The Bible Speaks on Business

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Bible Speaks with your host Elgin Carelock. The Bible Speaks is a daily podcast dedicated to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, rightly dividing the word of truth and learning how to apply it to our daily lives.

[00:00:55] You may contact Elgin at the address given at the end of the broadcast. And now here's Elgin. Brothers and sisters, I welcome you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Do another edition of Words of Inspiration.

[00:01:14] And today we are going to have a discussion on The Bible Speaks on Business. And this is going to be a recurring theme that we have that we will post on every Monday because we want you to understand that there is no separation between church and state.

[00:01:37] Just like there's no separation between us and God, whether you acknowledge him or not. And so Bishop John Jackson will be my co-host on the show. And I look forward to his perspective not only as a long standing man of God, pastor,

[00:01:59] preacher, speaker, but he's quite the businessman as well. And he and I have a long history of just sharing stories. And so we figured, you know what? Let's bring it to the people and let them understand that there's nothing new under the sun.

[00:02:15] There's nothing that your business needs that the Bible doesn't answer. And so we will each week take a piece of scripture and have a discussion on the title. And today's no different. So today our discussion is on the topic of who are you listening to?

[00:02:39] Our scriptural inspiration comes from 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse 14. And reading from the new international version, it reads, in everything he did, he had great success because the Lord was with him. Part of the purpose of the Bible speaks on business is to show that the same

[00:03:05] principle we use in business coincide with principles found in the Christian ethos. And today is no different. Once again, I'm with Bishop John Jackson who will be joining me in this discussion. And I'll start off by adding another scripture to the mix, which is Proverbs 13 verse 20.

[00:03:30] Reading from the complete Jewish Bible, it tells us he who walks with the wise will become wise but the companion of fools will suffer. This truly underscores the point of who you spend the most time with, you become.

[00:03:49] And by become I mean you begin to take on their traits, their mannerisms, and if you're not careful, their beliefs. This is a leadership moment if I ever saw one. If you have the responsibility of managing or leading others,

[00:04:10] then you must be diligent in your quest to provide them with the best guidance possible. This means investing time in your personal growth. This includes everything from social emotional learning to self awareness. But you also have to be careful to who you listen to along the way.

[00:04:32] And with that, I will ask Bishop Jackson to share with us his thoughts and we'll start the conversation. Yes, once again, Dr. Kerl, I thank you so much for the opportunity and privilege to be with you again.

[00:04:47] And it's just such an honor because we are in such critical times and if there's ever was a time in our history that we need to know whose side we are now is that time. Not only who we are, but who's we are.

[00:05:08] And you know, those of us that are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, are we saying that he is our savior and our Lord? You know, it's something that across from pulpits, we have mentioned many times over the years

[00:05:25] that people receive Christ as their savior, but he's not Lord over their lives. And so there's a distinct difference in that because we can do the church thing and we can go to services and have fellowship and enjoy.

[00:05:40] However, when he is Lord over your life, he's Lord of all. And we want him to be Lord of all. We say he's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But it requires a certain amount of surrender of sacrifice in your life

[00:06:00] in order for him to do that. And what I found to be interesting on all my years as a clergyman that we in the church have a tendency to try to explain away our behaviors, our lack of discipline or lack of surrender

[00:06:18] because we don't we hold up the pet areas of our lives or things that we want to keep control of or refuse to relinquish control of and found it interesting, particularly in the business world. And this is why I feel that in this hour that my mission

[00:06:39] is to bring forth the message of the gospel, preaching the gospel of the kingdom into every echelon of society that I tap the shoulders of the politician, tap the shoulders of the law enforcement officer or agent,

[00:06:57] tap the shoulders of the educators and everyone in every sector of society and says you said that you're a child of God. So therefore there is much more expected of you than maybe you are aware of. It's more to it than just being a congregant

[00:07:17] or a financial supporter or a volunteer in the things that are within the church. You hold an amazingly powerful position to be instruments and vessels in which the gospel of the kingdom. And I go back to that because you said when the gospel of the kingdom

[00:07:38] is preached, then the end would come. So we scratch our head as to say, well, hasn't people been preaching great and wonderful messages? And I will say yes and amen that there have been some phenomenal orators over the years of our country and before.

[00:07:54] However, when you're looking at the gospel of the kingdom, who's king and the kingdom of God? As we spoken in one of our previous visits that Lord Jesus Christ gave instructions to say, occupy until I come and do business until I come.

[00:08:09] Talked about the things that he had already deposited to individuals so that he expected them to use them according to what he gave them. So that means he was expecting those of us who have been privileged by him because we do business, I just make money.

[00:08:31] We do business to solve a problem. And at the end of solving problem or problems, then the revenue comes. So it's a mindset change. And I look at the new King James of that same passage of scripture

[00:08:46] that was just aforementioned and David behaved wisely in all his ways. And the Lord was with him. And this is something that will fit within the title of this particular episode. Who are you listening to? We have so many voices that are speaking.

