Stop Wasting Your Life And Reach Your Full Potential

The sad reality is that many expect to be rewarded and praised and esteemed for what they intend to accomplish.

Wow.

Or who they intend to become. Having big goals in and of itself isn't necessarily the fulfillment of those goals. And I think that's where entitlement sometimes comes from. I intend on accomplishing this. I intend on becoming that. And so I want to be treated as if I've already done it. So excellence and stewardship, Matthew 25:14. Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave 5 bags of silver to one, 2 bags of silver to another, and 1 bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. The servant who received the 5 bags of silver began to invest the money and earned 5 more. The servant with 2 bags of silver also went to work and earned 2 more. But the servant who received the 1 bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the 5 bags of silver came forward with 5 more and said, master, You gave me 5 bags of silver to invest, and I have earned 5 more. The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. The servant who had received the 2 bags of silver came forward and said, Master, you gave me 2 bags of silver to invest, and I have earned 2 more. The master said, Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. Verse 24, then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money. So I hid it in the earth. Look, here's your money back. But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Then he ordered, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Stewardship. I love it.

Go ahead.

Oh, I was gonna say, I love this topic because something that I like was reading over, 'cause I've read the scripture so many times, that God rewards initiative and he rebukes fear. And how many times you've been in this situation, especially in my life, how afraid I am at certain decisions in my life. And I go to God, I'm like, God, I don't know what to do here. I need help. And I know the answer is within reach, but fear sometimes as humans, it creeps in. And I remember at times making a decision and realizing at the end of it, I'm like, I based that off of my— I was afraid.

Yeah, I think when I read this story as well, I think it also is a great representation of how some Christians too often wait on God for every little minute detail. Like God will speak to you. In some instances in the Bible, we read how God speaks very detail-oriented and sometimes He just, here, I told you to do this, now go do it. And I think in this story, it's almost like a lot of American Christians are, you know, being spoken to whether it's over their pulpit or with their leadership, they get spoken to, hey, you know, God has given you this word or I believe, you know, you're You're gifted with this ability. And then they go, but what do I need to do exactly? And it's like, just trust that God's going to use you to do what it is he called you to do, whatever that may be. I think that's a great representation of what the story indicates. Like, God's going to speak to you, maybe not every little detail, but he will speak to you.

And I think many are trying to avoid being so presumptuous that they're moving far ahead of what God is doing. But then also we don't want to be so lazy as to lag behind when the Lord is walking ahead. We want to, go at what we call the pace of grace. So move with the Lord as he acts, as he speaks, and really flow with him. I like to say that when it comes to the move of the Holy Spirit, you can't force him.

Hmm.

In other words, you can't make him do something he doesn't wanna do. You can't conjure a revival or hype an experience. And at the same time, you also, you can't fight him. When he wants to do something, he's gonna do it. So I can't force him to do what he doesn't wanna do. And I can't fight him when he's doing what I don't want him to do. Instead, I have to flow with him. And when it comes to stewardship, I think that's one of the keys is knowing that you're not always, as you said, going to have all of the details, but there are going to be those moments where you just look at the general commands that God's given you and say, how can I use my specific abilities and talents and resources to fulfill God's general commands?

I love that about the Holy Spirit, that he's able to, give you just enough to where you need to go out and step out and do it. And it really requires faith to do. And every time I think about that, I think of my life again. And I'm like, man, if I did this, I know God is gonna bless it. But I know that the Holy Spirit is guiding me through it. But at the same time, I'm afraid. Like I said earlier, sometimes I get wound up in a decision that can alter my life or my children's life or my wife's life. And I think, man, Okay, I definitely know the Holy Spirit is speaking. I need to act out but then I think, okay, no, I got to make sure it's God. It has to be.

Yeah, I think it was very interesting. You read and he kind of touched on it a little bit where it says that He gave them talents according to their ability and I think it's really interesting because you might look around at your life and I know I've looked around sometimes to be like, okay, what can I like actually accomplish for God like where I'm at, whatever resources you have, et cetera. And there might even be the temptation of, well, if I had the talents, the resources that somebody else had, then I could do it. And it's like, well, no, you couldn't. Otherwise you might have those resources. Because the master in this parable that represents the Lord gave them something that they could increase, not just as a test. He wasn't just testing them giving them a talent saying, okay, what can you do with this? He gave them a talent according to their ability, meaning the things that you have, whether it's gifts, times, whether it's a spiritual gift, practical wisdom, the relationships, the connections you have, like you actually already have the ability and the resources you need. You just have to, like what Steve's talking about, set aside the fear and actually take the step with what you've been given.

Yeah, it makes me wonder how many, even myself, but like how many Christians in general receive something from the Lord, whether it's a word or something or a gifting, and just sit on it because they're not being proactive as we read in the parable. And it makes me think, Darp, you know, is this a great indication of, you know, this is the word for today? Like Christians are just— and this is something that we've hit on in a few podcasts where we're like, And nothing against, you know, a certain demographic of Christians, but like, sometimes we're just too lazy. Like, we can't be waiting on God for everything. How many times have you been given something where you're just sitting on it and God's like, no, you need to move. You need to go do this. How many times have gone to waste or how many things have gone to waste and not come into fruition because you just sat on it? I really, really liked the scripture. I really liked the story.

