Episode Transcript
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David Platt: Seeing people, I just read a story of somebody coming to Christ in a unreached part of the world like to have the opportunity to be a part of that is awesome and to have the opportunity to be a part of making the glory of Christ known and experiencing a joy that’s deeper than anything this world has. Yeah, may we all like jump into this?
Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur and even Faith Driven Investor podcast, we’re going to combine these two audiences into a really special episode with a great and very special guest who’s going to talk about a subject is very, very dear to me. And then also dear to my guest co-host Daryl Heald. Daryl, welcome to the program.
Daryl Heald: Yeah, thanks anyway. Super excited to be here, and I always love bringing someone like David Platt into the conversation.
Henry Kaestner: It’s a big deal. So here’s why we’re talking to David this morning. If you listen to this podcast long enough, you’ve come to understand that I have had to kind of born again moments at age twenty eight after short career in Wall Street in New York City. I came to faith at age 28 and it changed everything moved in North Carolina, and to set my life on this new trajectory started bandwidth, you know, is a beautiful thing. At age 38, after having had some success at bandwidth and starting to give more money away. I got on the radar of this guy named Darrell Heald, actually a friend of ours, mutual friend of ours said. And you get to meet this guy. Darrell Hill and I met Darrell, and at the time, Kim and I were trying to give more money away, and I got a chance to tell Darrell about some of the ministry projects. We were excited about some of the ones we were starting in Durham, North Carolina, and some of the other things. And Darrell listened very, very patiently to me and just the really super one, some guy that may or may not come across if you don’t see the video of this. But now he’s got a great voice, too. He asked me this question, though, that really sent me really in a bit. He said, You know, Henry, I think I get all of these things, but tell me, why do you give? And then I mumbled through something that was probably theologically seamless, I might have even said something like, I don’t know, I want to pay it forward or something like that, and that’s not awful, but it’s not really maybe the best answer. And Darrell didn’t grade my answer. Like, say, the guys do that was awful, although maybe he was thinking it. But in the next six months is I open up God’s word. One of the things that when I had come to faith, I had been told that, you know, spend time in God’s word. So I had been doing that faithfully. But over the course the next six months, it seemed that everything I read in the Bible had something to do with money, even when ostensibly didn’t like, you know, the passage of God taking five loaves and two fish and feeding 5000. For me, it was like, Oh my goodness, God doesn’t need my money. He can take something out of nothing. And so six months or a year later, I came back to Darrell with my answer, a real answer, which is, you know, I give because I’m grateful for the gift given me. And I credit Darrell and God using Darrell and then God using his word for what I call my born again again moment. And why are we dedicating an episode to Henry’s Born Again Again moment? While we’re doing that because money had and has and continues to have a pretty big grasp on me. And it’s because I’m an entrepreneur and you, as you listen to this as an entrepreneur, as an investor, likely know what I’m talking about. And maybe you don’t struggle with it to the same degree that I have had. But my hope is that by listening to this in here in just a little bit of my story and then having this unpacked first by Darrell and then David that you’ll become closer to God too, because I realized that at the time when Kim and I were given 20 percent away, we thought there’s probably a special place in heaven for the double tither. You know, you get Fox, it’s the Angels games. There’s something, something in it for you. But we also realized after the six month process that God probably only had about 20 percent of our hearts and he wanted 100 percent. And so as an entrepreneur, money is our scorecard. It’s how we know we’re advancing. It’s the unit that we pay other people, we recruit other people. It’s the one that we negotiate in each and every day, and it’s got a larger than life. Hold on us and we need to talk about it. We need to talk about it openly and candidly and can’t think of two better people to do it. So. Darrell, the guy who 13 years ago, I credit with my born again again experience. Thank you for being my guest co-host today.
Daryl Heald: Yeah, I’m excited about it. Thanks for those words, and it is exciting to see you. When we think about this, I think one of the things that we we can get into this with David as well. But you know, money’s an isolating thing too. And so unfortunately, most of us are having this conversation in our own head. And so the ability for us to be able to do this together just like the way you and I have over the last 13 years been like a constant conversation, right? So we had this one kind of similar one. But then it’s just we’ve continued to kind of work that out together. And I think that’s really what God intended, right in community, right in the family. We can talk about it. But this is one of the subjects that we don’t talk about a lot. We don’t talk about our giving. Even with some of our best friends and a lot of times that even with our spouse, if we’re married. So I think the whole thing about where we can put this into a context to where you are in the right relationships, in the right context, we should be talking about it just like we talked about all the other aspects of, you know, who we are in Christ Amen.
