Unknown Speaker (9:22)

Aloud.

Ronnie (9:23)

Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it. Some of you, that's all the truth you needed. Go home. You don't need any more sermon. Your cup is full right there. Okay, if you'll just put that verse on your refrigerator. Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it. That's dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. God says, no, no. You need to plan your spending. You need a budget. You need. Now there's one more number eight. And all of these are important. I must enjoy what I have if I want God's blessing on my finances. I can't always be griping and complaining. I must learn contentment. I must enjoy what I have. Now, this is one of the major problems, particularly in Southern California. We're so busy getting more, we don't have time to enjoy what we've got. People buy these beautiful homes, and then they're never there. Cause they're always busy working to pay the mortgage on that beautiful house. Ecclesiastes 6, 9 says this. It's better to be satisfied with what you have than to always be wanting something better. Until you learn that truth. You're never gonna start saving. Cause you're always gonna. You're addicted to upgrades. It's better to be satisfied with what you have than to always be wanting something else. And when you're always wanting something else, you get so involved in getting more and getting more. We gotta get the newest model, we gotta get the greatest fashion, we gotta get the latest style, we gotta keep moving up and on. You know, we gotta keep up with the Joneses. Don't worry about the Joneses. They just file for bankruptcy, okay? Just about the time you catch up with them, they refinance. And just. This is not, you know, you get in the rat race, you may win it. You're still a rat. So don't get caught in the rat race, okay? It's better to be satisfied with what you have than always be wanting something else. And you know what? Sometimes we're always wanting something else. We're so busy getting our kids things, we don't have any time for our kids. Kids don't need things. They need attention. When my three kids were growing up, we lived for over 10 years in Laguna Niguel in a 1200 square foot home that didn't have enough bedrooms for my three kids. So I built. I turned the garage into two bedrooms and the two boys on one side and my daughter on the other side. And they grew up in the bedrooms I built in their garage. You know what? None of them are worried about it. Cause the fact is it allowed Kay to stay at home with them and allowed me to not have to take on a second job. When the church was small, they needed me and they needed Kay more. They needed our money. And they're never gonna be resentful for the fact that they had a small bedroom in our garage. When we moved out of that house, I took it out and turned it back into a garage. And the Bible says this in one Timothy 6, 18, tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them. You know, I was interviewed recently on radio and somebody said, why do you think God let you write Purpose Driven Life? Best selling book in American history. Cause it brought in a lot of money. I said, you know why? Because God knew what I'd do with the money. He knew in advance. I had already had 35 years of faithfulness. He had trusted me in little things so he could trust me in bigger things. Can God trust you? Have you proven by your Past, do your finances right now. Prove that you know how to manage money according to the biblical way. Now what we're talking about here, friends, if you want God's blessing is you're gonna have to do the exact opposite of our culture. This is extremely counterculture because everything in society tells you, spend it as fast as you get it. In fact, spend more than you've got. Put it on the credit card, charge it on your outline. I've given you two columns. On the left hand side is what most people do. This is what culture does. The first thing people do is as soon as they get it, they spend it immediately, they spend it all. And then after they spend it all, they worry about it. Now, if they have any left, they repay a little bit, the minimum. If they have little any left, which they don't, they save it. And if they have any left after that, they give it, which they don't. On the other side is the order God blesses. First, I dedicate it to God. God, it's all from you. You're my source, you're my supply and you're my security. Second, I tithe it. First, 10% goes back to you. Cause I'm trusting that you'll make the 90 go further than the 100. It's a statement of faith. Third, I save it and I invest it. I pay God first, I pay myself second. Fourth, I set up a repayment plan. And fifth, I enjoy it. I want you to hear the testimony of somebody who has lived out these principles and God has blessed him. Would you give him a warm welcome? Love you man.

Unknown Speaker (15:00)