I love that. Also, we see highlighted the reason behind the inaction. It's fear. So often it is laziness, but you notice, he said, he says, you wicked and lazy servant.

Mm-hmm.

But the servant was acting in fear. It was the fear that became the root of laziness. And I don't know how much we should make of that, especially since the scripture doesn't necessarily emphasize that point, but it still does mention the fact that this servant was afraid. The servant didn't wanna step out and do something because, well, what if the consequences are something I can't handle? Or what could go wrong if I make an attempt to do something for the master? What, maybe he'll judge me harshly if I don't do it right. Or maybe he'll judge me harshly if it doesn't turn out the way I wanted it to turn out. And I think that that is where many Christians are stuck. But again, it begs the question, how then do you know whether it's faith or foolishness?

Yeah.

And I was just having this conversation. I do a, discipleship group once a month with several young men here at the ministry. And we were— Britton was in on that talk that I was having earlier today. Actually, I literally walked from that room to this set right now. And I began the meeting. I looked around the room and I asked them all, what is the difference between faith and foolishness? And one of the guys, Gustavo, I think it was, he's behind the camera here. He said, whether or not God has spoken. I said, that's right. Because if God spoke, then it's faith. If God didn't speak, then it might be foolishness. And I say, what do you do then in those moments where you're not receiving an indication either way? God is not saying no, and God is not saying go. And in those seasons, you wait on the Lord, yes, but in the meantime, do what you know is God. And I think that's a really good balance to this question. That is, Progressively walking along that path that God has laid before you by obeying what you know is in his word, by obeying what you know he's commanded you to do. Like, for example, I can list several things. Every Christian is called to live holy, to worship, to evangelize, to serve one another, to love God. And we can go on listing all of the general commands that God has given to the church. And so I think what we get hung up on is this idea that God needs to lay down for me this very specific set of instructions on every single step I'm about to take, but then it wouldn't require faith. So let's get out of the abstract now and get down into the practical. We've talked about fear. We've talked about balancing wisdom. And of course, making sure that we're not hiding behind what we call wisdom when it's actually fear. We talked about the voice of God. Let's talk about some actual practical instances. I'll throw this over to you, Britton, just to start here.

All right.

Is there an instance in your life Where you were afraid to step out and do something God had called you to do. And you saw on the other side of your obedience, the fruit of that obedience.

Yeah. I can remember just like a ministry example. I had kept feeling like the Holy Spirit saying, hey, start doing more ministry, start doing more ministry, start doing more ministry. I'm like, gotta work for a ministry. You know, it's okay. You know, like I'm going to get there. I'm working my way there. And he's like, no, start doing something. Something start start making your way that direction, and I was like, okay. And so I in my heart decided I'm going to use that talent, right? I'm going to do something with it. And I think it was it was either the next day or something. You had given me an opportunity to to exercise some ministry functions. It was like a prayer or something like that, and I was like, okay. And then I went to a church. later that week and somebody had given a prophetic word. Yeah, God's saying and God's confirming it and it's like but what was interesting to me is God didn't give me those confirmations in that flow of like things seeming to start until after I had decided that I was going to start doing something.

He guides as you go.

Yeah.

I sincerely think that God loves the fact that His Christians, His people would just try. I think so, 'cause there's so many stories where people fail and it happens all the time. People happen, I fail, people fail, but there's people who try to fulfill the call of God and maybe they missed it, maybe they didn't, but they go out, maybe whether it's starting a church, maybe it's starting an organization, starting a business. And like from not even a Christian perspective, just looking from the outside in going, man, at least they tried. Even if they did fail, I think God appreciates that, that they actually even tried and stepped out.

He created us to be productive. To create, to build, to expand, to capitalize on the abilities that he's given to us, to maximize our potential, to become who he created us to be, to have dominion in the earth. So God created us to flourish. I mean, when he made man, he created Adam and Eve, he created man and women, and he wanted them to flourish. That is have abundant life. That is be effective, be good stewards, and to Do something, to be productive. And you look all throughout scripture and you see every single one that God called, that they were doing something.

Mm-hmm.

I said this before, that when God called David, he was tending sheep. When God called the prophet Elijah, he was working with the plow. When God called his disciples, some of them were fishermen. They were doing something. Now, as it pertains to laziness, lack of details, these are things I'm not saying God, cannot use the person who's lazy, or God cannot use the person who's not details-oriented. I'm saying that God looks for diligent people to use, not that he can't use anyone. And we're not talking about salvation here, because sometimes when I say this, people hear me saying, oh, so you're saying if you're lazy, you're not saved? No, I'm saying that if you're lazy, God is not going to give you greater levels of responsibility in ministry.

Hmm.

So 2 sides of the coin we see in this parable. One side we see, the lesson being taught in regards to stepping out and doing something. On the other side, we see that those who did do something did it well. They took care of what they had. They treated what they had like it was what they wanted. They treated what they had with respect and honor. And I think far too many have this ideal version of themselves somewhere off in the future. And they say, well, if I can just get to that place, then I'm gonna start trying my best.

Uh-huh.

If I can get married, get that job, get that degree, pay off that debt, get that house, buy that property. Then when I get to that place, now I can really come into the place where I'm gonna maximize my potential, do everything as unto the Lord. But the fact of the matter is that's not going to happen until you begin to use well what God has given you now.

You got me fired up on this.

