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Robert takes a look at pride and humility in the lives of the believer.
Hello, everyone, my name is Robert Han. I'm a partner with Two Miles Accountancy Firm. We do tax advisory, consulting, financial work, provide these services. But today I'm going to speak on pride and humility in leadership, particularly as it relates to our businesses. And I would like to speak to business owners, CEOs and those of you who are in leadership positions in business and how we ought to view our roles in light of Christ. But before we begin, I'd like to pray and lift up this time to the Lord. God we come before you asking Jesus to be with us today. That every word may be your word and may, the Holy Spirit have its way and the words may come from the throne room to this teaching in Jesus name. Amen.
You know, there's a PH scale on how you measure acid and alkaline chemicals in liquid. Like in water, even soil. Even in our stomachs, right? If the PH level is about one to three, it is considered very acidic. It's like lemon, strong, concentrated lemon. So solutions of PH balance about one are strong enough to burn through like fabric, all right. Injure ourselves. But PH levels four to seven are like alkaline that even just plain water, tap water. The PH balance of a stomach may go as low as one is very acidic because it breaks down food and secretes hydrochloric acid. But why am I talking about peach balances today.
The PH today that I'm going to talk about is pride and humility. How do we deal with these as we are leaders in our positions, in our businesses or ministries as CEOs and those of us who are in leadership positions? How do we deal with this? What does the Bible say? What does God say about battling pride and clothing ourselves in humility? So what is pride? Pride is, definition, general definition is: “a mindset focused on self. Pursuit of self-recognition, self exaltation and desire to control all things for self.” So ourselves are at the center of pride. The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, said, “Pride is the worst malformation of the monstrous things in all creation. It is altogether the very reverse of the creature which God has created in which is pure and holy. But pride is born of hell,” So pride in a way, is attributing or demanding ourselves to be honored rather than God. It’s taking His place.
And that's a strong statement and a strong view, and we'll talk more about that. In the Old Testament words used for pride are synonyms for like lifting oneself, highness, magnifying self, presumptuousness and even says rebellion. In Proverbs 16:5 says, “everyone who is arrogant,” which is similar to Pride, “is an abomination to the Lord.” It’s in a way in the human sense, it turns God's stomach. Jeremiah, 50:31 says, “Behold, I'm against you oh proud one, the Lord God says that your day will come and time will come when I punish you.” So there are some strong words in the Old Testament of God's view of who those who are arrogant, prideful, it says I'm against you.
So I want to talk about three aspects of pride, what pride may be. I mean, there are many things but I’ll talk about pride, three things that pride is. One: it is rebellion. Isaiah 14:13, says the motivation behind Satan's rebellion, the angels who fell, is pride. He said, “I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of God...” So pride is rebellion when you think of yourself higher than God, which is unfathomable in a way, but it is. the case. In the New Testament pride conveys the idea of blindness. They don't know their position. We don't know their position. It suggests the idea of someone being in a room, smoke-filled room, where you can't see very far from you. And through the scriptures, we see proud people being portrayed, they have a high of view themselves, and they’re blind.
The other thing, just practical thing. Have you ever encountered a prideful person with whom you deemed to be a prideful person? Who likes of prideful person? If you believe that someone has pride and you're in a relationship with them or you're in some type of association with them, nobody likes that. Nobody that I know have ever said or I really like that guy because he's really prideful. Nobody says that. Pride wins no glory. It gains no friends. But we do that, we rebel against God when we're filled with pride. It is self glory rather than God's glory. Because he lives for his own rather than God's glory. So where is the object of praise? That's the question here in terms of rebellion.
Then second, pride is, in a way, self idolatry. So it's like almost like on a practical level, you know, there's like life-size posters of athletes like Michael Jordan or, you know, famous athletes, right? It's like making a life size poster of yourself or even a statue of yourself and you bowing to it. It's not how great art thou Lord, but how great am I, right? It's idolizing oneself. Our views, our mindset, our opinions. But the reality of pride is, in essence, it's idolatry because it challenges the true existence of God. Because when we're prideful, when we idolize ourselves, we say there is no God. Right. Psalm 10:4 says, “the wicked and haughtiness of his countenance does not seek God. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” As much as we hate to admit it, we have pride. We have pride that is in us. You know, I recently went through a bout with COVID. Thank God, I was fine. Now I have COVID I'm endowed with COVID. It's in me, right? I'm not contagious, but it's in me. Same thing, but pride is in every man, we carry it with us. It's not the question of whether it exists in us. It's a question of how big it is, how active it is, right? You know, in Exodus 4 and even Ephesians 6 as for the church, the metaphor for the nation of Israel and the church is marriage, to be the bride of Christ, marriage to Christ. When the pride consumes us and exudes out of us, that marriage is broken. And I'll speak more about that a little bit later because we're putting someone else or something else in place of Christ. And you know what? Those things, whatever that is in place of God or Christ, they are idols that will ultimately disappoint us.
