Stop Leading Your Family Blindly

Transcript

Automatic captions, reflowed into paragraphs. Scripture references are highlighted; passages that sound like read scripture are set apart; people and spiritual beings are in bold.

Bishop, I have a question for you.

Yeah.

I think the love of money and and this will help somebody here because God is not against us having money as long as we serve him with money, right? So God has no problem, I believe. But here's the problem that most people will face. I believe the absence of money also creates the love of money for most people because I think the absence of money is probably worse than having it because you find like most of the people who even have uh spoken against you in the past or even maybe now I don't I'm not really sure or even me is like why are they dressing like this why are they dressing like But the reason why they think that is because they think we are stealing right or we are taking from somebody. But actually that that is not the truth. But the reason why a believer full of the Holy Spirit will start thinking of what is in your pocket. Why are you living like this? Is because the absence of money creates a problem within people. M

and I have seen that over and over again whereby somebody in need because they know you have money they expect you to do something for them and if you don't do it for them then that is a problem

and others I'm I'm I'm keeping it real bishop we've had some we've had some crazy things happen out here so is it not true am I communicating here true if there is an absence of resources also The pressure at home can create a problem for you too.

The leading cause of divorces is the absence of

money.

Money.

So, especially for men, you know, if you don't have a real one, you're in trouble because they won't really support you. They expect you to produce. And I've seen so many men go down the wrong road because they have no choice. I I've seen families come together to see me. He is not providing. Now, I understand if the man is lazy because I believe that a man who doesn't provide for his family is worse than a heathen. I believe that a man should do everything in his power to make sure his family is well. No excuses. I believe that even if you're building on a dream, you're working on something, you have to be willing to do absolutely everything. I did that while God was preparing me for other things.

But I have seen men who are genuinely in the process of doing something and their wife turns of them because maybe they're looking at their friends doing well. Why can't we go to vacations like that person or this person? Why are we always like this? Why is it always like this? I don't want to be with him anymore, pastor. I want out because he's not providing. But what happened to the love and all that? So, so, so I am not arguing that. No, I know you're not, but

you have to be broke because you've got to understand this.

Yes, Bishop. When I grew up in the West Indies in Jamaica,

well, Bishop,

man, when they said if you're a man,

Yes.

man means to manage.

Yes.

So, I'm not talking about not having money and not providing.

Because I owned my first house at 19. I was a millionaire at 21.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know that, Bishop.

All right. So, but the point is, all these red bottom shoes and all this kind of stuff.

Uh, my wife buys all this stuff.

Yeah.

Because I would just wear the same thing all the time.

Yeah.

And and the people would say to me, "Well, Bishop, you can afford. Why do you wear the same thing?" I said, "I'm too flawed to be flashy.

I don't need the attention." Because when the light comes on, the light comes on to your strengths

and your weaknesses

and also to your weaknesses.

Mhm.

And my greatest currency right now is not my dollars. My greatest currency is the grace of God.

Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen, Bishop.

And and I and I and I'll tell you this.

applause

I'll tell you this since I'm talking to brothers. Uh is my wife listening to this? She may. We alive.

laughter

See my brothers, I'm 75. I was single for 27 years.

I had money. I'm intoxicated with the exuberance of my verbosity. I can talk.

And one of the things that women like the most is [snorts] when you can articulate what they're thinking. You can put in words what they're [clears throat] thinking when they can't put it in words.

So at 75, I'm asking myself if I would look over my past [snorts] and particularly when I saw some woman came out on Smokey Robinson about something she accused him of 50 years ago.

I'm [clears throat] saying to myself, is there somebody in my past that can wake up one day and say,

"This is

the bishop was with me.

I'm talking to my brothers. Is there somebody somewhere in the ancient of days And most of the time it happens because you didn't write the check.

I was minding my own business. Y'all call me.

I said to most of my friends because today, brothers, when you stray outside, part of what the women do to keep you in line is the internet. and they say in the back of their mind, if he does not dance to my music, I'm going to put him out there. That's why I tell you the best peace you can have is not to go outside of what you made a commitment to be with.