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When it comes to Christians who will look at other people, whether it's in their work environment and ministry, and they'll go, man, the pastor really favors that person and he's always blessing them, giving them promotion. At my job, I'm always overlooked. But then you look at their life and you speak to their friends, and then you end up finding out more details about that person's life, and you end up finding out that they're lazy. And they complain how God never promotes me, God never gives me this and this or a raise or any of that. But then you look at that person's life and they're super lazy.

Yeah.

They can't even handle well with what they've already given. Like, a terrible example, or just very broad, is like a janitor who's always complaining about, you know, this person, you know, is doing much better, better than me. But like, this janitor is always complaining about their work, always showing up late to work on time, or never showing up on time to work. And I get so upset when I hear Christians talking about that. It's like, God will promote you. God will give you influence. God will speak to you. if you just do well with what he's given you.

And look at David as an example. He was intentionally overlooked. He was left in the field, but God said, no, I'm gonna call him. And so it didn't matter that man overlooked him because God saw the work that was being done out there on the field. Now, we're not saying that if you aren't seeing the results that you wanna see, that that definitely means you're lazy. But what we are saying is if you're lazy, you definitely won't see those results. And I've talked to so many who do get frustrated. They get that victim mindset.

Mm-hmm.

And it's not that, oh, you know, I wasn't committed or I wasn't showing up on time. It's, oh, that's favoritism. And you hear this word being tossed around so much. People talking about churches are being toxic, toxic, toxic. And I'm thinking, okay, yeah, I understand in some instances there are toxic environments, but for the most part, when I hear these stories and then I begin to dig in a little more, I begin to realize that it's not that the church was toxic, it's that the individual was doing things, saying things, causing division and so forth. So often we blame, my point is we blame the exterior when we need to take up responsibility. Colossians tells us to work as unto the Lord. You heard that phrase, minimum wage, minimum effort? What a terrible attitude of entitlement.

Yep.

No, no, as unto the Lord, so always maximum effort.

Mm-hmm.

If your boss overlooks you, your coworkers overlook you, if the industry overlooks you, it doesn't matter because ultimately I'm doing it as unto the Lord, as a representation of the kingdom. And so this applies to so many things. It applies to work, to school, to business, to ministry. This law of stewardship is a very far-reaching principle. And if people don't grasp this, they end up blaming their environment, the people around them, instead of taking up responsibility and saying, I'm gonna give my best as unto the Lord and trust God that he's gonna bring the fruitfulness.

You know, something I always try to keep sharp in my toolbox is being a servant. And I think if you actually just try to be a servant, you'll find that you're in that, there's fruitfulness. Like I think about my life and when I first started ministry and growing up in church, I was the yes guy, no matter what you wanted, to do, you needed help with the wiring, you needed help vacuuming, you needed help cleaning, I would do it as much as I possibly could. And I think the Lord really does honor that like servant heart because you're not doing anything. You're not being lazy. You're actually doing something. And that's what I try to do every time I reevaluate my life as a whole. I look, okay, yes, God has platformed me in the position I'm in, but how can I still be a servant? And obviously the Lord uses me in the music ministry and I'm serving Him and the people as well. But I often think like, I have a real funny story, how quickly I could have said, you know what, forget all this and been afraid. So early in my worship journey, I remember again, I came from church. I came from a background of my family being musicians. My sister sang, my mom sang, my dad sang, my older brother played bass. So music has always been kind of in our lives. And I remember the first time that I was given a platform to sing, I did terrible. This is a crazy funny story because I just look at it now and I think, man, I could have easily said, you know what? I'm done. I quit. Forget it. So I was leading worship. And again, this was one of the first times I've ever led worship. with a congregation, nervous out of my mind. I'm like, Lord, just use me. And that's what my mentality was. Let me be a servant. This is how you want me to serve. I'm gonna at least try, like Ruben was saying. And I remember I started singing and the song was going on and I thought, you know, I'm doing pretty good, you know, in my mind. And I get a tap on my shoulder mid-worship. Oh my goodness. I'm like, what's going on? And it was the worship pastor. She's like, give me the mic. I'm like, oh, I guess she's got some crazy word or she's got a word over me, I thought, you know? And she takes the mic, she's like, you know what? We're gonna do this song again. And Steve, you could just go step to the side in mid-worship. And I remember that moment. And it was so funny because I think that's what a servant's, you know, if you keep that heart and that attitude, things like that, they kind of just bounce right off. So I remember thinking, you know what? All right, cool. Let's do it again. And I didn't get any cynicism, any hurt.

I love that you're saying that.

Yeah.

Because a lot of people would've taken that experience and they would've left that church, not understanding that that was coming from a place of love and very gently like, hey, let's do this again. And not wanting to sacrifice the flow of the church service.

Right.

Because what did you do? Were you just off key? What was the story?

I think what was going on is I was trying to lead the song in the way that I thought it should have been led. Like again, I watched nothing but worship leaders the few months prior. So I thought, okay, if I do this, that vocally wasn't great. I was trying to lead the band but they were all confused because I had too many signs going on.

I see.

It was just chaos but I think through that because I had that servant heart, I said, okay, I'm all right. Like let's try that again and I started learning from that because again, I had that background of just Let me be the yes guy. I'll do whatever you ask me to do. Even if I do it terrible, I'm still going to do it. And I remember I made a commitment to God at the altar years prior saying, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I will do. If I'm bad at it, please show me favor. And I remember looking, thinking back now, like, man, that was some favor because I could have easily just been, forget it, I'm done. But there's fruitfulness in that, is being a servant.

