059 | Scripture, Strategy, and Success: A Faith-Driven Path to Your Best Life

Today is going to be a different episode. My goal is to not be offensive with this message. With that being said, I’m also not afraid to share the truth. Welcome back to the Vital Strategies Podcast. I’m your host Patrick Lonergan, and today, this episode is being released on December 24th, Christmas Eve.
So I thought we’d dig into the person of Jesus, and what he means to each of us. This could be a dangerous topic. I can imagine a scenario where people are turned off by this message, and that’s okay. I want to be clear on where we stand, and people can either decide yes that message resonates with me or no it doesn’t.
Just like I think taxation is theft, pursuing hard things leads to the best life, and one of those hard things is living a life for Jesus. Now, it’s a myth that that’s the easy path, but it is the one that leads to the most fulfilled, joy filled life you can have. So where is this coming from? Our goal is to help our clients and listeners minimize taxes, maximize wealth, and optimize their lives.
We think that an optimized life includes items that make up the acronym REACH. So R’s for Relationships, E’s for Experiences, A’s for Advancement and Growth, C’s for Contribution, and the scriptures tell us it’s better to give than receive. And then H is for our health, and that’s our physical health, right?
Like, I, I spend a lot of time and energy optimizing my physical health. Uh, same thing is true about my mental health. If I’m depressed and can’t get out of bed, that’s not optimized. And then, then there’s our spiritual health. And what I’d really like to look at today is what it means to be spiritually healthy.
Now, I’m not asking you to believe anything that I, I say. I want you to explore this path for yourself. I’ve not been to seminary or received any formal training in the Bible. I’m just an ordinary sinful man searching for the truth. I have committed my life to understanding the scriptures and living them out.
With that being said, I fall short minute by minute. There may not be a more important topic for you to consider in your life. If the things that I discuss today are true, it will impact you for eternity. The time we have on earth, uh, whatever is left, whether it’s ten minutes or a hundred years, all disappears like a vapor in relationship to eternity.
Eternity is a really long time. So I want to walk you through the three steps to consider. Now, I learned these from a pastor friend of mine, Aaron Hanson. He outlined this framework. And this framework is to follow Believe and obey. Uh, and we’re going to be talking about this in relationship to Jesus. So following Jesus, believing in Jesus and obeying Jesus.
So let’s start off and let’s just look at who Jesus was as a person. Um, I think there’s four categories he could fall into. The first one is a good moral teacher, but, but not necessarily the son of God. Like that’s one option. Second is he’s a lunatic. We’ll get into that. Third, he’s a liar. And then fourth, we’ve got, he’s divine.
He’s, he really is. Who he says he was, and he was the son of God. So let’s, let’s look at Christ as just a good moral teacher. Now, if this is the case, he has a massive problem. Uh, he was a long ways away from being moral because he committed this massive fraud. And what I mean by that is you can’t claim to be the way, the truth and the life and have the power to forgive sins.
If you’re just a good moral teacher, you either have to be decide you either have to be divine. Or you have to be one of the next two options on the list. Christ didn’t leave the door open to accept him as a good teacher. He, he, he was either the son of God or he was a lunatic or a liar. Uh, we have to almost take the good moral teacher out of the equation.
So, uh, and I think that’s where most culture puts Jesus. They like to put him in the category of he, he was a good guy. He had a nice message. That’s where it ends, and I, I think that’s problematic. So now let’s look at Jesus is lunatic. Um, this is where most people, um, this is where we would put most people if they claim to be God, right?
I find it hard to believe that we would reorder our calendar, uh, based on a lunatic. I also find it hard to believe that the world’s best selling author, uh, of the Bible, right? Uh, 2, 000 years after Jesus death, he’s still selling more books today than any other author. Uh, that seems incredible to me, if we’re gonna, uh, You know, look at this is like a crazy man is selling all these books now, but I think if we claim to be God, right?
Like, uh, again, that’s, that’s probably where we’re putting most people. We probably have them committed if they, uh, claim to be, uh, the savior of the world. Now, if he wasn’t a lunatic, he could have been a liar, okay? Now, there is somewhat of a problem with the liar category. When we look at the prophecies of the Old Testament, we go back and we look at the books of, like, Isaiah and that type of thing, and we start calculating the likelihood that one person could fulfill all of those prophecies.
The statistical likelihood is 1 to 10 to the 57th power. Now, when we look at that mathematically, 10 to the 57th power is 1 with 157 zeros after it. Uh, so it’s statistically impossible that one person would fulfill all of those prophecies, and yet Jesus did. So, that leads us to our final option. Uh, is that we can accept Jesus as divine, that he is part of the holy trinity, uh, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, uh, that has existed for all time.