The Israelites, after leaving Egypt, built statues, a Golden Calf, images instead of God and they worship them. Today, people don't usually erect statues of animals and things, and we worship, that's not the case anymore. People don't do that, but we do that in our hearts. It's less physical, but it's much more spiritual because life is very complicated. So you've got to think about how with idols is anything that's important, thank God. It could be greed. It could be your careers. For women, it could be beauty, achievements and success. They're all counterfeits. They're all counterfeit gods that want to take place. And that's what the enemy does. It shows counterfeits and tries to make it attractive to you so that you will bow before it and make idols of them. And when that happens, it replaces God. Examine Genesis 22. When Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him, as God told him. In a way, God was saying, “who is your true God or who is your true idol?” Who was going to be the substitute? Abraham is Isaac my substitute, or is Jesus going to be a substitute? But Abraham’s a good example, he took on what I Peter 3 said, “for Christ died for all sins, once and for all.” Abraham didn't have a view of Christ, but he knew who God was, and he trusted in God in his commands, and God gave him the ultimate substitute. My urge for you my brothers and sisters is, don't take the substitute of this world. Take the true substitute, only one true substitute that God gave us, which is Jesus Christ.
So my next point. My third point: Pride is spiritual harlotry. Something else becoming in front of God, especially in business, especially in leadership. And our roles. You know, when God created man, he gave us a deep desire to boast in something great. We were to boast and have a relationship, a robust relationship with the creator. But what caused that to be broken? Eve in her mind when she started with Adam thought, by taking this fruit, I could be like God. That became the breaking point. It was a destructive thing that entered the world, and it could enter us. In our roles in our businesses any time. We see even Christian leaders fall. Where does that begin, where's the seed? It's usually the seed of pride. They become powerful. But look at the example of our savior. What did they describe? How did they describe Jesus? Jesus was meek. Meek means: power under control. When he was on the cross, he could have rained down legions of angels, but he didn't. Did he have the power? Absolutely. Did he not? No, he took it in humility. He died a horrifying death to accomplish his mission. We all have missions on this Earth through our businesses or wherever, our families, are callings, we have our mission.
Are we focused on that mission? And usually our mission, one of the key ingredients to carrying out our missions is humility.
The birth of pride often starts from a position of power or prominence. We are selling ourself out. When pride takes over, when we sell ourselves out being satisfied not in God, in something else; like in our marriage, we need to be satisfied with our lives or our spouse, our husbands but we look to something else; that's spiritual prostitution. That’s spiritual harlotry. We are becoming satisfied more in the creative things rather than the creator himself. I believe all Christian business leaders are anointed by God, they're in their position and they're unique businesses need marketplace and God had pointed you there for a reason, to lead those specific people in those markets, in specific products and services. God has anointed you. One way to put that anointing on hold is pride. When we sell ourselves out for the marketplace, for the people that we work with or the businesses we have, we sell ourselves out for those things rather than the giver and the creator of those things. In the news these days, Congress they are talking about filibuster. Pride is the greatest spiritual filibuster. It stops God’s progress.
So what are some symptoms of pride? I think I'll go through this real quickly. One is personal agenda. You have personal agendas, personal things that you want to accomplish in your roles and your businesses, rather than seeking and communing with God. What does God want you to do? Is it your company, is it our company or is it God's company? That's the ultimate question, right? What are the symptoms when God tells us to wait? Sometimes when we pray, I don't know about you, a lot of times when I pray for something an answer doesn't come right away. Sometimes it doesn't come for years. Sometimes I don't know what's happening. But one thing I know what the Bible teaches me is that sometimes God will help me and he’ll tell me to wait, and it's not clear, but if I'm not clear, I need to be patient in the Lord. Do we like it when sometimes he says no, or to wait? That's a sign of, potentially, personal agenda. It's a lack of reverence for what God is doing and his timing. Our timing becomes more important.
Another thing, another point. Another symptom of pride is recognition. A humble person understands Grace, but a proud person understands more of what he has accomplished, achievements, maybe abilities. And one of the outer workings of that is, when we look at our people, employees, people in our companies or others that we're associated with, we often judge people by the lenses of our own strength. So I am good at or I'm in the world of finance. I deal with numbers. I don't know if I'm good at it, but I do it. But when I do it, if I see the world on people's ability to handle their finances, I’d become very judgmental. Instead, we should approach these things for people's weaknesses, because I have weaknesses, with grace, because we all have them. God has created us uniquely different and we have to understand that. That's God's grace. When we seek recognition, we’re not seeking grace we're becoming judgmental.
I Peter 5:5 says, “clothe yourself with humility toward one another for God as opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the proper time.” When we don't seek our own recognition. When we wait on the Lord, God will exalt us. And sometimes the difficult thing is we have to be careful when we're successful because the size of temptation sometimes is equal or greater to the size of your success, because you have more responsibilities. This is one of the symptoms of the Pharisee’s in John 12 Jesus says, “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” This is what we have to remember. In what we are doing, are we pleasing God or are we pleasing men? Whatever God allows us to accomplish, whatever God allows us to do and utilizing whatever abilities that he has given us, let us be grateful to God. And even in the good times we thankful, in the difficult times, we're thankful because God granted it all, even in difficult times God will carry us living out humility.
So to battle this pride in us, I’d like to look at two things. In leadership positions, I think we need to think of ourselves as stewards and shepherds. Let's talk about stewardship. You know, I have four children. In a way, I don't have four children. They all belong to God. In my short time on this Earth and their time with me, I have stewardship over them, to lead them, hopefully to the Lord and to be an example to them. Thank God, they're all professing Christians, but they're not mine, they're God's children. It's similar to our businesses in the areas of leadership for us, because Jesus owns it. He just entrust servants to take care of things. He chose us to execute his role on this earth ministries, families, businesses, our churches are not ours. They all belong to Jesus. He's the owner. So we're just mere managers. We're stewards. So the only thing that we're trying to do. Is to please the Lord. He's the one who we report to, right? God sovereignly designs these. It's amazing to me why God chooses sinners like me, sinners like us. To do his will on this Earth. He could have done it better, but he chooses to use his creation and I’m immensely thankful for that. And whatever he gives us as stewards, whatever resources, whatever gifts that he gives us. Our job is to maximize those because at the end in 2 Corinthians 5 it says, “for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things he has done in his body, according to what he has done.” So at the end, at the judgment seat, God will judge us on how we managed His gifting his resources and whatever he's entrusted to us because a genuine believer will bear fruit. All good fruit trees will bear good fruit. So we want to be that good, healthy tree, that is the understanding that we were just mere stewards and all power and ability comes from God.
Second principle is servant leadership, the servant leadership, the Matthew 20:26 says, “it is not so among you that whoever wishes to become great among you shall be a servant.” Leadership, spiritual leadership is servant leadership. Servant leadership in your positions, in your companies,
in your businesses, you're willing to do whatever it takes. If God want you to clean the toilet, take out the trash. That's what we do. There's nothing in our rules that we should think that is below us. Remember Jesus the night before his death washed the feet of the disciples? Can you imagine how nasty these people were walking around the Middle East in Sandals? Jesus put a towel around his waist and washed the feet of mortal men. From the throne room to just washing the feet of them. That's servant leadership. It's a hallmark of a humble leader. One's willingness to put on a spiritual apron and do what God asks us to do. Sometimes this is why leadership is difficult. We have to forego ourselves. It costs us. Sometimes it hurts us inside because we're sinners, we fight it. We tell ourselves, I don't have to do this. Yeah, you don't have to do this. We don't have to do this. But we want to do this because what God, Jesus has done and he has done even more. He was tortured, nailed to the cross by sinful men, and he did it willingly for us. This is why Romans 12:3 says, “for By the grace given to me, I say to everyone of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.” Because the grace has to overcome that, and God will give us grace to be humble before him. So every job of a leader, give all credit to the Lord. Paul questioned that we could boast and whatever we want, but we boast in the Lord instead. In Philippians, 2:3 it says, “do nothing out of selfish ambition but in humility, value others higher than ourselves.” Think of others highly, but ultimately give all credit to the Lord.
And lastly, trust in Jesus. His completed work. His grace is sufficient for us. 2 Corinthians 3:5. “Not that we are sufficient for ourselves to think of anything being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” We can do this. We could do this because his grace in your positions is sufficient for us. We are sufficient in our roles because Jesus gave us the grace to do so. Our strength, and Paul understood that instead of mystery, lies in the Holy Spirit empowering us. In 2 Corinthians 2 it says, “When I came to your brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom. As I proclaim to you the testimony about God, for I resolve to know nothing while I was with you accept Jesus Christ crucified. I came to you and weakness and in fear and trembling my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power.” My fellow Christian CEOs, my fellow Christian leaders, I urge you let's humble ourselves. Give all glory to God, give all credit to God, and ask him to make us servants and stewards in our leadership roles in our businesses that we impact people's lives, by our humility, not by our achievements. That we would be able to, through that humility, display the beauty and wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ in our businesses that it will become a ministry whereby the preeminence of Jesus Christ is established set and it would flourish in your organizations.
Let me pray for you all. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you for your loving sacrifice. Thank you for loving us. And I pray for all the CEOs who are watching all business leaders who are watching, that you would grant them grace to cling on to you. Giving you all the credit. And that you would help them by the power of the Holy Spirit to make their actions, their decisions, their relationships lovely. And you would make Jesus lovely in the people's eyes. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
Mark looks at ways to share the Gospel in business.
Have you ever had the situation where you got to know one of your clients and you really sense that they didn't know the Lord and you really wanted to share the gospel with them? But you didn't because of your fear of offending them and possibly losing them as a client and losing their business? Well, I sure have, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. Just a little bit about me.
My name is Mark Giraud and I'm a business owner. I'm a financial planner and my business is called Uncompromising Financial and we specialize in biblically responsible investing. And when I became a Christian at age twenty -five, the Lord really impressed upon me and really put it on my heart that I was to be a minister, but not in a church, but rather in business. And so at the time, God really, he showed me a picture of what this could look like, and he gave me this book called Mover Of Men and Mountains by R.G. LeTourneau. It was really an awesome book about a man who guided giving these great gifts to invent things and to be able to invent machines that did forming so much more efficiently in all types of machines that that were just really incredible inventions. R.G. LeTourneau took those machines, went to underdeveloped nations and helped them with their forming to produce crops and to feed these people so much more efficiently, so much greater than they could have ever imagined. What really impressed me, was upon meeting those practical needs that became a platform for sharing the Gospel with these people? And so I just thought, “Wow, that's what I want to do!” When I read his story, I saw that this is possible.
When I became a financial planner and I would talk to different people about different Christians who were planners. Being a financial planner, you get a unique opportunity to really get to know your clients to really go pretty deep with them and develop relationships with them. I would ask other financial planners who were Christians, “What kind of impact are you able to have on your clients or are you sharing the Gospel?” They would say things like, “Well, you know, I just want to be a good person. I just want to treat them with kindness and be good to them.” I thought, that's a little weak. I'm not sure that's really what God's intention is for us. It sounds like, you know, that's the same thing that a nonbeliever could do. I really wanted to search the scriptures to see what does God say about this in his word? How important is it to God that we that we share the Gospel? I did a study through the through the all of the Gospels to see what God says about this.
