David Schmidt (00:00.045) There's a story of an old Christian woman who did not have a lot and one time she had run out of food and was waiting for her next paycheck to come. And this woman also had an atheist neighbor who she often witnessed to to try to win her to Jesus. And this atheist would talk to this woman and say, why do you believe in God? Because he can't even provide for you, you're poor. David Schmidt (00:29.315) You don't have things and now look, you don't have any food. But the Christian woman would say, you know, that's right, I don't have a lot, but I have Jesus and I have God's comfort and he will provide. He's always provided for me in the past and I know he will continue to provide for me. Well, one day this atheist got really fed up with this whole thing. So he was gonna make a point to his neighbor. And so he went out and bought two big bags of groceries, put it, David Schmidt (00:58.879) at the doorstep of this old lady, rang the doorbell and then went and hid behind a bush. And the woman comes out and looks at the groceries and says, praise the Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you for this food that you've given to me. And then atheist jumps out from behind the bush and says, God didn't do that, I did it. And the woman's like, no, God provided me for the food. And he's like, no. David Schmidt (01:24.361) I did, I have the grocery, I have the receipt right here. I can show you, I paid for all these things. Well, the woman ran down the road so excited and saying, God provided for my needs and telling all her friends, God provided for my needs. And atheist was going right behind her saying, God didn't do it, I did it, I paid for it. And finally the woman turns around and looks atheist straight in the eye and said, God not only provided for me, David Schmidt (01:53.495) And God not only did it, but he made the devil pay the bill. David Schmidt (01:59.117) And so we see that here we have an event that has two different perspectives. The one, the lady said God did it, the other person, the other perspective, the atheist said that he provided for this food, which is correct. Okay, this is seeing life from a different perspective, seeing life from a different point of view. And there's always more than one perspective, but here's the thing. David Schmidt (02:29.655) There is always more than one perspective, but sometimes one perspective is true and the other perspective is false. There's a story of John MacArthur who, when he was coming home from a conference one time, seated beside a young woman who was, they ended up getting into a conversation about Jesus. And he kept telling her about Jesus, and then she would respond with, that's just your opinion about who he is. David Schmidt (02:57.739) And John being John would basically said, yes, that's my opinion, but I'm right. And she would go on further and say, well, that's just your opinion. And he's like, you're right. That's my opinion, but my opinion's right. Your opinion's wrong. And that's the true case here, my friends, is that there can be many opinions, but sometimes those opinions are wrong and sometimes they're right. David Schmidt (03:23.723) And in reality, only God's perspective on life is valid. Only God's perspective on life is real. I have a college friend who, a couple years after we graduated from college, he believed that it was God's desire for him to walk around the perimeter of the United States, praying for America. And so that's what he did. He basically... David Schmidt (03:52.665) took all his earthly belongings, bought a bunch of hiking gear and camping equipment, and he had a little bit of support from a ascending church, but he didn't have money to do this. He was going to go on faith. And so he started on his journey and he started walking and praying. And what was interesting, and we kept in contact with him throughout that time, is that there would become people who would pull along the side of the road and talk to him and... David Schmidt (04:20.459) find out what he's doing and say, ooh, that's cool. That's very exciting. How are you funding this journey? And he would say, well, the Lord has provided for me. God is providing. And they're all like, that won't work. How is that gonna work? You're gonna end up not having anything. But here, here's $20 to help you for today. And then they'll leave. And he would just laugh because here these people are saying that God can't provide for them. David Schmidt (04:50.457) And yet God used these people to provide for him. There is two different perspectives. There's different opinions, but only one person, I venture to say today that only God's perspective is the valid and perfect opinion. It's the only opinion that counts. I want you to understand that correlation does not equal causation. I'm sure you've all heard that. Correlation does not equal causation. David Schmidt (05:17.849) If you have a pot of water and you stick it on the stove and you turn the temperature up on the burner and it starts to burn, starts to boil, mean, you can, and then you turn it off and it stops boiling, you can come to the conclusion that turning that burner on causes the water to boil. That