Now, again, we’re confronted with these options, and we can’t accept that Jesus was just a good moral teacher. He’s either divine or he isn’t. Okay. So at this point, if you’re open to the idea of following Jesus said he was divine or could potentially be divine. Let’s take a look at, at how the scripture outlines this, this framework of following, believing, and obeying.
When we start off with follow, we 4, 19 through 20, and Jesus says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men, uh, and Jesus is saying this to, um, Peter to to come follow him, right? And the first disciples just left their nets, right? They just decided to go follow Jesus before they really fully understood who he was.
They had no idea that he was Uh, the Messiah and the Son of God, like that, that comes way later in scripture when they, they start to understand that. Now we look at John 1, 38 through 39. When Jesus asks Andrew and another disciple, what do you want? And they respond by just following him to learn more.
They, they, they just show up and follow. And so if this is where you’re at, I encourage you to just follow. Now here are some practical steps for doing that. One, I think the easiest thing to do is find a friend that you believe is a strong Christian And ask them if you can go to church with them. Uh, if you’re feeling so bold, ask them out to coffee.
Uh, and just see if they’re happy to share more about their faith and what they believe is true. Now, I also don’t know of a better substitute of just opening up your Bible and starting in one of the Gospels. And the Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Uh, and from there you can just start to, to read, uh, uh, oftentimes the Bible has red letters.
Those are Jesus’s words and he, you can see how he, he calls us to live. Now there’s also some fantastic Bible studies out there and we’ll have links to these in the show notes. But Nikki Gumbel has a great Bible study and Tara Lee Cobble also has one, uh, that I think are, uh, Um, I’m also a huge fan of just getting plugged into small groups of believers that come together and study the Bible.
If we look at the, the Acts church in Bible and in the Bible, the book of Acts, uh, we just see these small groups of people coming together and supporting one another, uh, in their, their faith. And it’s pretty tremendous. So it’s very tremendous. So I, I found a lot of value there. I suggest you, you do the same.
So now we’ve decided to. To follow, um, and you may already be in this category. The next step is to, to believe. Okay. So now we see the challenges here, even with the disciples that were walking with Jesus. You know, we, we saw a couple of examples earlier with, um, Peter and Andrew, where they just followed, right.
They just, Uh, I said, all right, I will, I will follow you. And in John 20, 29 through 31, uh, it says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Belief is more than just an intellectual issue. It’s a heart transformation. It’s where, it’s where we start to feel the presence of Jesus and understand.
But oftentimes people get stuck here. They think that belief is, is enough. Um, and an interesting point is we see in James 2, 19, even the demons believe in shudder. And so I think this is a challenging place to be. Some people think, Oh, I, I believe in God and I’m in good shape. You know, my, my eternity in heaven is, uh, secured because I, I believe.
Uh, but there’s a third step to this and it’s the, the obey piece. And we’ll get to that in just a minute. Um, but I, I think there’s a level of like, this belief is hard. Uh, in John six, Uh, 60, it says, On hearing it, many disciples said, This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Uh, aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, Does this offend you?
And then he goes on to say, The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. So, we see that these teachings are not easy to accept. Uh, it’s challenging and we’re going to get into that a little bit more in the I Obey piece.
But, believing is not enough to secure our salvation. So, we, we look at this, uh, at James 2. 17. Faith by itself. If it does not have works is dead. Okay. So we just can’t have faith on a tone. We can’t just live in a, you know, a holy huddle and just be like, yep, I, I believe in Jesus. Like there’s some works that are tied to this.
Uh, faith becomes alive when it’s expressed in action as we trust God and live out according to his ways. So, let’s move beyond just believing and look at what it, it looks like to have, uh, obedience to obey. And this is where our faith becomes real. So, I think my concern is that there are a lot of people that attend church that believe they’re good people and are going to heaven.
The problem with that is they’re being entertained by Christianity and that’s, that’s just not enough. Uh, it’s not, Especially according to the scriptures. So, um, cause we can, we can sort of fall into this legalism. Like I’m checking my, my religious boxes and, uh, I’m, I’m okay. I’m, I’m going to be saved. Uh, where, when we see the scriptures, uh, that’s, that’s a dangerous place to be.
And it, it doesn’t, uh, it doesn’t ring true that, uh, that’s, that’s our, our ticket to eternity. So in John 14, 15. He says, if you love me, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And then in Luke 9, 23 through 24, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
So deny myself, right? Like I’m, I’m supposed to take my selfish desires and sort of hang them on the cross and I’m supposed to follow Jesus and, uh, that’s going to be a challenge. Every day we’re going to be challenged with this. So, uh, our obedience often requires sacrifice and turning away from our worldly desires to live for the kingdom.
So let’s, let’s look at the cost of discipleship in Matthew 16, 24 through 26. What good is it? Excuse me. Matthew 16, 24 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? And then Philippians 3, 7 8 Paul considers everything a loss as compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.
