Healthy Home Series - Stewardship of the Home

All right, everybody. When I when I speak in in these sessions here, uh even though we are in the what I call the big house, feel free to be interactive. Like if you want to shout out and I might call on people, feel free to uh to speak out. I like these sessions to be um interactive. So, if you want to add something. Brett, you want to say something? Don't be afraid to speak up. Uh, tonight we are talking about biblical stewardship. And when I say biblical stewardship, I mean stewardship in the home and all things, not just money.

So, we've spoke before about money and money management. This is uh all encompassing. So um the main the main topics tonight are the things that we're going to cover are going to be time, talent, treasure, and influence. And first before we even build anything, it's really important that we talk about what is God's perception on money? What is God's perception on time? What is God's perception on talent and treasure? I.e. what is God's perception on stewardship? I think the best example of that can be found in Matthew 25:14.

That uh parable which is serves as there's three parables in Matthew 25. Uh this is the one that is in the middle. Does anybody know without looking what Matthew 25:14 is? Good answer. So it is the parable of the Say it loud Brett. Thank you. Thank you. It is the parable of the talents. And so I'm going to retell this parable in the version that like the Aaron Bachman version of the story. So you've got a a master.

He is very very very well off and he is leaving town and he says, "I've got a lot of money and I want you to manage my money." He singles out three people. And when he singles out these three individuals, he says to them, "I'm going to give you a sum of money." Now, a talent does not mean talent like Brett has uh on the keyboard. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a sum of money. And one talent is equal to about four years of wages.

So the mean I believe in the United States is around4 to $45,000 but just for easy math we're just going to say it's $50,000. So anybody ready to do some math? You ready? Okay. So to the first person he says I am going to give you five talents. How much money would that be? Somebody shout it out. $250,000. So he says, "I'm going to give you 250,000." And actually, that wouldn't be accurate, now would it? Because I said one talent is four years wages. Four times five, 200,000. So it would be 200 time five. You got to keep up, guys. So $1 million.

So he gives the first person a million dollars. The second person, he says to them, "I'm going to give you two talents." Okay, what would that be? Quick math. $400,000. Okay. So, it' be 400,000. Still a lot of money, right? You got it? You're with me? Okay. So, the last person, he says, "I'm going to give you one talent, which is going to still be a pretty sizable sum of money, $200,000." Okay, everybody's with me so far. So the first person 1 million, second person 400,000, third person $200,000. Master leaves, comes back.

Don't know how long he's been gone. So what happens is the master says, "Hey, person one, what'd you do with my money?" And he says, "Look, I saw this great business venture. It was looked like it was going to be excellent. I did all the research and what I found out that it was and I went ahead and invested your money and I doubled it. So now you have $2 million. And the master is very, very, very pleased. And he says, "Thank you very much.

Well done, that good, good and fable servant." So the second person, he says, "What'd you do with the money?" And so he says, "I did some research. There was uh uh some real estate that was going up and I purchased some of this for you in your name and uh it went it double it also doubled and so now you have $400,000." And he says, Great. Or rather 800,000. Great job. Great job. So the last person, he says, "What did you do?" And he says, "Well, I knew that you were a very shrewd business person.

You always get a great return on your money, and I was scared." And so what I did was nothing. So, what I did was I took your money and I got this big folders can, which is not the best part of waking up. And I put it in the folders can I put it in my backyard and I just dug it up because I knew we were going to have this meeting and here you go. Here's your money back. And this guy is lit. He is so angry. He is an absolutely just furious. And he says, "You are calls him wicked.

Wicked." and he says, "You could have at least taken my money and put it in the bank." And he says to his, we'll call it staff, "Take the money from that guy and give it to the person who took my 1 million and doubled it into $2 million." And so he then says, he then proceeds to say that the person who has nothing even that will be taken from him.

And if you're like me, the very first time you read that, you go, "Well, how can somebody who has nothing have something because nothing is nothing taken from them?" Well, I believe that what we're also talking about here is the opportunity opportunity cost. So, what why is this important? Why is this parable important? And before we move on to that point, I want to talk about this concept that we have in the United States. And really, every two-year-old has this concept. They say this is not fair.

