me, help me only to find out you know you could have been
probably managing your way through that.
Now it's interesting because Jesus let us know what he
thought of people that are seeking miracles all the time.
OK. It's found in Matthew chapter
16, verses one through 4. Listen to what he says.
The Pharisees, also with the Sadducees came tempting desiring
that he would show them a sign from heaven.
The word sign there is the Greek word Semion SEMEIONSEMEION, and
it basically is the sign for it is basically the sign for a
token or a miracle or a wonder. So this Pharisees and the
Sadducees came and what did they say?
They said we want to we want you to show us a sign, we want you
to show us a miracle from heaven.
Notice Jesus response in verse four.
He said a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a
miracle or a sign. And he said there will be no
sign given to it because this except for the sign of Jonas and
he said and he left them and departed.
So when you take a look at the fact of of miracles and are
miracles important? Yeah, they are.
But we shouldn't be putting our emphasis on miracles as
believers. How do I know that?
Well, Romans chapter one jot it down, Romans chapter one, verse
17. Paul tells us that the just
shall live by anybody know faith.
He didn't say by miracles. He didn't say, you know, by, you
know, listening to good stories or having a religious right or,
you know, praying three times a day.
He didn't say that. He said that just shall live by
faith. Now what does James say about
faith? Faith without works is dead,
being alone. So he's telling us, listen, he
said. He's expecting us.
He's expecting us here to be able to be somebody that can
manage even in the rough times, seeking the Lord in the rough
times, instead of always being people that need a miracle and
and he doesn't want us to do that.
I believe that he wants us to manage what he has given us and
see Kim and the Kingdom. Ask questions.
Find out what principles am I needing to get into.
What principles do I need to find out?
But I'm going to give you a very lengthy those of you taking
notes, I'm going to go really slow.
OK, this is probably the best definition on management and I
got a comment to make after it. OK, but listen to this.
Management is the effective comma efficient, comma correct
and timely use of another person's property and not just
their property put and resources.
I'm not done yet. This is a long one.
I told you I I tried to get somebody to put it up on the
board for you and I couldn't find anybody to take on that
challenge. All right, all right, so let me
read it. It says management is the
effect, effective, efficient, correct and timely use of
another person's property and resources.
Here we go. Next part, for the purpose for
which they were delegated. For the purpose for which they
were delegated, listen to this with a view to producing with a
view of producing to producing. These next 4 words are
important, The expected added value back to the person that
owns it. I'll read it again.
Management is the effective, efficient, correct, and timely
use of another person's property and resources for the purpose
for they for which they were delegated with a view to
producing the expected added value back to the person who
owns it. Here's the biggest problem we
have, OK, is that in our United States of America mind, we have
been deceived into believing that we have ownership from
little bitty kids. I got grandkids.
Their favorite words is that's mine.
You can see it in children's church.
That's mine. And if they want what's theirs,
which usually isn't really theirs, they'll go get it.
But we have, we have believed. And if you've heard any
teachings on Lordship whatsoever, you have to come to
the understanding and renew mind that Jesus is the owner.
I don't care what you have, he's the owner.
He created everything. He gave man the wisdom to create
a lot of stuff, but in it, in in its originally at where it came
from, it's his. All the metal that it took, he
created. All the different things that we
find plastic out of oil he created.
So technically by right of creatorship, he has the right of
lordship. We don't have that right.
In other words, we are what we call in the Bible.
And I'll, I'll, I'll give you scriptures on here in a minute,
stewards, OK. That's the biblical word for
management and I'm going to define it out because it is
really good. OK All right.
So when we talk about ownership, you know, in the Kingdom, we
don't any own anything. We're really just stewards.
We're we're over God's resources.
This goes cross grain, all right, when we what we've been
taught all our life. Here's a question.
Do you really own your house? Let me ask you a question.
If what happens if you don't pay your taxes on your house?
Let's say you got your house paid off.
I know a few people got their house paid off.
What if you don't pay your taxes?
They they they'll put a lien on it, but eventually they'll take
it. OK.
I even found out through the real estate industry that HO as
have the ability to go to your mortgage holder and tell them to
put a foreclosure on you because you won't obey the HOA rules.
Day gum you know I said are you kidding me And that's true.
