February 26, 2025 • 30 mins
What if the challenges you face in business are not obstacles but opportunities to strengthen your faith? Join me, Matt Walton, as we explore the transformative journey of kingdom entrepreneurship and how it intersects with faith. Drawing from my personal story of how a simple change in eating habits brought greater clarity and vitality, I challenge you to identify one life change that could spark broader positive transformations. Anchored in the wisdom of scripture, particularly Matthew 6:25-34, we'll discuss how to navigate the trials of entrepreneurship by deepening our reliance on God, who provides unwavering guidance and support.
The path of an entrepreneur is filled with hurdles, but with resilience and strategic planning, they can be transformed into stepping stones toward success. By reflecting on the story of Joseph, we'll uncover the importance of patience and trust in divine timing, recognizing that significant achievements require both faith and obedience. We'll also explore strategic tools like SWOT analysis, which, when paired with discernment, can turn potential setbacks into opportunities for long-term growth. It's crucial to see these challenging periods not as punishments but as preparatory phases that draw us closer to fulfilling God's plan for our businesses and lives.
Embracing a life led by the Holy Spirit, we’ll examine the extraordinary outcomes that obedient and faith-driven actions can produce, inspired by biblical figures like Nehemiah. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, discover how serving others and engaging in community outreach can lead to profound transformations in both business and personal life. In our concluding prayer, we invite you to seek fulfillment through faith and trust in God's guidance, echoing the steadfast trust of figures like Daniel. This episode is a heartfelt call to all kingdom entrepreneurs to pursue God wholeheartedly, prioritize service, and glorify God in every aspect of their lives.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, guys?
This is Matt with the Vota Talk, or the Real Matt Walton.
This is your hub for all thingsKingdom business, businesses,
ministry, business strategy.
My goal is to provide as muchvalue, minute by minute, each
podcast that you listen to.
So let's get to it.
What's up, guys?
Matt Walton, here with the VotaTalk, or the Real Matt Walton,
(00:20):
depending on how you found meand I am very excited about
today because this is a topicthat is near and dear to my
heart and I know every singlekingdom business that navigates
through some uncertain times.
That's what this is talkingabout how we do that as kingdom
entrepreneurs and kingdombusiness people.
But first I want to ask you aquestion so what is that one
thing in your life that if youstopped doing it, gave it up,
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that it would relay into like 10other things starting to happen
?
So what is that one thing that,if you stop doing 10 other
things, you would start doing?
So it would be that catalystinto that life that you long for
, in that life that you pursue.
And the reason I asked that isI asked myself that question
about six months ago and uh, andthe my answer to that at that
time was eating better andchanging a few things within how
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I ate.
And then you fast forward totoday and I feel absolutely
incredible lost a ton of weight,mental clarity and all that.
So I found myself asking myselfthat question again and I had
an answer, and so I'll get intothat answer another time.
But I'm so excited about thatbecause I'm on day four now and
it is going to transformeverything in my life.
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It's going to transform myfamily, my business, how I
approach everything, and so whatis that one thing in your life
that you need to give up andstart doing other things that
will allow you to start doingnine, ten other things?
And there's always that onething that we can do.
But let's go ahead and get intoit.
I want to talk about how kingdombusinesses navigate through
uncertain times today, and Iwant to first tie that to
(01:50):
scripture, because that's wherewe get all of our power from,
and this is one of my favoritescriptures about this topic.
There's so many of them aboutnavigating uncertain times and
especially stories that we havethat I'm going to get into of
characters in the Bible that Godjust shows us man.
You don't have to know the whatand the how, but it's important
for us to understand our why,and our why a lot of times in
life is just to glorify God andto serve God and to be obedient
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to God.
And when we're doing that, man,god takes care of the what and
the how.
So I want to open with thescripture, and it's Matthew 6,
25 through 34.
And it says therefore I tellyou and this is red letter,
jesus talking.
Therefore, I tell you, do not beanxious about your life, what
you will eat or what you willdrink, nor about your body, what
you will put on.
Is not life more than food andthe body more than clothing?
(02:37):
Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow nor reap, norgather into barns, and yet your
heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not of more value thanthey?
And which of you?
That's powerful to me?
But if God so clothes the grassof the field, which today is
(03:06):
alive and tomorrow is throwninto the oven, will he not much
more clothe you, oh you oflittle faith?
Therefore, do not be anxioussaying what shall we eat or what
shall we drink, or what shallwe wear For the Gentiles?
Seek all these things, and yourheavenly father knows that you
need them all, but seek firstthe kingdom of God.
This is critical, like this isthe treasure within this passage
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, if you ask me but seek firstthe kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all thesethings will be added to you.
Therefore, do not be anxiousabout tomorrow, for tomorrow
will be anxious for itself,sufficient, for the day is its
own struggle.
So that is extremely powerfulto me, especially when you're
talking about pursuing thekingdom of God and just pursue
his righteousness, and that'sactually one of the first things
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that I want to talk about.
But I want to paint a pictureto everybody and I know there's
a lot of business people,business owners, entrepreneurs
that listen to this podcast orlisten to my YouTube, and I want
to.
When we get into business andbefore we ever get into business
, maybe you started one from theground up or bought one that
was failing and have started tosee some growth and some fruit
for your labor.
(04:10):
Most of us, when we get intobusiness, we have these big
dreams and visions for ourbusiness, and then we get hit in
the mouth and that changeseverything.
But it shouldn't, and so howcan we navigate that?
How can we not allow that tochange everything?
And I'm not talking.
There may be moments to whereyou suffer, or you go through
not suffer, but you go throughsome doubts and maybe you go
through some fear.
But those are meant tospringboard you into a
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relationship with God, to wherehe is sufficient and he is the
only one and the only thing thatyou need.
Because, again, like thescripture says, he knows what
you need and he will provide.
But we have to first seek hiskingdom and listen.
When we get into business asentrepreneurs, we don't start
out as entrepreneurs.
We may have entrepreneurialmindsets, but we start out as a
solopreneur.
And then, when we start tonavigate through the lanes of
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entrepreneurship, we findourselves with more leadership
responsibilities.
We find ourselves hiring morepeople, and hiring people from
the bottom up or top down.
And then that's whenever westart to find ourselves turning
into a full-blown entrepreneur.
And I know, when you're inbusiness and you've been in
business for a while we're justbuilt different and so, because
it takes a lot out of you, andespecially if you're not a
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believer and you don't have thatrock of Jesus Christ to stand
on, then that's where we seepeople start to fall away and
lose sight of the whole visionbecause it's not turning out the
exact way that they would likeit to immediately.
So one of the things like mymentality is I've got to be
strapped in for 10 years and sothat's just my mentality.
I'm going to give it my all for10 years.
I commit to living below mymeans for 10 years.
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I commit to giving it my all,and in the middle of that,
you're going to go through a lotof ups and downs and it's up to
you of how you're going tonavigate those ups and downs.
Are you going to allow that hitin the mouth to distract you?
Are you going to allow it todiscourage you and stay on that
path, or are you going to allowit to make you better and for
you to start to analyze what youneed to do to change and to
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turn things around?
To turn things around.
So this is why preparation,studying, reading books like you
, as the business owner, have tocontinue going and have to
continue being a student,because when you stop being a
student, that's when you stopgrowing, and when you stop
growing, then you can guaranteethat your organization business,
is going to stop growing aswell.
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And it's when we get hit in themouth, that studying that,
reading of books, listening topodcasts and really relying on
scripture and using prayerreally comes into play, because
then we start to rememberstories of people that have gone
through similar things, thathave gone through the uncertain
times, whether they've been inbusiness for a couple of years
or they've been in business for20 years.