But again, to the point, and this is what I really admire about how you handled that situation. And this is to your point as well. Again, we can either get, there's that old saying, you can get bitter or you can get better.

Hmm.

And sometimes God will allow us to experience correction like that. And instead of getting angry and upset, instead of saying, well, you know, that's mean, or that, like, again, there's that word that's thrown out around these days. Everything's toxic these days. You know, someone else in that position may have said, well, that's toxic. You took it as that's loving correction that I will receive. And look at the result today.

Yeah.

A powerful worship ministry. Your heart is free of bitterness and unforgiveness. I'm sure it was a slightly embarrassing thing, but even the way it was handled was a very gracious handoff. It wasn't like—

It was so funny because the first instinct was for me to just laugh. I thought, you know what? This is very funny. Like, I'm going to remember this. And I still remember it now. I'm going to remember this and laugh. And I still do to this day, it's pretty funny.

But I think that's a good way to handle it, 'cause how can you ever improve if you're not willing to take that kind of correction? Like there's been times in ministry where people have pointed things out to me and my ego wants to say, no, I know how to do this. Or no, I was doing it properly. Or well, this is the way I know how to do it. But then after setting the ego aside, realizing, you know what, actually this is room for improvement. That's a good word of rebuke. That's a good word of correction. And it helps me to be able to facilitate a better stewardship of what God has given me care over.

Yeah. And I think even with that mindset alone, understand that God will give you increase. God will give you reward. God will give you a promotion if that's your mentality with things. Like, I think about the jobs I've had outside of this organization in the secular world where everybody looked at me and I was always like the young Christian kid in my workplace, like, oh, the young Christian kid or the Christian boy or whatever. And A lot of times, like, I didn't have like the greatest positions. Like, I wasn't like the manager, I wasn't like the supervisor, but my mentality was, because once I got saved, was do everything well.

Hmm.

So my mentality was, if I'm gonna, you know, if my boss tells me to go, you know, clean up this mess, my mentality was, okay, let me do it, but let me do it the best that I can because I know God will reward that. And eventually I did get promoted. Eventually I did get a raise. And I think if you have that mindset, that mentality of just, Just serving, even though I understand I'm going to get paid for doing my job. But if I do it well enough, God will see that. I know that. I know that for a fact. God rewards his children.

And that's to be— that's the difference between being cynical and being filled with faith. Ultimately, when you look to God and realize everything that I'm doing is an offering to him, and that ultimately is what stewardship is. Stewardship is a recognition that this belongs to God. This ministry belongs to Jesus. I remember one time I saw somebody, Tim will remember this, they were folding cables here in the studio, but they were being very like rough, like bending them to where like they were, like it was ruining the video signal. This wasn't this studio, this was back in Cerritos. And it was very like, you know, and they tossed it and it was very, someone left a camera on a chair and I gathered the team around And I pointed out the cables and I pointed at the camera and I said, what is this right here? And they said, oh, those are the cables. That's the camera. I said, who put the camera on a chair where it can fall over? Who folded— who wired these cables to the place where they can almost— they're almost bending and could mess with the signal? And they kind of all looked around and I said, that's God's camera.

Mm-hmm.

Those are the Lord's cables. And then I pointed out the fact that this is donor supported. I told him, there's some lady somewhere, single mom, who probably gave sacrificially $10, $25 so that we could have this studio. And you're throwing wires around.

Hmm.

You're throwing, you're leaving lenses on the floor. You're leaving cameras on chairs. You're leaving boxes open. You're putting things away like you're just throwing them in a closet somewhere. You gotta take care of it like it's the Lord's. And because it is, everything we have is his. Our time belongs to him. Our finances belong to him. All of this equipment, this studio is his. This ministry is his. Like when I talk about the ministry, I don't say my ministry. It's not my ministry. It's the ministry that God has given me the responsibility of taking care of.

Mm-hmm.

But all of this belongs to him. And when you recognize that everything belongs to him, then you do it as, Unto him for his glory. Everything can be done unto his glory. The way you take out the trash can be done for his glory. Believe it or not, I know that can sound almost sacrilegious to some, but it's not, because every little thing you do is unto the Lord. The way, the way we vacuum the carpet here, the way we put away the, the cups in the cupboard, the way we conduct our meetings, all of it is as unto the Lord.

Mm-hmm.

And the same applies for secular jobs, for academic pursuits, for, for marriage, for raising kids, everything that you put your all, your heart, everything you have into that as unto the Lord. Now I understand there are legitimately toxic environments. Like there are some workplaces that probably you should get out of, but I'm gonna push back on that a little bit because in our generation, there seems to be this mindset that's developed that anyone who corrects me or anyone I disagree with, well, they're a narcissist. Any environment that makes me uncomfortable or any environment where I feel some pressure of responsibility, well, that's toxic. Anyone who disagrees with me or doesn't validate the way I perceive things, they're gaslighting me. And so we have all these terms that we use to shift the blame onto other people and to the environment surrounding us. That is not the way of the cross.

Hmm.

