 Right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our students who are here as well. All right. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. And then we'll get into our session today. Anyone like to pray? Who would like to pray? Go ahead, Pram. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this new week. Father, we thank you for this new day that you have added into our lives. As you're going to dive in to learn a lot, Father God, we ask for your spirit to guide us a lot, Father, and help us a lot, Father, to understand everything that you are teaching us a lot, Father, that you are trusting us with today. We submit ourselves to you. We submit our hearts and minds to you, Jesus. You come and you sow your word in our lives a lot, Father, so that it will be a blessing to us and the people around us. We give you glory and honor. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So last class, we did chapter 19. In chapter 19, we talked about, you know, work and rest. How do we have work-life balance? We've got to work. We've got to rest. We've got to balance what is priority. There's a time where we have to work additional hours, but compensate that by spending time alone, spending time with your family. You know, very important, especially for us, is to understand that spending time with family or your own personal time alone doing things that you like is as important as standing in front of a thousand people and preaching the gospel. We may think, oh, preaching in front of a thousand people is the most important thing. That's good. But family is equally important. Spending time with your children, with your brothers, spending time with your parents is equally important as ministry. Right? So never put, you know, never make boxes and say, okay, this is the only thing I'll do, or I'll give most of my priority to this, learn to balance it out. And over time, even as we mature, even as we grow, we get married, we have children, we have families, we will learn how to develop this, right? But the mistake that many of us, many of them have come and spoken to me about this is that, you know, they are in full-time ministry and they don't even know what the children are doing. They don't even know what is the gifts of the children. They haven't even taken the children out. Right? And sometimes, you know, I've spoken to leaders and they say, oh, there's so much of ministry. So, you know, summer vacation is the most important time. You know, we do a lot of these events and programs and conferences. So we don't have time to do that. I personally know of friends, not friends, but people that I know of who are pastors' children who have never gone on a family trip and they are 20 years old. It must not be so. Right? You must make time, right? And, you know, we don't blame the parents because that's the mindset, especially if you look at topics in villages, that's the mindset. They don't believe in going out, spending time in family. That will happen on its own. Children will grow on their own. Right? But we need to come out of that mindset and say, hey, no, I need to invest my time on the children. I must invest my time in my family. Right? And it's very, very important. Sometimes, you know, for this Good Friday service, you know, I was sitting with my kids and I was saying, I was talking to them. I was asking them, what is Good Friday? So they gave all kinds of answers. So I began to explain to them. I made them read. I read, I said, okay, read Isaiah 53. They read it. They said, okay, can we go play now? I said, hold on. Read. You know, what happened when Jesus got arrested? Made it very, very simple, but help them to understand what is Good Friday. I'm not against, you know, making them go to children's church, all of that. All of that is good. But what you speak over your family, over your children is is way more betier than what they learn. What they see in your life. You know, this is, I think one of the first times and I don't know what, I stayed back home to watch online. Right. The kids were like, you're not going to church. I said, no, we'd watch online this time. Right. For them, it was very different. For me, it was very different. But then it gave me a wonderful opportunity to really explain to them what is Good Friday. What happened on this day. And I remember talking to Ethan and my eldest son and really Jesus did this. How can he do this? How did he plan this out? It was amazing to, you know, when you invest time in your children and they have the questions that we never think of at that age. So it was very important. We talked about work life balance. Okay. Let's get into chapter 20. We should be able to finish our portions this in this class. Right. This class on the next. So chapter 20, saving, investing, retirement and beyond. Let me just present the notes. Now, there will come a time when we will all have to retire. And now sometimes when we hear the word retire, you feel it's nice. Now my parents are retired and I keep looking at them and say, wow, this is a life you should have. They wake up. They just relax the whole day. They have their breakfast at 11 a.m. Just relaxed life. But every time I say that, you know, my mom says 40 years. Oh, man. 40 years of going and teaching in a school. 