Henry Kaestner: Indeed. OK, so we couldn’t think of a better guess, of course, to help us to get in this. And of course, we should expect from David that I’ll talk about just little baby steps just gradually getting in. No, just kidding. Quite the opposite. I don’t know anybody who’s challenged me more in the way that I think about giving than David. And so, David, we’re going to talk about all, about all, about that. But as we do with any guests, it comes on the program. We’re trying to get a little bit of an autobiographical sketch. You know, who are you? Where do you come from? What brings you up through to being hired as a pastor, the senior pastor at Church of Brook Hill. So tell us about who you are and where you come from, please, and thank you for joining and thank you for spending the time.
David Platt: Man, it’s so good to be with you guys. I’ve been looking forward to this. I’m just thankful and even listening to you guys right now have been in our previous interactions. Just thankful for God’s grace and you all. And even as you’re sharing Henry, just praying that maybe even the next few minutes, God might do some of that born again kind of work in a fresh way in somebody’s heart. So anyway, yeah, a little background on me. So right now I’m pastor of McLean Bible Church in Metro Washington, DC. I’ve been here for about three years shepherding this church that has over 100 nations represented in it, trying to make disciples the nations here and send people from here to make disciples the nations all around the world. You mentioned I started pastoring at Church of Burkle’s in Birmingham. Alabama was there for a. While for about eight years thought maybe the Lord is leading me overseas at that point. But he ended up leaving me to the International Mission Board. International Missions Organization sports 4000 thousand or so brother and sister serving among underage people around the world, and so did that for a few years before stepping back into the role of pastoring. I love walking with God’s word through life and all that it entails on the front lines of mission in the world. As a pastor, so that’s a bit as far as ministry wise. My wife and I have four kids at our home right now, and then we’re in the process of adopting potentially five or six. So we’re just,
Henry Kaestner: I’m sorry what? You said you’re in the process of adopting five or six of number
David Platt: five or number six. Oh, OK, good. Not an additional five or six kids. Now that the dust from know, OK. That puts it in perspective. We thought maybe we were a little crazy for you on four or five or six. So now it doesn’t feel near as much if we’re talking actually five or six more
Henry Kaestner: so far, be it for me to challenge you the way that you’ve challenged me now. So you’re twenty six years old, you were hired to pasture, really a megachurch. So for those of us like me who are parents and raising up kids, I’m fascinated to know just a little bit before it. I want to talk about secret church. We obviously want to talk about generosity. But what is your life growing up? Did you grow up in a Christian home? I mean, what does it look like to, you know, to be in a spot where at age 26 people see you’re anointing? And just like this is the person to lead and lead an organization at scale? So what were the first 25 years like, man?
David Platt: Just pure grace. Henry Yes. I grew up in a home where mom and dad taught me the gospel since the day I was born. I’ll just say the obvious I had nothing to do with where I was born. That’s the pure mercy of God. I don’t know why I was born into a family like that instead of in your village where they still haven’t even heard the name of Jesus. So, yeah, so I grew up and had a great local church that raised me. I was just talking with somebody from that local church last week, and I just overwhelmed in a fresh way by God’s grace toward me and the men and women who poured their life into me from children’s ministry type thing. I think about a student ministry. He gave me my first opportunity to preach when I was in eighth grade, which I don’t think was probably the wisest thing for him to do. But he did anyway, and it was like a youth service is like 100 people and I can preach on any text. And I chose Revelation three, like the church that lay out to see a God saying I was spewing out of my mouth and I remember starting the sermon. I walk up there with a bottle of water, and before I said anything, I took a sip and spit it out in the front row. I was like, That’s what God thinks you’re going to start, man anyway. So but all I had to say to have a church to like, walk through with me alongside that and like, maybe that could be helpful or unhelpful in different ways. But I’m just I am so indebted to God’s Grace Church. And so anyway,
Daryl Heald: and that is one of the best start stories I’ve ever heard. Yeah, yeah.
David Platt: So, yeah, thank you for sharing. As long as you weren’t on the front row, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Henry Kaestner: Baptism. So, OK. We’re going to talk about your bus. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about generosity, of course, before we do that. Secret church. Super cool title. Super cool subject. Tell us about Secret Church, what it is and how it got started.