And then in Luke 14, 26 If you come to me, but will not leave your family, you cannot be followers. You must love me more than your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters. Even more than your own life. And now this is a hard scripture to read, but at the end of the day, what Jesus is saying is you can’t have these worldly desires, you know, when we think about the 10 commandments, um, You know, you shall have no other gods above me.
It’s meaning all of my devotion is to the Lord, right? I shouldn’t worship any other idols. And those idols can be my parents, could be my wife, could be my children, could be my job, could be my football team, you know, all of those things. I need to leave that all behind. It could be my work, even, you know, my business.
And that’s, that’s hard for us as entrepreneurs to, uh, to really embrace. So when I think about that, I have to be willing to leave it all behind. Like the cost is, is great. Um, we even see that in the rich young ruler, Jesus says to the rich young ruler, who’s obeyed all of the commandments, he says, well, sell all your possessions and come follow me.
And the rich young ruler goes away sad. And the reason being is that wealth was an idol above the Lord. And, uh, again, that can be challenging for us as entrepreneurs. Like we, we put a lot of. Our identity in our businesses, and, uh, it’s not where it should lie, uh, should lie is, uh, followers of the Lord. Um, and then finally in Matthew 11, 12, uh, we are really called to a violent rejection of how culture calls us to live and to live out the scriptures.
They will be at odds with each other. And this is absolutely a hard thing to put into practice. So let’s, let’s look at the implications for. Following, believing, and obeying Jesus. Now, in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, It says, Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you practices, you who practice lawlessness. Now, I read that scripture and it’s really challenging, and what I can take out of that is think of all of those religious things that were happening.
I prophesied, right? I cast out demons, I did wonders. But there’s clearly a piece of this where Jesus wants relationship with you, you know, and Paul talks about praying without ceasing, you know, and at first I never understood that as a, As a new believer, I’m like, what does that mean? Do I just keep saying my like rote prayers over and over again?
But no, what it means is I have this constant communication with the Lord, right? Like, um, I can speak to him through prayer just like I could my wife, right? And, um, and I’m, I’m thinking about all of the things that I’m doing in my life, from my work to my parenting to, uh, the movies I’m watching, the music I’m listening to, you know, and filtering that through a Jesus filter, okay?
That’s And so, uh, I, I think Jesus is pointing out, like, hey, I need to know you, you know, so you could come join me. Uh, and I think that’s where the, the danger lies in being entertained by Christianity. I can show up to a, a great worship service. I can be entertained by a great message. I can do religious things, but if I’m not taking this and applying it to my life, um, and living it out, I, I think it’s a pretty dangerous place to be.
So, now this structure of follow, believe, and obey that Jesus laid out for us in the scriptures is actually the most fair structure. Imagine if I had to be good to a certain point to get into heaven. Now if I were just, had to be a good person, right? And the scriptures tell us not one of us is good, but if I had to figure that out, would it be 50 percent of my actions plus one, like just a little over 50 percent is good enough to get me in?
Is it 80%? What if I sin unintentionally? Does that count? Now, the reality is, we got the most fair way, because again, the scriptures tell us not one of us is good, and here’s, here’s what I mean by that. Uh, let’s just take a look at the Ten Commandments. The third commandment is you shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am guilty of that. When we look at the fourth commandment, Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Now, I’ve definitely worked through the weekend. Jesus also said, If you look after a woman in lust, you have committed adultery. Okay, there’s another commandment that I violated.
And then finally we have, You shall not steal. Now, if you’ve ever taken anything ever, if you’ve ever stolen, even small, You’re guilty. I’m guilty. I’m guilty of all four of those things, right? And I’ve only hit on four out of the ten commandments, and I’m sure if I looked at the rest of them I’d be guilty of those as well.
So in light of all of these things, if we were to go in front of the judge and he says, Okay, here’s the charges against you, those four commandments I just listed. Are you innocent or guilty? And unfortunately, I would have to say I am, I am guilty. And we think about this in relationship to a pure, holy God, right?
There’s, there’s no room for sin with the Lord. And that’s why all these sacrifices were made to atone for our sin in the Old Testament. And then the ultimate atonement showed up in the form of Jesus, because not one of us is good. And so, when we think about that, We have an opportunity to believe in Jesus and then we, we can have eternal life.
Now, I think this is hard to reconcile because when we think about the sweet old lady down the street, right, we’d be like, of course, they’re going to heaven. Right? If anybody’s earned it, it’s her. The reality is the wages of our sin. Just one sin is a separation from, from God in, in heaven, right? Like that unfortunately condemns us to hell.
And I, that truth can be really hard to, to hear, but it’s. When we think about the scriptures and what they say, that’s the truth of those scriptures. So, that’s something for us to, to really consider. And I think when we apply the follow, believe, and obey, it’s the most fair way. Jesus died for those sins.