Of the making of beautiful women, there is no end. But money makes you feel.

And the truth is, the truth is that some men can take care of three families better than one man can take care of one.

And it gives you a sense of power.

And it causes you to go out of [snorts] who you are. Now, do I believe that every man should take care of his family and that there's difficulties when you don't? Yes.

I believe that if you walk in your giftedness, your gift blesses others and it puts food on your table.

Amen. Amen.

Giftedness. See, and one of the things that is so uh difficult for us is when we don't have good parenting. The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go. When he's old, he will not depart from it." Many times our parents want us to be doctors when we have a proclivity to be a mechanic.

You train up a child in the way he should go. One of the things that I do with my kids, what I did with them, they're all grown now, is I checked to see what their natural tendency was.

And once I found out what they would do naturally, I fortified them in that area. My second son, uh, he does some things for the government that he can't even talk about. When I got married, I had to literally have my wife and her family to go through some FBI situation, CIA stuff, because of what he creates.

But when he was a little kid, he could destroy your computer. You can't figure it out. I mean, he would mess the thing up. Today, his computer is big as that piano.

that was what he was capable of. You raise him in the way he should go. So our problem is we are spending so much time in our lives finding out what our strength is.

And you can't have a bunch of beginnings and end up right. You can't be a truck driver uh last week and uh a drummer this week and a a [clears throat] pianist next week and uh you have to find early what your giftedness is. And to some he gave five, to another two and another one. But notice God does not give multiple gifts to [snorts] folks who don't use them.

Amen. Yeah, Jesus.

He gives multiple gifts to people who perform.

And understand this about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helpeth. [snorts] The Holy Spirit does not do all the work. The Holy Spirit helps, directs, and guides into all truth. And your greatest ability to gain wealth normally and naturally is to operate within the parameters of your own calling. Your giftedness blesses others and it puts food on your table. So when you say as the bishop has made clear when you enter into the joy of the Lord what is entering to the joy of the Lord esqueologically it's going to heaven [snorts] but contemporarily entering into the joy of the Lord is when you can take a wonder car to the dealer

and walk out with a Mercedes. Well, what is a wonder car? Wonder will it reach?

applause

When you can write the check for your kids college, you have entered into the joy of the Lord.

When you can leave that apartment, you see my father would not let me rent.

And most of what I have today, the renters paid for it.

And here's what I want to suggest to every young person in here.

You know, I got designer stuff. I got more designer. My wife does that.

I ain't walk around here barefoot. It don't matter to me.

But here's what I say to all young people today. Young, young.

You too old.

[cheering]

What I say to all young people is this.

You buy your first house as quickly as you can because home ownership is the beginning of wealth. Then you do like my father did. My father would not buy a single family house. He would always have a multiple family house so that somebody was making his payment.

So you while you have your own house, it's increasing in value.

So then you borrow against it and don't buy clothes. you borrow the increase and you get a 10 family and you get a five family. So by time you're 50 you've got 500 units.

If by time you're 50 you got a,000 units. Now you can buy a basketball team.

Amen.

So instead of spending money on designer clothes, invest in the company.

All right. So you got 500 units at $1,000 average. That's $500,000 a month to take 25% off that to keep it fixed.

to maintain it. So you're not a slum lord. That's how much you pull in it every month. Why? Because you took time to take the money out of what was progressing to buy. So every time you decide you want a Ferrari, you take the money out of your building, you buy the Ferrari, and the renters pay for you to drive the car. Now you can take care of your family. You write the check for school. My oldest son went to Cornell.

My second son went to Harvey Mud, which is harder than MIT. My daughter's got a PhD in she went to University of Texas. Thank God that was only 14,000 a year. And praise the Lord, I could dance on that. Now the Ivy League school is a 80,000 now. When my sons went, I was paying 28 29,000 for the kids to be in college. I had three of them in school at the same time.

But I lived my gift.

You can wake me up in the middle of the night [clears throat] and I can talk for the rest of the night.

I might not make any sense, but it'll sound good to you.