David Platt: Yeah. So my first trip to East Asia. So I’m in this country where the church gathers underground and I had taken a group there just to share the gospel in some unique ways and a place where it’s legal to share the gospel. But it was about four weeks I was there and about two weeks in. I met this couple who led an underground house church network there. They found out that I had a Ph.D. and taught at seminary. And they said, Hey, would you be willing to spend some time with our church leaders? So I said, sure, I would love to. And so they said, Well, maybe tomorrow will gather them together and we’ll have a Bible study. So I was like, OK, so we gather in the secret place like they sneak me in. They all come at different times and this secret location where we gather, I thought we were going to do a Bible study for, you know, an hour, maybe two or eight hours later, we were still going strong. And they’re just eating up the word and they’re like, Can we do this again tomorrow? I was like, Yeah, sure. What time there? Let’s go early in the morning. So I said, like a Mr. Morning Bible, say this. I know we’ll go till very late at night. And so I basically got together with him the next morning and for the next 12 days, for eight to 12 hours a day, just gathering these secret locations with these brothers and sisters to study the word. And there were so hungry like they love God’s word, and after I risked their lives to know it and study it, and they were just so. After spending that kind of time with them, I came back and I like, why don’t we hunger for the word like this? And so we decided to start something we said. I don’t know if anybody will show up, but we’re going to do Friday night. We’ll just go six hours like six to midnight and we’ll have intensive study in the word and prayer for our persecutor brothers and sisters around the world. So just have a unique event where we just bring people together like that and then we’ll record that and translate it into. So the whole idea was translate the content into different languages, specifically the language of these brothers and sisters that I was now connected with in order to provide them with more training. And so that first time about a thousand people showed up and it was a powerful night of praying for the persecuted church and just intends to stay in the world. And then since then, we’ve now done twenty one of them and it’s now sound ’cause we just did it a couple weeks ago, had 50000 or so people around the world are involved every year. We do this and just praying for the persecuted church intensive study in the world. So yeah, that sacred church. I love
Daryl Heald: it. Thanks, David. It’s really exciting, you know? And actually, Henry and I have been able to travel quite a bit together, and it really is amazing when we think about what you think about church and we’re sitting here, you know, here in the US and kind of how church is, you know, in a Western culture to be able to experience, you know, the church in a global context, whether that’s in the south or the east or the middle. It’s just it’s been so encouraging and I’m with you and Andreas, too with that so
David Platt: well, I’ll just mention like I think about not even just all day training and weren’t just a worship gathering where it was like late at night. I tell people, just imagine putting on, you know, jacket with a hood on over your head and then snuck in to this village and you get out of the car and your head down and they lead you down this little path. Little flashlight around the corner into this small room and there’s like 60 believers just crammed into a light bulb hanging in the middle. And these brothers and sisters are gathered together in the middle of the night and the rest of their lives to stop and study the word. And I always say, and I mean, there is, and we’re about to talk about like ways to help giving at the same time. Like sometimes we think, well, how can we help them get a lot more resources than this or that? And somewhere along the way, they’ve gotten the idea of the word of God and the spirit of God to be the church and spread the gospel, the place and the right. And so, yeah, there are definitely ways like I said, I know we’re going to talk about where we can come alongside, but there are trust in God’s word and spirit in a way that’s not dependent on so much of the stuff that we surround ourselves with today.
Daryl Heald: Yeah, that’s that’s a great word. I mean, the simplicity of it and we know this, that the God’s intentions never go unfunded right in his time into his glory. So, you know, no matter where it is. But I think we sometimes we try to think, well, they need this right. And in a lot of times, I think what you’re saying is, we need this, we need that, we need that. So. So David, one of the questions that we love for you to, you know, Henry gave us a C-minus. We’re expecting A-plus answer from you on on this. You know, when you think about it, because obviously you’re working in a church leading a church, you’ve looked at this, you know, in a global national level. But what do you see when we think about generosity and the church? What do you see or, you know, like some of the highlights? And then what are some things you feel like we could definitely work on that were missing side highlights?
David Platt: When I think about generosity, I would say where my heart is most encouraged as a pastor is when I see generosity as the overflow of someone’s intimacy with Jesus. And why start there in my mind is because I really do think generosity is a discipleship issue. I mean, what did you just say where your treasure is there? Your heart will be. Also, our treasure is a reflection of our hearts. And so our heart that is enthralled with Jesus and with his purpose in the world is going to be clear and the way we use our treasure. So I think that can be frightening in the sense that a lack of generosity is indicating there’s something missing when it comes to intimacy with Jesus and to start there and not to think so. That’s where whenever we talk about generosity is going to be very careful not to start to go on immediately to here’s all these needs. You have so much. So yes, there’s that picture, there’s that picture. But it’s even deeper than that. It’s just the overflow of the love of Jesus in us. And so I love it. I love it when I see someone growing and I think about a guy I was having lunch with last week. He is super successful in business, and he came to know Jesus a few years ago, and it has totally transformed his life. The way he uses his resources, even the way he puts it this. Hope like he’s excelling in business, but his hope is clearly not in his achievements in business and the money he’s making, and it’s all he sees at all is a bigger picture. How can I make the love of Christ known in the world like so that’s what causes my heart to rejoice, to see somebody in love with Jesus. He’s sitting there with his Bible at the table when I get there. He’s so in a Psalm 63 way. That’s where I was in my time with the Lord this morning. Just so in love with thirsting for God and then longing for his life to be used for the glory of God in the world. I’m using the overflow of his work that he started entrepreneurially toward that end. It’s I love that. And so what concerns me as a pastor is when I see people either just not being generous and I just see that as a reflection of, OK, there’s something wrong, something missing that born-again kind of moment in their heart, or maybe some giving, but it’s almost obligatory or feel like I just want to appease my conscience or check off a box when that’s nowhere close to all. Now, God will still use that first sleep, but it’s nowhere close to all that God has for that person and for fruit that he wants that person to be a part of. Bearing in the world?
Daryl Heald: Yeah. Love it. Fantastic. Thank you, David.
Henry Kaestner: Yeah, I love that too. And one of the reasons I love it is because it took me a long time to be able to reconcile the selfish ambition that I have felt and part of that and just really looking for joy and of course, also pithy and cliché. But, you know, in working on Wall Street and being a part of my entrepreneurial journey, looking for satisfaction and joy in all the things that I thought the world had to offer. But one of the things that fueled my generosity story has been a selfish ambition of experiencing joy and finding that an intimacy with God in a taste of it and wanting more. And so I had wrestled with that kind of selfish ambition for a while and thinking, I’ve got to die to self and I’ve got to be a sacrificial giver. And I think that there’s elements in scripture that I think informs some of that, but that when I was able to reconcile the fact that I just really wanted to know God and to be with him. And then this kind of reinforcing loop that as I get to know him and how much he loved me, more and more it made me feel more and more generous. I felt more and more joy. And I’m like, Well, I’m an investor. I invest in pattern recognition. As I get closer to God, I feel more joy, I feel more generous. And that reinforces this whole thing, and I get more and more joy when I reflect back to my prior life, which was 20 percent joy, I think, back that day. And that’s what I want for entrepreneurs, too. When you’re working, you talked about this one entrepreneur that got that. You must also see lots of rich young rulers that don’t get it. And Leave always said, Could you riff on that a little bit about what you see as the obstacles of people really understanding this intimacy with Christ, particularly among the business owners and the entrepreneurs that you’ve minister to?