There's uncertain times thathappen, and how are you going to
navigate that?
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I believe what God is lookingfor in these times is for
somebody that is not going totake it into their own hands, or
if they do take it into theirown hands, they're going to
realize that, recognize that andsurrender that over to God,
because it's when we surrenderit over to God that we enter
into his rest, and there's nobetter place than to enter into
his rest.
So here's some stats.
This is fascinating to mebecause it really shows how many
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businesses are going to succeedand how many are going to fail.
But 40% of businesses failwithin the first year and 80%
fail within five years.
Of 20% that make it to yearfive, 80% will fail by year 10.
This means only 4% ofbusinesses make it over the span
of 10 years.
So overall, 2% of businessesmake over a million dollars a
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year.
So these stats are extremelyprofound to me and as I was
reading these stats online, Inoticed a lot of comments from
people saying like, why in theworld would I get in business
then?
Because it just seems like it'sa setup for failure.
And I'm like, yeah, come on,we're going to figure out, we're
going to navigate this, we'regoing to rely on God, we're
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going to have a kingdom businessand surrender everything over
to God and watch God use thatand start to experience the
fruit for our labors because ofour desire to be obedient to
Christ and to push through thedifficult times.
But I think the reason why wesee a lot of businesses fail
today is because we lack visionand we lack our why, we lack
grit, determination.
So when we get hit in the mouth, then we just fall over and we
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allow that doubt to creep in andinstead of that doubt launching
us into a deeper relationshipwith Christ or maybe a deeper
analyzation of your business tofigure out what you could be
doing, we just get beat down andbeat down to where we lose our
drive and we lose our motivationand then we think that, well,
if I go start something else,then that's where I'm going to
get rejuvenated is by startingsomething else.
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And when I look at like a lot ofbusiness owners that have been
in business for a long time, itdoesn't mean that you're not
going to go through some thingsand try to figure out some
things.
At the beginning, maybe youaren't prepared for a business,
and then the second business youcome in more prepared.
But what that means is is ifyou can outlast this time and
really surrender this over toGod I promise you, man, god's
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going to use that and use thatin big ways You're going to
start to notice yourself beingable to handle things that most
people can't handle.
Because entrepreneurs, man,they're just built different.
And especially whenever youmake it past a certain threshold
in business and you've beendoing the same thing and you've
just been pounding the pavementon that, yeah, we're just built
different.
So, now that you've been hittingthe mouth and you've been in
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business for two to three years,or maybe you've been in
business for 20 years, what doyou do now?
Because that's whenever reallyuncertain times come and maybe
there's like some cashflowissues, maybe you haven't sold a
job, maybe there's somepolitical stuff that affected
things.
This is where doing annualstrategic business plans and
doing SWOT analysis really comesin handy.
No, it's not the answer to allof your problems, but what it
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will do is it will allow you toanalyze things at the beginning
of the year and understand thethreats that come, so that you
know how you're going tonavigate those threats when they
come, and it gives you thatgame plan and that blueprint of
exactly how you're going to dothat.
And that's what makes up it'sone of the things that makes up
a kingdom business is we takeexpert ownership over everything
.
We don't allow for that hit inthe mouth to stop us.
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We plan at the beginning of theyear, we plan all throughout
the year, we implement thoseplans and we continue to strive
to go to that next level so thatwe can steward what God has
entrusted with us well.
I mean, think about like.
One story that comes to mind isJoseph and it took when God gave
Joseph this vision, it took 13years for this vision to come to
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pass before he was second incommand.
Like that, like God has given alot of you a great, great
vision, god has given me avision that fits everybody
else's visions and dreams inside.
And so, when God gives you avision that big, just know it's
going to take a lot of time andit's really cool to look back
after not quite three years,between the time that God gave
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me the vision that he gave me tonow, and watched how God has
navigated and brought peopleinto my life, circumstances into
my life, and has really pushedthis forward.
But strap in for a long time onthat, because it's not going to
happen overnight and what Godis doing in those moments is
he's not punishing you but he'spreparing you.
And I think that's so importantfor me to remember, because
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when I think, man, I should havesold 15 jobs by now, within
2025, but I haven't it's easy toget distracted and it's easy to
get discouraged by that.
But then I remember stories likeJoseph, and I'm like man.
You know it took him a longtime for him to see the
provision for the vision thatGod gave him and it was in that
long time, that 13 year period,that God was preparing him for
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what was about to happen.
So do not take for granted thattime whenever things aren't
happening your way, the way thatyou would like for it to happen
or the way that you perceivethings should happen because of
the vision that God has givenyou and because of the
scriptures that we see, becauseof the stories that we see
throughout scripture.
I just want to encourage y'allthere, because our natural
tendency is to take things intoour own hands at that point and
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to start doing things onourselves and say, like man, I
can make this happen quicker.
You know, I and that's onething that I really battle with
is like okay, yeah, I can go inand I can make this happen
quicker, but no timing is moreperfect than God's timing, and
that is a very I am in themiddle of that, and so I had
been through that in my past andI am right in the middle of
that, right and truly drawing mystrength from the Lord and
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drawing my strength from myquiet times with the Lord and
just spending time with the Lord, and it's really turned into be
one of the most beautifulseasons of my life.
And so I wanna get into theseright here, because now that
we've painted a picture of whatthat looks like, we know all
businesses run through thesetimes.
We know that the businessesthat surpassed these difficult
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times are the businesses we seedoing 10, 20, 50, a hundred
million dollars a year, which isa very, very small chunk of
these businesses, but it ispossible.
And so, and not all markets isthat possible.
Some markets you're only goingto be able to top out at a
million and a half.
So that's why it's important tounderstand your market, make
sure that your goals and yourvision for that market are
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appropriate, and don't mishearme here Like you can go in and
transform that whole entiremarket and turn it from 0.5 cap
to 5 cap that.
So just keep going, keep beingobedient to God and use the
discernment that God gives youto navigate.
But this is where we get intoseek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and giveit all to him.
When we go through these seasons, God uses these moments to
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increase our faith, and it's inthese moments to where I see,
throughout scripture, where Godis like where was your faith?
I think of Peter, you know.
Peter walks out of the boat,literally walks on water, and
then, all of a sudden, doubt inhis face starts to lack and then
he starts to sink and so likewhere is my faith?
Where is your faith in thesetimes?
And no, I'm not saying thatyou're not going to go through a
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few hours or a moment to whereyou lack faith, or maybe you get
really in your head about somethings and you're really
struggling to get out of that.
But where is your faith?
And we need to put full trustin God and his plans and
understand that his plans arefar greater than yours.
He is the beginning and the end.
So if God knows the ending ofyour story, don't you think it's
better to trust him, becauseyou myself, I don't know the
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ending of my story, and so Igain a lot of strength from that
, because I know that God's wordsays that his strength will be
made perfect in our weakness.
And so, yeah, it's challenging.
Whenever you go through a momentto where you feel weak, you
feel like there's nothing thatyou can do.
That's changing things, and soyour thing there, your goal
there, is obedience and topursue God and to be obedient,
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because, I promise you, god isspeaking to you and he has
something for you.
And if you think that maybe Godisn't speaking to you in the
moment, I would like toencourage this.
This isn't a blanket statement,but it applied to me.
Maybe there's something thatyou haven't listened to God on,
and I know for me.
Every time I would ask God likehow come I haven't heard from
you?
He's like I need you to do this, and that pushed past a year, a
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year of my life, up until thislast Monday, and I changed that
around.
And now again I'm on day fourof that and I can't wait to
reveal that to you guys, becausethings are about to
dramatically change, all for theglory of God.
Things are about to change onhow we treat people, how we
handle our business, how wehandle communications with our
clients, with leads, with ourpeople.
We're about to go to the nextlevel on every single thing.
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There was that missingcomponent of obedience in my
life, and when I gave that overto God and I started acting out
of obedience in that onecomponent although I was acting
out of obedience in every othercomponent God has already
started to give me glimpses intowhat's about to come, and it's
one of the most beautiful things.
It makes me a little emotionalwhen I talk about it.
One thing, though, we have toconsider in this moment is like
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the story of Abram or Abraham,and I think of Abraham when God
called him away from his father,terah.
So back in the Eastern culture.
There was a patriarch in afamily which would be Terah,
which would be Abram's father,and God called Abram, abraham,
away from his father, away fromhis family, sitting him on the
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road and he had no clue what wasto come and no clue what was to
happen.
God gave him promises withinthere, god continued to provide
for him within there, but hedidn't know what was to come and
no clue what was to happen.
God gave him promises withinthere, god continued to provide
for him within there, but hedidn't know what was next and,
in fact, he experienced a lot ofdifficulties and a lot of like
trials in that.
But one of the things that Ilove about Abram or Abraham, he,
unlike the others that we readat this time in scripture, he
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made a sacrifice, or he made analtar to God.
Rather than building things toglorify his name, he built
something to glorify God's nameso that he can make sacrifices
on that altar, and he wasobedient.
Yeah, there was times wheneverhe took it into his own hands,
like whenever he went into Egyptwhen they were running low on
supplies.
And he went into Egypt and hehad this grand plan that hey,
let's just tell them, you're mysister and then that way they'll
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want to court you becauseyou're so beautiful, and then
they'll lavish gifts on mebecause I'll be the one handing
you over to them.
And that didn't work out likethat.
Pharaoh doesn't play thosegames.
He doesn't play under that samesystem.
And so Pharaoh recognized howbeautiful she was, took her in.
God released some difficultieson Pharaoh.
Pharaoh then questioned Abramand was like why did you lie to
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me?
And then they ended up and left.
So that plan did not work theway that they thought.
But I thought what was beautifulabout that is in the very next
scripture it says that Abram wasvery rich.
So despite that, god stillprovided for them and still
provided the necessary suppliesthat they would need to continue
on their journey.
So, despite us taking it intoour own hands at times, god's
grace and his mercy is sosufficient that he's still
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provided.
And I know there's some of usout there that think that we
should be thriving.
We've been in business for twoyears and we should be thriving.
We should be making half amillion or a quarter of a
million, half a million dollarsevery single month and just be
thriving.
And that's coming and it'simportant to not lose sight of
the fact that, of what Abramwent through, and not take
things into our own hands.
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Rather, just act out ofobedience and look for that next
thing that God is asking foryou to do or not to do.
Next thing is and this is kindof like the process that the
Lord has taken me through, butit's analyze.
And when I say analyze, I'mtalking about analyzing your
whole entire business, yourwhole entire life, and it's like
God is there anything in mylife?
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Is there anything in mybusiness that I need to be doing
?
Maybe I missed something, maybeI didn't hear something
appropriately, maybe I was sofocused on this month or so ago
that I missed hearing from you.
And just analyze that God willexpose that to you, and if you
consistently have the same thingcoming to your mind, it's time
to be obedient to that thing,and I promise you that I'll give
you breakthrough and you'llstart to hear more from the Lord
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and you'll start to be able tohear not just in your mind from
the Lord, but hear from God inscripture.
And then scriptures will startto pop out to you and you'll
start to be edified andencouraged by them.
But I promise you.
When you do that man, god is sofaithful to give you all of that
and tell A lot of times it'snot what you want to hear, like
it wasn't what I wanted to hearfor the last year and I ignored
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it.
And so I was like God, not that, not that I'm not ready, and uh
.
And so every single time,whenever I would ask God like I
need you to do that, I need youto do that and so, and then I
would be like, but I'm nothearing from God and it's like,
yeah, ignoring God, and so Icannot wait to share more about
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that with you guys.
But after God exposes thosethings, it's time to move into
action and do the thing.
Whatever it is that God askedfor you to do, do the thing.
So one of the things that I'mfocused on now within my
business is my sales departmentand just developing.
I've got a sales process, havea marketing process.
I did a video last week aboutthat, so go check that out but
I'm specifically talking aboutlike sales process, and so I've
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had a sales process before, butnow it's like God has put that
on my heart.
You need to go back and justanalyze that to the fullest and
redo the whole entire salesprocess.
Study just like I've studiedeverything else in business,
study that and it's really cool,I've come up with a new sales
process that I can't wait to seehow God honors that and to see
the increase that comes out ofthat.
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But think about, like I talkabout action, because again
we're analyzing everything.
After we seek God and hisrighteousness, then we move into
analyzing.
We were obedient at this pointto whatever it was that God told
us that we needed to do, and ifyou're not obedient to that
when you go to analyzing things,it's going to be cloudy in your
mind.
You're not going to understand.
It's going to be like well, Ithought about this.
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There's going to be a lot ofconfusion until you're obedient
to the thing that God has calledyou to be obedient to.
And then, when you analyzethings after you're being
obedient to that, you hop rightinto action.
And it makes me think ofNehemiah.
Nehemiah operated out of aburden.
So you go back to Nehemiah 1and it was just beautiful.
Nehemiah was like wellunderfunded, you know, it
seemingly would be like he hasno means to be able to
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accomplish what he wants toaccomplish, but God.
But he had God on his side andGod came in, provided the
provision for the vision.
They had him operating out of aburden and they rebuilt that
wall within 52 days, which wasjust a record, because every
time that somebody would go inand try to rebuild it it would
get destroyed.
And so God gave him discernment, god put him around the right
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people and Nehemiah, despitehaving all these people that
were seeking to destroy him, hewas able to thrive in those
moments and now we see that wallbeing built within those 52
days.
There's some things that withinthe middle of the struggle.
So if you're in the middle ofsome uncertain times, one of the
things that I do within mybusiness is we go serve, and so
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I stop production the firstFriday of every single month and
you go serve and it'scontinuing to do those things.
Let's just say you don't dothat.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Go serve.
Outside of that, I lead anotherministry with a buddy of mine
called Reisha Streets and it'saffiliated with my church and a
community outreach center herein Las Vegas known as LV Reach,
and we do it every singleTuesday.
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It's this tent pop-up revival,if you will that we go out and
we preach the gospel, we haveevangelists that are out in the
street corners and we cook food.
We're just seeking the one atthat and have a desire to
release some sound teaching onthis corner here in Las Vegas,
and we're seeing the fruit comefrom that.
We're seeing lives beingtransformed and God is using us
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to supply for some of the needsfor a lot of these people.
But what I recognize in thosemoments is when I do that,
because I'll say this I took offall of January because it was
winter and there was a lot ofthings that were going on, and I
started back up in February.
And it wasn't until I startedback up and I was able to get
out of myself and start focusingon others and start serving
others weekly that God reallystarted to overflow my heart and
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I started to have a pictureagain of like man.
Look at where God's taking youfrom, look at where you're at
now and just look at God andlook at the beautiful nature of
God and how his mercies are newevery single day.
His grace and his mercy is newevery single day.