By the way, I'm standing up if anybody's wondering. So are you on the front row? Sorry. I'm humbled and honored to be asked to share my story with you this morning. The fact that I'm standing here today is an example of being careful what you pray for. You see, last Friday, as we prepared to announce that GE Healthcare was buying Clariant, I got up around 3am in the morning to pray before heading into what I knew was going to be an extremely frenetic day. My prayer went something like this. Lord, you're an amazing God and you deserve all the credit for what's been accomplished at our company. I'm just the steward you put in charge to see your plan executed. I know that people and the press will likely blow my role out of proportion today. So I ask you, Lord, give me a forum where I can boldly and publicly proclaim you as Lord and recognize that the author of this amazing financial success of our company is you. As the crazy day ended. Thank you. As that crazy day ended, I was on my way to see my daughter cheer at Santa Margarita football game and unexpectedly got an email from Pastor Rick congratulating me and asking me to update him on the big deal and God's role in the process. So I returned his email. Well, the next thing you know, I'm standing here. So the moral of the story is if Pastor Rick emails you, don't answer him. Truly though, the story of our company's success is an amazing testimony to how God can take a group of ordinary people, inspire them with a divine vision, grant them the the wisdom to develop a solid or long range plan, and then provide them with discernment, strength, and most of all, perseverance to navigate the challenges along the way. I'd like to give you some background. At 35, I was having breakfast one morning with our pastor of our little church when we lived in Chicago. I was having my little pity party and expressing my desire to leave the corporate world for what I thought would be the safety of church ministry. Dave looked across the table at me after listening to me drone on for about 30 minutes or so and said something that changed my life. He said, ronnie, you are in the ministry. Some are called to preach, some are called to teach, and some are called to minister in the marketplace. He went on to say, God has uniquely gifted you with an aptitude for the sciences and with the servant's heart that he wants to use to transform the lives and in the healthcare business community. I was stunned at his comments. It wasn't what I wanted to hear at all. I was looking for his encouragement to quit my current job, but it was a wake up call for me. My destiny was to serve God in the business world, meeting the needs of others, making a profit from it, and using those profits for God's glory. The last 16 years since that day have been just an amazing journey filled with challenges, some failures and some successes. But I was determined to do it. By the greatest business book ever written, the Bible. I would build a business on godly principles and God's financial plan. Another real important piece of the story is that my grandmother had breast cancer when she was 52. I was only 11 at the time, but she would often tell me that she believed I was smart enough to do something about that disease. That dream of a destiny that she had really made an impression on me. She lived 30 more years with the disease and finally it took her life. But on the night before she died, I held her hand and she looked at me and said, ronnie, you promised me you would do something about this disease. God will provide a way. Just follow him so as a good southern boy always does, I said, yes, ma'am. And through a circuitous route of divinely ordained moves, five years later, I ended up as the head of worldwide commercial operations for the world's largest molecular diagnostics company. I thought, finally my chance to do something about breast cancer. But I soon discovered that the corporate world is full of bureaucracy and egos and we were slowing down both the discoveries and patients access to it. God wouldn't let me sleep. In 2004, God gave me the opportunity to take over a failed medical instrument company here in Orange county that had the ability to map proteins and cells and help doctors in any community in the United States identify the most appropriate therapy for that breast cancer. With an idea to change the way breast cancer be managed, I began to pray about making a faith commitment, as Rick calls it, to lead the safe corporate security for a new, extremely risky startup venture. All my friends and advisors told me I was crazy. Rick calls them dream busters. They'd ask Ronnie, why do you want to do this to yourself? You could take any job in the diagnostics industry. Well meaning friends poured water on the fire that God had lit in me. I was afraid and kept coming up with all kinds of compromises and shortcuts so I would not have to step out in faith and trust God. Still, the conviction from God would not leave me alone. And one night as I sat outside in Northern California and looking up at a beautiful crystal clear false sky, it hit me. The science geek kicked in. Our God is a big God. The universe is 27 billion light years wide and God laid on my heart that the psalmist said, he holds it between his thumb and his forefinger. That's a big God. That same omnipotent God cared enough to design the human body with cells that have the ability to uniquely repair themselves when DNA is mutated. And that wasn't good enough. He put a fail safe mechanism in that if that cell repair system failed, that the cell would know it and kill itself in a process called apoptosis so that cancer would not eradicate the human race. That's the God I serve. So despite how impossible I felt my destiny would be to fulfill this same God would be with me. And I remembered the promise of Isaiah 43:2 and 3. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God. I realized that this step of faith would leave me totally dependent on God. And that's exactly what God wanted and exactly where I wanted to be. I'd never be able to do this financially or any other way on my own. It was that moment I realized I had to do it. As I prepared to launch my vision to my new company, I enlisted a group of people to pray for me. Those prayers kept me going because on my first day, I laid out my plan and proclaimed my faith in front of 50 plus employees. And immediately afterwards, as I made my way up the stairs, I was met by a woman who boldly proclaimed, this will never work. Even your God isn't good enough to fix this mess. You should just get back on your plane and fly back to Northern California and hopefully get your old job back. Talk about an in your face move by Satan. I knew he was trying to deliver a discouraging message to me and weaken my faith. You see, Satan was fighting me not only because we had a passion to change the way breast cancer would be managed, but also because I was determined that my company would be built on financial principles and the leadership model. Jesus Christ. I went straight to my office, asked a few folks to come in. We got on our knees and we prayed. We dedicated our company, our vision, our prophets and our plan to God. I don't have time this morning to share the full story with you, but I can say that over the past six years we've had many ups and downs, failures and successes, and most of all, tests of faith. God needed to change me before he could bless me. And personal change, as you know, is never easy. Thankfully, though, Saddleback Church has been instrumental in my personal growth and the growth of our company, especially Saddleback's workplace ministry. These small group studies have helped us define servant leadership in Christ's terms. They've had a profound impact on our company culture. As a testimony to these groups and their impact on our corporate culture, last week Clarient was named the top medium sized health care company in the United States to work for by Modern Healthcare magazine. This truly shows that when your business and finances are focused on bringing glory to God, people will want to work there. We have an extremely compassionate, energized workforce and a very sustainable business. But my testimony today is not about the effectiveness of my leadership, but about the greatness of our God and the fact that God always keeps his promises if we just fulfill our part of the deal and obey him completely. I don't know why we think we know how to do things better than God, because we certainly don't. But as a result of my simple faith commitment I made six years ago, God has delivered in a big way. At Clariant, We've touched over 500,000 cancer patients and have grown at a 60% compounded annual growth rate since we began. We've pioneered new technologies that are saving lives while bringing in this year over $115 million in revenue. Again, I'm not the owner of this company. I'm just a steward of what God placed in my hands. If you think you can't, if God can't use you, let me encourage you. Right now, I am the least likely person in this building to be a CEO. I'm a southern boy with a funny accent, extreme case of attention deficit, no big name school education, no MBA from a top business school. In fact, my MBA stands for more Bible than anything. I simply agreed to do it God's way and fulfill his destiny for me, not mine. It has been an extremely wild ride. And now what God placed in my hands for many years, he's now placing in someone else's hands. Decade of Destiny could not have come at a better time in the life of our congregation, Orange county and our country. People need hope and a vision. Today, there is an absolutely huge void of godly leadership in the marketplace. And no matter where you are in your company, you can have an impact. After all, leadership is not about a title. It's all about your influence. In closing, the movie Chariots of Fire told the true story of Eric Liddell, the missionary and Olympic sprinter from Scotland, who at the time was thought to be the fastest man on earth. But he's most famous for refusing to compete in the 1924100 meter race because it was held on a Sunday. He insisted on honoring God first in every area of his life. He became famous for this saying, and it's a saying that's inspired me through the years. God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. As we begin Decade of Destiny together as a church family, I challenge you to consider how God has made you in your shape. You will find your calling that allows you too each day to feel God's pleasure, to have a lasting impact on the lives of others, and to succeed in being who God created you to be. Thank you.