In my house, one of the things that I say to my kids is I say, "A fair is a place in the county. Life is not fair." And neither is God's economy. It is not fair in the way that we view fair. What's fair is that I get what I deserve. That's what's fair. Uh but I don't get what I deserve. So that's another Bible lesson. So why is why is this important? Because if we look at this, if we take Michael, let's say that Michael Chambers, who looks so great tonight in this in this shirt, this looks great. So, if Michael had a twin, okay?

And let's just say this uh we always they always name twins like Michael and Mark. So, your twin is Mark. Looks exactly like you. And let's say you had very very very wealthy parents in this example. So, you've got wealthy parents. You went to the same high school as Mark. You had the same opportunity as Mark. He had the same parents as Mark. And then what ends up happening is Michael grows up to be responsible. He grows up. He ends up to be a CEO of the company. And remember, Michael's parents are very, very, very wealthy.

And Mark says, "Why do I even need to work? Like my parents are really, really, really wealthy. I'm going to get the money anyway. Why do I care?" Now, is that story unbelievable or is that a believable story? Anybody know any twins? Did they turn out exactly the same? No, they don't turn out exactly the same. If we can't get that right, where people who have come from the exact same DNA pool, look the same, same height, same weight, same education, same parents, and two different results.

How are we going to have something that's equal or quote unquote fair? And the answer is we can't. We can't. And so what God does is I believe that God looks at it and says each person is given a measure. And that's what the parable says. Each person is given a measure. Some people are given more than others. Some people are given more time. I've often found this interesting.

If we we say it's not fair of you, yet somebody who dies at the age of 90 years old, which I think we would all agree is a a long time and they say it's not fair that God took that person from me. Well, I would submit to you that if that if God said every single person gets to live 100 years, do you know what we would say? It's not fair. Why not 110? That's that's what we would say because no matter what it is, it never really is. It's never really good enough, is it? So, um, God gives us a measure of time, talent, treasure, and responsibility.

And it's up to us to do something with that time, treasure, and responsibility. And I would even say to you that if the world was completely equal, if I could sing um like Josh Groin and everybody could say, "I can't. I'm not even gonna attempt it. Um, for those of you who know me very well, you're probably shocked that I'm not going to attempt it. Um, I won't. So, but if everybody could sing like Josh Groin, would it really be that impressive that I could sing like that? No. It it would it really wouldn't be that impressive.

So, stewardship again asks the question, what did you do with the talent, time, treasure, and responsibilities that I gave you? And the and the Bible says in Luke 12:48, "To much is given, much is required." So I believe that the way that God's economy works is this is God looks at us and he says, remember again that first person he said that last person, he says, I'm going to take away even the things that you don't have. I believe that what the Lord is actually saying in that parable is I'm going to dep deprive you of opportunity.

What if I I was a a very successful business person, had a hundred employees, okay? I've I've got a hundred employees and uh there's a brand new hire and I look at that person and they come in day one and they say, "I want to be paid $300,000 this year." And I'm like, "I'm sure you do. Um why should you get paid $300,000?" And they say, "Because um I'm really talented. I'm good with people. I've got a great smile and a a great personality and I work hard. Those are all things that I would like, right? But have they proven anything?

They've proven nothing. And so what happens is if I gave that person $300,000 immediately and they were 18 years old, how do you think that would go? By the way, if we paid an 18-year-old 300,000, how do you think those results are going to work? It's not going to work really, really, really well.

I used to do a uh a 401k rollout meeting and it had be like 500 people there and I'd always give this example and I would say if does anybody here think it's a good idea to give an 18-year-old a million dollars and I gave this to thousands of people and every single time they always said no that's a terrible terrible terrible idea and one time I heard somebody say something and raise their hand and I was like who said that I was I was like uh you how old are and he goes, "19." And I was like, "And everybody laughs." But we all know that that even if you're 19 years old, you go, "That's probably not a great thing for a 19-year-old to get a check for a million dollars." And so what God does is he gives us an opportunity.

And when we use that opportunity, we're given another opportunity. That doesn't always have to do with money. It doesn't always have to do with time. It doesn't always have to do with people. It can be a combination of any of those things. But again, we are to be wise stewards. So what is a steward? Well, in the United Kingdom, they still have these. So a person, and let's just say it was myself that I was considered the steward of this manor or of this estate.

And so what I would have is all of the rights and privileges of that owner or most of the rights and privileges. So, I'm in charge of the staffing. I'm in charge of the food. I'm in charge of making sure the grass is cut, that the sheep are sheared, that all of the things that need to happen on this estate happen. And I get to drive the Porsche. I get to eat the food. I get to sleep in the beautiful beds. I get to do all of the really cool stuff that is inside of this manor. Is it mine? It is not mine.

In that same way that my time, talent and treasure is not my own. It was given to me and I am to be responsible for it. Because at any point in time, the owner of that manner could show up and he could say, "What's going on here? Like the grass looks awful. the sheep, they're all matted and and the why are we eating mac and cheese every day? This is terrible. And so if that were to happen, basically I get get fired. Okay, so in a in a lighter way, not in a lighter way, but that's a lighter story to demonstrate what stewardship is.

And so again, that earthly principle of I am given responsibility. I am to use that responsibility for the furthering of his kingdom, not my kingdom. Even a time like this, even a time like this where I'm in front of you. Is this the Aaron Bachmann show? The answer is no. What's happening is is for example, this is being recorded. I could get up and tell funny jokes. You all know that I could. And I could get you to laugh and we'd all have a great time here. But it's being recorded.

And what will happen is is later on down the road somebody might stumble across that listen to it and learn something. And so if I don't take the opportunity to speak to even the future then I've wasted the opportunity that God has given me. Does that make sense? So um what are some of the examples of time, talent, treasure and influence? Number one, he gave you a body. He gave you a body. Why is this important? because you have to have a body in order to do stuff. It's kind of a prerequisite to humanity.

But if you're a person who intentionally, notice I said intentionally, makes poor decisions time and time and time and time again. And those poor decisions result in you not being able to be available to share the gospel, not being able to go to work. And when you're at work, this is important. That's that is your your mission field. If you're at the office, people look at you. They look at you and they say, "That's what a Christian's supposed to be. I like that. That's what a Christian's supposed to be." Don't like that.

So, we may be the only Bible that somebody ever reads. So, you are to give a grade A performance at your job, even if you don't like it. Even if you don't like your job, it speaks volumes when you show up and you don't like your job and you give a great performance. Is every I'm sure that I won't even ask, but I'm sure there's somebody in here who doesn't like their job. It's probably Amber. But um so, but those of you there's some of you who got that joke. So um God gave you a body. Keep that body healthy. How do we do that?

Well, it starts by getting rest. You can't burn at both ends, meaning go to bed late, get up early, and continue to do this all of the time and expect that it's not going to ever catch up with you. You can do that for a while, and then you'll crash. It's important that you get proper rest. It's important that you actually get good sunlight going out in the sun. Very, very, very important. It's important uh that you eat healthy. It's important that we exercise. It's important even that we meditate.

And when I say meditate, I don't mean like a yoga pose where I'm doing this. I mean sitting in silence for a moment because we have so much stuff going around us all of the time that sometimes we just need to shut everything out just for a moment. And if you're like me, sometimes what happens is it gets so bad all of the noise that's in here. And some of it's self-inflicted, right, Jeeoff? So some of it's self-inflicted. We have things going on all the time that if you're like me, sometimes you just audibly will say, "Please stop.

Just stop for a moment." And we have to develop a practice of being intentional to listen just for a moment. Just to listen and pray. So again, um God gave you a body, use it. He gave you a mind. It's important that you develop that mind. Our mind and our body are not just here for our own pleasure. Um, so how do you develop your mind? Well, one of the great things you could do is read, study, keep up on events. Why do I say keeping up on events? I'm not saying be addicted to CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is if you don't know anything about any sort of current events whatsoever, um I would say that it kind of hamstrings you just a little bit because when you're at the proverbial water cooler, what one of the things that you should be trying to do is be friendly to individuals. Why do we want to be friendly to individuals? Because when we are friendly to individuals, we can develop friendships. And when we develop friendships, we can then have conversations about God with those individuals.