40 years. So as as youngsters, it's very important for us to think ahead. Because we think about our work. We think about what we want to do. But we must also think about ahead. What will I do after I retire? Sometimes anyone says with long life, I will satisfy you. So if you want to live a long life, no company is going to keep you till 65-70. They'll say, okay, back up. So you got to prepare for the future, right? So save and prepare for the future. Proverbs 6-6-8 you lazy fool. Look at the ants. Watch it closely. Let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food at harvest. It stockpiles provisions. So look at the example of Joseph. Joseph was a man of God. God placed him there. And through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he was able to use wisdom the seven years of plentiful and seven years of famine. So he had foresight. He said, here's what we'll do. We will save up during the time of bountiful. We'll store it up in bounds, right? And then the next seven years, when there's dryness and famine in the land we'll take, we'll tap into what we have saved. Now can you picture sometimes when you think of famine, we always think of food. But it also could be water. Imagine saving up water for so many years, right? Imagine saving up grain and all these things. Seven years he saved up. But God gave him the wisdom to do it. So it was not a surprise. Hey, after seven years what do we do? It was a perfect example of the ant. The ant knows if you look around us, this is summer right now, you will find a lot of ants everywhere you will find them. Why? Because they know July is going to come. And once it rains there's not much that they can do, right? So they all be working now. You'll see them in the lanes everywhere, right? What are they doing? They're saving up for the harvest. They're saving up for a time when they know that it's going to rain and they cannot do any work. So the same way, you and I God has given us the wisdom and we are young, right? It's wonderful but there will come a time we'll have to retire. Think about that. Think about the future. Invest to multiply what you have. Luke 1923. Well then why didn't you put your money in the bank? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned. Now in Luke 19, Jesus is teaching the parable about the kingdom of God. Right? So he uses the story of the rich man who handed some of his servants money and he said do what you want with it. Do business until I come. So some of them used it, multiplied the money. Some of them didn't do it, right? One of them didn't do it. Now when God gives us the whole principle of this parable is that when God gives us resources we must learn to use it in the right way. Invest to multiply. So I remember, okay I'm just giving my examples, right? You don't have to do this. I remember in my mind, okay after I knew that if I joined full-time ministry I don't want to be dependent on anyone. So I said okay, here's what I'll do. I will build a house I will work I'll try to pay off as much as I can and then I'll join full-time ministry. So that no matter what happens I have a house to stay in. Other things we can work it out. So I decided that in my mind. At a very young age I told my parents I want to build a house. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pull out some of the finances pull out loan and construct. I said no, you can't do this. You too young we'll do it. We'll plan a little ahead. Don't do it now. I said no, you do that now so that in my mind I need to quit and join Bible college and join ministry. They said they were little my parents were little apprehensive but then I said let's do this and so I needed their help because of other things paperwork and all of that and we got it done we finished construction paid off most of the loan gave it out for rent and I was able to join leave and join the Bible college. Now it was not easy so I had to slog. I really work hard. There were times I was working 16, 17 hours in a day just to make sure that I can pay off this quickly I'm talking about when I was working in the corporate sector so it was not easy. I gave up so much I wouldn't go for everyone were buying cars at that time and I remember I used to I used to walk to office or there were times when I used to take a bus regular bus friends and people would see me why are you coming by bus can't you just buy a bike they didn't know what I am planning for so people are very easily they look at you look at the car that you drive look at the bike look at your clothes and say hey this is what you are you don't think about that you look at what you are going to do for for your life and how it's going to impact you for the kingdom of God right so for me it was some of them would say your youth is meant to enjoy that's true it is meant to enjoy so I am not saying I didn't enjoy but I I would say I sacrificed a lot so that now now I can enjoy I can I can say that because enjoy in the sense I can just freely do ministry I am not worried about oh man what am I going to do next there is two children what do I do I am not worried about it at all I know God is my provider and I know that there are things that are already set in place no matter what there is a shelter that we have so it is just planning ahead right so for example there are people who do differently so I am not judging them I am not saying hey you did this my own brother he decided to get married late my elder brother and now he is looking to buy a house and all of these things that's his wish but he knows he is going to just work but for me it was different right so you see what God is putting in your heart and be responsible it will call for sacrifice it will call for commitment it will call for hard work right but you will see the fruit later plan financially to live responsibly we need to plan financially how to take care of your children for your family members if they are in need if you have