That's what I want to share with you now. Starting in Matthew 28:19-20 is the Great Commission. This is from the Amplified Bible. So it has some additional explanation, which I think is appropriate in this case.
Jesus came up and said to them all authority, all power of absolute rule in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, help the people to learn of me, believe in me and obey my words, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always remaining with you perpetually regardless of circumstance and on every occasion, even to the end of the age.
God gives us this awesome command and promise to go and to share the Gospel. To get the word out to the nations, and that he's going to be with us. his power is going to be with us and in us and that we can go with confidence because he's going with us. So that's in Matthew. So the next gospel in Mark, what is what is the gospel of Mark say about this? Mark 16:15-16.
And he said to them, go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. He who has believed in me and has been baptized, will be saved from the penalty of God's wrath and judgment. But he, who is not believed, will be condemned.
So once again, God is saying, given us that command to go and showing the seriousness of this, that those who will believe will not be condemned, but those who don't believe will be condemned. I knew those verses in Matthew and Mark, but what about Luke and John? What does it say in Luke and John?
In Luke 24:46-47, Jesus is speaking, and he's referring to the Old Testament to the law of Moses and the prophets and said to them—
Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer. And on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.
So we see that even in the gospel of Luke, God says that forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all the nations. Well, what about in the gospel of John?
In the gospel of John, these are words where Jesus is speaking to the father. And in John 17, an awesome chapter, very famous chapter of dialog between Christ and the father. In verse 16, it says, “They are not of the world.” He's speaking to the father. “Just as I am now out of the world, sanctify them in the truth,” which means set them apart for your purposes. “Make them holy. Your word is truth just as you have commissioned and set me into the world. I also have commissioned and sent them, the believers into the world for their sake. I sanctify myself to do your will so that they may also be sanctified, set apart, dedicated and made holy in your truth.”
I love the fact that Jesus is our perfect example. The way that he related to the father is the way that we are to relate to him. He's our perfect model, and he says, I only do the things that the father tells me to do. I only say the things that the father shows me to say. And so he's saying that just as the father commissioned me to go out and share the gospel, I am commissioning you, us, the believers to go out and share the gospel.
What does it mean to be commissioned? It's there's two definitions. One is an instruction command or duty given to a person or a group of people. And the second is a group of people officially charged with a particular function. So I think that one really applies that we have been charged with a particular function. To go out and be commissioned in the same way Jesus was. In fact, Jesus has this same mission. We have the same mission as Jesus is the father gave the Jesus, which in Luke 19:10 says, “For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Because of God's great love for us, he sent Christ, to pursue us, to save us. And we are to have that same heart. In John 3:16, it says, “For God, so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This purpose of Christ, to come to Earth was a central focus of his. That was the main reason he came to seek us out, to save us, to bring us to him so that we could be freed from the power of sin, to have eternal salvation. As his followers, we get the privilege of sharing in that same purpose to develop relationships, to show the love of Christ to others and to tell them of the Gospel, which we know they so desperately need. To tell of his sacrifice of shedding his blood for for us so that so that our sins could be forgiven.
After I studied these scriptures, I realized that I needed to have a really big paradigm shift in my thinking. I really needed to see my business in an entirely different way, in the [JCCEO] institute, we hear over and over and over that it's not about the business and that really applies in this situation.
It's not about the business. I needed to see that my business wasn't just about me, how much money I could make, how many clients I could get. But my business was to be a platform to develop relationships to be able to get to know people, to love them and to be able to share the good news with them. Does God want us to do business? Does he want us to be successful at what we do? I believe he does. I believe he wants us to have thriving businesses that do a great job, to grow our businesses, to be great at business, at doing business. But there is a higher purpose to our businesses, and that is to be that platform where we can develop relationships, maybe better than any other. Maybe that platform, it probably gives us more opportunities in any other area of our life to develop relationships with new people that we didn't know before. To get to know them, to be able to share God's love in his good news with them.
That was something really important for me to learn. In Romans 10:13-14, it says, if we don't tell people about God's love in his salvation then who is? It says in Romans 10:13-14—
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
I realized, I needed to be that person that was willing to tell them. And in coming back to, “What about that fear of losing a client?” How does scripture address that? What should our attitude be when we get to know someone? What if it's your biggest client? And that’s where a large part of your income is coming from? Can we take that risk of offending them, of possibly losing that business?
Well, here are several scriptures that really address this. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all all these things will be added to you.” God is saying, “If you seek first my kingdom, then you can trust me for your provision.” That, “I'm going to provide everything that you need. If you make my priority, your priority, and you're seeking to advance my kingdom.”
So that's where we get to demonstrate faith and trust in that way. In Romans 1:16 in the Amplified Bible, Paul makes this point, he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation, from his wrath and punishment to everyone who believes in Christ as savior to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” So Paul saying, “I'm not ashamed. No matter what response someone has to me, I'm not ashamed because, I know how awesome what God has done for me is. I know how the eternal value, I know how life saving. I know how desperately I need that message of salvation. And I am not ashamed because I know that others need it desperately also.”