But if we're not developing our mind and saying, "Hey, I read this excellent book, Michael. I think that you would like this book. It's about plaid shirts." So, um, the the um I just wanted to see how that sounded over there, the delay with the deaf ministry, if she was going to laugh on that. So, Anyway, so it's important that we develop our mind as well. Now, here's one of the things that I would say to you that is absolutely incredible is God gave you in some cases, not everybody, but God has given you charge over other individuals, children mainly.

Uh there's a lot of people in here who have children, not everybody, but a lot of people who do. That means that God literally gave you charge over a soul. Kind of a big responsibility. Now, what ends up happening when I was a much younger father, I've got three children and the oldest is 17 years old and I I've over the last year I've kind of realized I went on a college visit with her and I started thinking into the future.

And one of the things that that that this is so important is that our job as Christians is to pour into our children a Christlike attitude and a Christlike example. They are to be salt and light to the world. And how do they do that? One of the best ways is by seeing that example in you.

And so when I was listening uh having conversations to my daughter, I was thinking out in the future and I was like, "Okay, so I'm kind of doing some math and I'm like, okay, if she goes to school here and then she graduates and then I'm figuring out like when am I going to be a grandfather and how's that going to look and then I'm like, you know, how old am I going to be when I die and what's the financial situation going to be like and are people who's going to be at my funeral and this is these are the things that happen." Okay, so anybody else have I know you had those thoughts.

Who's going to be at my funeral? Tell me I'm wrong. So yeah, he goes, "Yeah, you're right." So um but when you're thinking about those things, you're thinking about uh all of that future. Where does God fit into there? And I often will say that God is not a compartment. So if we had a whole bunch of boxes on a table, we say this is my work life. Uh this is life with my children. This is wife life with my spouse. This is with my friends. Uh, this is my entertainment. Some people live their life like they have a God box.

Like this is how I act when I'm here. What I would like to say is that if you heard what I said, I said it's on the table. The table is God. In this example, the table should influence everything. Without the table, the boxes all fall. So everything that you do should flow from that underpinning of I am a Christian. I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. How does that affect the way that I parent? How does that affect the way that I raise those children? How does it affect the way that I treat my spouse?

And so when I was looking at Audrey, I was thinking about all of these things like what is life going to look like? And it's important that we that I set her up for the most favorable way that she can succeed. Now, can I control her life? I certainly cannot. I certainly cannot. And then one of the things that we've worked on her whole life and I think this is very very important for any of you who have much younger children. I would say this is super super important.

And for those of you who don't have kids yet, Justin, this is something when I was 21 years old. I You're 21, Justin? 21 is when I got into uh APC. And I was listening at that time to preaching about being a father because I'm pretty logical. And I said, "Well, one day I'm going to be a dad. Probably should know some things about being a dad before I get there. And so, one of the things that I would say is if you don't have uh children yet, this is even more important because you need to know, hey, here are the things that uh that we should be doing.

And one of the things that that I think is super important is to instill in your in your kids is the why do you believe what you believe? There's tons of people who know what they believe. But if you know what you believe but not why you believe it, what will end up happening? You may experience a crisis of faith that you do not recover from. And news flash, everybody has a crisis of faith. Everybody has a crisis. Who's willing to raise their hand? Ever had that question their own faith? Okay, I have I was like, is this thing really real?

Did I mean is Jesus just a good story that we tell kids just to get them to do what we want? Is there really like a guy up there? Yeah. Yeah, there is. Yeah, there is. And why do I believe that? Because I have good reasons that are reasonable to believe why I believe. And so what I'm saying is, and we if you if you want to hear about that at some other time and talk to me, why I believe what I believe, which is different than what I believe, but teaching your kids to have a why. Why do you believe that? Not just I believe in Acts 2:38.

I believe in John 3:16. And then somebody says, "Why?" And they go, "Uh, because my pastor told me to." It's not a place that you want to be at because that's a faith that is easily easily swayed when they go to college and they have a professor in front of them and says, you know, that all roads lead to home that basically all religions are basically the same and they're they're fundamentally the same, just superficially different. Nothing could be further than the truth. That is just not true. They're fundamentally different and superficially the same.