parents at old age you have the responsibility to look after them don't say I will look after them later on you have the responsibility if that also means do ministry and work do it but God has called me for ministry do that also but God has called me only to preach and teach do that and work because your family is important plan in the right way our dependence is always on the Lord this is wonderful right remember this our hearts let's go a little up we must not make acquiring wealth our primary goal in life wealth is not our primary goal our hearts must always be set on the things of God that's why I love Matthew 633 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the other things will be added to you our hearts must be set on God God I am doing this because I love you I honor you and I want to glorify your name and then you say God these are the things that I need these are the plans that I have I am setting it before you our hearts must always be set on the things of God now God is not a God who says only pray 24 hours in the Holy Spirit only then I will bless you no God knows he says look at the birds of the year they don't store up in barns but your heavenly Father provides for them so he knows you need a place to stay he knows your needs he knows when you need it how you need it he knows it and when we work hard and we trust God he will open the right doors for us and he will give us what we need at the right time we must ensure that we do not worry or be anxious about the future especially in a time that we are living in sometimes we can get very anxious about the future with all the things that are happening right here not only in India but in different countries where especially in the west you know there is so much that is happening all of these pronouns and transgenders and LGBTQ and all these things happening sometimes we wonder what about our children it is so important to teach them and it is very easy for us to become anxious what do we do or what about ministry we saw covid what if something new comes up and then that is worse than this what will happen to my future what will happen to my ministry sometimes we can be too anxious and fear comes in so it is important that we remove that fear perfect love cast out all fear cast it out life is in your hands and you know what is best right next one parents should provide for their children so I already said this 2nd Corinthians 12 14 this is now the third time that I am ready to come visit you and I will not make any demands on you it is you I want not your money after all children should not have to provide for their parents for their children now part of the God given responsibility is that parents must look after children that is a mandatory line that we must understand and resolve it in our hearts we must provide for our family we must so for example you get just an example you get a certain amount of money and there is a big need in the church right but you also know that you have a wife or you have a family at home that you need to look after now the wise thing to do see we know that God has told us when you give I will open up the doors and I will send my blessings upon you and all of that we trust all of that but God has also given us the responsibility of wisdom and walk in this life so we must ensure that I will keep a portion of it for my children first I give to God I keep a portion for my family and so I am not dishonoring God in any way when God told Adam and Eve you tend the garden you look after it and eventually I am sure God would have walked around and said you do it this way the potatoes look not so good make it this way or the herbs that you are growing here you water it this way because the bible says that God taught them what to do right so parents should provide children should care for their widows and elderly family members first Timothy 5 4 and 8 let's read that anyone can read Timothy 5 verse 4 and 8 but if a widow has a children or grandchildren they should learn first to carry out their religious duties towards their own families and in this way repay their parents and grandparents but that is what pleases God was it but if any do not take care of their relatives especially the members of their own family they have denied the faith worse than any unbelievers some harsh words if you do not take care of your family you are worse than a unbeliever they have denied the faith but God I am preaching I am going to many countries or many cities I am spending all my money all my time my energy my resources catching a train going there preaching I know that but if you have children and family at home who are starving and not looked after then it says that they have denied the faith and become worse than a unbeliever sometimes you know people especially I have noticed this in ministry people measure our anointing or our success by what we can do if somebody is healed oh I am oh he is a great man of God or if somebody is delivered from who is possessed by demons has been delivered he is a great man or woman of God or he leads the worship oh when he leads the worship angels directly come and sit with us oh he is a great worshipping sometimes we measure people by their anointing now remember this God works in spite of us right it does not work because of us because you did this I will work that is not how God is God will work in spite of us God can use a donkey to bring healing to somebody else God can use a person who is a believer for 3-4 hours to raise up a dead person because God works in spite of us so never measure people by he did this he did this these are the 10 