David Platt: I’m so glad you mentioned that in my mind was just immediately going enriching ruler and specifically when it comes to joy and and there’s another person that’s going to my mind. So, yes, rich young ruler. I mean, that’s what I love about what Jesus says to him. Go sell all you have give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. Like, just to think about that. That’s not a call. Ultimately, it’s not a call to sacrifice. I do have treasure in heaven is not a sacrifice to be smart. He’s basically saying it’s realism is dumb. You don’t want to bank your life on that, which won’t last like banker life on that, which is going to last. Like, I’m calling you so much better treasure and not just treasure in heaven as far as fruit, but come follow me like Jesus is the ultimate treasure. It’s like the Matthew thirteen forty four, right? The man who’s walking in a field stumbles upon a treasure that he realizes is worth more than everything else he has put together. And nobody else knows it’s there. So it kind of covers it up and he goes and he sells everything he has, the tech says with gladness, like with joy that he has. And I can just imagine people saying, you’re nuts, like, why are you buying that field over there with joy and selling everything you have? And he’s like, Huh, I got a hunch. And he smiles inside because he knows he’s found something that is worth losing everything for. And that’s that’s what Rapture like. Let’s see, like Jesus is, is this good? His purpose is in the world are going to last for the next 10 trillion years and beyond. So what greater joy can there be than to follow him wholeheartedly? Not reserve? Not kind of in the world, kind of for Jesus, like wholeheartedly. You’ve got my all. And to be a part of what he is doing in the world for his glory. Like yes, sign. Like why would anyone who is smart like now want to sign up for that? Anybody who is a wise investor, which I’m assuming most everybody listening to this knows some things about wise investing, but I guess that’s the question. Do we know things about wise investing based on? What the world defines as wisdom or what God defines as wisdom. And to really say, like wise investing is treasure in heaven. Wise investing is following Jesus in my heart. And so the other person that immediately comes to my mind, I think about this. And this is a perfect example of born again, like, really born again. So he has spent decades in the church as a successful businessman. I mean, he’s the kind of guy who was asked to be on every church committee, especially when it comes to finance or stewardship stuff or building stuff because he was going to lead the way financially in that. And so he gave. But he ended up coming to our church and he came to a point where he realized he’s just been playing on the surface like he didn’t really know Jesus. He didn’t have a love for Jesus, a relationship with Jesus, for his walk on Jesus. So he came to Christ. I mean, he was baptized after decades in the church. And so literally born again. And everything that flows from that. So he is now one of the most generous people I know who is serving in all kinds of different ways. And he and his wife are both. I mean, they’re making disciples in their life. They’re making disciples through their giving. And I mean, they’re like, there’s nothing better than this. Their only regret is they didn’t realize this decade sooner. And so I just have seen that right now. I’m thinking another couple in our church family, like they were just living the dream, doing all kinds of vacations everywhere. And then God got a hold of their hearts. They had that kind of moment and they began to realize, OK, there’s something more important to live for. And now, originally from Ethiopia, the way they’re living for the spread of the gospel in the Horn of Africa right now is so awesome. And I was doing an interview with him the other day and just the fruit of their life. I could tell you all kinds of stories, but I said, Do you miss you, miss your former life? And and she said, no way. Like, there is nothing greater than what we’re doing around like we have so much. There’s a deeper, greater joy and this is the life God’s given us the opportunity to live. So anyway, that’s a little riff on what you just said there. It’s angular.
Daryl Heald: It’s a great riff. It’s a great honor. And you know, we think about that when you ask them, Hey, do you miss that other life? You know, I go to, you know, first Timothy, six, 19, you know, he said this lane of treasure in heaven for the company so that you can take hold of life, that is truly life, right? In one sense, we’re we’re being sold this simple thing, right? And that’s why it is in our joy when we make that trade, when we understand that investment in internal context. You do it all day long and you do it every day, right? And then of course, you don’t want that. So, David, I love how you riffed on that. So specifically, you know, you and your family. What are y’all investing in? What are you excited about as you’ve got a huge exposure out? There are lots of opportunities and all. But what are some? What are you like your top three things? All are really. You know, you just feel like God’s given you something to just go deeper in from the kingdom investments that y’all are financially giving to.