I mean you know we we got that in a memo all right letting us
know because you know I follow the law pretty close on real
estate and every month you know we get magazines that have law
section in it. And I just want to see because
it's always somebody got a problem with the law and then
they ask an attorney an attorney gives them their you know
opinion saying and and one of them was HO as that they have
the ability to go and and file an an injunction to have you
sell your house same thing. I mean you think you own your
house. The house we built in Oklahoma
we put the key in the door after going to the bank and signing
and everything put the key in the door and get a phone call.
Hey Randy you need to come back to the bank.
We didn't check. And we found out you have
$50,000 worth of liens on your house.
Well, you know, I said I'll be back over there in a minute and,
you know, called my attorney and he said, Oh yeah, man, a lien.
They can make you sell your house to pay that lien off.
I said OK, so that just kind of ruins your thought of ownership,
you know what I mean? But when we look at it, I want
us to be people that actually, you know, the definition of
management. It implies that when you bring
something back to the Lord and and you don't own it, and you
recognize I'm not an owner, I am a steward, Lord, I am your
steward. I am your steward.
And you, you put that into your brain on whatever it is that he
gives you, You know he's always wanting you.
And when I heard that message for the first, this message for
the first time, I mean, my mind exploded with the parables that
Jesus taught about provision and how important management is.
All the parables that he told about provision, they were all
about managers, good managers. We're going to look at 1:00.
Tonight is the only one we're going to look at.
All right. But there there are principles
that there, you know that this principle of management teaches
some important things. Let me give you a couple of
them, one of them, and I want you to think about this.
God does not give you necessarily what you pray for,
but he gives you what you can manage.
You think you want. The next one is you think you
want. And you know you're praying and
asking God for $1000. And he says this.
I gave you 100 last week and you you can't even tithe on it.
That's a law, All right. You know, we have a lot of
people saying, Oh yeah, but we're delivered from the law.
I beg to differ. As far as you know, Jesus said I
came to fulfill the law. I didn't come to destroy it.
And he has given us the ability to find out what those laws and
principles are in the Kingdom of God so that we can keep them
too. But you know some people they
they they say I, you know I need $1000, you know, the the $100
they have and you know that they got yesterday they can't even
tithe. You know it says you might want
to be you know you might want a big house.
You know you're believing God all you can father, I thank you
for a big house, big house. But we go to your house and your
house is filthy. Bad management, you know, you
got, you got stuff laying around, you got dentists like
people, one of the things that I learned years ago in hiring
people, he said. When you walk them out of the
office, go go look in their car, take them to their car and look
in their car and you'll find out what kind of employee they'll
be. We got gum wrappers and we got,
you know, chip wrappers and we got all kind of stuff thrown in
the back seat and empty cups and you know, all kind of stuff.
He said bad management. You know, God's what he's
looking at us saying how are you taking care of the things that
I'm giving you and it. And if we can't, then what in
the world are we doing asking him for more?
I I can prove it to you in Scripture.
That's that's a violation. We'll look at it here in a
second. All right.
Now, one of the things you need to know and and I'm thankful
that, you know, we always have a mixed crowd.
We have some people that are in business for themselves, some
people that are working jobs for other people.
But here's the thing. God will never give you a
business first. He'll always give you a job
because he wants to see a few things.
One of them is how do you work? How do you work?
One phrase that I heard years ago, it might be worth jotting
down and says is is doing more than paid for.
OK You know, it's kind of like that old saying, he said walking
up to a wood stove and say give me some heat.
Wood soap says, well, you get me some wood, he said.
But I need the heat. Wood stove says I need the wood.
Well, you know, some people go up to their boss and say I need
a raise. The question you got to ask is
OK And I've had it done. I had a girl work for me one
time for three weeks and says when am I going to get a raise?
I said, well let's go back to our original meeting, OK?
Our interview, I said I had this position open and I told you
this is what it pays. And you said, OK, so you tell me
what you're going to do above that job that I just gave you.
What are you going to do above that wouldn't entice me to give
you a raise. She goes, I don't understand
what you're talking about. Of course you don't think about
it. You know, when when we we get
that job, we want to make sure that we're doing, you know,
something in that job and above and beyond what is expected
because that is, that is the law of sowing and reaping So many
people want to raise, but they ain't willing to sow nothing
else of their life into the job, that they're already trading
their life for money anyway, right?