And there’s nothing that you or I can do to earn our way to heaven. We can’t, we can’t do enough good religious things to get our way there. And the good news about that is when Jesus died for us, He washed our sins white as snow. Like we are pure as can be in His eyes. Uh, the scriptures tell us that we are free from our sins as far as the east is from the west.
And that’s really, really good news. So we’ve walked through a lot and wherever you are in this process, I just encourage you to take action. I don’t, I don’t encourage you. I don’t, I’m not asking you to believe anything that I’m saying. Um, and I think a great place to start, even if you’re at the beginning of, you know, do I, how do I even follow, right?
I think one of the best things you can do is pray, right? I wear my. My prey bracelet, you know, uh, and it says, is this my reminder to, to constantly be communicating with the Lord? And I think that’s a great place to start. Lord, do you even exist? Are you out there? Are you real? What is my next step that I should take?
And, uh, I just pray for you to ask for him to reveal himself, uh, through this process. And so, again, here’s the framework. Follow Jesus, believe in Jesus, and then obey in Jesus. Obey Jesus. And I, I think the, the challenging part is there will be fewer and fewer people that, uh, you know, make it to the next step.
Uh, and I think we’re challenged to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Like it is, it’s, it’s a process. But we can have confidence in that. So, again, to follow, take a step towards exploring who Jesus is. Whether it’s attending a church service, opening up your Bible, or meeting with someone that just knows him.
Then reflect on what God is revealing to you. And if you’re being called to believe, uh, respond to his presence. Uh, I think that’s tremendous. And then, finally, just obey. Uh, If my heart is truly for the Lord, I want to live out a life that brings glory to God. Right? And so, Um, I think it’s worth asking yourself when we get to that obey step, what, what things do I need to give up, uh, to live, uh, a life that’s fully for Christ in the kingdom, you know?
And for me, there is, there’s been a number of corrections along the way, uh, as an entrepreneur, I really thought that I could figure it all out. Uh, and then we got to the point where, uh, our real estate portfolio was in a challenging spot. And, uh, there was a few truths. I just started leaning hard into, uh, told in the scriptures that we can test the Lord in our tithe.
And it’s like, okay, Lord, I’m broke. I don’t know how to do this. I’m just going to trust you with the money. Cause I clearly haven’t figured it all out. Uh, and during some of those challenging times, it was amazing to see how he, he showed up. Uh, there’s also some scriptures around the. The Lord clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the air.
And he loves us more than that. And so I just rested in those truths. And, uh, it was amazing to see how just little bits of obedience, the Lord responded to them. Uh, so I, I just challenged you to do the same. Uh, there’s going to be times where it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense to give 10 percent of your income away.
It doesn’t make any sense to work six days and not seven, right? If I can get. An extra day’s worth of work in there, I, I might as well do it. I think the truth of the scriptures will, will bear fruit for you. One thing to think about is Hebrews 12, 1 through 2. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
So I just appreciate you. Um, if it’s okay, I figure this is an appropriate place to, to wrap up this message with a prayer. Lord, I just thank you for all of the people listening here today. I just pray that you draw them close to you, uh, no matter where they’re at in this process. I just pray that, uh, uh, you reveal yourself to them and that, um, uh, you show them that they’re the full life is a life in Christ.
Not that it’s necessarily easy. We see the challenges that Paul faced. He was in prison, shipwrecked, um, lived a very hard life. And I think. Amen. Uh, the scriptures also tell us our, our lives are going to be challenging, uh, but to rejoice in those challenges, it’s going to refine us and make us better. And uh, Lord, I, I just pray that, uh, if anybody has any questions about, uh, their walk with the Lord, that they aren’t afraid to reach out, uh, connect with me or somebody else that, um, is happy to walk them through the process, uh, Lord, I just thank you for, for all of our blessings.
And I just bring all these prayers in Jesus name. Amen. So thank you for tuning in to today’s episode of the vital wealth strategies podcast. If you’re interested in talking more about your faith journey, feel free to email me at Patrick at vital strategies. com. I’d love to continue this conversation again.
My email is Patrick at vital strategies. com. Thank you for listening to the vital wealth strategies podcast. We want to serve you the entrepreneur to minimize your taxes, maximize your wealth and optimize your life. Also, thank you for being a vital entrepreneur. You’re vital because you’re the backbone of our economy, creating opportunities for your employees and driving growth.
You’re vital to your family, fostering abundance in all aspects of life. And you’re vital to me because you strive to build wealth and make an impact to your business and live a great life. Have a Merry Christmas. I look forward to our next episode where we are going to build a framework for planning out the new year.
Until next time, I’m Patrick Lonergan, and thank you for listening to the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast.