Seek God First | Vision 2025 | Jentezen Franklin

0:00 Hello, this is Jensen Franklin, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. Our goal is to provide you with biblically-based teachings that will challenge, inspire, and equip you to live for Jesus. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to go ahead and subscribe today to this podcast so you can get the latest updates from us and you don't ever have to miss a new message. let's go right into the service recorded at Free Chapel I believe it's going to bless you today I'm going to ask you to stand one more time if you would. And I want to say thank you for making all of that ministry happen in this last year. We appreciate you in this year, this year of 2025, all of those things. And you'll see more next week and you'll see more the week after.

0:57 We're so thankful for each and every one of you and all of you online, all of you at our campuses. We want to tell you how much we appreciate you making ministry happen. I think it would be in order right here, right now, if we gave a warm welcome to someone that I want to introduce to you. This man standing beside me is Zach McElroy. He is the co-founder and former CEO of a multi-billion dollar Zaxby's restaurant brand. He continues to serve on the board of directors as the chief, the co-founder and former CEO. He also was recognized in 2021 by Franchise Times as Zaxby as the deal maker of the year for a new partnership with Goldman Sachs. That's pretty cool. And born and raised in Athens. He's got his beautiful family with him down here today.

1:57 He's got two sons and a daughter. And then Mr. and Mrs. Where are they at? McElroy. There he is. Wayne and Kay, we see you right down here on the front row. What an honor to have you. Would you give a warm welcome to Zach McElroy. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you. You may be seated. Smile at someone. So in this series, we love to share great stories of people in the church, connected with the church. And I couldn't think of a greater one than your story. You've been here for almost 20 years, haven't you? That's right. And we've watched the restaurant Zaxby's explode over the last 20 years. Zach, take us back to when, and by the way, all that time you've been here in the church. You've been coming.

2:51 You've been a part of the ministry. You've been here. And we've seen these stories over and over, but this is an amazing story. How did you get the idea to start Zaxby's? Well, I would say this started a long time ago with my teens, and I didn't know what was going on in my life. but I was raised in the church by my parents so I've always been a believer and I've always known that God's got a part of my life and but what I use as a necessity when I turned 16 to start working it was working in restaurant jobs and that's what got me through high school and got me through college helped me buy a car pay for tuition and do the things we all do just just living life but I did not realize till I graduated college that those years I had spent in the restaurant business was something that I looked at and said, I could turn this into a career.

3:46 I found a passion for what was a necessity. And I said, I want to spend the rest of my, I want to build a career in hospitality. And that's when I decided I'm going to step out, take a leap of faith and open up my own restaurant. And I had one problem though. I had no capital. I had a lot of ambition, big goals, but no capital. and when I was a young child, I was given a drum set at a very young age and started playing drums, and it was just natural for me to be a drummer. So I grew up playing drums, had a set, had several sets, and I actually thought when it got to my senior year, I was going to leave high school and go join a band and become a rock and roll star.

4:29 But that dream did not come to reality, did not come to fruition. So years later, after college, I still had that drum set, but I said, like I said, I had no capital. So I said, I have the one thing that has any value to me is my drum set. So I sold that for $8,000. My partner matched it with $8,000. We opened our very first store for $16,000. Was that in Athens? That was actually in Statesboro, Georgia, Georgia Southern College. Yeah. So with that limited capital and a lot of ambition and a lot of big goals, I thought if I lose, if I fail, it's okay. I can recover from this. And if it was like it is today, to come into Zaxby's today is a $3 million investment. It never would have happened. So that showed me I was in the right place at the right time with the right investment with the right faith.

5:26 And so you start and it begins to grow and it begins to go. And people always love the success story, they don't know the other side of being an entrepreneur and being a business person. And then I want to add a Christian, a person of strong faith, a person who is doing what you're doing because you know how important God is in your life and in your family. So what are some of the things that that you would say to people who are going through struggles because i think sometimes our greatest stories are stories of when we almost gave up when we almost felt like i'm going to lose it all it's all going to just go go down the drain well unfortunately we have to go through those things and i think even in business that's where i learned the most it wasn't the time we opened our hunt the store or we had a great franchise agreement it's when we lost a site we that just didn't go right.