So let me tell you a story. There was a company.
I was 18 years old and I had a little bit of sense, just a
little bit. And I had an opportunity I heard
and I was getting ready to go to college because all I ever
wanted to be when I was a kid and going through junior high
and all the way through high school I want to be a commercial
artist. So I was getting ready to go
college. Told you university and and I
wanted to get AI, wanted to major in commercial art.
And this is before computers, OK.
We had to use a pencil and a piece of paper and some paint
and magic markers. OK.
That's how we did commercial art back in those days.
There was no computer, All right.
And so anyway, I heard of a position open at a local
department store. The name of the store was
Luboils. OK Is before Walmart took off.
There was something before Walmart, believe it or not.
And I heard they had a position open for an art and school
supplies manager. So I go in, talk to the manager
and he said, yeah, he said we do have that position Sit down here
or you can take it with you or whatever you do.
I said, yeah, sit down. You got a break room?
Yeah. And I said OK, so I started
filling out the application the whole bit and he said OK.
He said, I don't think I see on here that you have any retail
experience. I said don't worry about that.
I told him don't worry about that, that's OK.
I got a plan And he goes, well, OK, He said you got to go take a
polygraph test though, because that's what we do.
All our employees, we they have to take a polygraph.
So I went, took a polygraph test, came back.
He said, man, I'm sorry. He said you flunked your
polygraph test. I'm thinking, what could I have
answered wrong? And I'm sitting there.
I said, well, have you ever met the guy giving it?
I said he was kind of grouchy. And I said not only was he
grouchy, but he kept asking questions like he was trying to
get me on something. And I said I was uncomfortable.
And he said, well, I'm sorry. He said, you know, if you don't
pass that polygraph test, we can't, we can't give you a job.
And I said so there's nothing we can do.
He goes just like that. He said you could take the test
again. And I thought, there you go, I
knew all the questions, no problem.
I'm going to get the answers right this time.
So I went down there and I took that polygraph test again, ran
back to the store, flunked it again, I said, so there's no way
you can give me this job. He said no, man, he said, I am
so sorry. He said, you know, and I'm
thinking I am a loser. I can't believe I couldn't pass
a polygraph test as a nice a kid as I was.
Well went home, my mom asked me. She said, well honey, how'd it
go? I said, well mom, I said, have
you ever heard of polygraph test?
I said I'd never heard of one before and I said I didn't even
have any idea what was getting ready to happen.
But they said that, you know, I had trouble answering, you know,
questions like, have you ever stole from cash register?
I said, I don't recall ever getting to stand in front of a
cash register. I said I had a job before this
that had a mop and a bucket, all right.
And and I said it's interesting. She goes, you know what I'd do
if I were you? And I said, now what would you
do? She goes, I'd go talk to the
president of the company and I go, do you know him?
She said no, but they got to have an office somewhere.
You need to find out where that office was.
I found the office. It was on a high rise in
downtown Tulsa, which I wasn't real excited about because I
just had a phobia about one way streets that when I was going to
be arrested, hauled to jail 'cause I'm going accidentally on
the wrong way down the wrong on the wrong way street right.
So I finally find his place. I park, I go up to the office,
nice office, man. Open the door, I walk in,
there's a nice desk, a nice wall, nice logo and a door to
the left. And I said good afternoon, my
name's Randy Clay And I said, could I speak to Mr. Barbary for
a minute And she goes, well, do you have an appointment?
And I said, no ma'am, but I would be willing to sit over
here all day if I need to. And she goes, OK, hold on a
minute. And so she went in that door
behind the wall, and she comes out.
And now she's looking puzzled, like Mr. Barbry will see you
right now I go, All right, well, you know what I'm thinking?
It's pony show. This is it.
This is my last opportunity. I went in there across the desk
standing there sitting Mr. Barbie, my name is Randy Clay
and I have applied for a position at your store on 21st
and I said and all of a sudden both his hands went up like
this, said Randy. I've heard all about you.
Oh Lord. There's only two things he could
have heard and make a difference in my life.
Flunked it once, flunked it twice.
Why are you in my office? He goes, he looks at me, he
goes, I'm going to take a chance on you.