Then at 1 Peter 3:15, it says, “But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord is wholly always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
From my experience, it's when I get to know someone and I am aware that they do not know Christ and I'm developing a relationship with them. I'm asking God to work through me to demonstrate his love to them. And then when I do have an opportunity to share the gospel with them, when I do it with gentleness and respect, it's really unlikely that people are going to be offended. Not that it couldn't happen. It could. I could be rejected. Someone could be offended, no matter what I say. But the Gospel tells us to do it with gentleness and respect.
I think when we do that, it's going to be unlikely that as we develop relationships and we draw close to people and we show a concern for them that they're going to reject us. Let me tell you some of the examples that I have, in ways that I've done this in business. First, my wife and I have been doing a remodel on our house, a pretty significant remodel for the last several months and workers have been working in our house. They come every day at 7 a.m., five days a week. They're in our house. And so I pretty quickly saw that they don't know the Lord. I was intentional about developing relationships with them. I interact with them every day, but also every Friday, I would buy them lunch and I would sit down and we'd have lunch together and get to know them. They spoke Spanish, but some English, so there was a little bit of a communication barrier. But it was still really good to just to share with them and get to know them. At one point, at a certain point, once I got to know them and the trust developed, I bought them Spanish Bibles so that they could read the Bible in their own native language. I presented the Bibles to them, and then I have a really good friend who's a believer who Spanish is his native language, and he was there to share the Gospel with them in their language. That was really an awesome opportunity to to develop that relationship, to share the Gospel with them, to find someone who could share it with them in a way that they could best understand it. From what I know, they still have not accepted Christ as their savior. But I keep praying for them, keep asking God to work in their hearts to open their heart to the Holy Spirit, to come to salvation.
Another situation that I have is with the vendors that help support my business. Those people that provide consulting services or various services to help me with the investments that I provide for my clients. One of the reps from a company that serves as a platform for setting up investment accounts. I invited all the the reps from these various companies to pray every morning, four days a week together. One particular rep, when I invited him, didn't respond. He really didn't get back to me. I thought, I want to I want to pursue him and pray for him, maybe he doesn't know the Lord. Several months later, he called on me and asked me to go to breakfast and just have a business meeting to follow up with me, see how things were going.
At that meeting, I really sensed the Lord, prompting me to ask him about his salvation. So I asked him, “Hey, if you were to die tomorrow, do you know where you would spend eternity?” When he gave me his answer, I said, “What do you base that on?”
He said, “Because I think I'm a pretty good person.”
I asked him, “Would you be open to me sharing what the Bible says about how we come to salvation?” He gave me his permission to do that and so I got to share the Gospel with him. And he accepted. He accepted and came to salvation.
He said, “Yes, I want to pray to receive the Lord, and so I got to pray with him to accept Christ as a savior.” That was a real highlight.
I have another example, a new client of mine that is a Buddhist. I think she's more Buddhist by family. I don't think she's really a practicing Buddhist. When I explained the type of investing I do, values based investing, where you don't want to invest in companies that are doing harm, she told me that that was really important to her. I let her know I was a Christian, she asked me, “Well, this type of investing is important to me. I know you're a Christian, I'm a Buddhist. Would you still work with me?”
“Of course,” I said, “Yeah, I would. I would love to work with you.” I've had opportunities since then. I had an event she came to where the Gospel was explained. I thought, “Oh, I wonder if this is going to offend her in any way?” After the event, she sent me a note of how much she enjoyed the event and how grateful she was for it.
I've been able to send her a Christmas card explaining the message of Christmas and so just to have an opportunity to plant seeds with her has really been awesome. Those are just some of the examples of how I have made this mindset change. This focus of change where I see my business now as a platform for whatever God wants to accomplish. It's not about me, it's not about protecting my business. It’s an opportunity to develop relationships for God, to impact others in whatever way that he wants to, totally trusting him for the provision and the outcome from the business.
I want to read another scripture here, and I'm going to end with this. In Luke 10:2 in the ESV version, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” I want to do this verse. I want to pray this verse and pray that you would be one of those laborers that he would send out into the harvest. That more people can come to Christ and you can start seeing your company as that vehicle, as that platform that God can use. For you to cross paths with people that he wants you to develop relationships with to share the good news.
Let me pray, Lord, you say in your Word that you are the way, the truth, and the life that no one comes to the father except through you and that there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And Lord, we know that it's your heart. It was your mission that you have such a heart of love, of grace to forgive our sins that you went to the cross for us to show and shed your blood. That was your whole purpose in coming Lord. And we know that what is important to you, you want for us to make that important to ourselves, Lord.
We ask you, to really give us a heart that would seek out the lost that would love others, that would develop, be intentional in developing relationships that you would bring about those relationships and make those relationships and those opportunities available to us. And Lord, for those who are listening, I pray that you would send them out as laborers into the harvest because there's so many people out there, whether they know it or not, desperately need to know you, desperately need to hear this message. Lord, there's so many people that if we'll just trust you, that will come to know you and that we get to plant seeds. And maybe we even be part of that harvest to where we get to pray with them to accept Christ. So Lord, we just thank you for the privilege of being able to partake with you, in this Great Commission. And we thank you for this in Jesus name. Amen.
Jim explores two verses and five distinct competitive advantages you have in your marketplace against your current competitors.