things he has done no it is good they have done it it is good that they have you know the anointing praise God for that but remember that by nature we are sinful and there are times when we will disobey God but God will still work so even when we do not look after our parents and grandparents we are not coming to we do not look after our family and we say hey I have done ministry the blind are seeing the deaf are hearing the mute are speaking the paralyzed are walking God you are doing all of this God will say hey I have given you a responsibility look after your family this I am doing because that is what I do it is not because of you it is not because you are going everywhere when the Holy Spirit comes this is what he does that is done but you have a responsibility to look after parents and your children next you do not want your family members to come and give testimony about you in the church you understand what I am trying to say right God works in spite of us so never measure what you must do through your ministry or because I am doing this then other things God will look after it and know you have to look after it you have to look after your parents you have to look after your children it is a responsibility right everyone with me yes okay let us go down okay retire, refire, add meaning to those golden years sounds 92, 12 through 15 go ahead I just will flourish like palm trees they will grow like the cedars of Lebanon they are like trees planted in the house of the Lord that flourish in the temple of our God that will still be a fruit in old age and they are always green and strong this shows that the Lord is just that there is no wrong in my protector yeah so when old age comes never look at old age okay time to sit and do nothing retire, that is the natural thing yes but you can also refire meaning that is your time when you can spend more time in God's presence spend more of your resources in the things of God spending more maybe time in the scripture learning an instrument you can do so much now we got into this mindset okay retirement means wait for death no it's not like that add meaning to those years add meaning add structure also to those years so look at people in the scriptures look at Moses, at his old age he could see perfect eyesight, 120 firstly I decided to myself I am not going to retire there is no retirement in ministry I am going to do this as long as I can stand and as long as I breathe I will do it I know that I am going to do this so you can still add meaning to your life add things that there are some things that I have already thought of what I want to do I may not have put it in paper yet some of the things I want to do in terms of learning in terms of okay I will just tell you this I wanted to learn the violin violin I always wanted to learn the violin so I was thinking okay and I retire I am going to learn the violin I wish I could do that I just said I don't have time to go for classes so I know that I want to learn it when there is more time in my hands I want to learn so you add meaning to those golden years God who was who is and always will be with you Malachi 3.6 he is always the same I will carry you even to your old age I will carry you I have made and I will bear and will deliver you so it is always good to reflect back on the goodness of God the God who led us all these years he saw us through those professional journeys the biggest part of our lives and he will continue to remain faithful to us right so don't look at saving and investing as a sin don't look at it sometimes people look at it this person is saving because he is not putting his trust in God no what does the Bible say? sometimes people take the book of James the letter of James and says then you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow why are you doing all of this you are just a vapor in the air so live just as the way you are and trust God in everything but God is also saying that's where context comes in they prepare look at Jesus, he prepared he prepared before I am sure Jesus didn't say I am sure Jesus didn't say team, 12 of us we are going to we are going to go Samaria Judea go up all the way and then come back to Jerusalem so let's go do you think you would have said that you would have said carry your tunics carry some food for all of us carry your waters water bottles prepare yourself for the weather we are going to be walking a lot right so I am sure he would have said that it's not like the randomly he would have said anyways I took five loaves of bread and two fish and I fed thousands I will take one bread and feed all of you 12 he would have done that he would have said take what we need prepare for his journey and being the son of God he would have prepared so much so we must prepare right so when there comes a time you all are students right now but once you start working plan your finances maybe talk to people who are matured and who are probably who know more in this ask them what is good which is the best place even if it's the smallest amount don't despise it it can be a 500 rupees in Indian money it can be a small amount but when you put it aside and you say God I am doing what you have told me to do I am keeping this for my future God will honour that now the enemy will come and say what will this do for your future one visit to the supermarket it's over you don't listen to the enemy God is the one who blesses so you start small next thing you know 10 years down the line that will be something which you really needed right so learn to start investing and preparing for the future okay let's get into our last