Say go back to the store manager, tell him you met with
me today and that you've got that job.
So I got that job now. Guess what?
I wasn't going to be just a normal, run-of-the-mill art and
school supply manager. I actually loved the art,
paints, brushes, canvases, all the different supply.
I loved it. So when this is what I did, went
to all the schools in the area I'm back in that day, they had a
print out, OK, where it lets you know that if they're
kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, they're all
different colors of paper and it has a list of all the supplies
that they're going to need to start the new school year.
So I'm going ahead and I am collecting these papers, and
when I got the papers back to the store, I ordered everything
on them papers. And, you know, they're all
duplicates. I mean, the only thing that I
saw different was, you know, in elementary school, you going to
get blunt scissors. OK, round it.
But we hope by the time you get to junior high and high school,
we can trust you with pointed ones.
That's about the difference. OK, Big thick pencils called a
laddie. Remember the laddie pencil and
big Chief pads? OK, That's for the little people
who had no book paper and regular two number two pencils.
For everybody else. I ordered everything.
The the boxes came in, they were Gray boxes, I'll never forget,
light Gray with dark Gray lids. And you popped them open and it
had everything in there. Stacked them up in my area and
the boss comes, the manager of the store comes.
He says, what are you doing? I said I have a plan.
I told you that from the very first day I have a plan.
I said just hang on. So I took everything out of them
boxes and I put them on the shelf in the order that they
were on your paper. So my store, my my part of the
store was right by the front door.
So I am looking out the front door seeing Mama's come in and
they had them papers and I stood right there and as they came, I
greeted them, said thanks for coming in today.
Can I help you with a few things?
Like, yeah, you know, school's starting in a few weeks.
I need to get a a few things on the list.
And I said, oh come with me, took them to the end of the
aisle. I said you will find everything
on that list in the order, on your list on the shelves.
And they would get to starting and picking stuff and just look
at me like they'd never heard of anything like that in their
lives. Well, the ones I really liked.
Were the Mamas that had the you know, four and five year old
like dragging them to the ground, pulling on them and
everything, trying to get them under control?
I'd say give me your list, Let's did you highlight or mark
anything that you were going to pick up today?
Let's let's do that real quick. And I said you can go around
shopping and and and carry on. I'll gather everything up.
I'll put it in a basket and it'll be waiting for you, for
you at the front counter. Well, here comes the boss,
right? Boss says.
You wouldn't believe the way that those women are talking
about you. I said that's thrilling.
But I don't want them to talk about me here.
I want them to go tell all their girlfriends at coffee or
whatever that this is the only place in town to buy their
school supplies. Get it?
That was my first experience in management.
OK, every job after that, I treated like I owned the place.
And I'll never forget one of the greatest I had.
I I dropped out of college and ran for my life because they're
a bunch of weirdos, man. I'm telling the art people,
artsy people, They're weird. A lot of them.
OK, I got out of there. I went and got a job.
That was because I heard a voice that you need to get a job.
I thought it was the Lord bids my dad.
And so I went and got a job at a commercial screen printing firm.
Absolutely fell in love with it. Worked there, learned I I would.
I'd screen printed all through high school.
Different things. But I didn't know that this type
of screen printing was available.
We print computer panels. We'd screen screen print decals,
signage, different things like that.
Screen print, giant banners for grocery stores, just all kinds
of stuff. Absolutely fell in love with it.
Well, got married two months after I started that job.
Melanie and I no, no, I had been working there and then Melanie
and I got married and and and I met a guy that her Co worker had
a a guy that she was married to and he owned a a screen printing
shop. Well, we met at the Christmas
party and he said, hey, I hear you know how to screen print.
And I said, Oh yeah, I've been screen printing for a while.
And he said, he said you need to make some extra money.
I said, yeah, I'm getting married pretty soon.
I said I'd like to have some money to take on a trip wherever
we decide we're going. And so he said, well, hey, I got
some work you could do at night. And so I got in there that first
night, and the next night he comes in there and he says, hey,
I was talking to my partner and he said that I told him how good
you really were. And you know, the way you, you
know, you know how to print and how to fix things, that ain't
going right in the whole bit. I mean, just amazing.
He said, how much would you have to have to come here and work
full time? Well, I was making $4.11 an hour
at the other place and I just said I probably couldn't leave
for less than six an hour, you know.