6:33 Or we had a franchisee who might fail. Or for some reason, the location didn't work. You learn to overcome those things. They're going to happen. You're going to have setbacks. You're going to have challenges. You're going to have small failures. But that's part of success. I don't think you can truly enjoy or understand success unless you understand failure. You need both to really appreciate the success you have. and so as you went along and the company began to grow and begin to explode how do you how do you grow that how do you do that was it a process or was it something that you would seek the Lord about did you when you had to make major investments major decisions you mentioned in the other service that you went for 10 years in in kind of a week by week kind of situation. Describe that for this group. Well, I already told you my first store was $16,000 investment. And then the next one's a little bit more money. But we basically lived out of cash flow. We grew our business using our cash flow. We weren't taking loans. And so at the end of the first year, we'd made, I think, $80,000 or $90,000. And we took that to our account. We owe taxes.

7:54 And I said, don't have any money. We opened another store. And he said, well, there's this thing called phantom income. You made the money. You might not have it, but you made it. So you owe taxes. So a little issue. So we went to our bank and the bank said, yeah, actually, that's a good problem to have. We'll loan you the money to pay your taxes. And then you pay us back over the course of the year. That way you can keep using your money, your cash flow to grow the business. So we did that for 10 years. We kept rolling every dollar we made into the business and the other thing we both agreed to my partner and I is that for 10 years We got paid ten dollars an hour each So that's how I lived I've had no expenses. I had no home. I didn't I wasn't you know didn't have a family at the time So this was easy as a single man to live off ten dollars an hour be hard for a family So that's again. I was in the right place at the right time of the right investment So every year for 10 years, rolling our capital, getting loans from the bank, and we finally got to a point we had so much momentum and cash flow, then the bank started coming to us, wanting to make us loans to grow the business.

9:05 And we also had franchisees who came into the business that were afraid to take the risk. So they asked us to be their partners. So lots of cases, we had franchisees, but we were their partner as well. And so over the first 10 years, we had 20 company stores, we had 80 franchises, and we thought we were unstoppable. And then that blessing, and for 10 years, three years later, we had another 100 stores, a year and a half later, another 100 stores. And today, we're on the verge of opening our 1,000th store in Manhattan, New York in January. Wow, congratulations. That's amazing. So through those processes and those years, and then one day getting notified that your dream, your vision has made the Forbes 500 list, what's that feel like? It's a very surreal feeling.

10:02 And actually, I'm a pretty private person. and so I guess with that came a lot of pride a lot of embarrassment I didn't really want people to know and uh I shy away from it I just I don't want that notoriety but they said you can either be part of this article or we're going to write the article without you so I thought I tried to control the narrative they were going to say but there was no stopping forks they were going to do what they're going to do so I kind of you know one part of me passed myself on the back the other part of me, you know, just I'm very humbled, very humbled by it because none of this would have happened had I not been a tither. I wholeheartedly believe that because I tithed early in the business, it impacted, it set off a chain reaction across the entire business. And it helped us to attract the right people and it helped to repel the wrong people. We always felt ourselves cycling through people. And so, you know, y'all was talking about being equally yoked. We were equally yoked with our team members, our managers, our franchisees.

11:08 It was just a huge family of faith believers and want to do this great thing together. And that really created cohesiveness. And we were like a big family. Culture was incredible. And so I told people at work, I said, I want this to be your best eight hours of your day. I want you to come to work and love being here and not want to go home. I want you to be paid better here than any place else, be treated better here than any place else. And we created that culture. And I think that's really what grew our business the way it grew. That's so powerful. I love that. One of the things that I wanted people to understand, and I so appreciate you doing this, we ask you to do it. He is a private person. And he's here to give glory to Jesus Christ. He'll be the first to tell you that. But through the years, Zach, when you come and it's never changed, no matter how much God has blessed you, you, and I have your permission to share this, when you give, you like, it's very unusual.

12:16 I'm so thankful that most of you are signed up for electronic giving. That's wonderful. That's a great thing. But he's a different guy because he likes to still write the check. for what you do for the Lord and His work and Free Chapel and this ministry. You, along with all of these amazing people, have made miracles happen for this ministry. And you like to write the check. Why do you write the check? I forgot to drop these off this morning. you you haven't been in church for a while but there are come as often as I can there's five checks and he writes everyone writes the amount writes everyone writes the amount writes it to the ministry why do you why is it important for you to write that Well, my view on that is we live such hectic lives.

13:24 Our lives are so busy, so complicated, so many things going on. And then you look at this magical item we have in our hand that's supposed to make our life better and easier. It makes our life more complicated. We've become multitaskers to the ultimate degree. And you think about these little accomplishments you have in life or things you want to celebrate that you do. But we're so busy, we don't stop to celebrate. that accomplishment or that success, we move right on to the next thing. So it's really easy to forget. So I do this for me because it reminds me of what the Lord did for me, what the Lord continues to do for me, how he blesses my life each and every day. So when I write these checks, it's just a reminder of the blessing and the gratitude I have for what God's done. So good. So powerful. What would you say to young people and what would you say to people who are entrepreneurs and people who are starting out and they've got a dream to start a business or vision to start something, use their gift and talent?

14:31 How important has God been in this process? I know you. I know how much you love the Lord and how much He really means to you. what would you say to people? You've seen it all and you've done a lot with your life, but it all goes back to Him. And how important is that to you? I think it's extremely important. And for me, I think it's easy today, like I said earlier, to be in business and to start a business, because I think there's so many people that aren't doing it right. They're focused on the wrong thing. They're focused only on the bottom line or how much they can get ahead. So it's easy to stand out today by I think doing the right thing, honoring God, and loving on the people who work for you and around you and supporting those people. Because you raise them up, they're gonna raise you up. And I don't think there's very few people, very many people doing that. And even after this this transaction I went through with Goldman Sachs, the culture changed. It shifted. And there were a lot of people in the organization that really were brokenhearted because it changed so much. Goldman Sachs is a great company, but we had something really special. We had a family, and that's what made all the difference because we treated each other like family, and we try to treat the guests like family.

15:57 So it was just this red thread through the business, and I think that's what made us so successful and continues to. But I know I sat in this room years ago before Zach's Bus ever started with dreams and hopes and aspirations of how I see my life, how I want it to turn out. We all have them. It's natural. But I think there are two great motivators in life. It's the fear of loss or it's the hope of gain. So you have to decide which way you're going to lean? You're going to let that fear keep you from doing what you know in your heart you can do? Or you're going to let that hope excite you and charge you up and go do what you know you can do?

16:43 Don't be naive, though. To go into business, you're going to have some failures. You're going to have some setbacks. You're going to have some extreme challenges that you cannot even anticipate. But the great thing about that is, when it comes to you, you always figure it out. I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking about, but how? How do I do it? How do I start a business? How do I take that risk? I think you're thinking about the wrong thing. The thing to figure out is what it is you really want to do. And you got to know it from the top of your head to the sole of your feet. And you also have to know why you want to do it. I think once you figure out what it is you want to do and why you want to do it, the how comes. I didn't know how to run a restaurant. I had a dream.

17:35 I said, I know I can do this. So I started one. To start 10, limited budget, started one store. And then I opened number two. I figured out how to do number two. And then we figured out how to do number three and on and on and on. The bigger you go, the bigger the challenges, the bigger the failures, the bigger the mistakes, the bigger the uh-ohs. It's all part of it.

17:59 But if you believe in God, you trust in God, you treat your people right, you're going to succeed. You're going to prevail. That's the way I see it. You know, every day I've come to many sermons here. My life's been so touched by this man. He's an incredible man. Let's give him a hand. There's a sermon he did, and I think we will all remember. He walked across this stage and said, throughout life, you're going to go from testing to blessing, from testing to blessing.

18:39 And you think about it, every day we all go through a test. It could be a test for your job. it could be a test because you're in school you try to get an education you're trying to learn more you're trying to promote yourself it could be a test in an athletic sport you're trying to achieve something great And then the blessing is the payoff. That achievement, that test score, or that paycheck. You think about it, you go to work, you're being tested. And the blessing is the paycheck. and what's interesting about that the lord doesn't expect anything of us he doesn't say you've got to do this for me or do that for me there's nothing we have to do to be blessed he just wants us to share this much of our success so you make that good grade thank thank the lord you make that achievement and that sport thank the lord you make a paycheck you share a little bit with the Lord.

19:45 That's all he wants. and what's interesting about that, you know, when I first gave my first tithe, I felt so liberated, like a relief. Like, why did I worry about this all these years? Why was it so hard to give my money? Because I guess I really didn't trust him.

20:09 Because I think the ultimate way you prove to the Lord that you trust him is when you give him your money. you know you're giving in the physical but you're really you get a deposit into the spiritual that's right so good because we can't take any of this with us i don't care how much money i make i can't take a dime of it with me that's right no car no house no vacation none of it the only way to take it with you. There's one way. It's not a secret. It's called tithing. Because when you tithe, you've given in the physical. The church is responsible now. It's out of your hands. You can't worry about what they're going to do with it. They're going to misappropriate it. They're going to use it to do something wrong. You've already given it. You gave it to God. The church is custodian of that money. Now they're responsible for taking that money and spending it right.

21:05 but what you just did you just opened up heaven that money as much as you gave to the church went to heaven And where it went is to HB&T, the Heavenly Bank and Trust Company.

21:28 And you know what a trust is? A trust is something you set aside for typically sometime in the future, typically for someone else. But when you tithe, you just made a deposit for yourself. that's the only way you can enjoy your success is to tithe because when you get to heaven as much as you gave here we'll be there waiting on you you have the biggest bank account the baddest car and the biggest the biggest house in heaven because you gave to the lord i truly believe it that's so great wow well i want you to tell him how much we appreciate him sharing is amazing We're so proud of you. We're so proud of you in a good way. I'm honest. It's good to see here. You put these in. You get the blessing for them. We appreciate you.

22:19 Give them a big thank you. God bless you. I've got plenty of time to preach now for just a few moments. Say amen. That's a good chance to say amen right there. If you have your Bibles, you can open them to the book of Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. So powerful. What he just shared is exactly what I want to preach. I've never preached this message except in the 9 o'clock. and I pray the Lord quickens it now. Speak to these people like you spoke to me about it. In Jesus' name. God is not finished raising up people in this church. I love what he said that Zach said he was sitting out there contemplating starting the business. That's how God does it.

23:13 You don't ever know how God is going to speak to you when you sit in God's house. Worshiping him. Matthew 6, 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And these things, all these things will be added unto you. Therefore, do not worry. When you put God first and seek him first, you don't have to worry. God knows where you are. The phrase three times in this one chapter, Jesus is preaching to the people about giving, about sowing. And he says three different times, do not worry. Do not worry.

24:10 If you put me first, you don't have to worry. anything in your life, anybody in your life, whatever you release into God's hands, give it to God and let him solve it his way. He says, I am a good father and I take good care of my children. And when you obey my word and obey me, I will take care of you. Don't worry about anybody or anything. We don't even, that seems so far fetched. We can't even hardly get an amen out of one third of this whole congregation because you think it's normal to worry. If you're in a lawsuit, don't worry. If you've got a problem with your finances, if your job is getting tight and they're laying people off, don't worry. Don't worry. Got a bad report. Don't worry. I'm telling you, these are the words of Jesus.

25:08 and he meant what he said. He takes care of his children. Shout amen. You don't have to be wealthy to be greedy. No one is exempt from greed. The cry of greed is more. And if you want the kingdom, Jesus gives two examples. In the scriptures, he says, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who found a treasure in a field. And for the joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has. Listen now. To buy that field. He sold all that he had. Then the next verse says this. Jesus gives another parable. And the next verse says, and the kingdom, go to the next verse.

26:03 and the kingdom of heaven is there, is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had. Two stories, two parables. Jesus said, I'm going to teach you now about the kingdom of God. Because what follows that is seek first the kingdom, and all of these things will be taken care of. But he's saying that the man who found a treasure in the field and the man who found a pearl of great price found Jesus. And when they found it, they gave their first priority to seeking it, to going after it, to having, obtaining, and making it the main thing in their life.

