July 24, 2025 • 27 mins
In this powerful episode, Ruslan KD shares one of the biggest business mistakes in history—the time Excite’s CEO turned down buying Google for $750K—and draws a profound parallel to how many of us overlook the influence and opportunities God has already placed in our hands. With a deep dive into Luke 19 and the parable of the minas, Ruslan unpacks how stewardship, not status, is what matters most. You’ll learn the difference between outside-in, inside-out, and top-down identity, and discover why buried potential offends the King. Whether you’re just starting out or feel like you’ve missed your chance, this episode will inspire you to stop waiting, start creating, and be faithful with what’s in your hand.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The year is 1997. This is when Michael Jordan was
at his prime. Arguably the best Chicago Bulls
team was in that era of 97 to 98.
OK, I was in 7th grade, a young whippersnapper getting into a
lot of trouble. But in 1997, there was ACEO
named George Bell. This is a crazy story.
(00:22):
You're going to want to Google this after.
OK, George Bell, the CEO of a company called Excite, made
possibly one of the biggest mistakes in business history.
You see why? Michael Jordan was at his peak
and I was getting in trouble being a knucklehead.
There was two other entrepreneurs, their name was
(00:42):
Larry Page and Sergey Brent, andthey try to sell a little
company that some of us may haveheard of to George Bell for
$1,000,000. Can anybody guess what the name
of that company is? Google and George Bell turned
them down. They even dropped the price to
$750,000 and he still said no. The main reason for this
(01:09):
decision was that Larry Page andSergey, the founders of Google,
insisted that excites technologyand their research be replaced
with Google's technology as partof the deal, and George Bell
just did not see that vision. Today Google is worth over $1.5
trillion with AT trillion and that CEO had the opportunity of
(01:34):
a lifetime and he ignored it. And while we may kind of laugh
and scoff at how ridiculous thatsounds today, how many of us are
doing the same thing with the influence, with the resources,
and with the opportunities that God has placed in our hands
right now? That there's never been a time
(01:54):
in history where we are this connected, where we have this
much access, where we have this much ability to tell the stories
that we want to tell and ultimately contextualize the
good news of who Jesus is here and now?
There's never been a time like this in history.
(02:15):
There's also never been a time where people have been this
distracted. This is the era of the hyper
consumer and the hyper creative.And if we can seize this moment,
if we can look at what's in front of us right now and seize
this opportunity, regardless on where you're at in your journey,
(02:37):
we could potentially impact generations to come.
And we're going to look at at 2 aspects of this conversation of
social media and ultimately stewardship.
And we're going to look at one of the craziest passages of
Scripture I think I've ever read.
Maybe you guys will agree, maybeyou will disagree with me.
And we're going to break it downinto the first half, which is
(02:59):
going to be more about the theology around this
conversation and understanding the world view and the frame of
how we are to look at some of this.
Because I think some of us are perhaps caught up in that.
Our mindset is a little, we're uneasy.
We think of social media, we go,that's for the Gen.
Z kids. They're all distracted, right?
And then we're going to look at the praxeology of this
(03:21):
conversation. I'm going to give you guys some
practical tips that you could take and implement today.
OK, If you guys didn't know, this is actually how a lot of
the epistles in the New Testament are written as Paul
would open up with theology and then he would give them
praxeology, right? So that's how we're going to
approach it. Before we get into that, guys,
my name is Ruslan, YouTube channel, Ruslan KD.
Our main channel has almost 780,000 subscribers.
(03:44):
I have a second channel with 300,000 subscribers.
We reach approximately 100,000 unique viewers a day, about a
million unique viewers a month. I have been walking with Jesus
for about 20 to 23 years. I'm originally from a whole
nother country called Azerbaijan.
Baku used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Me and my family came out here as refugees and moved to San
(04:06):
Diego. My dad wasn't in my life, got
into a bunch of trouble, had a radical encounter with Jesus.
Subsequently after met my wife. We've been together now for 21
years. Married.
Thank you. Married for 17 years next month,
this July. I think she might be the one.
(04:32):
Some say it's getting really serious.
We have two kids, Levi's 10. He's actually with me hanging
out in the in the green room. So shout out to Levi if you're
watching. And then we have Zoe, who's 4
Levi's into all things Minecraft.
I don't get it. Like why intentionally make a
(04:52):
video game that looks bad and pixelated, right?
And Zoe, she's 4 going on 14 andsome of y'all know what I'm
talking about and say, Yep, she's 4 going on 14.
And she, she has a ton of energy, She likes to dance.
And all of this. I share this with you guys
because I think all of this in the frame of what we're talking
(05:12):
about today is that our, our lives, our families, our
talents, our traumas, all of this is, is not just something
that happens to us, but it's something that has been allowed
for us to manage and steward Your life story, the times
you've been sinned against, the times you've fell, the times
(05:35):
you've sinned your family, the, the, the, the, the talent, the
resource. All of this is anchored from the
idea of stewardship and stewardship for those of you
guys that perhaps are new to thefaith.
Stewardship just means management.
It's just a fancy word makes me sound theological, OK, It just
means management. So we're viewing everything as a
follower of Jesus in the worldview context through the
lens of management. Luke chapter 19, verse 11 is
(06:00):
where we're going to pick up. This is Jesus speaking.
He says while they were listening to this, he went on to
tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the
people thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at
once. So Jesus is speaking and he's in
Jerusalem and they're expecting the Kingdom of God.
Remember, the Jewish people at the time were expecting a
political Messiah to overtake Rome.
(06:23):
OK? The Jews were under Roman
occupation. It was not nice.