All religions teach love. Not so much. Not so much. So um being a good steward of your children is very very important. Now I will tell you here that what's happening here is my screen is frozen and I'm not able to let it go. So I guess we're just going to freewheel where where we're at here. I have my notes uh enough that I'll know what's going on here. I'm going to give this to my wife to see if she can figure it out and then when she figures it out she'll give it back to me. But I I don't necessarily need my notes.

But so um the uh we're at point number three on the screen. So point number three again being a wise steward of your children. The reason why this is also important uh is when I say just steward of your children, it can also be did you fix it already? Look at this. See you sticky fingers. I had sticky fingers everybody. And no. Um, this is why we make a good team. She fixes my mistakes. I don't know what I provide, but um, but she helps me. Did I just do it again? No, I didn't. Okay, there we go.

So, um, this is why it's also important when I said being a good steward of your children. It's also just not your kids. One of the best things that I can do that any of us can do. So, uh, Michael, I keep picking on you. I'm going to continue to pick on you, but one of the best things that Michael Chambers can do for his daughter is to love his mother. Not his mother, her mother. You know what I meant by that? So, he treats Caressa with love and respect. And who witnesses that? Their daughter witnesses that.

And she says, "This is what a a loving relationship looks like." So that is where a child should first see what a loving relationship looks like. And one of the things that I would say is it's super super important. Um if if if uh um you ask yourself this, would I want someone to treat my daughters the way that I treat my wife? And if the answer is no, I have work to do. Would I want my son to treat his wife the way that I treat his mother? Because more than likely that's what he will do.

And if I think no, I wouldn't I wouldn't like that, I have work to do. And think about that. Flash forward to where you're seeing somebody treating I'll use the I'll use uh brother Reaver here. If he's got a great two great son-in-laws and two great daughters. And so the way that uh the way that Andrew teaches treats Angela, I'm sure you've looked at that and you've said to God, "Thank God that she married a good man." Um this is where you say amen. Okay. Okay. So, but again, very very important.

And one of the greatest gifts that Andrew can give Liam is loving Angela. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Also, I'm We are also called to be leaders. So, I lead my family. My job is to do that. And sometimes, just to be completely blunt, we don't always want to do that, but that's what we're called to do. We have a responsibility to do that. And just because you don't want to doesn't mean you kind of get out of it.

Um because we've seen before when people basically sherk off their responsibility, what happens to the family unit, especially with men when they say, "I'm just not going to lead at all." What tends to happen? Not great. Not great. Now, um God is are we too serious? Are we good? Okay. Okay. Um the ability to earn an income. Income. Again, we're talking about stewardship. So, so far we've talked about stewarding your family. stewarding your body and your mind, also the ability to earn an income. So God gives you the ability to earn an income.

Now there's not everybody has this. There are some people who are physically unable to work and traditionally speaking the church would actually take care of those individuals. Uh but the but in our society some people seem to live by this mantra which is get all you can can all you get then sit on your can and I would say that if that's what you're doing is just amassing wealth to yourself you've missed the the joy of what comes on the other side is the ability to actually help out other individuals. Um it takes money to uh fund missionaries.

It takes money to send my children to youth on missions or to send them to a youth camp. Um, it takes money to fill up uh Toby's car with gas. Um, it takes money to buy food. All of these things are super important. And does the Bible ever say that money is the root of all evil? Does it say that? It does not say that. What it says is the love of money is a root is a root of all evil. The love of money. I believe that money is an amplifier. If a person is a really good person, and we're not going to define what does what do you mean by good?

Just go with it. If a person is a really good person and they have a lot of money, I believe that they're able to do more good with that. If a person is a really bad person and you give them a lot of money, what tends to happen? They do a lot of bad things. Amen. So, um, so, um, I was gonna I was going to make a joke and then I decided not to. So, um, again, if a person is given money or makes a lot of income, they can do good things with it or they can do bad things. So money is neither good nor bad. It's just not. Money is an inanimate object.

And in the past, other societies use seashells as stores of value. Today, we use these paper, not paper notes. Uh they're actually made from cotton. So there's no paper, by the way. It's not paper money. It's cotton money. They do that, by the way, so that way if you wash it, it doesn't disintegrate. That's why if you wash a $20 bill, um that it doesn't disintegrate in your in your pocket. So um So you God ordained uh the uh garden of Eden, right? Built the Garden of Eden. Okay. Was it paradise? Yes or no? Yes, it was paradise.

