Bank Collapses & Good Investments
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In 1983, John Scully was the President of Pepsi. He had poured his life into that company and built it into one of America's most iconic brands. By all accounts, he was on top of the world. But, in 1983, his life would dramatically change with a few simple words. Insert Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was the genius upstart entrepreneur who founded Apple. He had a brand new company and visionary ideas. But, he was untested, unproven, and frankly a little unstable. Yet, in 1983, he delivered one of the most incredible sales pitches ever recorded. When courting John Scully to leave Pepsi and come to Apple, this is what Jobs said:
"John, do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?" - Steve Jobs
That proposal pushed Scully over the edge. At that moment, John Scully left everything he had built to follow Jobs and change the world.
I appreciate this story because it perfectly articulates how frivolous it would be to build a life on sugar water. But I also don’t like this story because Steve's alternative is no better. To build a life on gadgets and tech would be just as meaningless as an empire of liquid sugar. It most certainly has been.
Most recently, this has become all the more clear. Tech stocks are plummeting, tech-friendly banks are going insolvent, and the entire industry is gearing up for a massive recession. If that were not enough, Big Tech hasn't delivered on any of its promises.
Case in point, Facebook's mission statement is: "to give people the power to build community and to bring the world closer together." That sounds great, except that it hasn't. Instead, in the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok world, people have become more divided, isolated, and less able to have meaningful dialog, conflict, or relationships than ever.
All you have to do is look at the world around us, and you can see it. No one seems happy. People are polarized and angry at one another. Activism is fracturing people into increasingly smaller and smaller victim classes. Law and order is eroding, and the fabric of our society is unraveling as we speak. We are no better in the Steve Jobs era than we were in the Pepsi era. Any person who is being objective can see this.
With that, it is time for a new pitch.
If you want to change the world, limit investing in the limited and maximize your investment in the infinite. How do we do that? First, invest in a faithful church. Invest in a community that believes the Gospel and preaches it as their lives depend on it. Invest in a church that understands the disease of sin and liberally offers Christ as the only cure. Invest in a church that does not bend its knee to the world and woke culture but stands on God's eternal and immutable truth!
How can you invest in this? I offer you three ways and one reminder.
INVEST YOUR TIME
One of the best ways to change the world is to get married, have lots of children, raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and teach them to invest their time in a local and faithful church. To fight to be there when the doors open and to value participation in the community. To help that church accomplish its mission. Listen intently to the sermon and walk away chewing on the truth of the Gospel throughout the week.
It involves teaching them to be present and active in the community and to give their lives for the very thing Jesus died for; His bride. It also involves teaching them how to go to work to the glory of God, how not to place their hope in their career, and how to build Jesus' Kingdom through God-glorifying labor in their vocation (1 Cor. 10:31).
Paul says in Colossians 3:23
"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" - Col. 3:23 (See also Prov. 16:3)
This will do more to change the world than anything else that we could give our lives to. When we go to work, we do not give our time, ultimately speaking, to our bosses. We are not, first and foremost, constructing corporate castles or our CEO's visionary empire. Our hope is not in sugar water, gadgets, politics, or any other bankrupted idols that cannot deliver on the promises they are giving. That is not only a mistake but a colossal waste of the precious time God has given us. Instead, let us live, move, and have our being to the glory of God. When we work, let us work unto the Lord. And, with the time we have remaining, let us and our families invest the remainder of our time into the only organization that will last into eternity: the Church of Jesus Christ.
INVEST YOUR TALENTS
Maybe no one has ever told you this, but God has uniquely designed you with talents and passions that were given so you could bless the world and His church. He gave you all of the skills, likes, dislikes, interests, personalities, and talents you now possess, and He has placed you exactly where He wants you to be to have an eternal impact. If you are a Christian, He has uniquely gifted you, by the power of His Spirit, to use those gifts and talents to serve Him and His local church (1 Cor. 14:12).
Now, do not get me wrong, I am not talking about making coffee or handing out bulletins. There is nothing wrong with that, but God has designed you for immeasurably more than that. I am talking about using your gift of hospitality to have people in your home. I am referring to your gift of stewardship and creativity as the reason you can start companies that glorify God or your generosity as the reason you can financially give more to the mission of God. I am speaking about your gift of encouragement and empathy in Biblical counseling, your gift for languages being used in translation projects, or your gifts in teaching and discipleship to raise up faithful children or to come alongside younger men or women in the community.
When you consider that the church is to baptize and disciple the nations (Mt. 28:19) and is called to extend Jesus' Kingdom over the entire world (Acts 1:8), as the water covers the seas (Hab 2:14; Dan 2:44); until all Jesus enemies are put down (Ps. 110 1 Cor. 15), and until His government reigns unrivaled over all things (Is. 9:7), then you will not only understand how big this mission is but also how it encompasses so much more than coffee and folded papers. The mission of God is all of Christ for all of life.
Most people reading this blog will spend a significant portion of their life at a job, which is okay. My point is not to make your job the end (or the telos) of your labors. Instead, use your job to give God glory. Find creative ways to leverage your vocation to build His Kingdom. Live with the end of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever as your purpose, and use all of your time and talents to do so.
This is how we change the world.
INVEST YOUR TREASURES
One of the fundamental principles of financial investments is the desire to make a return. No one wants to invest in a loss. Instead, we want to know that our money will grow and multiply into something more.
What better thing could we invest in than the Kingdom of God? Every life that hears the Gospel and responds in faith bears an eternal return. No bond, hedge fund, or mortgage-backed security can give us that!
Every incremental advancement someone has in spiritual maturity will pay dividends forever. And think about it this way, as a faithful church preaches the Gospel, hundreds of people grow in grace together and are sent out (Monday through Saturday) into their community, jobs, and lives as missionaries that will help bring the Gospel of healing to this sick, broken land.
What other organization can boast of that? What other organization has that kind of return? What group has that kind of truth that can bring us that kind of freedom? Is it the banks that are teetering on the verge of collapse? Not hardly! Is it Wall Street that whimpers every time the Fed chair speaks? No again. Is it the US dollar backed by the full faith and credit of a collapsing empire? Not remotely! Only one organization on earth is backed by eternal security, the full faith and credit of the Lord Jesus Christ, that always produces an exceptional yield and is empowered by the Living and Holy God. That is the church!
Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that investments, retirement accounts, or earthly treasures are sinful or you should not have them. We are not ascetics. We are commanded to care for our families, plan for our futures, and to be wise with our resources, which means that a portion of our income should go into wise investments. But, our portfolios, stock options, and 401k's cannot be our only investment! We must also invest our treasures into the only thing that will last forever, has no risk of insolvency, and will never collapse: the Kingdom of God.
That is how we change the world.
REMEMBER YOUR HOPE
As the world around us is reeling from another bank collapse, the threats of war, stock market downturns, recession, inflation, interest rate hikes, and an incompetent administration, remember Who is in control. We are not ultimately beholden to a schizophrenic market because our hope lies in the only one who can guarantee our survival.
The author of Hebrews says:
“Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" - Hebrews 13:5-6
If you want to change the world forever, and bring the greatest amount of blessing to the greatest number of people then Pepsi, Apple, Wall Street, and too-big-to-fail banks will not get us there. Instead, invest in the Kingdom of God. Give your time, talents, and treasures to God's mission on earth. Pour out your life - whether you eat, drink, work, rest, or whatever you do - with that aim in mind. Be a hearer and a doer of His Word. And you will bear thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold return (Mt. 13:23).