That is not the way of Christ. That is a cultural mindset that is slipping into the church. that is damaging a lot of young Christians today because we're just taking that in because it sounds so virtuous when really it's very egocentric, it's very selfish, it's very lazy. And now again, I'm not saying there's no such thing as toxic places, but what I am saying is we can't just label pressure because we feel it as unhealthy. I understand principles of rest. Yeah, you guys can all vouch for this. I push the principle of rest here in the ministry. Steve, I have to practically force you to go on vacation.

That's true.

I say, you gotta go on vacation. Britton, when you're working late, I say, stop working. You're off the clock now. You need to go now and spend time with your wife. You need to go now and spend time. Do I not do that?

Yeah.

Well, you have to say it now that you're on camera, but he's not just saying it now he's on camera. Ruben will vouch for that. These guys here will tell you, here at this ministry, I'm very big on rest. I tell them constantly, I am not gonna sacrifice your spiritual, emotional, and mental health just so we can grow faster. I'd rather grow slow and together than to rush this thing and ruin a bunch of lives along the way. Having said that, it also is true that this generation, generally speaking, not everyone, but generally speaking, there's this mindset that's seeped into the culture to where if I feel pressure from something, Mm-hmm. that can't be good.

Mm-hmm.

Well, that's what work is. You're gonna feel a little bit of pressure at work. You're gonna feel the weight of responsibility. Responsibility is a weight. But how can you ever grow stronger without resistance? How can you ever build patience without pressure? And so we have to find that biblical balance to where everything we do is done in the right heart as unto the Lord. Yes, there are toxic bosses. Yes, There are mean-spirited coworkers. Yes, there are frustrating systems in which people find themselves.

Mm-hmm.

But ultimately, I'm responsible for my attitude. I'm responsible for my mindset. I'm responsible for what I put into whatever I'm doing, not because I owe it to a company or an organization or a person, but because I owe it to the Lord Jesus to shine as an example of godly diligence and be that light in the dark place, even when everyone else is failing on those points.

You know, I feel like it really kind of, at least in my view, started with the rise of the internet and how the internet kind of like changed everybody's mindset. Instead of working hard, you can just Google how to do this, what are 5 tricks to get rich fast, or this, yada yada, the list goes on. And I feel like our generation now has been so Overwhelmed with knowledge all at once. It kind of seeped into their whole heart, their mind, the way they carry themselves into the point where it's like, man, I think of the 1950s or like the older old school generation. Those guys worked. Not saying we don't work now. I just think like, man, they toiled, they worked hours, they had a goal and they would meet it. And I think like you were saying earlier, Any ounce of pressure that our generation or the generation to come feels is like, oh, I'm out. You know, it's crazy.

Well, and I wanna clarify what we mean when we say generation. We're not picking on like millennials or Gen Z, or as they would call them, boomers. When I say generation, I mean people who are alive on planet Earth today, this present group of people here on Earth. And that is a mindset, again, that is seeping into the culture. It's this entitlement, it's this cynicism. And the problem with that is it doesn't produce fruitfulness. And so I'm not bringing this out, we're not bringing this out saying, well, if you're like this, we condemn you or anything like that. We're sharing this because we wanna point out an unbiblical mindset so that you can be set free from the fruitlessness of that mindset. Complaining isn't gonna get you anywhere.

Mm-hmm.

The sense of entitlement isn't going to get you anywhere. Cynicism isn't going to get you anywhere. We're talking about gratitude and faith and praise. How can you praise if you're always complaining?

Mm-hmm.

How can you be grateful if you're always living with that sense of entitlement? How can you have faith if your heart is filled with cynicism? Live from the place of divine life. Live from the place of knowing that your Father owns it all. That he's bigger than any situation, that God can accomplish anything he wants to accomplish in your life. That if you just take care of what he's given you, he will trust you with greater levels of responsibility.

Speaking of God trusting us with greater levels of responsibility, once God gives you that talent, so I wanna hear you guys' thoughts on this. Once God gives you those talents, you have to actually apply. So we see like, the master wrote, or not wrote, but he said to the slothful servant, right? He's like, you should have at least gone to the bank and I would've gotten some interest on my talent there. So I want to talk about the more practical side of it. How do you, whether it's a specific step process or some good principles to apply, once you're like, okay, I have 1 talent, 2 talent, whatever God's given me, and I'm ready to not be lazy. I'm ready now to step into doing something with what God's given to me. What are the first steps so that you're like, for that one talent, like he should have been bringing increase. What are those first steps to see increase in what you have?

Find the need and fill it. Find the need and fill it. So many are waiting for the platformed positions that they miss the places where they can be productive. In other words, they see the end result as standing on a pulpit preaching, or they see the end result as being the boss in a business. Nothing wrong with— there's nothing wrong with these things. Or they see the end result as being married.

Mm-hmm.

But are they willing to put in the work to serve at a local church, to spend hours working on that business, to go out and find someone who is a godly woman or a godly man and be a godly boyfriend or girlfriend first, right? And really learning to, at each stage, maximize what you have. And this is gonna come through diligence. Diligence is choosing to do what's right and what's necessary, even when you don't feel like it. There's a phrase I repeat to myself all day, every day. One of the phrases is the work of ministry. I tell people it is work. People have no idea how much goes into ministry work unless they've done it.

Hmm.