David Platt: Sure. As kind of a lead into that, I would just mentioned, even on a personal level, the Lord’s done this and we keep using the term like born again kind of moment certainly did this in my own heart, just to go back to complete the circle. When Henry, you mentioned pastor in this large church, in a young age down in Birmingham, and just immediately I was thrust into the megachurch world and I was living the dream church world version of the dream. And after a year or two and that started, I think I’m missing the point like I. I’m living it up in this world in a way that I wasn’t before I was in this megachurch. And I think I’m missing it. And so we started to make some changes in our lives and just downsizing some different things from where we were. And it was interesting. So I wrote a book during that time, not radical. That was just the overflow of those convictions. But then radical. That book ended up making a lot of money. Like a lot of people, which I didn’t like, I thought maybe my mom and tip of the church would buy this. And thankfully, God, by his grace, protected me. I hope I would have still said this, but at the time I was thinking, No, I was going to read this. And so I put in the front. All the royalties from this book will go toward the spread of God’s story among the nations. Well, thankfully, God, again, I would like to have thought out to put that in there if I knew a million people had read it, but it sure helped. I couldn’t touch all those resources, and so now I found myself with more money to give away than I had imagined. And so to now all that to say God did a work in my art. Yeah, this is not just for entrepreneurs or the successful business for pastors. It’s for everybody. Every follower of Jesus, we’ve got to ask with what we’ve been given. And so, yeah, so how my wife and I, how our family are. We steward the resources God has given us. I’m really jealous after spending years, not just as a pastor, but even leading a missions organization and kind of in the broader missions world we’ve kind of honed in. I want to be a part of supporting the spread of the gospel on the front lines of what I kind of put in my mind and often talk about as the most urgent spiritual and physical needs in the world and so urgent spiritual needs. I want to be a part of getting the gospel to where the the gospel is not yet gone. The fact that three billion plus people have little to no knowledge of the gospel right now that is not tolerable. And I just this is actually the subject of our secret church recently what we call the great imbalance, because the reality is you look at the stats. Around ninety nine percent of emissions resources from the church actually go to places in the world where the gospel is already gone and that you could argue maybe that’s a little bit a percentage point here or there are different, but like the fact that very little of our resources are going to places where the gospel is not yet gone. I want to be a part of changing that. And so most urgent spiritual need and physical needs, so where those collide, where there’s extreme poverty or extreme trafficking or whatever it might be alongside, they’ve never even heard the name of Jesus like, I want to be there and I want to be a part of work there where the gospel is being clearly proclaimed, where the church is being built, according to the Bible. So these are the filters that I’m thinking through and that I want to help other people get out. So that actually led all that long story to say let us as radical as a ministry to start something called urgent, which is where we are identifying indigenous brothers and sisters on the front lines of urgent spiritual and physical need, and saying What are wise ways that we can give to be a part of the spread of the gospel in those places? And that’s what we’re doing.
Daryl Heald: One quick question, though so is that something that other people can participate in, like if they were fired up about what you just talked about and want to co-invest with you? Is that is that something that’s open or is that?
David Platt: Yes, it’s it’s like it’s a new over the last year, we’ve been kind of long past, even the last few months. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t want to go out this podcast to point people to that. But I I would. I’m asking radical dot net and you go to urgent on that site. And what we’ve done is we’ve tried to create a picture where people could give small amounts or large amounts. That’s all going to go toward the front lines of urgent spiritual and physical need in the world. Indigenous brothers, sisters that we’re vetting to make sure because there is a lot in missions world that I think is unfortunately gospel less, or it’s not focused on building up the church in the ways that the Bible talks about the church. So we’re trying to identify where is the tip of the spear really strong gospel church work amidst urgent spiritual physical need and get behind those brothers and sisters and make connections with them through urgent. So, yeah, radical that being tested?
Henry Kaestner: Thank you. So this is awesome because this is we’re talking about giving here. And yet we’ve got an audience, mostly of entrepreneurs and investors, and I love your focus on going to where the gospel hasn’t gone and where the physical needs are the greatest. Is there something that you might lend as an encouragement to entrepreneurs that have their gifting is in business. It’s an innovation creation, it’s in solving problems, it’s in hiring people, it’s in bringing products and services to market. Do you see a role for the entrepreneur and the investor in investing in the marketplaces of places like that? Or is it just, you know, these are secret places? There’s just too hard. And just really the answer is, you know, we just need your financial resources. Is there something bigger there or am I just artificially controlling that?
David Platt: No, there’s something bigger there, I think. Yes, financial resources part. But. No question in my mind, like radical, we’re actually in the process of putting together. I’m not sure what we would call it, but one of the names we have in years is Innovation Summit, but basically to try to get leaders along these lines in the same room from different domains thinking through how can we? Because yeah, how can we use God’s grace in our lives and professionally the gifts he’s given and the opportunities he’s opened up in a globalized marketplace to be a part of the spread of the gospel in those places and all kinds of different ways? So yes, like I think about these global cities where there are so much opportunity to be part of work there and to do that with the gospel in our hearts and lives of people who are involved in that work. And global cities around the world where unreached people are. And so it’s just I feel like for far too long, we’ve looked at of three billion people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel that doesn’t just need a select group of missionaries who over here who are thinking about how to get the gospel to them that needs the whole body of Christ thinking through how do we use Marshall all of our resources, gifts, experiences, opportunities to be a part of the spread of the gospel in those places, too? Yes. Invest to work, to create business, to do that, and all kinds of different places around the world in ways they’re going to open doors for the seeds of the gospel to spread. Yes. Yes, yes. And so that’s what I’m really passionate about is why we’re want to do this innovation seminar or whatever we call it, because I just think, yeah, the whole body of Christ got to be part of this. And I would say even more so, like traditional missionaries not invited into a lot of these places, but successful entrepreneurs are totally invited. The doors are open there. I’m not going into a lot of these places with my credentials from seminary, but people are listening to this can get into all kinds of places that I can’t get in the world. And so what happens when that whole force is unleashed? In a sense? Yeah, I think about the audience for this. Like, if people who are listening to this right now will get that the global purpose of God is spread of his gospel and glory among the nations is not a compartmentalized program in the church for a couple of people who are like, called it that. But it’s actually the purpose for which we have breath and the reason why we have been given these gifts. That’s what I want to be a part of fueling. Like Lord, use me to pour gasoline on that kind of movement.