Hello, everybody, I'm Dr. Jim Harris. I'm managing director and founder of Dynatos Global. But even more so than that, I am humbled to be a minister of reconciliation so honored by the Jesus Christ CEO movement. And today I'm here to share an important message that I've been asked to share with you, fellow business owners and leaders. The title of today's message is this: “Why I pity and pray for my competitors.”
Now, I pray for my customers for sure. But today's message is a little bit unusual. Why do I pity and even pray for my competitors? Now, I must admit, as a business man, I use the word pity in this title just to kind of catch your attention. Do I really pity them? Well, not really. But in some ways, I could say that I do pity them for this one reason; that compared to so many of my competitors in my strategic market, which is strategic consulting in the private business world, that I have an unfair competitive advantage against my competitors. And frankly, even some competitors that may have this unfair competitive advantage, they don't even use it. So really? What I have and what I want to share with you and what many of you already have is a distinct, possibly latent, unfair competitive advantage in the marketplace and this is what it is.
The power of Holy Spirit working through you throughout your company. Today in this message, I want to explore simply two verses, two verses that really uncover five distinct competitive advantages you have in your marketplace against your current competitors. That really give you a phenomenal advantage, here are the two verses.
First, John 14:26 and then John, 16:13. I'm going to read the two verses and then break down five distinct competitive advantages as we think about what we're doing for the Lord in the marketplace through his power, Holy Spirit that he's given us. John 14:26,
That's John 14:26. Now combined with John 16:13 which reads,
That's John 16:13. In these two verses, there are five incredibly distinct competitive advantages you have that I want you to be aware of reflect upon as I have this short teaching to help you step up your game and delivering everything the Lord wants you to deliver into your marketplace for your customers through his power, not just through our own human power.
Let's look at the first of the five competitive advantages. This was one of the ones that listed in John 14:26, the opening of the verse says, “but the helper.” Your first competitive advantage is that you have a 24-7 always on, always available, always there for you, helper living inside you, and that helper is a counselor and assistant. In fact, it's your greatest business consultant and in fact, there's a price for it. But in the open marketplace, it didn't cost you dollars. It cost you time and submission and doing all you're doing in your company for the Lord. That one living inside of us is available all the time.
And, you know, it's easy to forget that I have just literally come out of two full days of working with a client in a strategic annual business planning session. And when you even get... this company is led by the Lord, it has very good senior managers that are Christians that want to do it and glorify God in much of what they do, you see that in their very, very competitive marketplace right here in Southern California. Even in the midst of all these men and women who are part of this senior team being led by Holy Spirit, it's so easy for us business people to forget that we have the greatest advantage already inside of us, the greatest 24-7 helper that's ever been created from the beginning and that's Holy Spirit. Remember, versus your competitors and even from your customers perspective, you already have a 24-7 helper in the terms of Holy Spirit. How glorious is that?
The second competitive advantage. Number one, he's there. 24-7, he's with you right now as you start reflecting on your current competitor and even customer base, number two. “Holy Spirit teaches me all things,” out of John 14: 26, “he teaches me all things.”
How much is all? When you hear the word all, what is the definition of all? Now I've looked at the Hebrew, I've looked at the Arabic translations, the Hebraic and every translation you can see of the Bible of what “all” means. It means this: ALL. Everything, literally everything. You've probably heard that before, but let's put it in the business context. Holy Spirit teaches me all things. He is your greatest, if you will, resource for your business. And sometimes we kind of put him on a shelf. We come to him when it's in trouble.
“Oh my goodness, now let's pray. Oh my goodness, we've got a huge issue now what are we going to do? We've got employee turnover!” One of the biggest issues we face all across the United States right now when this particular program is being recorded, is employee turnover. In fact, we've seen in the last quarter that employee turnover is the greatest it's been in terms of just sheer numbers, particularly with with mid-level employees between twenty-five and forty-years-old, white collar professionals, for the most part, starting their own businesses than we've ever seen before. But guess what? Holy Spirit will teach you all things are what you can do to retain your top talent, or what I call your DNA, those that have the exact great stuff living inside you.
But your competitors don't have the one living inside of them teaching them all things. The one who created you. And lives inside you. Teaches you all things you need to know, whether you're a CEO, whether you're a sales manager, whether you're a frontline staff or in most of our cases we have a very important business mandate with who we work with and what we're supposed to do. May I suggest that from this point forward—yes, we should read secular books, to a point. We should read articles and keep a pulse on what's happening in the marketplace. Yes, yes, yes.
But from now on, Holy Spirit teaches me all things. May I suggest you use Holy Spirit as your filtering system. Filter everything you read in the marketplace, What is CEO supposed to do, a sales manager, director, whatever position you might have, filter everything through what Holy Spirit is already willing and able to teach you because he will teach you all things that you know. When you read that article, when you read that book, he'll say to you, Holy Spirit, is this good? He’ll say,
“Yeah, that's good... No ignore that. Forget that. Skip that chapter. Rip it out. Throw it away.”
He will teach you all things. So I'm by no means suggesting you don't open up your mind and open up opportunities for you to learn things, so you can't keep a realistic competitive advantage through secular works, but always filter it through the one that knows everything about everything and can teach you all things you need to learn from even man’s work. He can put his supernatural on the natural for you to maintain your strategic competitive advantage.
So number two, Holy Spirit teaches me all things. Number one, he's with us 24-7 never ending, never never goes to sleep. He will never sleep nor slumber. Number two, he teaches me all things.
Number three, for me, and I'll say that I'm Social Security age, OK? I'm at that age. You can probably tell by this, you know, I've earned this over the years. And some of you are the same. Number three is really important to me. Number three, in terms of my real, distinct competitive advantage, even against my competitors, is number three, as in John: 14:26, we just read that
“Holy Spirit brings to my remembrance everything that I need to remember, that he's already taught me.” That he's already said to me. Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes it seems until, in fact I have proclaim this and I will proclaim it to the day I die, I have the mind of Christ. I can remember all things through the power of Holy Spirit. Sometimes, though, it seems like I'll ask myself, even in the office, why did I come in here? You know, there was a reason because I've got a thousand things going through my mind just like you. So even in those little silly things. Holy Spirit, why am I here? Why? Why did I come in this room? Oh yeah, “Get some more coffee, Jim!” That's all it was. But if you're like me with a hectic schedule, so many clients to serve, so many places to be, and things to do, sometimes it's easy to, kind of forget, and we need Holy Spirit to bring to my remembrance.
Now here's something else I want to challenge you on that goes beyond just something silly, like why did I walk into this room? I pray. I sincerely pray, and I pray, that you are praying not only for your employees and your customers, but even your competitors. We'll get to that in a while. But when you, when you know, that you know, that you know, that you need to be praying for someone, Holy Spirit will let you know.
In fact, let me give you an example of when the Holy Spirit brings to my remembrance so many things that I need in my life. It's a transition I've made a few years ago to what most people would call your daily devotional time. It used to be, and for years I would read one chapter of Proverbs a day for that day in the month. Very good. Fantastic. It's a great way to study the word and just take that same chapter every day that month and read it through. Wonderful. Sometimes it's book by book. Other times I may follow other devotionals, but one of the most transformational things I've done in terms of bringing to my remembrance what I need to remember. What Holy Spirit has told me about my business and how to stay competitive in my marketplace - and I do it early in the morning as soon as I wake up, shower, get a cup of coffee, go into my office, clear my mind.
I have a prayer chair in the corner of my office and a little area for me to relax. Put on some soft instrumental Christian music, very soft just to set the atmosphere, I typically pray Psalm 91, take communion and then say this - “Holy Spirit, what have you got for me today? What do you need for me to focus on? Is there something I need to remember or learn new?” But sometimes it's just, “Bring to my remembrance Holy Spirit, what is it that you want me to get done today. Where is it you want me to go? Who do you want me to call? Bring to my remembrance things that I've promised that I haven't followed up on. If I promise something that I haven't followed up on, that's not honoring God bring to my remembrance. What have you got for me today?”
And it's absolutely incredible what has happened, what I've experienced over the last three, four or five years that I've been doing this about five years now is that almost every day it's something different. It's literally something different. Sometimes it is reading a journal. Sometimes it is prayer. Sometimes it is going to a list of facts. Sometimes it just simply he will bring to my remembrance things that he wants me to get done today. He will tell me what I need to know, right when I need to know it. So in terms of bringing to my remembrance, not only do we have the mind of Christ, I Corinthians 2:16, but he will bring the remembrance things he's already taught you and the new things he wants you to remember from now on. So I'm encouraging you to have, “Bring to my remembrance” as one of your great competitive advantages so that you can continue to excel in the marketplace.
The first three review.
24-7 helper.
Teaches me all things.
Brings to my remembrance.
Number four competitive advantage of Holy Spirit being your all in one consultant advisor is this. This comes right out of John 16:13, one of the most powerful explanations of Holy Spirit in the entire Word, and there are so many, but this is one that just rings so true, “He will guide me in all truth.”
He will guide me. He will guide you, in all truth. Just reflect on that for a second. He will guide you once again and every, all, truth. What does that really mean for us as leaders in business? Here's what it means to me, because I have the mind of Christ. He's going to teach me all the things that I need. He's there with me. 24-7, see how these build one upon another?
He guides me in all truth, I don't have to worry about being confused. I don't have to worry about diversions or focusing on the wrong things. In fact, since he is my 24-7 guide. I have total peace in whatever he tells me to do. Has that come easy? No. Because sometimes He asks you to do some pretty crazy things. Over the years, things that I knew, that I knew, that I wanted to do. And all of a sudden there's just been that roadblock. It's been that time where it's just nothing's happening. And he says, No, I want you to go and know the way. “He will guide me in all truth.” And once I've come to learn to trust him and everything that I do to open up my ears, to listen to Holy Spirit, realize he is my 24-7 guide that teaches me in all things. He brings to my remembrance, think about it, he’s already told me the things I need to know. He guides me in all truth. Peace, now has become my greatest decision maker as an executive.
For some of you, you've already learned that, so this is a reinforcement to you, that peace is your greatest decision maker. How many of your competitors in the markets that we face, the way radically things have changed in the last five years in business in America—how much at peace are your competitors? Probably not a lot. Are we anxious? We shouldn't be. We should be at peace.
Are we nervous about what's going to happen? No. We are under the one that Psalm 91 has covered and nothing's going to touch us. No pestilence is going to come to us or our companies as we pray and decree that. He will guide us in all truth. And when we step back and just relax and have that quiet time even during the day. I know executives, I know executives who take five minute prayer breaks, or just sometimes they call them love breaks. I'm just going to reflect, I’m going to turn off my phone, I’m just going to sit here for 5 or 10 minutes and just experience God's love because when I do, he's going to guide me in all truth. And then those revelations, those words of knowledge, those words of wisdom, those discernment of what to do, where to go, what the prophetic words that come directly from the throne room. Because I have the one who already sits in the throne room who has died for me, that's given me Holy Spirit.
He will guide me in all truth. I don't have to worry about whether I'm making the right decision as long as I submit them all under the blood. Are there some tough decisions that God's going to let us make? Yes, but when we submit them under the blood, don't worry, because he's guided me in all truth. And I know, that I know, that I know, that peace is my decision maker and it's going to be for his glory. Even though sometimes it can even be in my mind, confusing, I'm at peace in my spirit because my guide is teaching me through all truth.
And finally, the fifth competitive advantage that I have my unfair competitive advantage through Holy Spirit is this. The last part of John 16:13. This is incredible when we think about what's happening around us right now, how much we need this now in business. At the end of John 16:13, Holy Spirit, Jesus promised, Yeshua promised, that “he will tell me things to come.” Yes, he will give you snapshots of the future, be it a day, be it a week, be it a year. He will give you those prophetic visions. It might be as seer vision.
It might be a hunch. It might be a word. It might be. Oh, here's what's coming in 18 months, even before I was walking so closely with Jesus in my business, through the business books I've written, I was always about 15, 18, 20 months ahead. I could just kind of see around the corner now that I look back 30 years ago, 20 years ago, that was Jesus. That was Holy Spirit whispering to me things to come, and I did not even realize it was Jesus at the time. But now I do. He will tell you things to come. You can pray and receive revelations into the future. Try it in your quiet time. What do I need to learn? Holy Spirit with me, 24-7. Even teach me things to come so that I can discern good path, bad path, good deal, bad deal, good hire, bad hire that I have that word of knowledge on what to do. Word of wisdom on how to do it. You can receive a snapshot of your future through the power of Holy Spirit. How much would your competitors be willing to financially pay for that kind of snapshot that you already have living in you 24-7?
The five competitive advantages that we have out of the two verses that I've read to you. John 14:26 and John 16:13. A 24-7 helper that teaches me all things that brings to my remembrance everything that I need guides me in all truth and finally will teach me and show me things to come.
I said earlier that I pity my competitors. Not really. But, you know, I pray for my competitors. You know why? How about praying that our competitors receive Jesus. Come to the knowledge and fullness of the power of Holy Spirit, just like we've learned in the Jesus Christ CEO Institute. Just like we've learned in these incredible teachings, how to listen, how to commune, how to create community around Holy Spirit, to glorify God so that we can actually reestablish Jesus at the top of the business mountain. Reconcile the entire world of economics under who it should be run by—Jesus. Imagine if we had more competitors, quote unquote, that were spirit led, how much more we could do together. We wouldn't be working against each other. That pie is unlimited. What God can bring us when we're working in conjunction with others, even in the same industry, under the same power. It's absolutely exceedingly abundantly above anything we can imagine when we bring even our competitors under the blood.
So I want to pray for you. I hope this was a short exhortation, a short edification on what you already have living inside of you. That's taken me a while to learn myself. But I encourage you, perhaps just reinforce where you already are. But more than anything else, I really want to exhort you to go deeper and wider on your unfair competitive advantage, which is Holy Spirit and how he relates directly to what you're doing every day in your business.
Let me pray for you, father. I thank you for not only Jesus sacrificing his body and his blood to bring us the power of Holy Spirit, but he taught us, Jesus taught us, Yeshua taught us that he did not start his ministry. He did not start his ministry, his three years until he had the power, until he received the power. In fact, he even told his disciples, he said, after the resurrection in the upper room. Don't go anywhere until you receive the power, which is Holy Spirit manifested within them so that through Holy Spirit, the power, they could do all things that he commanded them to do. So Father, I pray that these men and women under that under the sound of this voice, wherever they may be, whatever country, whatever industry, whatever business, regardless of their current economic environment, whether it's open to business or against business, it doesn't matter. You can do all things, you work miracles through the power of Holy Spirit, whether it's in a great economic environment or a lousy economic environment, and you can do magnificent, beautiful things when we recognize that we have within us the 24-7 always ready, always available, best consultant in the world. That, frankly we need to share this consultant with everyone we know, including our competitors. And as we manifest these miracles through our business that you are bringing to us through what we've discussed today, the competitors will come and ask, how did you do that? How did you know to do that and not go there? And guess what? Now we have an opportunity to be a minister of reconciliation for that person to Yeshua. Father may those divine appointments now begin to flourish. May you supernaturally bring to us everything that we need to know so that we stand out and stand apart from everybody. And yet we bring those people to us and say, This is how you can do it too. Let's do it together in community in Jesus name.
May that be your prayer, you pray. May that be a prayer, you pray? Over yourself, over your company and even over your competitors, so that they also can know what you know and what I know. May this message have blessed you, may encourage and may give you a fresh perspective on who you have already inside you. The greatest management consultant ever! Holy Spirit Living in you!
This is Jim Harris on behalf of the Jesus Christ CEO Institute, encouraging you to stay with it. If you haven't already, join, join, join, join and get equipped so that you can manifest the full presence of Holy Spirit throughout your business. May God richly bless you and all you do.