And so we have an opportunityto act out of obedience, of
service to God, to advance hiskingdom, not just within our
businesses, but outside of that,and when we make ourselves
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available to those that areunderserved in the community.
I promise you it'll put youruncertain times into perspective
and it'll put God back in theplace where God needs to be.
And then you'll start to getall of your strength from God
and God will be enough.
You'll quit looking at a dollaras providing what you need and
don't get me wrong Like, yeah,there's nothing wrong with money
, there's nothing wrong withhaving a lot of money, there's
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nothing wrong with any of thatunless it has your heart right.
And that's the whole desirehere is like God, I don't want
for anything to have my heart.
I only want for you to have myheart and I want to be obedient
to you a thousand percent of thetime, regardless of the cost
and regardless of thecircumstances that we're faced.
So serve.
I don't know who needs to hearthat, but go serve.
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You're facing uncertain times,then go serve.
I want to encourage everybody.
I want to encourage everybodyto pursue God like never before
and strive to live in his spiritrather than your flesh, and if
you have ever gotten into justliving through the Holy Spirit
or having the Holy Spirit livethrough you.
When you start to live in yourflesh, it is extremely obvious.
And when you're living in theSpirit, god is good to give you
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everything that you need and itmay not be everything that you
want, but it's everything thatyou need, and that includes
ideas.
And he'll tell you the future.
It says this in John, wherehe'll tell you the things to
come.
And so just pursue the HolySpirit, pursue allowing the Holy
Spirit to live through you andyou through the Holy Spirit, and
take a moment to go and love onyour people.
If you are fortunate enough tohave employees, or even not
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maybe you're a solopreneur andyou work with vendors, or maybe
you have some clients or leadsor however that looks for you
make an extra effort to go, loveon them and to get out of
yourself, to get out of whereyou're at and just go love on
them, encourage them, askquestions about them, see where
they're at.
And again, that kind of goesback to the service thing,
because it allows you to get outof yourself, focus on others
and it really puts God inperspective in my life whenever
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I do those things and understandthis.
Never lose sight of Jesus.
Your family, your health.
Never lose sight of any of thatwhen you're going through
uncertain times, because, again,our tendency is to take things
into our own hands, and when wedo that, we find ourselves doing
more and more and more, andthose things that we're doing
more of take the place ofspending time with our family,
take the place of a number ofthings that you were doing
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before that truly add value toyour life, and so, again, rely
on God to tell you exactly whatit is that you need to do.
I love Jeremiah 29, 11, and itjust I'll paraphrase it it just
says for I know the plans that Ihave for you and that's coming
from God, and you are like builtfor.
This is something that us, askingdom business people, are
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built to go through uncertaintimes.
And we are built to go throughuncertain times, you know, and
we are built to navigate throughlike leadership and continue to
lead our people in uncertaintimes.
You are not meant to recluse orto stop being around your
people in uncertain times.
That's a tendency for a lot ofleaders is.
We like to then recluse and tryto figure things out, and then
we'll go back out to our people,and I want to encourage you not
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to do that.
You are built for uncertaintimes.
You are built for times likethese, and what better time to
show people how it's like toreact in uncertain times, how
it's like to serve God inuncertain times and what it's
like to advance his kingdom inuncertain times Like what a
better time than that?
Just a reminder this is areminder for really all the
believers, but this kind of goesoff of what I just said.
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Don't blow your opportunity inuncertain times to grow or to
advance God's kingdom.
Don't blow opportunities toshare the gospel with people
because of how you representedyourself and God in those
uncertain times.
And understand that yourbusiness I don't care if you
look at it like this or not,your business is your ministry.
And if you don't look at itlike that, you shouldn't,
because your business what youdo in the marketplace, even if
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you don't have a business, maybeyou work for somebody use that
platform as your ministry toadvance God's kingdom and to be
a faithful steward to what Godhas entrusted you with.
I think of a story.
There's a story of a horse,rich Strike, and there was the
train.
I'm not a horse guy, but I lovethis story and the train I'm
going to.
I'm going to.
I'm not a horse guy, but I lovethis story and the guy that
owned the horse I think his namewas his last name was Reed.
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His whole entire stable burneddown and so there was 23 horses
that actually passed away duringthis time, except for one horse
, and this one horse was notsupposed to race in the Kentucky
Derby the Friday before theKentucky Derby.
It got into the Kentucky Derbyrace, should not have won, was
in last place the whole entiretime.
That's where some of us feellike we're at is we're in last
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place, we're behind the eightball, we're behind the curve,
and what you start to see as therace starts to come closer to
an end is he starts to make hisway through all the other horses
before he reaches victory andthen you see the owners and
everybody just collapse and cry.
I believe that that horse knewexactly what was up.
It took on, it embodied thoseother horses and it made things
happen.
That is you.
I want to encourage everybodyout there that that is you.
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You have the ability, when youtap into the divine power of
Christ, to pursue past all thenegative, all the.
It seems like I'm at last place.
Right now, it seems like I'llnever get out of this.
It seems like all of this stuffis mounting and when you seek
God and when you're obedient toGod, when you analyze things and
you hop right into action, Ipromise you you're going to
start to notice yourself, startto climb right to the top and
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God will start to elevate youand you'll go from glory to
glory, and even in those momentsof being in the valley, that's
where, again, god makes himselfstrong.
So, hopefully, that man this isa message that I need to hear.
I am more preaching to myselfor talking to myself than
anything.
This is something that I am kindof on the middle of, kind of on
the backside of my business ison the verge of like exploding,
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and I'm right there and I knowit because of a bunch of
different things that tell methat the data that I track and
relationships that I have, andapps that are about to be
released, and a number ofdifferent things that tell me
that the data that I track andrelationships that I have, and
apps that are about to bereleased, and a number of things
and it's in this moment thatGod has given me back my vision
for the business.
It has given me back my desireto do the things that I was
doing a couple of years ago.
God has given me just a freshcalling and a fresh drive to
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things going and into the fight.
There's some of you that haveavoided the fight.
Y'all have been just pursuingGod on a surface level.
Yeah, I do my quiet times.
Yeah, I worship in the car.
Yeah, I talk about Christ, andyou have avoided getting in the
fight and being a soldier of Godand pursuing that clarity, that
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righteousness, that purity,because when we enter into those
things, that's where we reallystart to hear from the Lord, and
God is so good to give youeverything that you need.
So I want to close in prayerbecause I know there's a lot of
us out there that are goingthrough or coming off of
uncertain times, or you may beabout to go through it to an
uncertain time.
So I want to close in prayerand if y'all have any comments
(29:20):
or want to reach out to me,please comment on YouTube,
please download and share thepodcast and leave a review.
That's how the podcast gets outthere to the world.
So I encourage you to leave areview and I would just love to
hear from you.
But let's close in prayer, dearHeavenly Father.
Lord, I thank you for wakingeach of us up today and I'm
grateful that your grace andyour mercy are new every single
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day.
Lord, I pray over everybodythat is listening, that is in an
uncertain time right now, thatthey would find themselves
seeking you and seeking youalone and being fulfilled by you
and starting their morningslike that tree planted by the
river that's constantlyfulfilled.
And, god, I just pray that westart to see the fruits of the
labor.
God, I pray that we have aheart like Daniel, to where,
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even if it doesn't happen, westill trust you.
And God, bring us all to thatplace of, regardless of the
circumstances, regardless ofwhat we think is going to happen
, we trust you and we enter intoyour rest.
I pray and I plead that overeverybody that is listening.
