The principles you need to know in order to run a successful business that God approves. The best business partner you can have is God 

Bite Size Talks 2019	

<p>The principles you need to know in order to run a successful business that God approves. The best business partner you can have is God </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ASI Pacific Union

David Zecha

Doing Business God’s Way	


So this morning, let's get started. I'm gonna lay out some principles for you I came up with these principles that I feel is pertinent to owning a business and Some of you how many of you have a business in existence right now? Well, you're self-employed. All right a couple of you a few of you And oftentimes we are tempted, you know, to do things outside of the principles that God has laid out. We have principles in the Bible that are very pertinent to business, and it repeats itself over and over again in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

So we have the first principle which is trust and obedience. Now trust, what I mean by trust, is trusting in God that he will do, he will open the doors for you and create the path forward right and obedience is following God's commandments and Also, you know, we have a tendency here to always Compromise, you know, this is the biggest temptation in this area is to compromise God's commandments especially the Sabbath. Now I had a restaurant in the busiest, 1 of the busiest streets in San Diego and the thought is Saturdays was the biggest grossing sales day that you can have. And I was continuously mocked for closing on Saturday. And I would get this repeated over and over again, this mockery, but you know what?

You have to stand your ground, amen to that. You have to stand your ground no matter what it takes and God will bless you for it. And then the second principle is profitable. I know some people say they have a non-profit business. You have to be profitable.

We all know that. You know you have to be profitable in order to give. You have to be profitable in order to sustain yourself, your family, and also to expand. You know, we don't want to be stagnant. There's many opportunities that God lays out before us.

You have to be profitable in order to expand. So our third item is charitable. Now we often like to be charitable. I probably was a little overly charitable. Like when I see a student come into my store, I would say, I don't think they can afford my salads, they're $10.

You know, so I'd probably comp half of that and I give them a 50% off. And you know, but it's, you know, it's part of being a business owner, you have to give back to the community, you have to essentially, you know, you pay your tithes and your offerings and you have to help your community in every sense possible. So you want to be able to give back. So if you're profitable, you're able to be charitable as well. And the last principle is being equally yoked.

And this is the thing I'm going to touch upon the most. And being equally yoked. Now Paul talks about being equally yoked in what sense? Marriage. That's right.

But have you ever thought about being equally yoked in the business world? You think it pertains to the business world? Yes, it does. Let's move on a little bit. So in Proverbs 1824, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise.

And in Psalms 119 72, the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. I can't speak more clearly than that. In the book Education, we read, that which lies at the foundation of business integrity and the true and of true success is the recognition of God's ownership, the creator of all things. He is the original proprietor. We are his stewards.

All that we have is a trust from him To be used according to his direction and in first Corinthians 3 9 there we see we are laborers together with God and in let's advance to the next slide you show So Deuteronomy it starts way back in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 22 10 you should not plow with the donkey and ox together. Why do you think this command was given? That's right, 1 was stronger and 1 was weaker. You're not to work.

But what context was it given in? Do you see a married couple there? It's talking about labor, right? So I mean, yeah, back in the day, they were talking about non-Jews and Jews working together, right? Those being equally yoked.

But this is talking also about labor. You can extend it to the field of labor, to work, employment, partnerships, business. And that's the way God had intended us to be, equally yoked, to work together, to be like-minded of your beliefs. And we often know that love is blind. We see how prevalent this is today.

There's social media, there's all sorts of ways that we find love, but love is blind and we often compromise our values because of that. And what's even, to me, bigger than that is money is blind. I mean, we are blinded by the dollars and cents that are thrown at us. Now, I'll explain this later on this afternoon, but a couple years ago, 3 years ago, I was doing construction for a fellow. He was a restaurant owner in San Diego.

He has a 1, 400 square foot restaurant. It's a ramen restaurant, 1 of the first ones to be settled in San Diego. And how much do you think he grossed per month in a 1, 400 square foot? That means you could seat about 25 to 30 people at any given time. How much do you think he grossed in 1 month?

20, 000. 20, 000. Let's go up. Any other guesses? 40, 000.

40, 000, no. 80, 000. No, much higher. 200, 000. Much higher.

250, 000. 250, 000 a month. That's what, and I controlled his books for a year. That's what's on the books. So we don't know what the cash basis is.

But $250, 000 a gross income per month. Now, that's an awfully tempting business to hold, right? But then you're working 7 days a week. And he offered to be partners with me. And thank God that I didn't take the bait, because there was, you know, he was not 1 of Christian principles.

He did not. And eventually, because of my business contact with him, my business ended up losing, our construction business ended up losing $150, 000 because of his unscrupulous business practices. But money can be blinding. We also have another example. Just actually a few weeks ago when I was preparing the talk, I had another client, a real estate client, approached me and he was talking about, I thought he, well, I did show him a property.

We went to a specific property and he decided he was not interested in that property. And then he came back and we were talking outside the property for about an hour and he was picking my brain to see what else he can discover in San Diego. He had just moved here, a very brilliant business guy. He wanted to become business partners and he asked me if I read a certain book on business. I said, no, I haven't read that.

He says, well, you should put down your Bible and you should read this book. And I say, excuse me? I was taken aback by that if I said no, thank you. It's like at that point, the business relationship stops. But you'll see, you'll have these temptations over and over and over again.

What profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? That is such remarkable words. And my point this morning I'd like to make to you is that choosing a business partner is just as important as choosing a spouse. You look for the same qualities, like-mindedness, Christian beliefs, same principles, honoring God's commandments. This morning, well speaking of spouse, I happen to bring my wife this year.

She's sitting there in the corner. Thank you. And when God puts together a relationship of like-minded believers following God's example and God's principles and His commandments, things can be beautiful. This media was brought to you by AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about AudioVerse or if you

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Doing Business God’s Way

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