portion section 4 we are going to talk about entrepreneurship we talked about this right we talked about the exciting journey of starting your own business starting your own ministry I am just going to relate it to ministry and business right it's a it's a journey of faith it's a step of faith and this step could cause a lot of anxiety fear excitement it could be mixed emotions right and so I remember you know when we were in Mangalore we planned to start this new church location in a place called Deralakate which is about 20-20 kilometers away from the city and I think most of you students went there and so before we started I used to go there reach out to students we had about 20-25 old students who would come all the way from Deralakate but they were not regular so I remember asking them what happened there was a lot of practical challenges so they couldn't come every Sunday so we started like an evening prayer over there and somewhere we felt okay now is the time we can pray to start about launching a service a church location here so we began just by worship and reading the word ministering there and eventually we prayed we took about 6-7 months and then we said okay we will I spoke to pastor I shared with them these are the challenges that's why they're not able to come do you think we can start something there so that it's closer for them practical see they're all students they don't have bikes and cars to come all the way but they walkable distance they'll come and they're all Christians they're all believers and there's no church there so everything made sense they're believers they're youth they're Christians and they need a church but the challenges were transport on Sunday morning they work they have you know college even on Saturday so Sunday morning for them is a challenge so they said if it's Sunday evening nothing like it we will wake up we'll do what we have to do and we will all come on Sunday evening but then you know we prayed and we started but I remember that feeling on that first Sunday we took the hall and we prayed over it we had to do a little bit of work inside the hall construct a small rest room we did all of it and it was a I think it was a Friday or a Saturday and I knew that the coming Sunday we already announced Sunday evening we're going to have the launch of the church service but I remember going back home and there was this feeling of oh man starting a new place and you know there was this feeling of joy happiness but also anxiety and no fear but just this feeling of uneasiness not uneasiness but I'm waiting for tomorrow to start I'm waiting for tomorrow I just wanted to be there at the launch and just and so I made sure my guitar is alright made sure all the equipment is set up correctly and it's a great feeling right and I remember that Sunday the first Sunday we had about I think about 27 odd students I'm not wrong 26 to 27 students apart from those who came from the main church it was a wonderful time right and it's exciting and I just felt that this church can really grow fast because right opposite that church was this huge medical college with over I would say about 5,000 to 6,000 students studying there a little further on maybe just a kilometer away there was another college so we could see like thousands of students there just felt you could make such an impact on these people's lives and I thank God for what's happening now as well right the church is just doing so well and so do a thorough preparation before you launch you must be clear of the idea the business model the business plan so if it's ministry plan out think about how you're going to launch it why you want to do it you know one of the things that we did we sat down and we said we said advantages so pros and cons pros if we start a church here what are the pros these are the pros what are the disadvantages students disadvantages students you never know they'll say I'll come but next thing you know they may not come they'll say they finish their course they go back home what about the next academic here because we know that there are students but you know that this batch will go they're not going to be there maybe one or two will be there who get a job and they'll stay back so we put it all together what are the other cons okay so you know if the place should be this way or whatever we put it all down on paper and we also thought okay what if we hired a van that can go pick them up because transport was a problem so I put everything down on paper if the van goes pick them up and comes back this is what they will charge but if the van goes and only five people come in that 20 seater van it's a waste of money we can't tell them hey we sent a van why didn't all of you all come you can't say that they have many other things to you know to say so so do a pro preparation put down the pros and the cons don't think about the cons and say oh just because I want to start I'll put all the okay these are negatives I cancel it in Jesus name no it is fact it's there those are negatives you don't cancel it you think about it and plan where and be diligent about the work that you're going to do determine to do business God's way apply biblical principles to develop your business so again when you talk about business do it God's way we talked about this like workplace principles godly principles to use in the workplace and this is 100% applied even in ministry make sure you depend on the Holy Spirit be empowered by the Holy Spirit don't be ashamed of small things don't be ashamed of small beginnings remember APC started with how many people 12 people sometimes