And he goes, oh man, we ain't never paid nobody no 6 an hour.
I said, well, you ask, it's OK. And I got back after it.
I'm just printing them shirts like crazy.
Next night I come in, he said. Well, I talked to my partner.
My partner said if you're that good, we'll pay you 6 bucks an
hour. But you got to give your notice
tomorrow. Oh man, I hadn't thought that
through. So I went in the next morning,
talked to my boss, Mr. Sipert, asked him if I talked to him in
the lunchroom. He goes, well, what what's going
on? Randy And I said, well Sir, I
said I have another opportunity. Now believe it or not, you know,
he asked me the question. He said, well aren't you going
to give me chance to counter? Yes, I am.
If you can pay me $6 and 1 penny, I'll stay and he goes, oh
Randy, I can't pay you that. You know, he said it just, you
know, our company and different. He said you can't pay anything.
He said, well I want to let you know something.
He said, how long can you give me?
And I said, I tell you what, I'm not, I don't want to start that
until next month. I'll give you 3 weeks.
OK? Well, he didn't find anybody to
replace me till that last week. Like I'm supposed to train
somebody in one week, you know, and do all that I do.
And he looked at me and he said, Randy, I'm going to tell you
something he said and I want you to listen to me.
He said I don't care where you go from here, you won't be there
very long. He said you'll one day on your
own thing. And I said, thank you, but I
have no desire whatsoever tone my own thing.
So I went to the next place. And I treated that place like it
was mine because he hired me to manage it.
And it was easy because his name was Randy.
And across the window, Randy's silk screening.
It's my place. I was there first.
I left last. All right.
Ian had one day his partner came in found out it is Daddy.
Daddy says looks as his son says Randy.
Why don't you just leave and let Randy, Randy, handle this.
He goes, what do you mean? He says you come in here and you
mess up more stuff than he can fix in a day.
Boy, I didn't want him to ever leave.
Dad, just stay here because I know what's going to happen when
you leave. And I work for him a year and a
half. And then I started my own
company, still going today, celebrated 40 years last year.
Still got people in there managing like I'd manage.
Call me every now. And what do you think of this,
you know, and I'm able to give it to him, but, you know, it
really reflected that that's what God's been looking for all
along. He's looking for good managers
over the things that he has. All right.
So with that, you know, let's take a look at just a few more
things. I want to, I want to go, what
time is it? Somebody give me a time.
OK, We're good. All right, One of the scriptures
that Jesus told a parable is in Luke chapter 16.
OK, we're going to wrap it up with this.
I've got a few points in here that I want to make, but I want
you to listen to this parable. Because Jesus told this parable.
And if we get the sense of what he's saying, you know, we can
reflect in ourselves and make the decision that no matter
where we are, what we're doing, that we're going to manage.
And we're going to manage it well and want to seek the Lord
and find out how do you want this done?
How am I supposed to conduct myself?
What am I supposed to be providing out of the gifts and
talents that you gave me to see? Remember the definition?
It said that you're in charge. He's giving you a chance to
oversee his resources and his things, but he wants you to add
value to it. OK, Now, they'll be in in the
months to come. I'm going to do some other
teachings on parables, and one of them is the talents.
OK, What was that story all about?
Good management, but one bad manager.
OK, that's what that was about. But in this one it says this.
He said unto those disciples, there was a certain rich man who
had a steward, and the same was accused him that he had wasted
his good. When you see the word stewards
all through scripture, it is the Greek word Oikonamas OIKO N0M 0S
oikonamas K just like it sounds. It is from 2 Greek words.
One is oikos and the word oikos is the word house.
The word nomas is the word law. So when you talk about a
steward, what is he in charge of really?
He is the law of the house. He is the master of the house.
His owner has given him authority to be the ruler of the
house. So when God gives us the
opportunity to manage, basically he's doing the same thing he did
in the garden. I am giving you dominion to
become ruler over the house, so knows what happens.
OK? He said.
He called unto him, and said, And how is this?
And I hear this of you give an account of your stewardship, for
you may no longer be steward. Then the steward said within
himself, What shall I do? For my Lord takes away from me
the stewardship, and I cannot dig and to beg.
I'm ashamed. Verse four, listen to this.