Ronnie (26:48)

Thank you, Ronnie. Thank you. Now let me say this to you. As your pastor who loves you deeply, you have no idea how God wants to bless you if you'll just do it his way. You have no idea what God might want to do in your life. But you got to decide, am I going to trust God or me with my finances? Am I going to do it my way or am I going to do it God's way? Do I want my blessing or do I want God's blessing? Now you've got to do all eight of these habits. I know some people who tithe, but they're not satisfied with what they've got. And I know some people who are, you know, trying to repay their debts, but they're not saving anything. You've got to do it all. Now, I know debt is a big problem and that many of you, and I pray for you, those of you who are in debt, I pray for you. And I hurt for you. The Bible says this on the screen. Jesus said, don't worry. He just says it. Don't, don't worry. Your heavenly Father already knows what you need and he will give it to you. That's the promise. Here's the premise. If you give him first place in your life and you live as he wants you to. Now I wanna pray for you. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you wanna bless our health, you wanna bless our families. I thank you that you wanna bless our jobs and our finances. These are not areas that you're uninterested in. I thank you for the story of Ronnie and his faithfulness to you and how he followed God's financial plan and he followed your will and he listened to your voice and he felt himself as a steward, not as an owner. I pray for all who are here today in debt, who are worried about their finances. I pray for all who are out of work right now, Lord, give them a job. I pray that many today will say, I'm going to take that step of faith. I'm going to stop pretending. I'm going to follow God's financial plan. And I pray that you will create a generation of wealth creators and kingdom builders at Saddleback in the next decade. And I pray this in your name. Amen. What a life.

Pastor Rick (29:35)

Giving message from Pastor Rick. Now let's join Rick with today's offer.

Unknown Speaker (29:39)

Thanks for listening today. You know, honestly, I never paid much attention to my health until I had a little epiphany a few years back when I baptized over 800 people in a single day by immersion. Now, looking at myself and everybody that I was baptizing, it was real clear that we all needed to get healthy. So I put together a team of nationally known doctors to help me develop a program for our church. I called it the Daniel Plan, based on the passage in the Book of Daniel where Daniel has a contest with King Nebuchadnezzar on who can be the healthiest. The Daniel Plan is centered on five essentials that will help you become healthier. Faith, food, fitness, Focus, and friends. There are a lot of diet plans out there that deal with food and fitness, but the secret sauce in the Daniel Plan is focused. Learning to have your mind renewed, friends. Learning to grow in community and faith. Trusting God's power rather than willpower. You know, we found that when individuals addressed health issues in each of these key areas, they are transformed. In fact, in the first year of the Daniel Plan, over 15,000 people from 190 countries participated. And the results were life changing. In fact, our own church, Saddleback Church, lost over a quarter of a million pounds in one year. Can you imagine that?

Ronnie (31:03)

What did it do for our church?

Unknown Speaker (31:05)

It increased our energy. We started sleeping better. It reduced our need for medication. The whole church was healthier. Now, the Daniel Plan has recently been released in a book format and I want you to have a copy of this book today so you can start getting healthier now. And I'll send you a hardcover copy of the Daniel Plan book as a very special thank you for your gift to this ministry.

Pastor Rick (31:29)

Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com or you can just text the word hope to 70309.

Ronnie (31:41)

That's the word.

Pastor Rick (31:42)

Hope to 70309 and thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people all over the world. Be sure to join us today next time as we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.