correlation between turning the burner on and the water boiling is a good correlation because that hot burner causes the water to boil. David Schmidt (05:48.537) That is really good, that is obvious. But there are some things in life that are a little bit more complex and we don't always make the good correlation. Example, if you are a biker and... David Schmidt (06:06.071) going to a race and you come to the race and somebody has written on your tire in white paint marker, fast. And ooh, I got a fast tire today. And you take off and you win the race. You could make that correlation that that word fast on your tire made your bicycle go faster and therefore you ran the race. Chances are that that David Schmidt (06:35.315) writing that word fast on your tire did not make you go any faster. If you did think that was the cause of you winning the race, that would be a poor correlation. In your head, you may think every time I'm going to go on race, I'm going to write fast on my tire so I can win. You can believe that, but that doesn't make it so. And in the same sense, I would like you guys to take a second look at your life. David Schmidt (07:04.769) at your business today and see what is the cause of your success. What is the cause of your trials? What is the cause of all these things that come in your life? Because as we talk about business, I want you to ask the question, what is God's part in your business? What is God's input into your business? And I want you to understand that correlation does not equal causation. And I want you to make a good judgment call here. David Schmidt (07:33.707) of when your business goes well, why is it going well? Or if your business does not go well, why is it not going well? In Jeremiah chapter 42. David Schmidt (07:48.441) in 43, in 44, it's so very, very interesting. Jeremiah was a prophet during the destruction of Jerusalem. And he was God's instrument and God's prophet during that time. And he prophesied that Babylon's gonna take over, Babylon took over. Well, way at the end, after Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem the third time and left Gadaliah in charge of Jerusalem, in charge of Judea, David Schmidt (08:17.847) Within a year, somebody had killed him. And so the rest of the people that remained, the small remnant of people in Judah that remained, had started their journey around the edge of Judea, Judah, and were looking to go to Egypt. But they said unto Jeremiah, hey, we want you to pray and seek God's face and give us a word from the Lord. Should we go to Egypt or should we stay here? Okay, I'll pray to the Lord for you. David Schmidt (08:47.201) And so Jeremiah prays to the Lord, says 10 days later, the word of Lord comes. And so Jeremiah gathers all the people together and says, here's the word of the Lord. I've repented of all the destruction, evil I've done to you. Go back, submit yourselves unto the Babylonians, build houses. I will protect you. I'll make you prosperous. I'll make you grow. But if you do go to Egypt, the sword that you fear and the famine that you fear, it's gonna follow you into Egypt. David Schmidt (09:17.273) and I will go and take you and judge you in Egypt. Don't go to Egypt, stay here. Mind you, before they said this, the people basically told Jeremiah, it's like, you know, we haven't been listening very well, but whatever you tell us, we're gonna do. Jeremiah told them to stay, God told them to stay in Judah. Can you guess what they said? It says in the next chapter, chapter 43, that the proud men, David Schmidt (09:47.513) basically looked at Jeremiah and said, you are lying. The word that you bring is a false word. God has not sent you. You are trying to deceive us to stay here in Judah and then Babylonians are gonna come and kill us and enslave us too. We're leaving, we're gonna go to Egypt. Didn't listen. But then what was very interesting is in the next chapter, chapter 44, when they get to Egypt, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah again. David Schmidt (10:17.739) And Jeremiah prophesied against Egypt because his people had gone there, that Nebuchadnezzar is gonna come and he's gonna set his throne up right here. And you are going to experience the famine and the sword that you tried so hard to escape. David Schmidt (10:36.375) And then we have a perspective here because the perspective of the people were a different thing. Because there arose all the men whose women, whose wives sacrificed to the queen of heaven, says. They came and said to Jeremiah, look, we used to offer sacrifices to the queen of heaven and give them all these things. But, and when we did, David Schmidt (11:05.983) everything went well for us when we offered all these sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and we had food, we had clothing, we had peace, we had prosperity. And then after we stopped it, we have been, the sword. Nebuchadnezzar came, destroyed the city. We don't have anything now. So we're gonna go back and we're gonna start serving the Queen of Heaven again so that things will go well for us again. David Schmidt (11:32.569) perspective, Jeremiah tried to explain to him, he was like, you know what? You serving