There is a lot of work to do. And so I tell myself every day, this is the work of ministry. And we have to be diligent about it. But then I tell myself, do the next thing. So you have your time management, you have your list of tasks. Every day I wake up, I know what I'm dedicating that day to. I know where the time is going. I don't wake up and wait for the day to happen to me, see when I can meet what tasks, but instead wake up, take dominion over the day by planning. by bringing order, by staying focused, taking care of those tasks that need to be taken care of. And once one is done, move on to the next. The next one's done, move on to the next. Next one's done, move on to the next. And then you go home and you rest with your family.

Mm-hmm.

You spend time with your wife, you spend time with your kids, you enjoy that. And then there's days you have off, of course, but to not allow the day to get away from you, but instead to master the day, by telling each moment what it should be used for.

I think something that, like, for me, there was a video that went kind of viral. It was about a— it was a war veteran that was saying, this is what you do to become successful. The first thing you should do is just get up and make your bed.

I saw that one.

Remember that one?

Yeah.

And I was thinking about that and I was like, man, that makes so much sense. If you can angle your day with a win, even something as small as that, I think it'll— that's the practical side, obviously. Doing something like that, you can set yourself up for success throughout the rest of the day if you get one little win. I look at my sons, obviously. I have 3 boys and I always pray with them at night and I wake them up in the morning and I say, what's the first thing you got to do in the morning? And obviously I have a list, but the first thing they usually say is, thank God for the day. And I'm like, yes, and brush your teeth. Go brush your teeth now. Because that's obviously the spiritual, right? Is like, go thank God for your day, but make sure you set them up for success throughout the day. And that little win will be like, okay, it'll get them in the pattern as far as I've seen with my kids. So like just getting those little wins throughout the day.

This is where I think sometimes the mindset should be shifted because often we, I do this too. So I'm not just saying, throwing this out there where sometimes I forget that much of what we label as practical is actually spiritual.

Yeah.

So yes, of course you start the day with prayer. Of course you start the day devoted to the word, but it is a spiritual practice to be diligent. It is a spiritual practice to have an orderly life. It is very godly in nature to bring order out of chaos and to have discipline where there is desire and impulse, but to subject those impulses and say, this is what I'm going to do with my time, my energy, my resources. And again, taking dominion over the day. And so there are those practical things that we label as purely practical, but actually have really big spiritual implications.

Yeah.

And going back to your point, finding the need and filling it. When I got saved and, you know, I wanted to be, you know, I wanted to do the best I could in God's house when I got saved. I was very like, I understood like, God, I want you to use me wherever it is you find need for me in your house. So my approach was, okay, I understand I'm a hard worker and that's not like me boasting about myself. It's just been instilled into me. I understand that I can be organized. I understand that certain traits of my life, I know I'm good at these things, use me. But finding the need and filling it was always a big thing for me. It's just having a servant's heart. So if the church said, we need ushers, boom, on Sunday, I'm signing up to be a volunteer usher or whatever. That was my big factor is finding the need and filling it. Use me wherever it is you want me to be used, because that's all I really care about is just being used, filling the need, and just being useful with my time and resources. That's the way I approached it.

Yeah, going back to Steve's point, of accomplishing— when you accomplish something, it sets your day in the right way. I heard somebody talking about this, and this is kind of like a practical tip, but I think it— if you apply it, like Pastor David's saying, to the spiritual side of it and recognizing that the practical things, when we do it unto the Lord and to the needs of people, it's spiritual, is this cycle of competence and confidence. And so he was saying that when you have a burst of exercising competence. So you read something and you understand it. You learn something and you gain that, that strength of understanding it. You accomplish something and you feel like, okay, I've got this. It gives you confidence. And he said that, that confidence actually increases your competence. So it's this ever-increasing cycle that the more things that you can accomplish and almost like, like we've been talking about, have dominion over and grasp ahold of and put in order, it gives you this confidence to keep moving forward and doing the next thing.

And I love that you mentioned that because this goes to a definition I have on arrogance. Because sometimes when people see confident people, they say, oh, they're arrogant. They haven't talked to them. They don't know what their character is like. They don't know how they handle their relationships with other people. They don't know what goes on in their own mind and heart. They just see a confident person. Maybe their posture is good. They speak boldly and clearly. Arrogant. Confidence looks like arrogance to the insecure.

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Confidence looks like arrogance to the insecure. I would define arrogance as when your confidence exceeds your competence. In other words, if— name a famous football player. I don't know any of them.

I don't know.

Is it like Tom Brady or something?

Tom Brady. I don't know.

He retired.

Kobe Bryant.

Kobe.

Well, he's a basketball player. Well, we'll use him. I mean, that's a name I guess everyone knows, so we'll use that. Basketball. If Kobe Bryant were to stand up and say, I'm one of the greatest to have ever played the sport, no one would disagree with that. If I were to stand up and say that, they would think I was delusional or very arrogant, right? Because my confidence would then be exceeding my competence.

Hmm.

And the sad reality is that many expect to be rewarded and praised and esteemed for what they intend to accomplish.

Wow.

Or who they intend to become. Having big goals in and of itself isn't necessarily the fulfillment of those goals. And I think that's where entitlement sometimes comes from. I intend on accomplishing this. I intend on becoming that. And so I want to be treated as if I've already done it.

Wow.