27:02 forsaking everything to have it, giving up anything to have. This casual Christianity of just walk down an aisle and pray a prayer and you're forgiven and then go live any way you want to is absolutely a false gospel. The gospel is Jesus is the pearl of great price. Jesus is the greatest treasure of your life. Not your car, not your home, not your bank accounts. The greatest value, treasure, gift, the pearl of great price that is worth giving up anything, anybody. It has to be the number one value thing in your life. Even more than your friends.

27:57 Even more as much as you love, I love our family. It must be Jesus first. And when you are willing to say, God, nothing like Job, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, I choose you. Nothing you do can make me, can shake me off of my rock, Jesus Christ.

28:23 That's when you get sold out to the Lord. That I may know him. It's an aggressive approach. That I might know him. I'll give it all up to know him. And when you make him the treasure of your life, not your business, not a higher amount of anything, it's him. It's he is it. At the cost of loss, at the cost of suffering, I'll give up anything to know Jesus. The treasure is Jesus. He found me. He saved me. He redeemed me. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, right standing. I have repented of my sins.

29:18 I've been washed in his blood. And I am after him more than I'm after than anything else. I know I must obtain this pearl of great price. And when you do that, he says, as you seek first my righteousness and my kingdom, all of these things, I'll give you a dream. I'll give you a vision. I'll speak to you in services like this. I'll show you glimpses and previews of what is possible. With God, all things are possible. Without a vision, the people perish. God gave Joseph a dream. God can give you a dream. God gives dreams. He's the giver of vision and dreams. Vision means it was there all the time.

30:12 You just didn't see it. All God has to do to mess you up is turn the lights out. And you can have blessings and opportunities coming by you and you don't even see it. Other people don't see it, but when God gives you vision, you see it. God could have used anybody to raise up Zaxby's, but you know what? He found a man that he could show it to. And that business has been a massive blessing, not only to this church, but to foundations and good work all over the world. God knows what he's doing. Now there's one more parable that Jesus tells in Luke 12 and verse 13 that I want to focus on. He spoke another parable. And there was a certain man who was rich. And one of the companies said, Master, speak to my... This is the story of the man that had the property.

31:11 Thank you. Take heed and beware of covetous. I got a lot of verses up there. I'm going to stick with my notes. He spoke another parable. There was the ground of a certain rich man that yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself. Listen now. Jesus said there was a man who was becoming so wealthy. I have so much stuff. This is the Franklin translation. I have so much blessing. that I don't have room enough in the barns I have built. I have clothes that still have the tags on. I have that car and that car and that gold and that crypto and that. I'm so secure financially that if the banks fail, I've got my own vault.

32:08 If the real estate falls, I balanced myself out. I have it made. I've got it. And I have made so much. He said to himself again, I will build bigger barns. I'll tear the ones I have down and build bigger ones. Notice that he's not mentioned God. He's not mentioned anything about his faith. He's just bigger, bigger, bigger. I'll do this. I'll do that. And then he said, I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods and you should just eat and drink and be merry. He's having a big time. He's got it all. I'm safe. I've done well. I've got security. Take it easy. Live it up. Now somebody else's voice enters the story.

33:12 And God said to him, you fool. It's over. Your soul will be required of you this day. You're planning without me. You're dreaming without me. You're doing your own thing. And I have blessed you and you've forgotten about me. But you don't own your soul. I own your soul. And I'll call your soul home this very day. And so it is, the scripture goes on to say. So it is. And that night it was required of you. And then whose will all those things be which you have provided? That's a great question.

34:09 What is going to happen after you get it and build it and stack it up? You're going to die. I hate to tell you this. And then whose will all those things be? So it is who is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Notice, I love that he didn't rebuke that. He lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. The goal of every person listening to me should be I want to be rich toward God. I want God's kingdom and God's purposes in the earth. Love the widow, help the poor, minister the truth, preach the gospel, go in his name, make disciples. I've got to be a part of that.