It was not friendly. They were not their allies.
And so the people are waiting for this political Messiah.
They're waiting for the lion, right?
The issue is that Jesus first comes as the lamb, and in his
second coming, he's coming back as the lion.
Amen. So that's the context of
they're, they're expecting this thing to rise up and the Messiah
(06:46):
to overthrow Rome and all this amazing things to happen.
But they're the eschatology is abit off.
They're they're waiting for the second coming of Jesus, but they
don't know that yet, right? Jesus comes as a suffering
servant the first time. The second time he's coming back
as the lion. So versus Jesus tells him with
parable, he tells him a story. He said a man of noble birth
went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and
(07:08):
then to return. So he called ten of his servants
and gave them 10 Minas. Now that word, that word, Mina,
that's about 3 months of wages, OK?
It's like an emergency fund. So this dude is a, is a noble
king and he gives his servants the equivalent of three months
of wages, OK. This is also told in Matthew 25.
(07:29):
Some of you guys may know the parable of the talents that's
also in there. This is a different version of
it. OK.
He called ten of his servants and gave them 10 Minas.
Put this money to work, he said until I come back.
Some translations say do business with this until I come
back. My favorite is the KJV that says
(07:52):
occupy until I come. That just sounds gangster to me.
Occupy until I come. This is kind of a different
version of Jesus than some of usmay be used to, right?
You used to like the hippie Jesus, the Birkenstock Jesus,
the the peace sign Jesus. No, no, no, no, This is this is
the this is the entrepreneur king Jesus, right?
(08:16):
So he says, put this money to work until I come back.
But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to
say we don't want this man to beour king.
You know, whenever there's a delegation form, something bad's
going to happen, right? So, so, so we don't want this
person as our king. He was made king, however, and
returned home. So Jesus goes away.
Jesus is the king in this story.He's returning home.
(08:38):
And then he sent for the servants to whom he had given
the money in order to find what they had gained with it.
The first one came and said, Sir, your meanness has earned 10
more. Well done, my good servant.
His master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very
small matter, take charge of 10 cities.
So this person doubled up. He got 10, gave back 10 more.
(08:59):
Verse 18. Then the second came, Sir, your
mina's has earned five more. His master answered, You take
charge of five cities. Then another servant came and
said, Sir, here's your Mina. I've kept it laid away in a
piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you
are a hard man. You take out what you did not
put in and reap what you did notsow His master replied, I will
(09:22):
judge you by your own words, youwicked servant.
You knew, did you that I am a hard man, taking out what I what
I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow.
So Jesus is acknowledging that he's a quote UN quote hard man,
right? And if you actually understand
what's being said here, taking out what you did not put in,
(09:42):
reaping what you did not sow, you know how this this works.
You know how this works through leverage, through strategy,
right? That this king in this story
isn't doing everything himself, that he's being strategic with
how he's going about these things.
And so this is an amazing principle for those of us that
are perhaps two in the weeds on the things that we're trying to
do, right. We'll come back to that, though,
(10:05):
He says, why then didn't you putmy money on a deposit so that
when I come back, I could have collected it with interest?
Then he said to those by him. Takeaways Mina away from him and
give it to the one who has 10 more.
Sir, they said he already has 10, he replied.
I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but as
(10:28):
far as the one who has nothing, even what they have will be
taken away. But those enemies of mine who
did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill
them in front of me. That's gangster Jesus.
So here's here's the deal. When we when we go through this
scripture, we find out a couple of things.
(10:50):
The first thing that if we're considering is that our lives,
if you're in Christ Jesus is notour own.
Your life is not your own. Your talent is not your own.
Your resources are not your own.The things that have happened to
you are not your own. It's this is not ours to begin
with. It's all the kings, right?
(11:10):
And all of us have been given different degrees of influence.
I think personally I find the term influencer a bit cringy.
OK, but all of us have been given different degrees of
influence. There was a study done that
found out that even the most quiet and introverted person
will go on to influence 10,000 people throughout their
(11:34):
lifetime. The most quiet, introverted
person, the average person goes on to influence 70 to 80,000
people throughout their lifetime.
So to various degrees, As cringyas it sounds, we're all
influencers. We all have influence.
The question is, do we see that influence as something to be
(11:54):
leveraged and stewarded for the Kingdom, or do we see that as
something that needs to be tucked away and buried because,
well, I don't know if I'm adequate enough.
I don't know if I'm good enough.I don't know if I don't know
what I should be talking about. OK, so whether you've got 100
followers or 100,000 followers, you're holding something in your
hand. And God often uses the things
(12:17):
that are in our hand. If we look at when David went to
fight Goliath, some of you guys may know the story.
Saul tried to put his armor on David, but it didn't fit.
And So what did David say? He said I can't wear this.
And he took the sling that was in his hand.
What is in your hand right now? What is in your hand?
(12:38):
The second point I want you guysto know your job is
multiplication, not validation. Our job is to take what we've
been given and double it up and double it up.
It is not to take what we've been given and then find our
(12:58):
identity and what other people say that we are or don't or
don't have, OK? There's three types of ways that
our identity is shaped. The first is an outside in
identity. OK, outside in identity is the
world is going to tell you you're only as good as what you
produce, your economic output, what you generate, the value you
(13:19):
generate. If you were in high school, how
many guys play sports in high school?
You were the jock if you were any good, right?
If you weren't good, then maybe you kind of got away with it.
You were low key with it. So there's an outside in
identity. You're only as good as what you
can provide. The economic value, the, the,
the, the thing you do defines who you are.
