Tuesday Short: Gospel Over Growth

Summary

The conversation discusses the importance of prioritizing the gospel over growth in business. It emphasizes the need to stay true to the gospel message and not compromise it for the sake of growth or personal gain. The speaker acknowledges that he also struggles with this and encourages listeners to join him in learning and growing together. The episode concludes with a reminder to focus on being gospel witnesses and serving others in the real estate industry.

Takeaways

Prioritize the gospel over business growth
Avoid compromising the gospel for personal gain
Recognize the importance of being gospel witnesses in the real estate industry
Focus on serving others rather than pursuing growth at all costs

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Gospel Over Growth
04:21 The Dilemma: Compromising the Gospel
06:07 The Danger of Abandoning the Gospel
07:30 The Priority: Numbers of the Kingdom
09:55 The Truth: Security in Christ
10:23 Conclusion: Gospel Over Growth

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Transcript

0:05

Gospel over growth. If we have to abandon the gospel in order to grow, then stop. If we have to abandon the gospel in order to avoid confrontation, then pray for boldness and wisdom in confrontation. If we have to abandon the gospel in pursuit of our own provision, then study the word and the promises of the Lord to be the provider and once again proclaim the gospel. Growing the numbers of the kingdom is far greater than growing the numbers of your business. Gospel over growth. What is up, faithful agents? Welcome back to another Tuesday short episode. I actually just read something that I posted about a week ago on the Facebook page. It's just something that's been on my heart as I something that I personally wrestle with as well. I think one of the the truth is it's really easy if you're on the podcast or you're up on a stage or whatever for people to hear you share your thoughts and ideas and whatever and assume that you don't struggle with these things or that you've got it all figured out and that is. the furthest thing from the truth is something that I wrestle with constantly, just like you do. And so just know when I share these thoughts, either on the Facebook page and if you're not on the Facebook group, you need to go join it, just search the faithful agent. When I share, excuse me, in this podcast, it's just things that I'm personally wrestling with, not stuff that I've figured out and mastered, but it's stuff that I hope that we will learn and grow. together in. So once again, thanks for coming back to another Tuesday short episode, a few quick housekeeping items. If you can and you haven't, please rate and review the show, five -star rating, and then leave us a little review, and then share it with your friends. We would greatly appreciate that. It's one of the best ways we can grow the ministry in the reach is you share this content with somebody you know that might be encouraged by it. So do that. Number two, if you're not part of a local group, Go to faithfulagent .com backslash local groups and check it out. You can get involved with one of the many, many local groups that we have or are starting soon all around the country right now. And if there's not one near you, you can start one. You can reach out to us there. The local groups is where most of the growth and change is going to happen. We love the podcast. We love the conferences. We love the Facebook group and all the things that we and the Lord's kindness we get to do to serve you, faithful agent family. but it's the local community that's gonna bring you the biggest encouragement and change. So I implore you to go get involved or start your own. Would love for you guys to be a part of that as well. But today we're gonna talk about gospel over growth. And it's exactly what I read earlier, but as always before we do Andy Wirt, this one is for you, my friend. It's for you because you talked about it in our coaching call today. Not that I've read it, but let's read the Christian, the chat GPT Christian story. Let's see what it has to say. Pastor John decided to use this unexpected error to his advantage. With a big grin, he said, well, it looks like we're not just cleaning up the church grounds this summer, we're also doing a clean sin up. If you have any sins you've been holding onto, now's the time to get rid of them. And remember, we don't just take small sins, we accept all sizes, shapes, and varieties. The congregation burst into laughter. And from that day on, the annual summer cleanup was affectionately known as the clean sin up, reminding everyone that the church is a place for forgiveness and new beginnings. That's just not funny. That's... Did I put in a bad prompt? I just did the... I said a funny Christian story. All right. Well, sorry you guys had to listen to that. I'm sorry I had to read it. It just is like, womp womp. That's not funny at all. All right. How do I recover from that? Okay. So, that was terrible. Gospel over growth. Gospel over growth. If we have to abandon the gospel in order to grow, then stop. Growing the numbers of the kingdom is far greater than growing the numbers of your business. Again, this is something that is hard. I rustle with this myself, not in the sense of I want to have been in the gospel, that's not true at all, but in the sense of it's really easy to think and look and say, well, if I just take that shortcut here, or maybe if I just don't treat the person right over here, I just kind of do a little white lie that maybe it'd make my business a little bit better, maybe we could grow a little bit quicker, or... If I just add a bunch of agents to my team and without a heart to really serve them and not care about what they're trying to do, then the easiest thing for me would be to just grow and add a bunch of people and make a bunch of false promises, right? Like at the end of the day, we've got to understand that the most important thing we can do in this industry, the most important thing we can do in our business is be gospel witnesses. That's the key to why we're even in real estate is because you get to reach people. that I don't get to reach. You