What were they doing in the garden? What were they doing? They were working in the garden. So what the Bible tells us is that there's work in paradise. literally what it's saying. So, we are to work and the Bible says that those who do not work should not eat. And again, the Bible also makes provisions for those individuals who can't work. Again, remember, you may be the only person at your place of place of employment who ever has the opportunity to reach out to another person and talk to them about the gospel. Um, don't sit on your hands.

Don't sit on your hands. Be a wise steward of that opportunity. One of the things that I can say is this is that who's ever seen the movie uh Jerry Magcguire. So, in the movie Jerry Maguire, there's a there's a part for those of you who don't know what it is, it was a movie in the 1990s. Tom Cruz is a sports agent. He has a crisis subconscious. He writes this paper about how it's more than just trying to make as much money as possible.

And so he writes this paper and he throws it underneath his boss's door and then he goes home and he's like, "Oh my gosh, what have I done? I'm gonna get fired." And he does get fired. Okay, he gets fired and he only has one um one uh uh sports athlete who's a football player left. That's all that he has. And so um what happens uh in this at the very very beginning of this movie, they're talking to this athlete who's a football player. And he says, the football player says, "I I need to get paid. I don't make enough money.

My family can hardly eat on $500,000 a year of income." And you know, we're kind of laughing at at the guy and he's just all angry. And then at the very very end of the movie, this same guy's crying and he's like, "People don't understand the responsibility that comes with making $50 million." And we, a lot of people will do what Stephen just did where we laugh. But I will submit to you that the man in the movie is right. He is right. What do I mean by that?

Um, there's lots of people say, "Well, I' I'd love to make $50 million for, you know, throwing a a ball or I'd love to make $50 million for being a CEO." Here's the reality. Um, the reality is is that those individuals got there, most of them, by little by little by little by little by little. And if you just all of a sudden God dropped you in here and said, "Here's what's going to happen." 20-year-old Justin, I'm going to give you 60-year-old Justin's influence, money, and treasure today. Can 21-year-old Justin handle that? Yes or no?

21-year-old Justin could not handle all of the rights and responsibilities that have happened to 60-year-old Justin yet. It takes 30 years to be 30 years old. And so what God does is he says to much is given, much will be required. Well, how do you get much? By doing more. And so what I'm saying is if you were that person who was dropped into that Jerry McGuire movie and all of a sudden you're making $50 million. That is a burden that some people can't handle. I'm being serious. Think about this.

So, if Wyatt, if you were worth $50 million, all of a sudden, we all knew that Wyatt's worth $50 million. Wyatt, what do you start to think about these about your friends? They try to rob you. That's one thing. Anybody else? Any thoughts? How about this one? Are they really my friend? Do they really love me for me? Do they just want to hang out with me for my money? and all the time now you're starting to think that that's a that's not a burden that that everybody can handle.

Um, so again, God doesn't just fast forward us and say, "I'm going to give you these things today." And sometimes he prepares us. I once I heard a story of a guy who was a he had went to ministry school and he got a degree and he was wondering, you know, when am I ever going to get the opportunity to preach? when am I ever going to get the opportunity to um do great things for the Lord? And he ends up being a night watchman and there's nothing going on, nothing. So what he does is he continues to study while he's in this shack, this guard shack.

And so he basically gets paid to study for about four years. And after this four years, he is given the opportunity to present all the information that he had just been studying for the previous four years. And so again, God gives us an opportunity. He gives us time. We are to use that time wisely. So one of the things that I will also say to you is that God tells us to be a good steward of our time. Every single person who is breathing is given the same 24 hours and somehow we have different results because we're not all doing the same thing.

Some people do more than others. Some people uh get quote unquote better results. Again, remember we're not we're not all equal as far as opportunity, but God is saying to us, do more with what I have given you. Do the best rather with what I have given you. And so, um, one of the things that I will say, I put this in here and I just love it. This is one of my favorite quote quotes of all time. I'm wrapping up the part here on money. Um, I I will say that has anybody ever hear ever heard of the prosperity gospel.

This is basically the gospel that the message that God wants everybody to be rich. Um, everybody should drive a Mercedes. You know, I've heard people before say, "Oh, I'm I can't believe that uh that I got this. It was a miracle that I got this car." And I'm thinking, "Well, I know your credit score. It is a miracle that you got that car." Um, but Creflo Dollar, anybody heard of Creo Dollar Creo Dollar, you can see him, I think, on TBN. Um, Crelo with Tammy Dollar. And I can't remember the name of their show, but Crelo is a minister who tweeted this out.

And I remember the very first time that I heard this, I I laughed out loud like a guttural belly laugh. I was like, "This is the greatest quote I've ever seen." Jesus bled and died for us so that we can lay claim to the promise of financial prosperity. Hash prosperity in Christy living abundant life. No. No, we didn't. That's not how that goes. That's not how that works. So, why am I saying this to you? I'm saying this to you is if you think that God placed you here to be wealthy, I'm just going to come out and say it. You're wrong.

That's not why God placed you. God placed you here to be salt and light. And some people are wealthy, but their primary responsibility if you are a servant of God is to be a witness. That is your primary role. And because some people are wealthy, they get to talk to other wealthy people because God says, "I will make a way." And so somebody who's wealthy is probably going to listen to somebody else who's wealthy. So somebody has to reach that rich person. Somebody has to reach poor people. Somebody has to reach middle of the road people.

And God does that through all different types of of opportunities and different types of people. So um I will say this. I want to tell you just a few different uh I want to tell you a story here before we end here. So I have a um the guy who's the CEO of my company. His name is Brian. And Brian grew up uh very very very uh modest very modest means. Um his father was a farmer uh not a huge farm uh either. And um Brian ended up being very very very well off. He has a very very large home. It's a very nice home. Uh he still is a pretty humble guy.

Um house is probably 8,000 square foot 9,000 square feet. Uh beautiful home. Bowling alley in the in the basement. Great home, great guy. Um but remember where he came from? He came from the exact opposite of that. Well, his son his son one day says to him, he says, "Dad, I need to get a new baseball glove." And uh he says, "Great. How much is the glove?" And he says, "It's $400." Now, a person who grows up on a farm hears that a glove is $400. That does not compute. Okay. Now, he says, "That's very expensive." What did the son say?

Somebody knows the answer. What did the son say? What did the son say to his very wealthy father? What did he say? Very close. He didn't say you have the money. He said you can you can afford it. What do you think happened to Brian? Did son get the glove? No, he did not. He did not get the glove. He did not pass go. He did not collect $200. Okay. Some people's attitude towards their time, talent, and treasure is that. Now, by the way, son's great. He had a a bad moment in time. Okay? We all have bad moments in time, including myself.

I have more than most. So what happens is is that if we're not uh if we're not careful, we can end up having an attitude like that all the time about the treasures of God. We can say, "Well, God, you own everything. Just just give me what I want. You're this cosmic genie. I I want uh I want healthy kids. I want uh a great marriage. I want a big house. I want a fast car. Um I want a great looking body. I want to be the person in the room and I need you to do that. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Get on that for me. That's not how that works.

God gives us a measure of time, talent, and treasure. And we are to continue to develop that time, talent, and treasure so that way we can then again be salt and light for other individuals. Um, I would also tell you that it's never too late to start. It's never too late. So, let's just hear in the sound of my voice today. And I'm just going to pick an arbitrary age. I'm just going to say 65. And I'm going to say 65 because it fits the narrative of what I'm about ready to say.

So, uh, Colonel Sanders was 65 years old when he actually started back on the road to found Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is one of my favorite stories. So when the United States uh uh created the highway system, it went through his town and was on the outskirts of town and no longer did the main street, the traffic flow through this main street. It was diverted onto the highway. And so his restaurant had very few uh patrons anymore because they weren't driving right past it and it was out of sight, out of mind. So he had to shut it down.

So he goes and he collects his social security check. and he's doing this for a little while and he's like, "This is sort of the birds, man. I don't want to do this anymore." He says, "I want to get back in business." So, he ends up going to Kentucky and he's talking to talking to all these people in Kentucky about having um this great concept called a franchise. And I'm you can use my chicken recipe to sell it to people. And they're like, "Why would I use your why would I use your chicken recipe? I got my own chicken recipe.

I don't need your chicken recipe." So then he goes to Tennessee and then he goes all throughout the south. Then he goes all to all of the states east of the Mississippi and he's running out of real estate here. He ends up in Utah. Okay, so Utah is pretty far west and he talks to this guy. I think he's been to like 35 states to somewhere between 35 and 40. This guy eats the chicken and he says, "I believe this chicken is fingerlicking good." Okay. Now he started that at 65. Gave his life to Christ.

Became uh a person who gave away a ton of money to people and again he started that at the age of 65. Another example, who's ever heard of Zig Ziggler? Zig Ziggler probably died I don't know 10 years ago and he was one of the best or most well-known motivational speakers in the world. I had the privilege of hearing this guy speak in person like four or five times and he was always dynamite. Always. The last time I heard him speak, he was like 83, 84. And at 83, 84 years old, he had finally lost a step.

At 75, the guy was like running laps around the place, but he had finally lost a step um in his early to mid 80s. But he tells a story about where he was in his mid4s and he got down on his knees and he said, "God, up to this point, I've been a successful salesman. I've led companies and I am uh I'm burned out. I'm tired. I'm weary. I've done this all for me. All the glory goes to me." Um until he's 45 years old. This is a synopsis of the story. and he says, "From here on out, this is your show.

You use me how you want." And he affected more and more people than he ever would have hoped to um by being the number one person uh selling cookware. Now, don't get me wrong, could he affect a lot of people selling cookware, being in those houses? The answer to that is yes. Um, I will tell you there's a guy who I know who owns a heating and air conditioning company. And he told me, he says, "Aaron, what people don't know is that when I walk through those doors, I'm bringing Jesus with me." And he says, and he goes, "I watch things and I just observe.

And when I see something, I then," and he tells me a long story. I don't have time to tell it to you, but he pulls this mother to the side, talks to the mother, talks to the daughter separately, brings them together. They both break down crying and now they understand each other better. And she shows up to his church the very next week. He owns a heating and cooling corporation. Not a preacher, but is he a preacher? Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. He's a minister. He is absolutely a minister. So again, you are never ever too old to start.

You're never too young to implement these strategies that we've talked about. But again, rounding third base here, imagine if you were the master of that house that we talked about in the book of Matthew and you came home and you saw that the person had taken your money and buried it in the backyard, how would you react? You wouldn't be very happy either. So, to examine yourself.

And one of the best things I told somebody here recently, I said, "One of the worst things that you can do in your own life is to lie to yourself." That is the worst thing that you can do to yourself is to lie to yourself, to trick yourself into believing something that isn't true. So, be honest with yourself. Do a self assessment. And one of the best things that you can do is to find somebody like again I'll use Brett here.

So if I might have Brett as my accountability partner and I say to Brett, "Hey, here are the things that are going through in my life." And also if you see me slipping, I want you to call me out. I want you to say, Bachmann, what are you doing? You're missing it. That be humble enough to allow other people to speak into your life. Because if you're not humble enough to let somebody else speak into your life, you're never going to be able to be that person who takes the five talents and turn them into 10. It's just not It's just not going to happen.

It's not going to happen because you're doing it all on your own. And we are not made in God's image to do it all on our own. We are meant to ride with somebody else. So, I'm going to give you uh I'm going to close us here in prayer and then um dismiss us. Any feedback? Anything before we go? Anybody? Because I said it was open open mic night. All right. Thank you, Lord, for this evening. I thank you, Lord, for your uh time that you have given us on this earth. I thank you, Lord, for your treasure that you've given us.

I thank you for the talent that you have loaned us. And I thank you Lord for the souls that you have placed in our care for responsibility. I thank you for the people Lord that you have put us in touch with that we are to share your word just by the fact that we are in proximity that our example should be one of that first uh first workers in the parable of the talents that you laid out in your word.

God, help us to be sensitive to what you want for us and help us to see ourselves the way that you see us and help us to see others the way that you see them in Jesus name. Amen. You're all free to move about the country.