(13:42):
OK. The issue with that is some of
us remember the athlete that gothurt in high school or they got
cut in high school and what happened to their identity?
It was shattered because they put their identity in who they
thought they were based on what they did.
The other aspect of identity is the inside out identity, right?
This is kind of what James Cleargets into Atomic Habits.
(14:06):
Inside out identity that people they found that are most likely
to quit smoking and, and, and change their habits as people
who identify themselves as no longer being smokers.
Because if you change your identity, you'll change your,
your systems and your processes.If you change your systems and
your processes, you change your outcomes, right?
That's true. However, the part that James
(14:28):
Clear misses in Atomic Habits isit's still subjective.
It's still whatever I feel like I am, therefore I am.
What if I think I'm an astronaut?
There's only like 100 astronauts.
You're not an astronaut dog, right?
What, what if, what if I just think and manifest that I'm a
(14:48):
millionaire, but you're not a millionaire yet, right?
So subjective. And then we we we can see what
the world is doing and you guys see how wonky some of this stuff
gets with I am fill in the blank, right?
And so it's still subjective to your own personal feelings.
But the third type of identity that I think many of us need,
and this is from J Warner Wallace, is a top down identity.
(15:13):
You are who you are because of who Jesus says you are, that
it's not what the world says youare and it's not what you feel
like. It's who Jesus declares you are.
Jesus says that we are All Saints now in him, that we are
part of a royal priesthood, thatwe are no longer sinners.
Jesus says that we're the righteousness of God, right?
(15:35):
That we're now sons, no longer orphans, that we've been crafted
in. So if our identity is coming
from the top down, then we couldadjust our internal view and our
systems and our processes that Atomic Habits gets right and we
could also get the outside impact that we want to have
right. But so many of us get stuck in
(15:55):
the validation of the world instead of the multiplication
that we're called to you guys tracking with me the third part,
The Third Point from the story that I think we could extract is
that buried potential offends the king.
Buried potential offends the king.
He didn't waste it, he hid it. Some of us are hiding the things
(16:22):
that have been deposited in US, perhaps because we're afraid of
the validation, because perhaps because we've tried and we
failed, perhaps because it just,I don't know if I'm good enough,
if I'm adequate enough. Again, it's the wasted
potential, right? It's the, it's the because what
we sometimes find in Christianity is one of two
extremes. I'm a Christian, I have a top
down identity. I am who Jesus says I am.
(16:42):
So we go to two extremes. 1 extreme is Jesus is coming back
next Thursday. So I'm just going to, I'm just
going to punt it. The hell with it.
The world's going to hell in a handbasket.
Forget it. I'm going to punt it.
I'm going to bury it. The other extreme is we think
that Jesus is just going to makeeverybody a millionaire.
Magically. If you believe it, you'll
(17:04):
receive it right. You think it, your thoughts are
things and your words create your worlds, and then God's just
going to sprinkle magic fairy dust and make you successful.
Both are wrong right, because it's about the diligence and the
faithfulness right and not burying it and and, and I would
(17:27):
like to break this down very practically.
Some of us are here and you guyswant to start businesses, you
want to start the, the online presence, yes and Amen.
But there's 2 two sides of this coin.
The first coin the scriptures talk about we got to, we got to
work to eat right now. A man who not work ought not
eat. OK, So we need to work right now
(17:47):
to make sure that we take care of our responsibilities.
We're faithful in our finances. We're we're, we're providing for
our families, Amen. But while we're learning to work
to eat, we also have to sow to reap for the next season, right?
So the, the sowing to reap for the next season.
And again, we're in a space right now.
(18:07):
Daniel Priestly said that this is the era of the hyper creative
and the hyper consumer. Some of us feel inadequate, so
we just slide into hyper consumption.
You're just passively watching stuff all the time.
You're watching more hustle broke content.
You just want to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn.
And you're not actually doing anything with it.
You're kind of just becoming obese.
(18:28):
You're just eating and eating and eating and eating and eating
good, good information, but you're not putting it to work
right. Good, good, good stuff.
So there's the hyper consumer. And by the way, that's what the
algorithm wants to make you. They want to make you a hyper
consumer because there's advertising dollars in that.
And when there's advertising dollars in that, then brands get
(18:49):
into it and people make money. And so they want to keep people
as hyper consumers. That's why whenever you open
TikTok, you open YouTube. It's like they knew what you
were thinking about, right? Then there's the other side,
which is the hyper creative thatwhen we look at the technology,
that when we look how easy it isto do broadcast, how easy it is
to make stuff right on our phone.
When we look at the integration of AI to come up with video
(19:12):
ideas, to come up with prompts, to come up with graphics
designs, all the things, even software, now they're building
it into Canva where you can now start to build apps right inside
of Canva, right? The hyper creative and what
we're going to see people talk about the systems and the
economy and all this sort of stuff.
We're going to see that disparity go go bigger and
bigger, right? And so the question is, which
(19:34):
one do you want to become? Do you want to slide into being
a hyper consumer or do you want to slide into learning to become
a hyper creative? And so I'm going to give you
guys three points right now on how we can leverage and seize
this opportunity that's in frontof us.
Amen. Justin Early has this really
(19:57):
good quote that I've been reallytrying to implement.
And these, these the first pointkind of works together, which is
scripture before smartphone, Scripture before smartphone in
the mornings. OK, So before you open up your
e-mail, before you open up your text messages, go to scripture
first, right? I think in that scripture before
(20:21):
smartphone, another way that I try to implement this is that I
create before I consume. OK, Create something before you
consume for me that I have a little Instagram channel.
You guys can follow me on RuslanKD on all platforms.
I got a little Instagram channelat the top of my profile.
It's a daily Proverb and I read my little chapter of Proverb and
then I go in and I write a little Devo.
I'll tie it into something in the New Testament and I'm and
(20:43):
I'm starting in scripture and then I'm creating before I'm
consuming. OK, so the first thing is
scripture before screen create before you consume.
That's the first part. I think that's pretty
self-explanatory. Can I move on to the to the next
two? Yes.
OK, the second thing now. Now we're going to get a bit
more tactical. The second thing is care about
what others care about. When we're talking about
(21:06):
creating influence and building an audience online, that's what
I'm supposed to be talking about.
Social media care about what other people care about.
So many of us want to just sharethe things that we care about,
not realizing that perhaps people don't care about the
things you care about. You might be into underwater
basket weaving. No one cares about that dog,
(21:32):
right? So consider what others are
caring about. That sounds eerily like
scripture, doesn't it? Right.
Consider other needs before yourown.
So care about what other people are caring about.
Care about where the conversation is happening, where
is the culture, what is what is happening?
And infuse that into your content strategy while you're
(21:54):
making things. So create before you consume.
What should you be creating? Things that other people care
about? OK.
And then the third. The third is post about what
you've been faithful in. Post about what you've been
faithful in. So many people hop on the
Internet and want to position themselves as experts in areas
(22:19):
that they haven't experienced. Talk about the things that you
are actually experienced in, specifically your own story.
We all can start. What are the things you've been
faithful in the past 10 years, the past 20 years, right?
My mature folks in here, you guys have a lot of wisdom to
share. Those you guys that have been
married 203040 years, There's, there's, there's people that are
(22:42):
young people that want to hear from you, right?
One of the things that I see constantly blowing up in my
niche in the Christian niche is that we're seeing folks that are
actual experts. So we're seeing guys like Wes
Huff, who's an actual expert that he ends up in a debate with
Billy Carson that goes viral. Before we know it, Wes Huff is
on Joe Rogan, he's on Andrew Schultz.
(23:04):
He's an actual, he's an actual sexual critic.
He's working on a PhD. We're seeing folks like that
explode. Why?
Because Wes Huff is not trying to talk about rap culture,
right? He likes rap too, right?
But he's talking about the things that he is an expert in.
So discover what are the areas that you've been faithful in and
talk about those things. Is this making sense?
(23:24):
Ultimately, this entire conversation comes down to
stewardship, to being faithful. The best thing you could do is
if you're, if you're serious about this thing is consider
those three things and just start now.
Consider those three things and start now.
Start posting right on your phone.
All of us are walking around with $1000 device that the
(23:46):
version of me from 20 years ago when I was just getting into
music would have been ecstatic to have in my hand.
And we take it for granted, right?
And we're interconnected that the algorithm is working.
New things now, like if you're anewer creator, if you're a newer
creator, I open up YouTube now and I'll see videos on my home
screen with three views. The, the, the platforms are
(24:09):
prioritizing newer creators, right?
So there's an opportunity right now that all of us can seize.
There's an opportunity right nowthat we can all lean into by
being concerned what other people care about creating
before we consume and leaning into our area of expertise.
Things that we've been faithful in.
Remember the guy who turned downGoogle for $750,000?
(24:34):
George Bell? You guys should all Google this
story, by the way. It's, it's outlandish.
That's ironic that I said you should go Google the story of
the guy. That decision cost him over a
trillion dollars in missed value.
Why? Because he couldn't recognize
what was in front of him. But here's the thing.
(24:56):
God's not just handing out investments, He's handing out
grace. So even if you've wasted time,
you've buried your gift, you've sat on the sidelines.
It's not too late to get in the game that by the year 2030,
there's going to be an influx ofanother billion.
Would it be people that are going to hit YouTube and hit
(25:18):
social media because interconnected Internet is
spreading? Stuff like Starlink from Elon is
going to developing nations. There's more and more people
that are going to come on these platforms that it's the ship has
not sailed yet. The master in Luke 19 came back,
but the master in our story, Jesus also came back from the
(25:40):
grave and he's coming back someday.
And we're all going to have to give an account with what we
did, with the opportunities in front of us.
He gave us not just a mission, but mercy to start again.
So if you're in this room, hear me loud and clear.
If you're in this room and you think that it's too late for
you, that you think I fumble that Ruslan, you don't know my
(26:03):
story. I messed up.
I've been divorced. I've had kids out of wedlock.
I've, I've been an addict. I've done this.
I've done that. Listen, God will use the most
peculiar people in the most unexpected ways, as long as
they're willing to be faithful, as long as they're willing to
learn to learn, as long as they're willing to humble
(26:24):
themselves and say, perhaps justperhaps, despite the the ways
that I've fumble the bag, despite the ways I've been sent
against, despite the ways I feltjust perhaps I can be faithful.
And in being faithful, God can use it.
And it's not about being famous or about trying to seek
attention. It's about being faithful with
(26:45):
what God has given us. And I think that's what I
hopefully want to leave you guyswith, that God is much more
concerned with your faithfulnessthan what your status.
God is much more concerned with the why and and, and and the how
that you go about these things then the what and that
regardless of where you are, there are people out there that
(27:05):
need your voice. It might be 100 people, it might
be 1000 people, might be 10,000 people, it might be a million
people, might be 10 million people, but there are people out
here that need your voice. Hey, thank you so much for
watching this video all the way to the end.