35:03 Be rich towards God. Rich toward Him. God is looking for someone who will be rich toward Him. Get to that place of total abandonment. That if God tells you to do it, you do it. Be adventurous with God. You're blessed to be a blessing. It's not yours and you're not taking any of it with you. one half second after you die, you will wake up in eternity and it will not matter what you achieved in the natural, in the world. That's why the Bible said to love the world is to be an enemy of Christ. What does that mean? Does that mean we don't love life in the beaches and the mountains and the beautiful life that God has given us? No, but it's when you are in love with material things and you have no spiritual aspect to your life that is supreme and superior to all the world can offer. Hallelujah. There's something greater than fame, Jesus, the pearl of great price.

36:13 There's something greater than all the followers that you can get on the internet and become somebody wealthy and famous and powerful. People are searching and you may be watching me by television right now, don't flip the channel. You're sitting in that mansion and God has blessed you, but you're empty. You're drinking yourself to death. You feel like you've come to the end of your life and you don't have anything worth living for. God sent me to tell you that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things. But if you'll turn to Jesus Christ, if you'll call on him. He will give you life and life more abundantly. Somebody who's a witness of that, somebody who knows money can't make you happy, Jesus can make you happy.

37:05 I've got him. I'm getting shouting happy now because if I seek first the kingdom of God, I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I've always kept that priority. Since I was a little child, I always kept that priority. God first. I went on a little season in my teenage years, but in my heart, even when I was doing things, I was saying, God, I'm sorry. Don't let the rapture take place, please. If you are not getting rich towards God, your life is going to be empty.

37:58 I had a phone call I mentioned in the first service. I don't know what's going on with all these chicken people. But we've got Zaxby's down here on the front row. but I got a phone call two or three weeks ago from Dan Cathy, the owner of Chick-fil-A. I didn't even know he had my number. I don't know how he got my number. That's interesting. But he called me and he said, Jensen, he said, there's a famous Hollywood producer who has a request that he asked me to help him with. that somehow your name came up and he said that he started watching you on YouTube. And he's been gloriously saved. And he said, I'm helping disciple him.

38:53 And he wants you to baptize him in water just like you do on TV. and when he told me who it was, I did what we all do. I Googled him because I didn't, I didn't know who he was, but I Googled it and I was astounded at the movies. And he said, would you please call him, Mr. Kathy? He said, would you please call him? It would mean the world. And I called him, and the man started weeping on the phone. And he said, I don't know what's happened to me. He said, I just started watching. And he said, I have everything. I have everything, but I don't have Jesus. I didn't have Jesus until I started watching and I got my heart right and I have never felt anything like this.

39:54 And I've seen you online baptizing those people. Will you, next time you're in Orange County, will you come? Will you let me come? I'll come and I want to be baptized in water and I want to have a funeral of the past and I want to come up a brand new creation. Well, you reach that producer, and you reach that producer, and the grandma who gives, and the person who works, and the person who gives that tithe and that offering. You reach those people. High up and in, down and out. God doesn't care. We're all the same, and we need Jesus. He's the pearl of great price.

40:37 I close with this. don't seek getting more more than you seek Jesus don't seek becoming accomplished and successful more than you seek Jesus Paul said I used to be important I used to be well known in 2nd Corinthians the 8th chapter I used to be important I used to excel more than anybody else but I count all of those things as dung. That man that gave up all that he had to take the gospel and to write half the New Testament, to have such intimacy with God, took the gospel around the world and said, One thing I do.

41:33 my one thing is the kingdom first and all the things I need will be added unto me if God could get every business person under the sound of my voice to really believe that that my house, my home, my family, my marriage, my children have to be taught. There's one thing that's more important than the house, the car, the things, the stuff. It's only Jesus.

42:12 No man can serve two masters. Jesus went on to say in Matthew 6, 24. Either he will hate one and love the other. You've got to really love one and be loyal to one. You can't love both. You can't have two things first.