I want to be rewarded as if I've already made that happen. And that, I think, is— those are good definitions of arrogance. And of entitlement is wanting to be rewarded for what you intend to do or who you intend to become.

I think the practical thing for, 'cause I'm just trying to put myself, if I was listening to this podcast, I would, I love the content, but what can I do practically as well? And I know we talked about that, but something I think that I asked myself when I was younger is what can I do for you, God? And these 3 things really helped my life and really kind of put me on the path to continue where I'm at now. Number one thing was be a servant. Like we were talking about earlier, serving in your local church if you can, because that'll instill not only confidence in you, it'll instill discipline. And then something that really instills discipline, which some of us, it's hard to do, is reading the word. And you get best of both worlds because you're reading the word, understanding about wisdom, learning about God, but at the same time instilling discipline to read something.

Hmm.

And I think obviously read the Bible, it's a great book, so why not? But, and then finally having faith throughout that journey because I feel like a lot of the young peeps out there, I feel like an old man saying that. A lot of the young people.

We are young peeps. No, we are young peeps. Don't tell me. I was gonna say we're young.

We are the young peeps.

We are the young peeps. Yes, yes, in Jesus' name, we're still young. But you know, it's so funny having faith through those situations. Especially when the pressures come and especially when, as like I said, the younger audience is dealing with, you know, what am I supposed to do with my life? I think those 3 things, they helped me a lot. Serving in the church, being a servant, reading, getting, reading the Word. And so funny, it's the basics. It really is the basics.

But I think that faith factor that you mentioned is so key because so many are so lost in the frustration of hopelessness because they feel they can't advance that they just give up. Sometimes it's not laziness. Sometimes it's just dismay. Sometimes it's just looking out at the way things are and saying, how can I ever truly be fruitful or live a fruitful life in this? And that's where we have to have faith, recognizing that we trust not in the systems of this world. We trust in the spiritual systems that God has put in place. And stewardship is an immovable, spiritual law. There is no denying the results of that law. You take care of what you have and you do well with what you have as unto the Lord. And he will bring the fruitfulness.

Mm-hmm.

He will bring the increase in your responsibilities. He will bring spiritual promotion. That is, that is a fact. That is a biblical truth. And so though it might be discouraging to look at the way the world is in many instances, many economies and many systems and say, well, it just can't happen for me. I just can't be fruitful here. Don't dismay. God is looking.

Mm-hmm.

God is the one who raises. God is the one who blesses and favors. And so as we're doing it as unto him, we're filled with that hope, knowing that he is going to reward diligence. Now onto the point of, of some practical things, I would say, That was the list I would give is, of course, you know, pray, read the word, worship. These are spiritual disciplines we talk about. I mean, you look at my channel, that's pretty much all I talk about when it comes to finding that spiritual foundation. But in the very practical sense, again, practical can be very closely connected to the spiritual. I would say, do the next thing. Just do what's in front of you and trust the Lord for promotion.

Hmm.

Number 2, is I would practice persistence. Because I think what happens is we meet maybe a little bit of resistance. And instead of pushing beyond that and saying, where's the other way? Or who else should I talk to? Or let me find someone who'll give me the answer I wanna hear. We just kind of meet a little resistance and then we just leave it alone.

Hmm.

Whenever we're bringing on new staff and I'm helping to train them, I'm constantly telling them, if you meet resistance, That is where you begin with persistence. And so what I've noticed is like, I'll give a project to someone. I'll say, hey, find a way to, I don't know, animate a graphic this way. Say, go and learn that. 3 weeks later, they think I forget about it. I don't, I set reminders in my phone. 3 weeks later, I'll come back. Did you find that out? Oh no, I didn't. I just couldn't figure it out. Well, when did you try? The same day you told me. Okay, the same day I told you. So you found out that day you couldn't do it?

Yes.

How come you didn't come to me? What else did you do to try to find it? Well, I Googled it and that's the result I found. Okay, so there's no other softwares? And, and so what I'll do is then I'll sit with them and I'll say, let's do this together. And I'll show them, here's how you persist beyond, and we will find a way to do it. And eventually they catch on. Okay. We can persist beyond the limitations that others would have accepted. We can persist beyond when others would say, no, that's not going to work. And that again is part of stewardship, is I'm gonna find a way to make this happen somehow, some way, with God's help and the Holy Spirit's wisdom, I'm gonna find a way to get this thing accomplished. And that's what these men did. They had their talents and they got the money back and they multiplied it.

Hmm.

They did something with it because they saw a way. And so this lazy servant, and was rebuked 'cause he buried it. You could have— you just stopped trying?

Mm-hmm.

You just buried it and said, that's it, I'll give up? You met some resistance, you had some questions you couldn't get answered, and you just, that's it, you stop right there, there's no moving on? You didn't— you need to ask 1,000 questions. You need to look 100 different ways, persist, try, adapt, look around and see if you can't find it from another perspective. that solution that you're so desperately searching for. And that would be the second thing is persistence. Learn that law of persistence. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. You've heard it said, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. I would rather say, if at first you don't succeed, find out why it didn't work and then try again.

Wow.

But you have to begin to use wisdom paired with persistence. And I think those two begin to unlock some of those doors. So that would be, do the next thing, that's diligence. Doing what I don't feel like doing because I need to, and because it's something that will ultimately produce fruit. And number 2 is learning to persist. And I would say that definitely the 3rd would be what Steve said is faith.