the queen of heaven is what God, is what brought all this destruction upon you. You are God's people and you forsook your God that you made a covenant with, the Lord, and you went and served other gods. God was merciful for you, put up with you for a while, but because your sin rose up to heaven, he eventually came and destroyed you and. David Schmidt (12:01.689) cause you to be removed from the land. That's the true perspective. But there again, the people in Jeremiah, both looking at the same circumstance of the destruction of Jerusalem, had two different perspectives. Which one was correct? Correlation does not equal causation. These people said they stopped serving the Queen of Heaven and bad things came. That was the... David Schmidt (12:29.271) That was not the cause of the bad things. The cause of the bad things was they're not seeking the Lord. Correlation does not equal causation. What about you? this in your business? Is the good times coming from you? Or is the good times and the prosperity coming from the Lord? David Schmidt (12:51.833) I want to take you back a little bit further to Deuteronomy chapter eight. God was making a covenant with his people and God was about to bring his people into the Lanikinna. They had been wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy chapter eight, Moses tells them and says, you know, I want you to remember all that the Lord has done for you. I want you to remember these 40 years that he has led you in the wilderness. He's fed you. David Schmidt (13:21.281) Your feet have not swollen, your garments have not waxed old. He's fed you, he's given you water, he's taken care of you, he's done all these things. But now you're gonna go into the land of Canaan. You're gonna go into the promised land. And it's gonna be a land of wine and oil and wheat and barley and pomegranates and honey and all these things. You're gonna have plenty of things. You're gonna have plenty to be full and you're have houses and you're be prosperous. He says, David Schmidt (13:50.653) when you come into this land, here's the warning, remember God. He says the warning is, that when the danger is, is you're gonna come into this land and you're gonna be eaten to be satisfied. You're gonna build houses and dwell in them. Your flocks and your herds are gonna multiply. Your silver and your gold is gonna multiply. Everything that you have is gonna multiply. He says, but when it does, don't forget. David Schmidt (14:20.013) the Lord, don't forget God. He says last, you forget God and look at all this prosperity and you forget God. says, you lift your heart up and say, you're gonna say to yourself, look at me, look at what I did. Look at all this prosperity, all this wealth that I've gained, my hard work, the systems I put in place, the intelligence, design I put into all these things in farming and. David Schmidt (14:48.801) husbandry and all these, and my flocks, my herds, and all these. Look at all that my wisdom has obtained from me, I am wealthy. David Schmidt (15:00.035) Moses says, uh-uh, that is not how you got all this stuff. This correlation of you getting wealthy because you're working hard doesn't mean you did it. Correlation does not equal causation. It's interesting in Deuteronomy 8.18, it starts off with, shalt not. It reminds me of the Ten Commandments a lot of, thou shalt not kill, steal, commit adultery, all these things, thou shalt not do this. Deuteronomy 8.18. David Schmidt (15:28.633) 18 says, thou shall not forget the Lord your God. Thou shall not forget the Lord your God, for it is he which hath given you the power to make wealth, that he may establish his covenant with you. Wow, that's a different perspective, isn't it? He says, God is the one who has enabled you to create wealth, to make so that everything that you have is prosperous. David Schmidt (15:58.841) It was true for Israel. It's true for us today. And then he basically said, if you do it all, forget the Lord your God, as he's, and you go after other gods, guess what? You are going to be destroyed like all the nations which were before you. So you'll be destroyed as well because you were not obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. And way for 800,000 years later, Jeremiah. David Schmidt (16:28.077) That's what happened in his day. The people have forsaken the Lord and God ultimately judged them by removing them from the land of Israel. God's ways are true. God's ways are true and God's people forgot the Lord in their prosperity. They forgot that it is the Lord that makes them prosperous. What about you today? My question, my challenge for you today is when you look at your business in your prosperity, who do you credit? David Schmidt (16:58.841) Do you credit your systems you put in place, your hard work, your technology, your intelligence, your marketing, your salespeople, or do you credit God? Do you give credit where credit's due? Is it because you're a great sales team or is it because God caused the growth? Who do you credit? In your trials and your challenges, do you tend to then blame God because things aren't going well? Do you blame your sales team or marketing and try to do things better? David Schmidt (17:29.145) Or do you turn your heart back to the Lord and seek God and saying, what's going on here? What do you want me to do? Again, remember the Lord. Remember the Lord, humble yourself before him, do not forget God. In your pride, don't let your heart be lifted up and be haughty forget the Lord. Remember the Lord. And it's not just true in business, it's true in life as well, but I'm talking specifically about business because we tend to forget God. David Schmidt (17:58.677) in our business, especially when things are going well. Is God involved in your business? Absolutely. Psalm 127.1 says, unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. Unless the Lord watches the city, the watchman wakes but in vain. There are so many people out there, so many coaches, so many business owners that talk about building their house or building their business. David Schmidt (18:28.737) or about like building their empires, like building a castle and putting a moat around it and creasing the moat. That's exactly the same imagery that God is using here. It's like, if you want to protect your moat, protect your business, it's vain for you to do so unless God protects it. Because unless God protects it, it's gonna fall, okay? Correlation does not equal causation just because your business grows. David Schmidt (18:56.899) doesn't mean that it was all of you. God has a significant part in your business. Your job is to find out what God wants you to do and to do it, to give him the credit for what credits do, to give him the honor and the glory in your business. And don't forget God. Don't forget God. Don't forget God that he is part and central to your success. David Schmidt (19:27.853) What do you do? How do you go about life not forgetting God? David Schmidt (19:34.413) This is in Deuteronomy 17, God gave Israel instructions about what to do whenever they have a king. He knew that they would have a king eventually, and he gave them instructions. And these instructions are phenomenally important and good for you as well. As a business owner, as a business owner, we're not gonna go through in detail, we're just gonna hit some of the highlights here. David Schmidt (20:02.059) What not to do, he says, don't focus on increasing your power, don't focus on just pleasure, don't focus just on wealth, on riches. But he said, this is what you're supposed to do. He says, when you sit upon a throne of your kingdom, write a copy of the book of the law and then read it every day. The king was supposed to take the copy of the law. David Schmidt (20:29.655) and write himself out his own personal copy of God's law, which would basically be the Book of Deuteronomy, and he's supposed to read it every day of his life. That's what he's supposed to do. He says, you have to read it every day of your life. Why? That you may learn to fear the Lord your God and to keep all the words in this law, that your heart be not lifted up again above your brother to the end, that you may prolong your days in your kingdom. David Schmidt (20:57.377) you and your children in the midst of Israel. In summary, are to, you read the law of God. For us today, we have 66 books in the Bible. Read it. Read it every single day. Once that you may learn to fear the Lord, realizing that he's the one who is behind all this. He's the one who gives you the power to make wealth. He's the one who protects you, who guides you, who directs you. That you obey him. David Schmidt (21:26.105) and that your heart is not lifted up, that you don't walk in pride, you walk humbly before the Lord. Correlation doesn't equal causation, but I want you to understand that as you read the Scriptures, it is the fear of the Lord that's walking humbly with him. That's what's gonna cause you to be prosperous. How do I know that? Because in Proverbs 22, verse four, it says very clearly, David Schmidt (21:54.711) by humility and the fear of the Lord. Those two things we just talked about in Deuteronomy 17, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life. There it talks about, he says this is the direct correlation. This is the direct cause. If you walk humbly before the Lord and you fear the Lord and follow him, you'll have riches, honor, and life. David Schmidt (22:22.893) Okay, so read, your challenge today is read God's word every day. Live by it, that you as an owner don't lift yourself up above all your employees and everybody else and think you're so mighty and great. Learn to fear the Lord, walk humbly before the Lord and obey the Lord. That is the perspective. And that is God's perspective. And God's perspective. David Schmidt (22:50.163) is really the only opinion that really is true and really matters. Just because you have a different opinion doesn't make it right. But seeing life from God's perspective, that is the right perspective to go with. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches on our life. And I encourage you to read your Bible every day. Fear the Lord, walk humbly before him, that you may be blessed. Friends, that's all I have for now. Trust you've been inspired to redeem your business. David Schmidt (23:19.533) Redeem your time. Buy back and walk worthy of God's great name.