And, lord, we are so gratefulfor the finished work of the
cross, because it is in thatthat we're able to operate out
of your freedom and your loveand your self-control and we're
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able to tap into that divinepower to break strongholds.
And, god, I pray that you renewour minds, and the only way
that we can renew our minds isthrough your word, god.
So put us in your word and helpus have a hunger for your word,
and help us have a hunger toadvance your kingdom and to be
obedient to whatever it is thatyou're calling us to be obedient
to.
And Lord, we pray this throughyour mighty son, jesus Amen.
Thank you, guys.
What's up, guys?
This is Matt with the Vota Talk, or the Real Matt Walton.
This is your hub for all thingsKingdom business, businesses,
ministry, business strategy.
My goal is to provide as muchvalue, minute by minute, each
podcast that you listen to.
So let's get to it.
What's up, guys?
Matt Walton, here with the VotaTalk, or the Real Matt Walton,
(00:20):
depending on how you found meand I am very excited about
today because this is a topicthat is near and dear to my
heart and I know every singlekingdom business that navigates
through some uncertain times.
That's what this is talkingabout how we do that as kingdom
entrepreneurs and kingdombusiness people.
But first I want to ask you aquestion so what is that one
thing in your life that if youstopped doing it, gave it up,
(00:44):
that it would relay into like 10other things starting to happen
?
So what is that one thing that,if you stop doing 10 other
things, you would start doing?
So it would be that catalystinto that life that you long for
, in that life that you pursue.
And the reason I asked that isI asked myself that question
about six months ago and uh, andthe my answer to that at that
time was eating better andchanging a few things within how
(01:06):
I ate.
And then you fast forward totoday and I feel absolutely
incredible lost a ton of weight,mental clarity and all that.
So I found myself asking myselfthat question again and I had
an answer, and so I'll get intothat answer another time.
But I'm so excited about thatbecause I'm on day four now and
it is going to transformeverything in my life.
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It's going to transform myfamily, my business, how I
approach everything, and so whatis that one thing in your life
that you need to give up andstart doing other things that
will allow you to start doingnine, ten other things?
And there's always that onething that we can do.
But let's go ahead and get intoit.
I want to talk about how kingdombusinesses navigate through
uncertain times today, and Iwant to first tie that to
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scripture, because that's wherewe get all of our power from,
and this is one of my favoritescriptures about this topic.
There's so many of them aboutnavigating uncertain times and
especially stories that we havethat I'm going to get into of
characters in the Bible that Godjust shows us man.
You don't have to know the whatand the how, but it's important
for us to understand our why,and our why a lot of times in
life is just to glorify God andto serve God and to be obedient
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to God.
And when we're doing that, man,god takes care of the what and
the how.
So I want to open with thescripture, and it's Matthew 6,
25 through 34.
And it says therefore I tellyou and this is red letter,
jesus talking.
Therefore, I tell you, do not beanxious about your life, what
you will eat or what you willdrink, nor about your body, what
you will put on.
Is not life more than food andthe body more than clothing?
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Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow nor reap, norgather into barns, and yet your
heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not of more value thanthey?
And which of you?
That's powerful to me?
But if God so clothes the grassof the field, which today is
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alive and tomorrow is throwninto the oven, will he not much
more clothe you, oh you oflittle faith?
Therefore, do not be anxioussaying what shall we eat or what
shall we drink, or what shallwe wear For the Gentiles?
Seek all these things, and yourheavenly father knows that you
need them all, but seek firstthe kingdom of God.
This is critical, like this isthe treasure within this passage
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, if you ask me but seek firstthe kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all thesethings will be added to you.
Therefore, do not be anxiousabout tomorrow, for tomorrow
will be anxious for itself,sufficient, for the day is its
own struggle.
So that is extremely powerfulto me, especially when you're
talking about pursuing thekingdom of God and just pursue
his righteousness, and that'sactually one of the first things
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that I want to talk about.
But I want to paint a pictureto everybody and I know there's
a lot of business people,business owners, entrepreneurs
that listen to this podcast orlisten to my YouTube, and I want
to.
When we get into business andbefore we ever get into business
, maybe you started one from theground up or bought one that
was failing and have started tosee some growth and some fruit
for your labor.
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Most of us, when we get intobusiness, we have these big
dreams and visions for ourbusiness, and then we get hit in
the mouth and that changeseverything.
But it shouldn't, and so howcan we navigate that?
How can we not allow that tochange everything?
And I'm not talking.
There may be moments to whereyou suffer, or you go through
not suffer, but you go throughsome doubts and maybe you go
through some fear.
But those are meant tospringboard you into a
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relationship with God, to wherehe is sufficient and he is the
only one and the only thing thatyou need.
Because, again, like thescripture says, he knows what
you need and he will provide.
But we have to first seek hiskingdom and listen.
When we get into business asentrepreneurs, we don't start
out as entrepreneurs.
We may have entrepreneurialmindsets, but we start out as a
solopreneur.
And then, when we start tonavigate through the lanes of
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entrepreneurship, we findourselves with more leadership
responsibilities.
We find ourselves hiring morepeople, and hiring people from
the bottom up or top down.
And then that's whenever westart to find ourselves turning
into a full-blown entrepreneur.
And I know, when you're inbusiness and you've been in
business for a while we're justbuilt different and so, because
it takes a lot out of you, andespecially if you're not a
(05:15):
believer and you don't have thatrock of Jesus Christ to stand
on, then that's where we seepeople start to fall away and
lose sight of the whole visionbecause it's not turning out the
exact way that they would likeit to immediately.
So one of the things like mymentality is I've got to be
strapped in for 10 years and sothat's just my mentality.
I'm going to give it my all for10 years.
I commit to living below mymeans for 10 years.
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I commit to giving it my all,and in the middle of that,
you're going to go through a lotof ups and downs and it's up to
you of how you're going tonavigate those ups and downs.
Are you going to allow that hitin the mouth to distract you?
Are you going to allow it todiscourage you and stay on that
path, or are you going to allowit to make you better and for
you to start to analyze what youneed to do to change and to
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turn things around?
To turn things around.
So this is why preparation,studying, reading books like you
, as the business owner, have tocontinue going and have to
continue being a student,because when you stop being a
student, that's when you stopgrowing, and when you stop
growing, then you can guaranteethat your organization business,
is going to stop growing aswell.
(06:21):
And it's when we get hit in themouth, that studying that,
reading of books, listening topodcasts and really relying on
scripture and using prayerreally comes into play, because
then we start to rememberstories of people that have gone
through similar things, thathave gone through the uncertain
times, whether they've been inbusiness for a couple of years
or they've been in business for20 years.
There's uncertain times thathappen, and how are you going to
navigate that?
(06:42):
I believe what God is lookingfor in these times is for
somebody that is not going totake it into their own hands, or
if they do take it into theirown hands, they're going to
realize that, recognize that andsurrender that over to God,
because it's when we surrenderit over to God that we enter
into his rest, and there's nobetter place than to enter into
his rest.
So here's some stats.
This is fascinating to mebecause it really shows how many
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businesses are going to succeedand how many are going to fail.
But 40% of businesses failwithin the first year and 80%
fail within five years.
Of 20% that make it to yearfive, 80% will fail by year 10.
This means only 4% ofbusinesses make it over the span
of 10 years.
So overall, 2% of businessesmake over a million dollars a
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year.
So these stats are extremelyprofound to me and as I was
reading these stats online, Inoticed a lot of comments from
people saying like, why in theworld would I get in business
then?
Because it just seems like it'sa setup for failure.