If you liked it, then hit the like button.
If you liked it a lot and have athought to share, leave a
comment. If you are listening to this on
(27:26):
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(27:47):
there. Peace.
The year is 1997. This is when Michael Jordan was
at his prime. Arguably the best Chicago Bulls
team was in that era of 97 to 98.
OK, I was in 7th grade, a young whippersnapper getting into a
lot of trouble. But in 1997, there was ACEO
named George Bell. This is a crazy story.
(00:22):
You're going to want to Google this after.
OK, George Bell, the CEO of a company called Excite, made
possibly one of the biggest mistakes in business history.
You see why? Michael Jordan was at his peak
and I was getting in trouble being a knucklehead.
There was two other entrepreneurs, their name was
(00:42):
Larry Page and Sergey Brent, andthey try to sell a little
company that some of us may haveheard of to George Bell for
$1,000,000. Can anybody guess what the name
of that company is? Google and George Bell turned
them down. They even dropped the price to
$750,000 and he still said no. The main reason for this
(01:09):
decision was that Larry Page andSergey, the founders of Google,
insisted that excites technologyand their research be replaced
with Google's technology as partof the deal, and George Bell
just did not see that vision. Today Google is worth over $1.5
trillion with AT trillion and that CEO had the opportunity of
(01:34):
a lifetime and he ignored it. And while we may kind of laugh
and scoff at how ridiculous thatsounds today, how many of us are
doing the same thing with the influence, with the resources,
and with the opportunities that God has placed in our hands
right now? That there's never been a time
(01:54):
in history where we are this connected, where we have this
much access, where we have this much ability to tell the stories
that we want to tell and ultimately contextualize the
good news of who Jesus is here and now?
There's never been a time like this in history.
(02:15):
There's also never been a time where people have been this
distracted. This is the era of the hyper
consumer and the hyper creative.And if we can seize this moment,
if we can look at what's in front of us right now and seize
this opportunity, regardless on where you're at in your journey,
(02:37):
we could potentially impact generations to come.
And we're going to look at at 2 aspects of this conversation of
social media and ultimately stewardship.
And we're going to look at one of the craziest passages of
Scripture I think I've ever read.
Maybe you guys will agree, maybeyou will disagree with me.
And we're going to break it downinto the first half, which is
(02:59):
going to be more about the theology around this
conversation and understanding the world view and the frame of
how we are to look at some of this.
Because I think some of us are perhaps caught up in that.
Our mindset is a little, we're uneasy.
We think of social media, we go,that's for the Gen.
Z kids. They're all distracted, right?
And then we're going to look at the praxeology of this
(03:21):
conversation. I'm going to give you guys some
practical tips that you could take and implement today.
OK, If you guys didn't know, this is actually how a lot of
the epistles in the New Testament are written as Paul
would open up with theology and then he would give them
praxeology, right? So that's how we're going to
approach it. Before we get into that, guys,
my name is Ruslan, YouTube channel, Ruslan KD.
Our main channel has almost 780,000 subscribers.
(03:44):
I have a second channel with 300,000 subscribers.
We reach approximately 100,000 unique viewers a day, about a
million unique viewers a month. I have been walking with Jesus
for about 20 to 23 years. I'm originally from a whole
nother country called Azerbaijan.
Baku used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Me and my family came out here as refugees and moved to San
(04:06):
Diego. My dad wasn't in my life, got
into a bunch of trouble, had a radical encounter with Jesus.
Subsequently after met my wife. We've been together now for 21
years. Married.
Thank you. Married for 17 years next month,
this July. I think she might be the one.
(04:32):
Some say it's getting really serious.
We have two kids, Levi's 10. He's actually with me hanging
out in the in the green room. So shout out to Levi if you're
watching. And then we have Zoe, who's 4
Levi's into all things Minecraft.
I don't get it. Like why intentionally make a
(04:52):
video game that looks bad and pixelated, right?
And Zoe, she's 4 going on 14 andsome of y'all know what I'm
talking about and say, Yep, she's 4 going on 14.
And she, she has a ton of energy, She likes to dance.
And all of this. I share this with you guys
because I think all of this in the frame of what we're talking
(05:12):
about today is that our, our lives, our families, our
talents, our traumas, all of this is, is not just something
that happens to us, but it's something that has been allowed
for us to manage and steward Your life story, the times
you've been sinned against, the times you've fell, the times
(05:35):
you've sinned your family, the, the, the, the, the talent, the
resource. All of this is anchored from the
idea of stewardship and stewardship for those of you
guys that perhaps are new to thefaith.
Stewardship just means management.
It's just a fancy word makes me sound theological, OK, It just
means management. So we're viewing everything as a
follower of Jesus in the worldview context through the
lens of management. Luke chapter 19, verse 11 is
(06:00):
where we're going to pick up. This is Jesus speaking.
He says while they were listening to this, he went on to
tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the
people thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at
once. So Jesus is speaking and he's in
Jerusalem and they're expecting the Kingdom of God.
Remember, the Jewish people at the time were expecting a
political Messiah to overtake Rome.
(06:23):
OK? The Jews were under Roman
occupation. It was not nice.
It was not friendly. They were not their allies.
And so the people are waiting for this political Messiah.
They're waiting for the lion, right?
The issue is that Jesus first comes as the lamb, and in his
second coming, he's coming back as the lion.
Amen. So that's the context of
they're, they're expecting this thing to rise up and the Messiah
(06:46):
to overthrow Rome and all this amazing things to happen.
But they're the eschatology is abit off.
They're they're waiting for the second coming of Jesus, but they
don't know that yet, right? Jesus comes as a suffering
servant the first time. The second time he's coming back
as the lion. So versus Jesus tells him with
parable, he tells him a story. He said a man of noble birth
went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and
(07:08):
then to return. So he called ten of his servants
and gave them 10 Minas. Now that word, that word, Mina,
that's about 3 months of wages, OK?
It's like an emergency fund. So this dude is a, is a noble
king and he gives his servants the equivalent of three months
of wages, OK. This is also told in Matthew 25.
(07:29):
Some of you guys may know the parable of the talents that's
also in there. This is a different version of
it. OK.
He called ten of his servants and gave them 10 Minas.
Put this money to work, he said until I come back.
Some translations say do business with this until I come
back. My favorite is the KJV that says
(07:52):
occupy until I come. That just sounds gangster to me.
Occupy until I come. This is kind of a different
version of Jesus than some of usmay be used to, right?
You used to like the hippie Jesus, the Birkenstock Jesus,
the the peace sign Jesus. No, no, no, no, This is this is
the this is the entrepreneur king Jesus, right?
(08:16):
So he says, put this money to work until I come back.
But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to
say we don't want this man to beour king.
You know, whenever there's a delegation form, something bad's
going to happen, right? So, so, so we don't want this
person as our king. He was made king, however, and
returned home. So Jesus goes away.
Jesus is the king in this story.He's returning home.
(08:38):
And then he sent for the servants to whom he had given
the money in order to find what they had gained with it.
The first one came and said, Sir, your meanness has earned 10
more. Well done, my good servant.
His master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very
small matter, take charge of 10 cities.
So this person doubled up. He got 10, gave back 10 more.
(08:59):
Verse 18. Then the second came, Sir, your
mina's has earned five more. His master answered, You take
charge of five cities. Then another servant came and
said, Sir, here's your Mina. I've kept it laid away in a
piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you
are a hard man. You take out what you did not
put in and reap what you did notsow His master replied, I will
(09:22):
judge you by your own words, youwicked servant.
You knew, did you that I am a hard man, taking out what I what
I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow.
So Jesus is acknowledging that he's a quote UN quote hard man,
right? And if you actually understand
what's being said here, taking out what you did not put in,
(09:42):
reaping what you did not sow, you know how this this works.
You know how this works through leverage, through strategy,
right? That this king in this story
isn't doing everything himself, that he's being strategic with
how he's going about these things.
And so this is an amazing principle for those of us that
are perhaps two in the weeds on the things that we're trying to
do, right. We'll come back to that, though,
(10:05):
He says, why then didn't you putmy money on a deposit so that
when I come back, I could have collected it with interest?
Then he said to those by him. Takeaways Mina away from him and
give it to the one who has 10 more.
Sir, they said he already has 10, he replied.
I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but as
(10:28):
far as the one who has nothing, even what they have will be
taken away. But those enemies of mine who
did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill
them in front of me. That's gangster Jesus.
So here's here's the deal. When we when we go through this
scripture, we find out a couple of things.
(10:50):
The first thing that if we're considering is that our lives,
if you're in Christ Jesus is notour own.
Your life is not your own. Your talent is not your own.
Your resources are not your own.The things that have happened to
you are not your own. It's this is not ours to begin
with. It's all the kings, right?
(11:10):
And all of us have been given different degrees of influence.
I think personally I find the term influencer a bit cringy.
OK, but all of us have been given different degrees of
influence. There was a study done that
found out that even the most quiet and introverted person
will go on to influence 10,000 people throughout their
(11:34):
lifetime. The most quiet, introverted
person, the average person goes on to influence 70 to 80,000
people throughout their lifetime.
So to various degrees, As cringyas it sounds, we're all
influencers. We all have influence.
The question is, do we see that influence as something to be
(11:54):
leveraged and stewarded for the Kingdom, or do we see that as
something that needs to be tucked away and buried because,
well, I don't know if I'm adequate enough.
I don't know if I'm good enough.I don't know if I don't know
what I should be talking about. OK, so whether you've got 100
followers or 100,000 followers, you're holding something in your
hand. And God often uses the things
(12:17):
that are in our hand. If we look at when David went to
fight Goliath, some of you guys may know the story.
Saul tried to put his armor on David, but it didn't fit.
And So what did David say? He said I can't wear this.
And he took the sling that was in his hand.
What is in your hand right now? What is in your hand?
(12:38):
The second point I want you guysto know your job is
multiplication, not validation. Our job is to take what we've
been given and double it up and double it up.
It is not to take what we've been given and then find our
(12:58):
identity and what other people say that we are or don't or
don't have, OK? There's three types of ways that
our identity is shaped. The first is an outside in
identity. OK, outside in identity is the
world is going to tell you you're only as good as what you
produce, your economic output, what you generate, the value you
(13:19):
generate. If you were in high school, how
many guys play sports in high school?
You were the jock if you were any good, right?
If you weren't good, then maybe you kind of got away with it.
You were low key with it. So there's an outside in
identity. You're only as good as what you
can provide. The economic value, the, the,
the, the thing you do defines who you are.
(13:42):
OK. The issue with that is some of
us remember the athlete that gothurt in high school or they got
cut in high school and what happened to their identity?
It was shattered because they put their identity in who they
thought they were based on what they did.
The other aspect of identity is the inside out identity, right?
This is kind of what James Cleargets into Atomic Habits.
(14:06):
Inside out identity that people they found that are most likely
to quit smoking and, and, and change their habits as people
who identify themselves as no longer being smokers.