Henry Kaestner: That’s awesome. All right, now, I’m all fired up, so I actually now am coming back to the first comment that you mentioned about 20 minutes ago or so that I didn’t latch on to then. But now I really am going back to some of those 60 people that are sitting there for eight to 12 hours and wondering how many of them are business owners. They leave that event you’ve done and they’re out there and they’re running a business. They’re hiring people, they’re living on partners, vendors, customers, employees, and they’ve just been completely immersed into the word of God. You know, as an investor, you spend a lot of time and diligence, you know, the reason why we do what we do a Faith Driven Investor thing is we believe that when we can find the right men and women of peace, you come alongside them and you let them do what they do best in the markets. They know where the customers they know best. And I wonder what it looks like in some of those places to just be able to be an encouragement to that. Maybe it’s 15 of the 60 are business owners. Maybe it’s only eight. What do we know about them? We know that they have a incredible thirst for the gospel. They didn’t come expecting and looking for investment capital. They’re not Christians, right? They’re looking for God’s word. Oh my goodness. How do we come alongside those men and women and just resource them to do what God’s put them in a position to do?
David Platt: I love it. I’m thinking right now about one of the countries we’re working through. Urgent where? Yeah, I mean, just a very close country by all accounts that we might think of. But the indigenous brother we’re working with there runs a factory, and he’s been very successful in a country where it’s really, really hard to be successful. And he’s using that to fuel a basically an underground house church movement. And so to come alongside that brother and not just with financial resources, but again with skills, even partnership, all the kind of things that they’re going through your mind right now that I don’t even know to think of because I’m just like a pastor and I know this or that biblically theologically, but just like a pastor. Well, but I mean, that’s the beauty, though, right of the body of Christ. Like, you guys have gifts I don’t have. I mean, I think about people listening to this right now and the storehouse of grace that they have in their minds and experiences and education that I definitely don’t have, like every one of us playing different parts, but all focused on the same goal and using the grace God’s given us toward that end. Yes, this is what we’re suppose. This is a church is what we get to be a part of in this world. It’s going to matter forever. Like, yes, again, like, sign up for this.
Daryl Heald: Yeah, David, it’s a really love. I mean, I think hopefully everyone listening here that is thinking, you know, so OK, I get it. Maybe the only thing is just seems sometimes sometimes the whole generosity thing seems one dimensional. I’ve got money and there’s a need there and I’m giving it and what I’m just hearing here that Henry and David y’all are talking about is generosity is holistic. In one sense, like, I’ve got networks, I’ve got experience, I’ve got knowledge, I’ve got, you know, capital. I mean, all these other things that, yeah, so I might not be the, you know, call to be there long term, but there are ways that I can be really strategic in this, and I think I’m really fascinated with your innovation summit idea that really brings the whole body to this thing because you think about a problem to be solved with three billion people, you’re right. It’s going to take marshaling everything we have. And so to bring that together instead of the bifurcation of it, we’re in business to make a lot of money and we give it to the church and expect the church to do that. I think we need to see this no bifurcation right altogether is like, Hey, this is our problem to be solved, right? This is what in our time today, given everything we have well done, good and faithful right, we need to the intentionality.