And I'm like, yeah, come on,we're going to figure out, we're
going to navigate this, we'regoing to rely on God, we're
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going to have a kingdom businessand surrender everything over
to God and watch God use thatand start to experience the
fruit for our labors because ofour desire to be obedient to
Christ and to push through thedifficult times.
But I think the reason why wesee a lot of businesses fail
today is because we lack visionand we lack our why, we lack
grit, determination.
So when we get hit in the mouth, then we just fall over and we
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allow that doubt to creep in andinstead of that doubt launching
us into a deeper relationshipwith Christ or maybe a deeper
analyzation of your business tofigure out what you could be
doing, we just get beat down andbeat down to where we lose our
drive and we lose our motivationand then we think that, well,
if I go start something else,then that's where I'm going to
get rejuvenated is by startingsomething else.
(08:32):
And when I look at like a lot ofbusiness owners that have been
in business for a long time, itdoesn't mean that you're not
going to go through some thingsand try to figure out some
things.
At the beginning, maybe youaren't prepared for a business,
and then the second business youcome in more prepared.
But what that means is is ifyou can outlast this time and
really surrender this over toGod I promise you, man, god's
(08:53):
going to use that and use thatin big ways You're going to
start to notice yourself beingable to handle things that most
people can't handle.
Because entrepreneurs, man,they're just built different.
And especially whenever youmake it past a certain threshold
in business and you've beendoing the same thing and you've
just been pounding the pavementon that, yeah, we're just built
different.
So, now that you've been hittingthe mouth and you've been in
(09:15):
business for two to three years,or maybe you've been in
business for 20 years, what doyou do now?
Because that's whenever reallyuncertain times come and maybe
there's like some cashflowissues, maybe you haven't sold a
job, maybe there's somepolitical stuff that affected
things.
This is where doing annualstrategic business plans and
doing SWOT analysis really comesin handy.
No, it's not the answer to allof your problems, but what it
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will do is it will allow you toanalyze things at the beginning
of the year and understand thethreats that come, so that you
know how you're going tonavigate those threats when they
come, and it gives you thatgame plan and that blueprint of
exactly how you're going to dothat.
And that's what makes up it'sone of the things that makes up
a kingdom business is we takeexpert ownership over everything
.
We don't allow for that hit inthe mouth to stop us.
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We plan at the beginning of theyear, we plan all throughout
the year, we implement thoseplans and we continue to strive
to go to that next level so thatwe can steward what God has
entrusted with us well.
I mean, think about like.
One story that comes to mind isJoseph and it took when God gave
Joseph this vision, it took 13years for this vision to come to
(10:18):
pass before he was second incommand.
Like that, like God has given alot of you a great, great
vision, god has given me avision that fits everybody
else's visions and dreams inside.
And so, when God gives you avision that big, just know it's
going to take a lot of time andit's really cool to look back
after not quite three years,between the time that God gave
(10:40):
me the vision that he gave me tonow, and watched how God has
navigated and brought peopleinto my life, circumstances into
my life, and has really pushedthis forward.
But strap in for a long time onthat, because it's not going to
happen overnight and what Godis doing in those moments is
he's not punishing you but he'spreparing you.
And I think that's so importantfor me to remember, because
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when I think, man, I should havesold 15 jobs by now, within
2025, but I haven't it's easy toget distracted and it's easy to
get discouraged by that.
But then I remember stories likeJoseph, and I'm like man.
You know it took him a longtime for him to see the
provision for the vision thatGod gave him and it was in that
long time, that 13 year period,that God was preparing him for
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what was about to happen.
So do not take for granted thattime whenever things aren't
happening your way, the way thatyou would like for it to happen
or the way that you perceivethings should happen because of
the vision that God has givenyou and because of the
scriptures that we see, becauseof the stories that we see
throughout scripture.
I just want to encourage y'allthere, because our natural
tendency is to take things intoour own hands at that point and
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to start doing things onourselves and say, like man, I
can make this happen quicker.
You know, I and that's onething that I really battle with
is like okay, yeah, I can go inand I can make this happen
quicker, but no timing is moreperfect than God's timing, and
that is a very I am in themiddle of that, and so I had
been through that in my past andI am right in the middle of
that, right and truly drawing mystrength from the Lord and
(12:10):
drawing my strength from myquiet times with the Lord and
just spending time with the Lord, and it's really turned into be
one of the most beautifulseasons of my life.
And so I wanna get into theseright here, because now that
we've painted a picture of whatthat looks like, we know all
businesses run through thesetimes.
We know that the businessesthat surpassed these difficult
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times are the businesses we seedoing 10, 20, 50, a hundred
million dollars a year, which isa very, very small chunk of
these businesses, but it ispossible.
And so, and not all markets isthat possible.
Some markets you're only goingto be able to top out at a
million and a half.
So that's why it's important tounderstand your market, make
sure that your goals and yourvision for that market are
(12:51):
appropriate, and don't mishearme here Like you can go in and
transform that whole entiremarket and turn it from 0.5 cap
to 5 cap that.
So just keep going, keep beingobedient to God and use the
discernment that God gives youto navigate.
But this is where we get intoseek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and giveit all to him.
When we go through these seasons, God uses these moments to
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increase our faith, and it's inthese moments to where I see,
throughout scripture, where Godis like where was your faith?
I think of Peter, you know.
Peter walks out of the boat,literally walks on water, and
then, all of a sudden, doubt inhis face starts to lack and then
he starts to sink and so likewhere is my faith?
Where is your faith in thesetimes?
And no, I'm not saying thatyou're not going to go through a
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few hours or a moment to whereyou lack faith, or maybe you get
really in your head about somethings and you're really
struggling to get out of that.
But where is your faith?
And we need to put full trustin God and his plans and
understand that his plans arefar greater than yours.
He is the beginning and the end.
So if God knows the ending ofyour story, don't you think it's
better to trust him, becauseyou myself, I don't know the
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ending of my story, and so Igain a lot of strength from that
, because I know that God's wordsays that his strength will be
made perfect in our weakness.
And so, yeah, it's challenging.
Whenever you go through a momentto where you feel weak, you
feel like there's nothing thatyou can do.
That's changing things, and soyour thing there, your goal
there, is obedience and topursue God and to be obedient,
(14:19):
because, I promise you, god isspeaking to you and he has
something for you.
And if you think that maybe Godisn't speaking to you in the
moment, I would like toencourage this.
This isn't a blanket statement,but it applied to me.
Maybe there's something thatyou haven't listened to God on,
and I know for me.
Every time I would ask God likehow come I haven't heard from
you?
He's like I need you to do this, and that pushed past a year, a
(14:41):
year of my life, up until thislast Monday, and I changed that
around.
And now again I'm on day fourof that and I can't wait to
reveal that to you guys, becausethings are about to
dramatically change, all for theglory of God.
Things are about to change onhow we treat people, how we
handle our business, how wehandle communications with our
clients, with leads, with ourpeople.
We're about to go to the nextlevel on every single thing.
(15:02):
There was that missingcomponent of obedience in my
life, and when I gave that overto God and I started acting out
of obedience in that onecomponent although I was acting
out of obedience in every othercomponent God has already
started to give me glimpses intowhat's about to come, and it's
one of the most beautiful things.
It makes me a little emotionalwhen I talk about it.
One thing, though, we have toconsider in this moment is like
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the story of Abram or Abraham,and I think of Abraham when God
called him away from his father,terah.
So back in the Eastern culture.
There was a patriarch in afamily which would be Terah,
which would be Abram's father,and God called Abram, abraham,
away from his father, away fromhis family, sitting him on the
(15:46):
road and he had no clue what wasto come and no clue what was to
happen.