they say look at the Easter production and say wow when will my church be coming it's taken us many many many many years to get here right so there were small beginnings and as I said even our worship our performing arts team small beginnings I remember performing arts we used to go 3 or 4 of us we would go sing the song there and then the performing arts would go to these we would go to colleges and then 3 of them would do a dance that's the performing arts team we didn't have like a big 50 100 people deep members just few youth got together okay we'll do this and then eventually we started to grow so don't despise small beginnings the Lord will help you to lay a good foundation and then you can build on that right but something that we must always do is look at what you want to see right when Jesus saw the tomb what he didn't see the tomb he saw Lazarus walking out when he saw the blind he didn't see the blind he saw them healed already but you see what you want to see so if you have many of you are going back to pastor churches right your parents your parents are pastors you see what you want to see if you want to see 500 people in your church look at it in your mind's eye right and work towards it but don't despise don't look at the 50 sitting there when will this become 1000 it's okay take your time and look at it have that folk that in your mind say one day this will happen right and very important is to do the ministry God's way being led by the Holy Spirit ask the Lord to guide you don't be distracted by quick success you are in for a long haul problems 2021 the more easily you get your wealth the less good it will do you if you experience quick success that is good but don't let it distract you if you look at the scriptures tell me you know where in the bible has somebody got quick success very few everywhere God has made them God made people to wait I would say Solomon come Solomon you are the next king that's because of hierarchy it was inheritance it was just given and Solomon did one thing good he said give me wisdom Lord and through that wisdom he made wealth but he didn't stay focused he married these concubines he built temples that were against God and he lost the vision that you know his father gave him so that's the problem with gaining wealth quickly David gained wealth probably became the king after what 17 odd years he knew the value of it Solomon didn't know the value of it Solomon didn't have to go fight in the hot sun defeat enemies he didn't have to do all that okay Solomon what do you want wisdom okay he got wealth he used that wealth the wrong way and we know the story but then there will be times God will bless you immediately stay focused stay focused on what God is doing especially when it's business sometimes people come and say I will give you so much finances for the next 5 years this is what I will give you it's very easy to lose so much money is coming in so we may lose focus now stay focused on the call of God don't let money take control over you remember you control the money you know how to you make the money doesn't speak to you you speak to the money right money is just a tool which God gives us to fulfill ministry if God wants to do something he will do it he will send anybody to do what you have to do he wants to fulfill it he will fulfill it don't be hasty for profit first plant your fields then build your barn if you build your barn without planting the fields it's going to be empty for a long time stay focused on what is important even if it is hard work so sow your seeds work the crops then build your barns and then you know once these crops grow it's harvest time I will take all these crops take the harvest and put it into the barns what is it what are we trying to achieve here we are trying to think my focus is not only on what I am going to fill up in the barn this is also hard work the fruit of my labour will be a full barn keep a close eye on what brings in the bread and butter our Proverbs 27 23 to 27 can any one of us please read look after your sheep and get as carefully as you can because wealth is not permanent and not even nation lasts forever you cut the hay and then cut the grass on the hillsides while the next crop of hay is growing you can make clothes from the wool of your sheep and buy land with the money you get from selling some of your goats the rest of the goats will provide milk for you and your family and for your servant women as well what 23 says look after your sheep carefully as you can the point is the sheep and cattle are the core of the business for a farmer or a shepherd that's the core they need the sheep as your ministry or your business takes shape there will be many opportunities coming your way in ministry as well suddenly you will have many invitations people are calling you from everywhere don't get distracted build on what you are doing don't chase after every opportunity right there will come a time then okay this is settled then you can go out and do other things keep a close eye on what is important that's your core right if it's business okay this business is my core so I will focus there and then there will come a time opportunities will come you can think of other things ministry or a church local church that's your core you build that and then eventually you can start going outside ministering outside right okay stay clear of pride that comes with success Proverbs 16 18 pride goes before destruction and the horny spirit comes before a fall so I just want to share a few thoughts here but we will take a break we will come back and we will continue from here