I am resolved. What to do that when I am put
out of the stewardship they may receive me into their houses.
OK, so the word resolve just simply means I have got an idea.
I have an understanding of what I'm going to be doing now, he
said, So he goes in verse 5 and he said so.
He called every one of his debtors, Lord's debtors, to him
and said unto them, note this question, How much do you owe my
Lord? First guy says 100 measures of
oil. He said, sit down, take that
bill, and quickly write 50 Verse seven said to another How much
do you owe? And he said 100 measures of
wheat. He said, well, sit down and take
your bill, your bill, and write 80 And he said the Lord
commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely.
Another word for wisely is a word shrewdly for the And notice
this phrase, This phrase bothers me.
All right, he said, For the children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of light.
And then he goes on, and he says, in verse nine he said, You
make to yourself, Jesus said, make yourself friends of mammon
wealth of unrighteousness, that when you fail you may, they may
receive you into the habitations.
I had to figure out who is he talking to When he said, And I
say unto you, is he continuing the dialogue between the master
and the and the steward? Because that was the the deal.
Let me give you a few points. Here's the first one, OK.
The motive that the the unjust steward had was to gain favor
with his master's customers in verse 4, when he knew he's going
to be put out of the management. OK, when he knew he's going to
be put out, he said. Here's my plan.
I'm going to go make a relationship with my master's
customers. That was his motive.
That was the plan that he came up with.
All right. The second one listened to this.
He said he should have known exactly what the Masters
customers owed. He went to each one and asked
them. So that tells me real quick he
wasn't a good bookkeeper. He didn't have any idea.
I mean, when you got to ask somebody what they owe you, what
in the world, I know too. The panic, what people owe me?
And then he goes and he has them sit down and he and he starts at
in the appearance it almost looks like that he's he's he's
ripping his master off again in the final minutes.
But what was his job if he was over the household?
He was not only supposed to be loaning this stuff out and
giving it to people but he's supposed to be collecting on it.
And he wasn't doing either one really well.
All right, he said the master. And.
And here's a point that I had to think about.
It said the IT says that the fact that he didn't, he didn't
know what each of the customers owed means He probably gave at
times an inaccurate picture to the boss.
Now here's the problem with our boss.
He knows and sees everything. He knows if you're doing right
or not doing right. I wish I had that ability.
All right. Another point I thought about is
that the Master may not have known that he was discounting
the account. We don't have an accurate we
don't have an account that he knew what he was doing.
But it did say it did say that he was clapping for him.
That's what that word commending means.
He was applauding him. So I had to ask a question.
What were you applauding him about?
Probably the same thing the Lord does for us when we're not doing
what we're supposed to be doing. He's saying, I knew you could do
it. You had it in you all the time
to be a good steward, but you chose not to do it.
Because what's he doing now? He's bringing money to the boss.
He's saying, look here, I, I, you know, I was able to collect,
you know, 50% of that one, and I was able to collect 80% of that
one. All right, But his motive was
what? I'm not going to please my boss.
I'm going to go make friends with those people that owe the
money. Why?
Because I'm going to be going to them looking for a job.
Maybe one of them will hire me because I gave him the discount
that was his motive. But they said the more the the
master was I I believe the master was commending him for
bringing the money in that he should have been doing in the
1st place, but telling him that he was, he was able to.
That he was able to do his job. So he was saying, man, there you
are. I've, I've done that to people.
I've done that to Josh a million times.
You know, goof something up or whatever.
And then I said, hey, I need you to do this.
And then he'll finally get it done.
I'll just clap for him, man. Way to go.
When he was smaller or younger or had hair, I knew that part.
OK you know, I knew you could do it.
I knew you could do it. But then he he goes on and he
said make yourselves friends a man man, I I have to wonder if
he's still talking to this guy because you going to need them
friends because I'm putting you out.
He said you're going to need those friends to be able to help
you because he said you know when you fail he said they'll
bring you in and and the the other party in verse 9 verse 8
go back to verse 8 in there. I thought it was interesting
because he he told him, he said you've done wisely.
And he said, for the children of this world and their generation
are are wiser than the children of light.
Boy, that broke my heart. You know why all these people
are wealthy? The world, he told us.