get to reach people that you weren't reaching when you were in whatever career field you were in before. These are gospel opportunities for you and it is really easy because the industry, because the world measures success, right, by how many deals, how much money, all of those things. You get the nice car, you go on a nice vacation, all those things. It's really easy for us to abandon the gospel in search of growth. And it's not quite that clear. Right? No one's going to say, well, I've been to the gospel and forget the Lord because I just want to grow. It comes in subtle ways. It comes in the danger of the self -help society. Right? It comes in the danger of the books that just say, you're enough and you can do whatever you want if you just put your mind to it. Right? Like it comes in the danger of those things when we start to believe that everything that we need and is good is within us already. And we say, well, if I can just... learn enough, if I can just take enough action, if I can just do X, Y, and Z, then I'm going to get where I want to go. The reality is that that is a dangerous concept because we are in essence abandoning the gospel in hopes of growth. We're saying, Lord, whatever it is that you want, that you can put that on hold, I'm going to go just become whoever I want to be, and I'm going to grow, and I'm going to make more deals, and I'm going to make more money, and I'm going to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. And at the end of the day, As believers, we've got to approach our business, and this is hard, and this is really, really hard for me. We've got to approach our business and say, Lord, I want to become excellent in what I do. I absolutely want to become an excellent in what I do. But as your word says, there is nothing good in me. My heart is wicked and deceitful above all things. There's nothing good in me apart from Christ. So no, I can't buy into this lie that, Garrett, if you just believe in yourself deep enough, if you just work hard enough, you all the good stuff is already in, already inside you, you can become whatever you want to be. That's just not true. That is not true. So the reality is for us, we don't want to abandon the gospel. We want to embrace the gospel because the numbers of the kingdom matter way more than the numbers of your business. And when we think long term and we have the appropriate ability to think long term and we recognize, man, what matters most? in the opportunity of this deal or in the opportunity to serve this client. And I'll even give an example of working with an agent, but in these opportunities, what matters more is not getting the deal done. What matters most is how do I be a gospel witness? We're having a conversation in the local group I'm part of, right? Go be part of a local group for the faithful agent. We're having a recent conversation. I was sharing an example of how in this industry, especially right now, we're in a really tough season. A lot of agents are scared or fearful. And and quite honestly doing shady things or, you know, saying rude things and that's just agents in general, but doing things that just aren't appropriate or are not in the, with their client's best heart and mind, but just because they're trying to get a deal done or they're trying to make money, whatever it is, it's okay. And this is my encouragement and this is my encouragement to you. This is my encouragement to me. When you're working with an agent who is acting all kinds of crazy and they're struggling, they're struggling through whatever is going on. The reality is for you to pause and say, hey, can we put the deal aside? This is my encouragement to y 'all. Can we put the deal aside? How are you doing? There's a hard market out there, right? But actually speak to the heart of the agent. And who knows what the responsibility of maybe the agent will say, you know, it's been a really tough season. It's been a lot of ups and downs and I'm worried about blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, whatever it is, right? That was a terrible phrasing. We're here about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but. Whatever it is that they're worried about, you can say, hey, that's really tough. You know, I've had some of those own worries myself, and I'm really grateful that my hope is secure in Christ. And they're like, what does that mean? Well, let me tell you about it. Right. I'd love to share that with you. Reality is we're in this really difficult place in the industry. The reality is because we want to grow so bad, the reality is because we allow everyone else to determine what success looks like for us. We very often. take action, we very often think things, we very often seek things that are all about growth and not about the gospel. And again, they're subtle things, and most of us aren't going out and doing crazy, crazy things. It's subtle things where we begin to rely on our own strength when we begin to think that all we need is within us already, when we begin to think that if we just had more people or more deals or more whatever, then we would finally be secure, and none of those things are true because it's the gospel. That is true. It's the fact that the Lord is our security. It's the fact that our comfort comes from knowing Christ, that our future is secure in Him. It is the reality that it's not about growth. It's not about getting more people to join your team or selling more deals or, you know, winning over against another agent and negotiating them until they lose. The reality is you're getting in conversations with people who desperately need the gospel, and it's our responsibility to share it with them. And... Brothers and sisters, that's really hard. But if we think gospel over growth, if we show up to every day of work, which we're never going to do that, let's be real, but if we can encourage one another to show up and say gospel over growth, the Lord is going to use us in mighty, mighty ways. And I pray that that's the kind of community that we will be. I pray that's the kind of agent that I will be. I pray that's the kind of agent you will be. Gospel over growth. I love you, brothers and sisters. We'll see you on Thursday.