David Platt: So I love the way you just put that there. I would just say if I could put an exclamation on that phrase, is this our problem to be solved? Because I remember talking with one prominent pastor definitely won’t mention his name, but who just we were talking about? Three billion people know where the gospel is. Like, when is somebody else going to figure out how to get the gospel to them? And it was like, when is the mission community going to figure that out and solve that problem? It’s like. Rather, this is a bizarre problem in Salt Lake, as pastors, we’re supposed to shepherd the church toward this end. But to your point there? Yeah. This is our problem like a church. This is for us to have the gospel again going back to where we started, like even my own story, at least even Henry, you’re talking about how you came to Christ, like the fact that we have security for eternity. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ inside of us, like we have eternal life with him, like life that is truly life. To use your words derived from first, some of these sex like we have this right now and we get to be a part of sharing it in the world. And there’s three billion people who’ve never even heard they don’t even have access to the good news of how to have this life like that can’t be. And we have in an esther like way for such a time as this, we have more opportunity with the ease of travel, with technology, with wealth, with the globalization of the marketplace more opportunity than ever before in history. To make this good news, no one in the world like, let’s step fully into this. All of us step fully into this. Why would we want to live for anything else to get a little bit of time here? Let’s make it count toward the end and end the process. Realize, like we’ve talked about, it’s not sacrifice. This is joy. This is pure joy. Seeing people, I just read a story of somebody coming to Christ in a unreached part of the world like to have the opportunity be a part of that. This is awesome. And to have the opportunity to be a part of making the glory of Christ known and experiencing a joy that’s deeper than anything this world has. Yeah, may we all like jumped into this with the unique parts each of us has to play toward that end? Amen, Amen, Amen,
Henry Kaestner: Amen and a man. David, we like to close out every one of our podcast episodes with something that our guest is hearing from God’s Word, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be this morning, though it must surely could be. But we believe that this book is alive in the words of Mark Green, who is on our podcast a couple of weeks ago, something that really impacts me. And so is there something that you think that God is speaking to you? That’s really you’re discovering God’s love for you. I knew or his challenge, his encouragement, something I knew
David Platt: immediately that comes my mind. It was a part of my time with the Lord this morning in Psalm, 62. But it’s been a bigger part of our journey over the last year. So Psalm, 62, this morning. It’s not about waiting on God and finding refuge in him. That’s probably the book that’s had the biggest influence on me this last year of a little book called Waiting on God by Andrew Murray. And part of the reason for that theme is I mentioned our adoption journey. We were three days away last January from getting on a plane to go pick up our fifth son from another country when that country shut down due to COVID. So we’ve been in a 15 month waiting process to get to him and just praying every single day that God would make a way for us to go to him. And so but to see the repeated use of that word waiting in God’s word and again, I saw it this morning. And one of the best definitions I’ve come across for waiting on God is resting trust fully in him. So for us, amidst the heartbreak of wanting to get to our son to Rusty trust in God, I’m guessing there’s a variety of other people listening right now or experiencing some sort of waiting in their life, but rest trust fully and have them. It’s the waiting. And what I love about Andrew Murray’s book on Waiting on God is he kind of talks about how this is really the Christian life like we are constantly. We wake up in the morning. We’re waiting on God for the strength, for the wisdom, for the comfort, for the guidance that only he can provide, like the Christian life is a life resting trust fully in God at every moment. And so that’s been the big takeaway in a way that I just think Isaiah, 40, those who wait in the Lord or renew their strength and just know this has been an exhausting year for so many people in so many ways. But how do you renew strength and soar on wings like eagles and run and not be weary and walk and not think you wait? It rests trusting God. That’s the key to a strength that is supernatural and a trust that can get you through days when you don’t understand why certain things are happening.
Henry Kaestner: Great word, David. Thank you very, very much for spending time with us and with our audience of tomorrow’s investors and givers. You’ve challenged me yet again and just given me a renewed sense of being intentional about getting out into the marketplaces where there is real physical need and real spiritual need. And I thank you for that.
David Platt: And this is pure joy. I really am thankful for God’s grace and you guys and what he’s doing. Even through the people who are listening to this podcast and the fact that I get to be a part of a conversation like this with you guys like I deserve to be in hell right now and here I am talking with you guys about joy and following Jesus and being part of what he’s doing the world. So thank you guys all that to say pure joy, to be a part of this.
Bryan Kelley is the chief empowerment officer of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, or PEP. But to think of this as just another prison ministry would be a grave injustice. PEP doesn’t want to simply change inmates, instead they want to transform the 150,000 men incarcerated in Texas from the inside out. Stream the latest episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Podcast.