Where's the wealth of the where? Where's the wealth at in the
world? The wicked got it.
How'd they get it? Probably because they're good
managers here, he tells us. Right here they're wiser than we
are most Christians. You know, you look at them,
we're broke. Why?
Because we're not good managers. I, I, I asked, I asked people
all the time. I said, listen, here's the first
thing that I want to know. If you'd be a good manager, do
you balance your checkbook? If you don't balance your
checkbook, you failed management step one.
I figured that out a long time ago.
You know, I ask, I ask adults all the time, you know, they're
having financial trouble. You know, I said you bounce your
checkbook. No.
OK, then how in the world are you going to know what you got?
I mean, every night before Melanie and I go to bed, we know
exactly what we have in every account, 'cause we take a little
time, you know, during the day, the end of the day, we get it
all established, all right. As far as entering everything,
we started using QuickBooks, you know, years ago.
We we'd fight like most couples. Well, you take it.
Here you have it. You take it now.
OK, well, I'm frustrated.
So here you take it now, you take it now, you know, back and
forth, back and forth. I said and.
And so finally I was introduced to a bookkeeping system and I
just incorporated in our family and it's called Clay Family
Finance. And we do QuickBooks for our own
personal finance. And she's done them and she's
done them from years. No fights.
She can balance the checkbook in minutes.
Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click,
click, zero. Click another button.
We're done. All right.
But that's management 101 O 101-1101.
I mean, just little things that you've got to take a look at.
How can God trust us with more if we cannot take care or know
what we've got in our hands? He can't do it.
All right. So as we wrap it up and in the
last three verses listen to this, He that is faithful and
that which is least is also faithful and much this is the
next verse after that. He that isn't just in the least
is also unjust in much. If therefore you've not been
faithful with unrighteous mammon who will give you to your trust
the true riches, verse 12. And if you've not been faithful
in that which is another man's who will give you that which is
your own? That's a law that's a precept of
the Kingdom, that you have no right to ask for anything unless
you've proven yourself to take care of somebody else's.
All right, God owns everything. It's up to us to take care of
what he gives us, all right? To manage it well, to know what
we're doing all right. And then so if you quick review,
management should be the primary goal of mankind.
It should be especially those of us in the Kingdom.
OK. Another principle that I had was
whatever you fail to manage, you will lose.
I've done it. Been there said God's primary
measure of trust is management. Here's something interesting.
Somehow or another, management attracts resources, you know.
I know that because Jesus said take no thought for what you'll
eat, drink or wear. For your Heavenly Father knows
you have need of these things before you ask him.
Which takes you back to Deuteronomy chapter 28 when he
said, hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God that
you may observe to do according to all that is written therein.
And he said, and all these blessings will come on you and
overtake you. Remember, he said, don't be like
the heathen, go chasing after money.
Don't do it, said don't do it. All right, so then he goes on
here, I got a couple more and we're done.
Said, God will usually not give you what you ask for, only what
you can manage in the form of money, resources, people,
products, facilities, equipment, only what you can manage.
You remember the parable of talents he gave to each man
according to his ability. All right.
And here's the thing you got to understand.
Hard times will always reveal to us whether or not we're good
managers or bad managers. All right, everybody, get all
that. All right, we're done.
Hallelujah. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you and praise you.
We have a desire in all of our hearts to be good managers for
you. Just as you said that you didn't
allow growth, that you even stopped growth.
You wouldn't even let the rain come until you had created a man
that could take care of your business.
So, Father, we want to be your people, to take care of your
business. We want you to help us focus on
those things that we're weak in and the things that we need to
do and take a look at our lives and the things around the house
and our cars, our homes, our kids, those different things.
Are we managing well? Can we prove to you this year
that we're great managers and we're ready for those
promotions, Father? We want that.
We know that the the more opportunities that you give us
to show a good management that those resources that we desire
to see to come in to fulfill your Kingdom and the and the
mandate that you've given to our pastor and the vision that
you've given to our pastor father.
We know that if we'll just stay steady in the arena of
management that we'll be able to accomplish great things
together. So we thank you and praise you
for tonight. We thank you and praise you for
the word that gone forth, and we thank you that everyone else
have ears to hear and wills to obey.
And we thank you for it in Jesus name.
Amen. Thank you so much for listening
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