Believe.

You serve a big God. He gave you a task like Nehemiah. I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. He's building that. Well, I'm sorry, I can't get my focus off of this, right? I gotta stay with what God gave me. work on what God has given me to accomplish. And I'm not going to back down. I have to make sure that for the glory of God, I'm fulfilling what he gave me to do. Now you wanna be, of course, someone who exercises wisdom. Like, you know, like if there are certain things where you know that the Lord will say, okay, try it a different way or go a different route, or I didn't call you to do that. That's why you have to know his voice. But when you know it's God, that's when there has to be this exercise of persistent faith.

I think there might be somebody that's like listening or watching and like they're probably not hearing what you're not saying, but then they might be thinking, oh, that's a little bit extreme, David. Like, oh, like, like you did the story with like the camera on the, on the chair and the wires. Like, no, like God is very detail-oriented. God is very, you know, he's instilled hard work. You read it throughout the Bible. And when I think about detail-oriented, I mean, I was mentioning earlier before we sat down the book of Exodus, how he's telling Moses, you know, to build a tabernacle. And he's going to very detailed, specific instructions. I go, God loves excellence, the excellence factor. One of the, one of the greatest things I've received from today's scripture is doing things well. Not only just doing it, but doing it well, paying attention to the details. I know that's one thing I've learned from you, David, is just going above and beyond, not because it's just to meet our own satisfaction, but I think it's the very least that God wants from us is doing it to the best of our ability.

I love what you said about persistence because again, I look throughout the Bible like Ruben's saying. I mean, Esther, Moses, Abraham and Isaac, Nehemiah, all persisted and they kept through. Even Jesus.

Mm-hmm.

Jesus himself. I mean, my goodness, like I'm looking through all the scripture, I'm like, it's so key. And I feel like in our generation, not in our generation, but just in general nowadays, persistence has been lost a little bit. It's almost an art form. which I struggled with it too. And when you were talking earlier, I'm like, dude, that was me. I still feel like that sometimes. Sometimes I'm like, well, what do I do here? I don't know. Maybe I'll pray about it.

I don't know.

Not calling anyone out, but I mean, I've used it. I've used it. I'll be the first one. I've used that before.

You're talking about when Christians say, I'll pray about it, but what they really mean is I don't want to do it. So I'm hiding behind that as an excuse. To that point, you're not saying you shouldn't pray about it.

No.

You're saying that sometimes people use that phrase as an excuse.

That was a great example with God giving details to Moses in the tabernacle. And then it brought to my mind after that, God said, I've anointed so-and-so and given them this, filled them with the Holy Spirit to have the ability to do art, the crafts and the different metalworking, all this. So God gives a detailed instruction And then God also by the Holy Spirit empowered somebody to accomplish that instruction.

I remember when I first began in media ministry, YouTube, I think it was 2006, 2007. Tim, do you remember when we started the channel, what year that was? Was that 2006 or 2007?

It's 2007.

So it's 2007, the year 2007. And there wasn't much traction there. In fact, not a lot of ministries, relatively speaking, were even on YouTube or using it as a tool of communication. And so I remember just persisting. And I actually began using a camera that my mom and dad would use on the family vacations. And I would set that camera up and I would film when I would go preach at youth events. And I maximized the usage of that camera Until one day, my youth pastor, he was your youth pastor too, Steve, Eddie Vargas, Eddie Vargas, Eddie and Roxanne, they gave me my first professional camera, the Sony VX2100. And I took that camera with me everywhere. And I filmed sermons and I put together videos and I would upload onto YouTube. I would create DVDs and pass them out when I would preach. And from that mom and dad camera to that professional camera, to the next set of equipment that we had, I look at the cameras almost as like markers of where we were, because they're very indicative of where you are in terms of resources. And looking back on that mom and dad cam, I maximized that thing. The Sony VX2100? The bag for that camera was falling apart by the time we switched to the newer equipment. And then eventually our own studio, eventually a more professional studio, and eventually where we are here. Not that this is the end or that we've by any means arrived at some plateau, but just to see the progress of it all and treating every single phase with great care, with great excellence.

Mm-hmm.

Honoring the Lord, knowing that it's his ministry ultimately, that brings about the growth that we wanted to see. And that's the increase of responsibility.

Yeah. And I've been a— it's funny you say that because I've been a part of this, of the journey with the ministry, for lack of better words. When I got hired, I've known what it's been like to work with you and volunteer and just help out wherever I can back in the Hawthorne days in 2013. just helping out wherever I could. Because for those who don't know, David approached me and this was 2013. He goes, hey, I need someone to help me out with getting behind the video. And I'm like, I don't know how to do that, but if you need the help, I'll go ahead and do it. So I would show up on— I don't even remember, it was like Tuesday or Thursday night. And I'd be like, I'm going to go ahead and do it, but I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll do whatever it is you need me to help out. And that was my perspective the whole time is just when I would do something for you, I'd be like, I don't know how to do it, but let me try it as best as I can. And I've seen God reward that every single season throughout the ministry, just seeing God take the ministry from one season to the next and just always rewarding it and bringing favor because we've handled it with, as I was saying, excellence.

Hey, Ruben, you were a great cameraman. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us for this edition of The Encounter Podcast. We love you. We appreciate you. We pray for you. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.