Because if you change your identity, you'll change your,
your systems and your processes.If you change your systems and
your processes, you change your outcomes, right?
That's true. However, the part that James
(14:28):
Clear misses in Atomic Habits isit's still subjective.
It's still whatever I feel like I am, therefore I am.
What if I think I'm an astronaut?
There's only like 100 astronauts.
You're not an astronaut dog, right?
What, what if, what if I just think and manifest that I'm a
(14:48):
millionaire, but you're not a millionaire yet, right?
So subjective. And then we we we can see what
the world is doing and you guys see how wonky some of this stuff
gets with I am fill in the blank, right?
And so it's still subjective to your own personal feelings.
But the third type of identity that I think many of us need,
and this is from J Warner Wallace, is a top down identity.
(15:13):
You are who you are because of who Jesus says you are, that
it's not what the world says youare and it's not what you feel
like. It's who Jesus declares you are.
Jesus says that we are All Saints now in him, that we are
part of a royal priesthood, thatwe are no longer sinners.
Jesus says that we're the righteousness of God, right?
(15:35):
That we're now sons, no longer orphans, that we've been crafted
in. So if our identity is coming
from the top down, then we couldadjust our internal view and our
systems and our processes that Atomic Habits gets right and we
could also get the outside impact that we want to have
right. But so many of us get stuck in
(15:55):
the validation of the world instead of the multiplication
that we're called to you guys tracking with me the third part,
The Third Point from the story that I think we could extract is
that buried potential offends the king.
Buried potential offends the king.
He didn't waste it, he hid it. Some of us are hiding the things
(16:22):
that have been deposited in US, perhaps because we're afraid of
the validation, because perhaps because we've tried and we
failed, perhaps because it just,I don't know if I'm good enough,
if I'm adequate enough. Again, it's the wasted
potential, right? It's the, it's the because what
we sometimes find in Christianity is one of two
extremes. I'm a Christian, I have a top
down identity. I am who Jesus says I am.
(16:42):
So we go to two extremes. 1 extreme is Jesus is coming back
next Thursday. So I'm just going to, I'm just
going to punt it. The hell with it.
The world's going to hell in a handbasket.
Forget it. I'm going to punt it.
I'm going to bury it. The other extreme is we think
that Jesus is just going to makeeverybody a millionaire.
Magically. If you believe it, you'll
(17:04):
receive it right. You think it, your thoughts are
things and your words create your worlds, and then God's just
going to sprinkle magic fairy dust and make you successful.
Both are wrong right, because it's about the diligence and the
faithfulness right and not burying it and and, and I would
(17:27):
like to break this down very practically.
Some of us are here and you guyswant to start businesses, you
want to start the, the online presence, yes and Amen.
But there's 2 two sides of this coin.
The first coin the scriptures talk about we got to, we got to
work to eat right now. A man who not work ought not
eat. OK, So we need to work right now
(17:47):
to make sure that we take care of our responsibilities.
We're faithful in our finances. We're we're, we're providing for
our families, Amen. But while we're learning to work
to eat, we also have to sow to reap for the next season, right?
So the, the sowing to reap for the next season.
And again, we're in a space right now.
(18:07):
Daniel Priestly said that this is the era of the hyper creative
and the hyper consumer. Some of us feel inadequate, so
we just slide into hyper consumption.
You're just passively watching stuff all the time.
You're watching more hustle broke content.
You just want to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn.
And you're not actually doing anything with it.
You're kind of just becoming obese.
(18:28):
You're just eating and eating and eating and eating and eating
good, good information, but you're not putting it to work
right. Good, good, good stuff.
So there's the hyper consumer. And by the way, that's what the
algorithm wants to make you. They want to make you a hyper
consumer because there's advertising dollars in that.
And when there's advertising dollars in that, then brands get
(18:49):
into it and people make money. And so they want to keep people
as hyper consumers. That's why whenever you open
TikTok, you open YouTube. It's like they knew what you
were thinking about, right? Then there's the other side,
which is the hyper creative thatwhen we look at the technology,
that when we look how easy it isto do broadcast, how easy it is
to make stuff right on our phone.
When we look at the integration of AI to come up with video
(19:12):
ideas, to come up with prompts, to come up with graphics
designs, all the things, even software, now they're building
it into Canva where you can now start to build apps right inside
of Canva, right? The hyper creative and what
we're going to see people talk about the systems and the
economy and all this sort of stuff.
We're going to see that disparity go go bigger and
bigger, right? And so the question is, which
(19:34):
one do you want to become? Do you want to slide into being
a hyper consumer or do you want to slide into learning to become
a hyper creative? And so I'm going to give you
guys three points right now on how we can leverage and seize
this opportunity that's in frontof us.
Amen. Justin Early has this really
(19:57):
good quote that I've been reallytrying to implement.
And these, these the first pointkind of works together, which is
scripture before smartphone, Scripture before smartphone in
the mornings. OK, So before you open up your
e-mail, before you open up your text messages, go to scripture
first, right? I think in that scripture before
(20:21):
smartphone, another way that I try to implement this is that I
create before I consume. OK, Create something before you
consume for me that I have a little Instagram channel.
You guys can follow me on RuslanKD on all platforms.
I got a little Instagram channelat the top of my profile.
It's a daily Proverb and I read my little chapter of Proverb and
then I go in and I write a little Devo.
I'll tie it into something in the New Testament and I'm and
(20:43):
I'm starting in scripture and then I'm creating before I'm
consuming. OK, so the first thing is
scripture before screen create before you consume.