God gave him promises withinthere, god continued to provide
for him within there, but hedidn't know what was to come and
no clue what was to happen.
God gave him promises withinthere, god continued to provide
for him within there, but hedidn't know what was next and,
in fact, he experienced a lot ofdifficulties and a lot of like
trials in that.
But one of the things that Ilove about Abram or Abraham, he,
unlike the others that we readat this time in scripture, he
(16:07):
made a sacrifice, or he made analtar to God.
Rather than building things toglorify his name, he built
something to glorify God's nameso that he can make sacrifices
on that altar, and he wasobedient.
Yeah, there was times wheneverhe took it into his own hands,
like whenever he went into Egyptwhen they were running low on
supplies.
And he went into Egypt and hehad this grand plan that hey,
let's just tell them, you're mysister and then that way they'll
(16:30):
want to court you becauseyou're so beautiful, and then
they'll lavish gifts on mebecause I'll be the one handing
you over to them.
And that didn't work out likethat.
Pharaoh doesn't play thosegames.
He doesn't play under that samesystem.
And so Pharaoh recognized howbeautiful she was, took her in.
God released some difficultieson Pharaoh.
Pharaoh then questioned Abramand was like why did you lie to
(16:51):
me?
And then they ended up and left.
So that plan did not work theway that they thought.
But I thought what was beautifulabout that is in the very next
scripture it says that Abram wasvery rich.
So despite that, god stillprovided for them and still
provided the necessary suppliesthat they would need to continue
on their journey.
So, despite us taking it intoour own hands at times, god's
grace and his mercy is sosufficient that he's still
(17:13):
provided.
And I know there's some of usout there that think that we
should be thriving.
We've been in business for twoyears and we should be thriving.
We should be making half amillion or a quarter of a
million, half a million dollarsevery single month and just be
thriving.
And that's coming and it'simportant to not lose sight of
the fact that, of what Abramwent through, and not take
things into our own hands.
(17:34):
Rather, just act out ofobedience and look for that next
thing that God is asking foryou to do or not to do.
Next thing is and this is kindof like the process that the
Lord has taken me through, butit's analyze.
And when I say analyze, I'mtalking about analyzing your
whole entire business, yourwhole entire life, and it's like
God is there anything in mylife?
(17:55):
Is there anything in mybusiness that I need to be doing
?
Maybe I missed something, maybeI didn't hear something
appropriately, maybe I was sofocused on this month or so ago
that I missed hearing from you.
And just analyze that God willexpose that to you, and if you
consistently have the same thingcoming to your mind, it's time
to be obedient to that thing,and I promise you that I'll give
you breakthrough and you'llstart to hear more from the Lord
(18:16):
and you'll start to be able tohear not just in your mind from
the Lord, but hear from God inscripture.
And then scriptures will startto pop out to you and you'll
start to be edified andencouraged by them.
But I promise you.
When you do that man, god is sofaithful to give you all of that
and tell A lot of times it'snot what you want to hear, like
it wasn't what I wanted to hearfor the last year and I ignored
(18:37):
it.
And so I was like God, not that, not that I'm not ready, and uh
.
And so every single time,whenever I would ask God like I
need you to do that, I need youto do that and so, and then I
would be like, but I'm nothearing from God and it's like,
yeah, ignoring God, and so Icannot wait to share more about
(19:03):
that with you guys.
But after God exposes thosethings, it's time to move into
action and do the thing.
Whatever it is that God askedfor you to do, do the thing.
So one of the things that I'mfocused on now within my
business is my sales departmentand just developing.
I've got a sales process, havea marketing process.
I did a video last week aboutthat, so go check that out but
I'm specifically talking aboutlike sales process, and so I've
(19:25):
had a sales process before, butnow it's like God has put that
on my heart.
You need to go back and justanalyze that to the fullest and
redo the whole entire salesprocess.
Study just like I've studiedeverything else in business,
study that and it's really cool,I've come up with a new sales
process that I can't wait to seehow God honors that and to see
the increase that comes out ofthat.
(19:47):
But think about, like I talkabout action, because again
we're analyzing everything.
After we seek God and hisrighteousness, then we move into
analyzing.
We were obedient at this pointto whatever it was that God told
us that we needed to do, and ifyou're not obedient to that
when you go to analyzing things,it's going to be cloudy in your
mind.
You're not going to understand.
It's going to be like well, Ithought about this.
(20:07):
There's going to be a lot ofconfusion until you're obedient
to the thing that God has calledyou to be obedient to.
And then, when you analyzethings after you're being
obedient to that, you hop rightinto action.
And it makes me think ofNehemiah.
Nehemiah operated out of aburden.
So you go back to Nehemiah 1and it was just beautiful.
Nehemiah was like wellunderfunded, you know, it
seemingly would be like he hasno means to be able to
(20:30):
accomplish what he wants toaccomplish, but God.
But he had God on his side andGod came in, provided the
provision for the vision.
They had him operating out of aburden and they rebuilt that
wall within 52 days, which wasjust a record, because every
time that somebody would go inand try to rebuild it it would
get destroyed.
And so God gave him discernment, god put him around the right
(20:51):
people and Nehemiah, despitehaving all these people that
were seeking to destroy him, hewas able to thrive in those
moments and now we see that wallbeing built within those 52
days.
There's some things that withinthe middle of the struggle.
So if you're in the middle ofsome uncertain times, one of the
things that I do within mybusiness is we go serve, and so
(21:12):
I stop production the firstFriday of every single month and
you go serve and it'scontinuing to do those things.
Let's just say you don't dothat.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Go serve.
Outside of that, I lead anotherministry with a buddy of mine
called Reisha Streets and it'saffiliated with my church and a
community outreach center herein Las Vegas known as LV Reach,
and we do it every singleTuesday.
(21:33):
It's this tent pop-up revival,if you will that we go out and
we preach the gospel, we haveevangelists that are out in the
street corners and we cook food.
We're just seeking the one atthat and have a desire to
release some sound teaching onthis corner here in Las Vegas,
and we're seeing the fruit comefrom that.
We're seeing lives beingtransformed and God is using us
(21:53):
to supply for some of the needsfor a lot of these people.
But what I recognize in thosemoments is when I do that,
because I'll say this I took offall of January because it was
winter and there was a lot ofthings that were going on, and I
started back up in February.
And it wasn't until I startedback up and I was able to get
out of myself and start focusingon others and start serving
others weekly that God reallystarted to overflow my heart and
(22:19):
I started to have a pictureagain of like man.
Look at where God's taking youfrom, look at where you're at
now and just look at God andlook at the beautiful nature of
God and how his mercies are newevery single day.
His grace and his mercy is newevery single day.
And so we have an opportunityto act out of obedience, of
service to God, to advance hiskingdom, not just within our
businesses, but outside of that,and when we make ourselves
(22:41):
available to those that areunderserved in the community.
I promise you it'll put youruncertain times into perspective
and it'll put God back in theplace where God needs to be.
And then you'll start to getall of your strength from God
and God will be enough.
You'll quit looking at a dollaras providing what you need and
don't get me wrong Like, yeah,there's nothing wrong with money
, there's nothing wrong withhaving a lot of money, there's
(23:02):
nothing wrong with any of thatunless it has your heart right.
And that's the whole desirehere is like God, I don't want
for anything to have my heart.
I only want for you to have myheart and I want to be obedient
to you a thousand percent of thetime, regardless of the cost
and regardless of thecircumstances that we're faced.