42:37 You can't have your business first and Jesus first. There's no such things as two first. I don't care how many participation trophies they hand out. There's the first place and there's something else up under that. And Jesus says, I only occupy first place. That's salvation. If he's not first place, then all the rest is on you. but if you seek first the kingdom and his righteousness all of these things will be added unto you therefore do not worry so I want you this morning as we conclude this service to know that I wrote this late afternoon yesterday.

43:48 God handled the biggest debt in my life, my sin debt. If you'll seek Him first, He'll handle your debt. I heard the Lord whisper that to me. And I haven't just preached it. Oh, you're just a preacher. You don't know nothing about business. Well, the building you're sitting in, the Lord canceled all debt on. And you at eight other campuses, the Lord canceled all the debt. Why? I seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And I felt led to tell you that if he can cancel the biggest debt you have, which is your sin debt, he can cancel any other debt in your life. And you can live debt free.

44:45 And I want you young people and you young men and you young women, I want you to get a vision and believe God for a house. Believe God for your own property. Believe God for something bigger. Ask God to say, Lord, I love what Brian Smith said the other week, our media director to me. He said, do you remember when T.F. Tenney stood in this pulpit and he said the tail free, God told him the tail free chapel to say these words. Surprise me, Lord. I like how he used to talk. Surprise me, Lord. That sounds like his voice. Turn to somebody and say, surprise me, Lord. Get a vision. Get a dream. Put God first. There's no limits on it when you put God first. I wish somebody would believe what I'm preaching.

45:42 We've just scratched the surface. God wants us to be rich toward Him, value Him more than we value anything we possess. And when you get to that point, the windows of heaven open. He pours you out blessings. He begins to bless your life. Favor will come on your life when you honor the Lord, when you put Him first. Do you believe that? Stand to your feet. You've been a great audience this morning. Just another moment is all I need. You know what I think you ought to sing in conclusion? And this is how we're going to, I'm going to go on and pray the prayer. And then we're going to sing this song. I want you to do that grateful song one more time from beginning to end. And I want every person in this room, hey, hey, hey, hold on now.

46:36 Hold on. Hold on. Let's throw our hands up toward heaven. And let's give God our jobs, our business, our dreams, our vision. look at me just a moment. I was at a dinner, and there's a man that's being honored. He's very wealthy in Ohio just a few weeks ago.

47:05 And he is building these massive buildings for Google and different people that generate power. And that's what he does for a living. We had the most interesting conversation. You know what he told me? He said, I have thousands and thousands of openings. And this is what he charged me with as a preacher. He said, tell your people and tell your teenagers and your young people in high school that if they don't want to go to college and they don't feel like they're supposed to go to college, He said, tell them that I am hiring electricians starting salary at $185,000 a year. He went on to say a per diem, is that what you call it? Of $180 a day, which pays for their gas to get there and all of that.

48:04 And plus bonus and overtime. well I'm never going to be able to own a home because I'll never be able to go to college well you can find a trade and God can bless the work of your hands. I don't care if you think this is unspiritual. It's very spiritual when you don't have resources. It's very spiritual. You lose hope. You are under pressure. You're worrying all the time, and the word of the Lord to this congregation is do not worry. I'm going to take care of anything and anybody who puts their life in my hands. Raise your hands one more time on behalf of that business, that career. Lord, we give you everything.

49:02 You are the pearl of great price. You are the treasure in the field. And we put you first. Everybody say that. I put you first. First in my life. First in my dreams. First in my calling. I want you more than anything. for God so loved the world he gave his son that whosoever would call on him would be saved and would not perish but have everlasting life say Jesus I'm calling on you save me use me give me a vision give me a dream and help me to walk in your divine calling and purpose for my life and make me a blessing.

49:59 I'll honor you with my resources. I'll honor you with my talents. I'll honor you with all that you trust me with. In Jesus' name, I choose you. I really want to say thank you for joining us this week. If you haven't already, make sure you click on the subscription button and leave us a review. It helps this podcast reach even more people when you comment, when you give us your feedback. For more messages and inspirational materials, download the Jensen Franklin app or you can head over to jensenfranklin.org. I want to thank all of you who give generously to help us produce weekly content like this to reach the world with the message of Jesus. God bless you and we'll...