That's the first part. I think that's pretty
self-explanatory. Can I move on to the to the next
two? Yes.
OK, the second thing now. Now we're going to get a bit
more tactical. The second thing is care about
what others care about. When we're talking about
(21:06):
creating influence and building an audience online, that's what
I'm supposed to be talking about.
Social media care about what other people care about.
So many of us want to just sharethe things that we care about,
not realizing that perhaps people don't care about the
things you care about. You might be into underwater
basket weaving. No one cares about that dog,
(21:32):
right? So consider what others are
caring about. That sounds eerily like
scripture, doesn't it? Right.
Consider other needs before yourown.
So care about what other people are caring about.
Care about where the conversation is happening, where
is the culture, what is what is happening?
And infuse that into your content strategy while you're
(21:54):
making things. So create before you consume.
What should you be creating? Things that other people care
about? OK.
And then the third. The third is post about what
you've been faithful in. Post about what you've been
faithful in. So many people hop on the
Internet and want to position themselves as experts in areas
(22:19):
that they haven't experienced. Talk about the things that you
are actually experienced in, specifically your own story.
We all can start. What are the things you've been
faithful in the past 10 years, the past 20 years, right?
My mature folks in here, you guys have a lot of wisdom to
share. Those you guys that have been
married 203040 years, There's, there's, there's people that are
(22:42):
young people that want to hear from you, right?
One of the things that I see constantly blowing up in my
niche in the Christian niche is that we're seeing folks that are
actual experts. So we're seeing guys like Wes
Huff, who's an actual expert that he ends up in a debate with
Billy Carson that goes viral. Before we know it, Wes Huff is
on Joe Rogan, he's on Andrew Schultz.
(23:04):
He's an actual, he's an actual sexual critic.
He's working on a PhD. We're seeing folks like that
explode. Why?
Because Wes Huff is not trying to talk about rap culture,
right? He likes rap too, right?
But he's talking about the things that he is an expert in.
So discover what are the areas that you've been faithful in and
talk about those things. Is this making sense?
(23:24):
Ultimately, this entire conversation comes down to
stewardship, to being faithful. The best thing you could do is
if you're, if you're serious about this thing is consider
those three things and just start now.
Consider those three things and start now.
Start posting right on your phone.
All of us are walking around with $1000 device that the
(23:46):
version of me from 20 years ago when I was just getting into
music would have been ecstatic to have in my hand.
And we take it for granted, right?
And we're interconnected that the algorithm is working.
New things now, like if you're anewer creator, if you're a newer
creator, I open up YouTube now and I'll see videos on my home
screen with three views. The, the, the platforms are
(24:09):
prioritizing newer creators, right?
So there's an opportunity right now that all of us can seize.
There's an opportunity right nowthat we can all lean into by
being concerned what other people care about creating
before we consume and leaning into our area of expertise.
Things that we've been faithful in.
Remember the guy who turned downGoogle for $750,000?
(24:34):
George Bell? You guys should all Google this
story, by the way. It's, it's outlandish.
That's ironic that I said you should go Google the story of
the guy. That decision cost him over a
trillion dollars in missed value.
Why? Because he couldn't recognize
what was in front of him. But here's the thing.
(24:56):
God's not just handing out investments, He's handing out
grace. So even if you've wasted time,
you've buried your gift, you've sat on the sidelines.
It's not too late to get in the game that by the year 2030,
there's going to be an influx ofanother billion.
Would it be people that are going to hit YouTube and hit
(25:18):
social media because interconnected Internet is
spreading? Stuff like Starlink from Elon is
going to developing nations. There's more and more people
that are going to come on these platforms that it's the ship has
not sailed yet. The master in Luke 19 came back,
but the master in our story, Jesus also came back from the
(25:40):
grave and he's coming back someday.
And we're all going to have to give an account with what we
did, with the opportunities in front of us.
He gave us not just a mission, but mercy to start again.
So if you're in this room, hear me loud and clear.
If you're in this room and you think that it's too late for
you, that you think I fumble that Ruslan, you don't know my
(26:03):
story. I messed up.
I've been divorced. I've had kids out of wedlock.
I've, I've been an addict. I've done this.
I've done that. Listen, God will use the most
peculiar people in the most unexpected ways, as long as
they're willing to be faithful, as long as they're willing to
learn to learn, as long as they're willing to humble
(26:24):
themselves and say, perhaps justperhaps, despite the the ways
that I've fumble the bag, despite the ways I've been sent
against, despite the ways I feltjust perhaps I can be faithful.
And in being faithful, God can use it.
And it's not about being famous or about trying to seek
attention. It's about being faithful with
(26:45):
what God has given us. And I think that's what I
hopefully want to leave you guyswith, that God is much more
concerned with your faithfulnessthan what your status.
God is much more concerned with the why and and, and and the how
that you go about these things then the what and that
regardless of where you are, there are people out there that
(27:05):
need your voice. It might be 100 people, it might
be 1000 people, might be 10,000 people, it might be a million
people, might be 10 million people, but there are people out
here that need your voice. Hey, thank you so much for
watching this video all the way to the end.
If you liked it, then hit the like button.
If you liked it a lot and have athought to share, leave a
comment. If you are listening to this on
(27:26):
the podcast app, make sure to leave a review and you could
even leave a comment over there.And if you want to watch another
video that is recommended just for you, this video over here,
let me know if they nailed it. Also, you could partner with us
monthly, which helps us out a lot in our monthly community,
get access to early drops and all that kind of good stuff over
here. All right, I'll see you over
(27:47):
there. Peace.
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