So serve.
I don't know who needs to hearthat, but go serve.
(23:22):
You're facing uncertain times,then go serve.
I want to encourage everybody.
I want to encourage everybodyto pursue God like never before
and strive to live in his spiritrather than your flesh, and if
you have ever gotten into justliving through the Holy Spirit
or having the Holy Spirit livethrough you.
When you start to live in yourflesh, it is extremely obvious.
And when you're living in theSpirit, god is good to give you
(23:45):
everything that you need and itmay not be everything that you
want, but it's everything thatyou need, and that includes
ideas.
And he'll tell you the future.
It says this in John, wherehe'll tell you the things to
come.
And so just pursue the HolySpirit, pursue allowing the Holy
Spirit to live through you andyou through the Holy Spirit, and
take a moment to go and love onyour people.
If you are fortunate enough tohave employees, or even not
(24:07):
maybe you're a solopreneur andyou work with vendors, or maybe
you have some clients or leadsor however that looks for you
make an extra effort to go, loveon them and to get out of
yourself, to get out of whereyou're at and just go love on
them, encourage them, askquestions about them, see where
they're at.
And again, that kind of goesback to the service thing,
because it allows you to get outof yourself, focus on others
and it really puts God inperspective in my life whenever
(24:30):
I do those things and understandthis.
Never lose sight of Jesus.
Your family, your health.
Never lose sight of any of thatwhen you're going through
uncertain times, because, again,our tendency is to take things
into our own hands, and when wedo that, we find ourselves doing
more and more and more, andthose things that we're doing
more of take the place ofspending time with our family,
take the place of a number ofthings that you were doing
(24:52):
before that truly add value toyour life, and so, again, rely
on God to tell you exactly whatit is that you need to do.
I love Jeremiah 29, 11, and itjust I'll paraphrase it it just
says for I know the plans that Ihave for you and that's coming
from God, and you are like builtfor.
This is something that us, askingdom business people, are
(25:14):
built to go through uncertaintimes.
And we are built to go throughuncertain times, you know, and
we are built to navigate throughlike leadership and continue to
lead our people in uncertaintimes.
You are not meant to recluse orto stop being around your
people in uncertain times.
That's a tendency for a lot ofleaders is.
We like to then recluse and tryto figure things out, and then
we'll go back out to our people,and I want to encourage you not
(25:37):
to do that.
You are built for uncertaintimes.
You are built for times likethese, and what better time to
show people how it's like toreact in uncertain times, how
it's like to serve God inuncertain times and what it's
like to advance his kingdom inuncertain times Like what a
better time than that?
Just a reminder this is areminder for really all the
believers, but this kind of goesoff of what I just said.
(25:58):
Don't blow your opportunity inuncertain times to grow or to
advance God's kingdom.
Don't blow opportunities toshare the gospel with people
because of how you representedyourself and God in those
uncertain times.
And understand that yourbusiness I don't care if you
look at it like this or not,your business is your ministry.
And if you don't look at itlike that, you shouldn't,
because your business what youdo in the marketplace, even if
(26:19):
you don't have a business, maybeyou work for somebody use that
platform as your ministry toadvance God's kingdom and to be
a faithful steward to what Godhas entrusted you with.
I think of a story.
There's a story of a horse,rich Strike, and there was the
train.
I'm not a horse guy, but I lovethis story and the train I'm
going to.
I'm going to.
I'm not a horse guy, but I lovethis story and the guy that
owned the horse I think his namewas his last name was Reed.
(26:40):
His whole entire stable burneddown and so there was 23 horses
that actually passed away duringthis time, except for one horse
, and this one horse was notsupposed to race in the Kentucky
Derby the Friday before theKentucky Derby.
It got into the Kentucky Derbyrace, should not have won, was
in last place the whole entiretime.
That's where some of us feellike we're at is we're in last
(27:01):
place, we're behind the eightball, we're behind the curve,
and what you start to see as therace starts to come closer to
an end is he starts to make hisway through all the other horses
before he reaches victory andthen you see the owners and
everybody just collapse and cry.
I believe that that horse knewexactly what was up.
It took on, it embodied thoseother horses and it made things
happen.
That is you.
I want to encourage everybodyout there that that is you.
(27:24):
You have the ability, when youtap into the divine power of
Christ, to pursue past all thenegative, all the.
It seems like I'm at last place.
Right now, it seems like I'llnever get out of this.
It seems like all of this stuffis mounting and when you seek
God and when you're obedient toGod, when you analyze things and
you hop right into action, Ipromise you you're going to
start to notice yourself, startto climb right to the top and
(27:46):
God will start to elevate youand you'll go from glory to
glory, and even in those momentsof being in the valley, that's
where, again, god makes himselfstrong.
So, hopefully, that man this isa message that I need to hear.
I am more preaching to myselfor talking to myself than
anything.
This is something that I am kindof on the middle of, kind of on
the backside of my business ison the verge of like exploding,
(28:12):
and I'm right there and I knowit because of a bunch of
different things that tell methat the data that I track and
relationships that I have, andapps that are about to be
released, and a number ofdifferent things that tell me
that the data that I track andrelationships that I have, and
apps that are about to bereleased, and a number of things
and it's in this moment thatGod has given me back my vision
for the business.
It has given me back my desireto do the things that I was
doing a couple of years ago.
God has given me just a freshcalling and a fresh drive to
(28:37):
things going and into the fight.
There's some of you that haveavoided the fight.
Y'all have been just pursuingGod on a surface level.
Yeah, I do my quiet times.
Yeah, I worship in the car.
Yeah, I talk about Christ, andyou have avoided getting in the
fight and being a soldier of Godand pursuing that clarity, that
(28:57):
righteousness, that purity,because when we enter into those
things, that's where we reallystart to hear from the Lord, and
God is so good to give youeverything that you need.
So I want to close in prayerbecause I know there's a lot of
us out there that are goingthrough or coming off of
uncertain times, or you may beabout to go through it to an
uncertain time.
So I want to close in prayerand if y'all have any comments
(29:20):
or want to reach out to me,please comment on YouTube,
please download and share thepodcast and leave a review.
That's how the podcast gets outthere to the world.
So I encourage you to leave areview and I would just love to
hear from you.
But let's close in prayer, dearHeavenly Father.
Lord, I thank you for wakingeach of us up today and I'm
grateful that your grace andyour mercy are new every single
(29:42):
day.
Lord, I pray over everybodythat is listening, that is in an
uncertain time right now, thatthey would find themselves
seeking you and seeking youalone and being fulfilled by you
and starting their morningslike that tree planted by the
river that's constantlyfulfilled.
And, god, I just pray that westart to see the fruits of the
labor.
God, I pray that we have aheart like Daniel, to where,
(30:04):
even if it doesn't happen, westill trust you.
And God, bring us all to thatplace of, regardless of the
circumstances, regardless ofwhat we think is going to happen
, we trust you and we enter intoyour rest.
I pray and I plead that overeverybody that is listening.
And, lord, we are so gratefulfor the finished work of the
cross, because it is in thatthat we're able to operate out
of your freedom and your loveand your self-control and we're
(30:27):
able to tap into that divinepower to break strongholds.
And, god, I pray that you renewour minds, and the only way
that we can renew our minds isthrough your word, god.
So put us in your word and helpus have a hunger for your word,
and help us have a hunger toadvance your kingdom and to be
obedient to whatever it is thatyou're calling us to be obedient
to.
And Lord, we pray this throughyour mighty son, jesus Amen.
Thank you, guys.
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