[00:09:09] And I'm going to speak to the collegiate world, those that have phenomenal Ivy League alumni's and so on. You're an alumnus of an Ivy League school or great schools, MIT, all across the world of different education and learning. But you happen to also be a child of God.

[00:09:31] So there are things that you are drawn from these great institutions, from the great minds that have existed, that enabled you to get to places of success, of accomplishment. And you have the plaques and the degrees and all the different things

[00:09:50] all over the walls to attest to the fact that you have been accepted in those circles. But my question will be to you is that have you been accepted into the things of the kingdom?

[00:10:04] Can the Lord take what he has already given you and gave you access to? I know someone that has friends of mine with the Wharton School of Business and different ones that studied in London and so on. And it's just phenomenal.

[00:10:18] I'm like, wow, I wish I had that kind of brainpower. It's just phenomenal. And he took that life except the seed fall to the ground and dies no use to the kingdom. So can he take what he has given you?

[00:10:35] I gave you access to and use you as a instrument of vessel of his kingdom that he can speak his eternal plan through his will for that area of society. And we need that more, you know, we're in an election year and, you know, it's powerful.

[00:10:59] And we see people taking sides and picking parties and so on. And that's what we were trained to do. That's how we grew up. That's what we thought we're supposed to do. But have we really thought about who are we really listening to?

[00:11:12] What is the mind of God in reference to this current election? Who does he have his hand on? And I would like you to refer to the Old Testament when they believed in the prophets and the prophets were the ones who spoke to God. God spoke to them.

[00:11:33] They spoke to man after being in the presence of God, and he would let them know who he wanted to be the next king and so on and so forth. So he's interested in that. So this will, you know, the spell, the idea that there is

[00:11:50] a separation of church and state because in reality it's not for us. We are in it to be effect change. We change age on behalf of the kingdom to bring things in just weights and balances and in operation.

[00:12:06] And the beautiful part about it is that when we look at David and we look at the fact that, you know, how David operated in this area. Now I read for you out of the New King James version of that.

[00:12:20] But I think indulge me just a moment where I can peek over to I generally teach in out of the complete Jewish Bible. And it says in the same scripture of 1st Samuel 18 and 14, David had great success in all his ways.

[00:12:42] Now, to me, that means that if you listening to God and in order to hear his voice, you have to spend time with him. You have to become intimate with him because he reveals things in degrees and over periods of time as you press into him.

[00:13:04] Because if there's no demand, there's no release. So there are things you're not going to get until you spend a certain amount of time with him. And then the success come because it says Adonai, the Lord God, your God was with him.

[00:13:18] Do we not need him with us in every sector of society that we operate in? The law enforcement officer that walks the street or rides in the car or on the horse or in the motorcycle, the individual who is in the,

[00:13:34] you know, does the crime scene investigations or those in the medical field and those that are in the turnies and so on and so on and so on. We need to know that he is with us. And this is what the differentiation is between just being a Christian

[00:13:51] who happens to be in business or in a profession than being that child of God who's with the Lord and his life is there. And it's interesting to note some things that came out of this because Saul began to see how very successful David was.

[00:14:11] So when you are successful, when you are moving in the things of God, and it was interesting because we were just having a conversation before this broadcast about places that you'll get to where, you know, you can go places and gain successes.

[00:14:29] If you don't have the character and integrity in place, you will not be able to be sustained in those particular places. It won't, it won't keep you there. So here comes the press and we don't like to be pressed. We think being in business is a challenging enough,

[00:14:48] but watch what has happened here. Saul saw how successful he was and became afraid of him. Have you inflicted fear on someone that's close to you that may be working within your company or may be in your industry that you're not even aware of? Interesting.

[00:15:11] He was someone that he was very close to and that, supposedly being like a spiritual father or a mentor to him to help to raise him up. But he said all Israel and Judea loved David because they knew about all his campaigns.

[00:15:32] So with God with us, he can make us aware of the things that is going on and give us his strategies on how to navigate the storms of life, the storms of business, the things that are affected.

[00:15:49] Then he goes back and he's like, okay, let's see, I can't beat this guy. The old adage of the world says, well, you can't beat him, might as well join him, right? Or let's figure out a way to control and manipulate them.

[00:15:58] So here it is that Saul comes to say to David, hey, listen. Am I vernacular? I got a daughter, see, an older daughter, right? Maybe her name is Minerva. Okay, I'm going to use Minerva. I'll give it to you as your wife,

[00:16:17] but only continue displaying your courage for me and fight Adonis battle. It'll make it look like it was me that was doing it, but I'm going to do this for you, but don't be outstanding in front of me. How do you handle those type of things

[00:16:35] when you're faced with those kinds of situations? Who are you listening to? You know, the thing that's interesting is before he offered the daughter, he told them that he had to bring him the four skins of 100 Philistines, figuring that he'd go out there and get killed.

[00:16:55] And David came back with 200 four skins of Philistines, you know, because God was with him. And you know, David's life was definitely one of great success, but it didn't mean that he wasn't flawed. The same is true for many of us. As we focus on building our companies,

[00:17:17] there may be times when we take advice from someone who has already achieved what we aspire to, but what happens when their advice crosses a moral or ethical line or is against the word of God? Do we lean to money or do we lean to our relationship?

[00:17:38] Because God will participate in as much as you'll let him participate. So when Bishop said earlier that he's Lord of your life, then that means guide. That means that you trust that his decisions are better than yours. Because we may make that decision and reap a financial reward,

[00:18:03] but Matthew 16 and 26, reading from the New Living Translation says, And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? And for us, the soul represents the core of a person's identity,

[00:18:26] which are your thoughts, your emotions and your will. The soul is also the part of us that connects with God. It makes it possible for us to properly worship and communicate and build a strong relationship. So when we begin to compromise our relationship for Mammon,

[00:18:48] if you will, then we lose the connectivity that would allow us to access things that are far beyond our comprehension. You know, we see a seed. Let's say a seed of a oak tree. God sees the nightstand that was built from the tree that grew.

[00:19:11] Okay, you know, we get so caught up in the things that are right in front of us that we forget the access that we actually were given as believers in Jesus Christ and what Christ died for, the access that he gave us, the power that he gave us.

[00:19:29] So as business people, you know, Bishop Jackson said earlier that the height of your business success comes from you solving problems. And to give a scriptural backup to that, we can look at two verses in Matthew chapter 25 where Jesus said,

[00:19:52] And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. And then verse 45 says, Then shall he answer them saying,

[00:20:10] Verily I say unto you inasmuch as you did it not to one of these, you did it not to me. So when you're solving problems for people and your mind is set on following the way God would have you do it,

[00:20:28] then the solutions that you bring to them bring him glory. So when you treat them right, it's like you're treating me right because guess what? I call them to earth just like I called you.

[00:20:41] And so if your perspective is anything other than trying to pour into the lives as we discussed in our last conversation about the two greatest commandments, if he said to love your neighbors as yourself, okay, if you're not doing things for people that you know that you could,

[00:21:03] it's the same thing that God saying, Well, it's the same thing in our relationship. Isn't it? Because I put them here and I sent them to you.

[00:21:12] And the reason that he did that is because you were gifted to be uniquely capable of solving whatever problem he sent them to you for. And that ranges from a lot of different things from a kind word to helping them solve a major problem in their lives.

[00:21:31] But it all stems from your belief that God is with you. And if he's with you, then you represent him on the on the earth realm. And we can't lose sight of that simply because we are in business.

[00:21:47] And as a matter of fact, you're going to find that at least in my practice, 98% of the people he sent me are believers. But what is what is interesting is that there are believers at different levels.

[00:22:02] There are some that are very well schooled and we get to have great intellectual conversations about how we implement the various parts. And then there are those who are Christian familiar. They grew up in church because mom and dad forced them to go.

[00:22:22] But never really chose to apply it in their lives. And so as we are interacting in our professional realm, they noticed how the spiritual realm intersects.

[00:22:35] I've had people ask me if I was a believer before I said anything because of the way that I positioned what it is we're discussing. I don't have to quote chapter and verse to teach you principles that are pleasing to God, but would also feed their spirit.

[00:22:52] You see, and their spirit recognizes it. And so they all ask. They usually do. Wow, you're saying some powerful, powerful things. While you were speaking, I was thinking about when you were talking about, you know, the soul and itself.

[00:23:11] And we understand that the soul is comprised of the mind, the will and the emotions. And the fact that within the mind it carries the levels of consciousness that a person lives with. Also all of their experiences and so on.

[00:23:28] And since we're speaking about the marketplace, even those of us that have been in business and prior business failures or things of loss. So with that experience bankruptcies or loss every time we try to start a business, business failed and so on.

[00:23:43] It goes down in certain levels of consciousness that needs to be able to be addressed because there's something that someone said once. And I think this is an oriental proverb that says when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

[00:23:59] So when we're looking at that, if you've had those various types of experiences, maybe cultural experiences where as you know, you live just overbroke your whole life and everybody was, you know, living like that.

[00:24:13] And that was the best, you know, the person that had a shoe sign stand, you know, and it was out there. That was the highway journey in your community as far as you concern and good hard days working whatever. A mindset gets established.

[00:24:28] So I want you to think about something about the idea of mentorship. No man is an island. No one arrives anywhere on their own. You know, self made person.

[00:24:42] Yeah, I have a whole lot of questions for that self made person somewhere somebody had a part in that and see when you are bound by the things that have held some of us back because you can get an

[00:24:57] education and learn the books and you get good at testing and you pass. It doesn't mean that your way of thinking has changed. Doesn't mean that you have the ability to apply those things.

[00:25:12] So now a mentor is needed to see you where you are and one of the things that Dr. Kellogg and I have talked about over the years was something that he had done originally.

[00:25:26] And I started getting into is dealing with business people from their year one to year three and then from year three to year five and so on revisiting their business plans, looking at different things. What are their KPIs?

[00:25:43] What are the things where the expectations because everybody has a wonderful beautiful vision that they start their business with. And then at the end of that three year period, if you survive that long because most businesses barely make it two years.

[00:25:56] So if you survive that long, what are you looking at? And can you give yourself an honest assessment of the condition of your business and where it's going? Who are you listening to?

[00:26:12] Because even if the voice of the Lord is speaking from your spirit, and one of the things we've taught across pulpit is that the spirit of man is comprised of your intuition, your consciousness and your communion.

[00:26:24] Where we say that the Lord, those that believe that you can hear the voice of the Lord and the influence of the Lord comes in through your spirit to your soul.

[00:26:32] And it has to be come to an agreement with you and your soul to affect your body and your world.

[00:26:38] So if you don't know what you don't know and you might be so that trust level has to be there, how we wouldn't have picked a soul on purpose to be our mentor to work on the then we discover individuals may be different than we anticipated.

[00:26:57] David served him unconditionally, though that the word was already that he prophesied that he was going to be a king. But so he ain't a king yet. Some of us want we think we're kings, but we're not king yet.

[00:27:14] And so when we're coming into that area and as we talk about the seven mountains of society or social influences or the terminology varies depending on who you're talking to. But you're coming in at the gate, you got to deal with the gatekeeper.

[00:27:29] And you're going to deal with gatekeepers at different tier levels of involvement in any industry if you're going to make a mark. And as certain income levels, nobody pays you any attention or lets you flop out there.

[00:27:41] It doesn't matter. But when you break certain marks, then so the other things introduced themselves and whether it's opportunities or injury or no one trying to take you in the wrong directions.

[00:27:53] So having that person that you can go to David had to learn it was in spite of the fact that King saw mistreated him. It's not easy to serve somebody unconditionally.

[00:28:12] And we see that in the church where a lot of people come to churches and the pastors and what have your true shepherd is mentoring you from a spiritual aspect of your development and so on.

[00:28:24] And this is if I can't counsel you, if I can't correct you, I can't shepherd you because we're not making the effective change in your life. So even if you're going to go into business, you need those people that you can trust that doesn't understand the industry.

[00:28:42] Now my personal industry and my mentor that's in the industry at 25 years of experience in the industry and it's not a male. And so on top of it.

[00:28:57] So here's the challenge. So now I have to as a male and a leader have to have my ego in check.

[00:29:06] I don't have to walk in meatness to accept the critique of my business of the operations that this person is saying that what you're saying is not true.

[00:29:20] I'm doing it. It can be done. This is what is happening and you're saying with everything in your being that it can happen because it's not happening for you.

[00:29:27] But then you have to be meek enough to accept the fact that what they're telling you is true because they proved it already and can prove it.

[00:29:36] And in some cases, you know those that have to work over the phones and do marketing that way and and what have you when that person turns around and grabs a phone from you and jumps on a line on a call

[00:29:47] and does the things that they're telling you to do and causes the work and you've been trying to do it with everything in you and it has not worked means that you need to know how to submit to that.

[00:29:56] This is important. You know, whatever industry if you're going to be great. There's a great book called Getting from Good to Great. There's a phenomenal book that if you get opportunity to read that there are transitions.

[00:30:10] There are things that we have to revisit at every stage of our development. But most importantly, the Lord can't speak to you about things that you're not listening to him about because you haven't released and open yourself up to hear what he's saying.

[00:30:24] So once again, who are you listening to? Yes, yes. So brothers and sisters, if we accept that God is omniscient and as it says in Jeremiah 29 and 11 has plans for good and not for evil.

[00:30:43] It makes sense for us to continually seek to be in his favor because he can make anything happen. So along with listening to Simon Sinek or Seth Godin or Gary V. Consider listening to the one who made all of them.

[00:31:03] So I thank you for spending time with us on today and I look forward to our time together on tomorrow. Until then, God bless. To help spread the gospel to the corners of the earth. If anything you've heard poured into your life, please share it with someone.

[00:31:37] You can find the Bible Speaks on Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer and many more. Follow us on YouTube at the Bible Speaks online. You may contact Elgin at PO Box 5582 or Call of Florida 34478 Or by email at thebiblespeaksonlineatgmail.com