How The Lord Views Vocational Success

In this episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast, Garrett Maroon discusses the calling of Christian business owners to pursue excellence in their work. He emphasizes that excellence reflects God's character, serves as a witness to others, and is a means of stewarding the gifts God has entrusted to us. Through biblical teachings, Garrett encourages listeners to focus on the input of their work rather than the output, highlighting that faithfulness and excellence are key to glorifying God in all endeavors.

Takeaways

Christian business owners are called to excellence.
Excellence reflects God's character and nature.
Our work serves as a witness to others.
We should strive for excellence in all areas of life.
The input of our work is what honors God, not the output.
Excellence is a way to steward God's gifts wisely.
People are watching how we conduct ourselves in business.
Excellence honors God, even in mundane tasks.
Faithfulness is more important than worldly success.
Focus on excellence and faithfulness in all we do.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Excellence in Business
02:18 Reflecting God's Character through Excellence
09:51 Our Work as a Witness to Others
20:49 Stewarding God's Gifts through Excellence

Resources & Opportunities:

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. I'm your host, Garrett Maroon, and excited to be with you all here once again today. Today we're going to cover a really important topic called why Christian business owners are called to excellence. And of course, most of you watching are real estate agents, but in general, why are Christian business owners called to excellence? And what is our biblical command when it comes to the work that we do? We want to tackle that topic to the best of my ability today. It's certainly not going to cover the full gamut, but I think the question often becomes, what does it look like for us in a season, in a culture of success and all of these aspects that are, that go along with being a business owner, making money, having the stuff, having the comforts, all the pieces that go along with that. What are we actually called to? What does scripture actually teach us? Right, so we're gonna dive into that topic today. And that's my hope in prayer that I do it with humility, with grace, with truth, and just with biblical backing in scripture that backs up the points that I have to make with you today. And above all, that if these are not of the Lord, that you would not hear them, you would not take them to heart. So be encouraged, I hope, today as we have this. conversation. As always, the Faithful Agent podcast is totally free to you with one caveat. I hope that you will leave a five-star review or send this episode to a friend that you think it might be helpful for. Let's dive into the topic today right after this Christian joke. If Moses were alive today, why would he be considered a remarkable man? Because he'd be thousands of years old. that's good I like that one I search high and low for you all to find a joke I haven't heard before that is both good clean and hilarious so I hope you appreciate that one Moses would be remarkable if he were alive today because he would be thousands of years old okay anyways maybe nobody else thinks this is funny as I do all right so let's talk about being called to excellence and why Christian business owners, for us Christian real estate business owners, why we are called to excellence. Well, we're going to explore three powerful reasons why we're called to excellence and all we do backed by scripture. So three main points for the day. Excellence reflects God's character. Our work is a witness to others and we steward God's gifts well through So let's kick it off. Number one, excellence reflects God's character. Colossians 3.23 says, you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, not for human masters. You know, the truth is, God is a God of excellence, as seen in creation in His works throughout history. When we aim for excellence in business, we mirror His character. It's not just about profit. but it's about reflecting his nature through diligent work. And it's such a good reminder for us as we look at, as you study or see any intricacies of the way the Lord designed our human body, of the way the Lord designed that the environment and the ecosystem would work together, as the way the Lord designed it so that the earth is perfectly distant from the sun, so we would neither freeze nor burn up. When we look at the intricacies in the excellence of the Lord's design, we notice that He's not just a God of chaos, right? He's not just a God of, throw everything at the wall and I see what sticks. He's not just a God that is haphazard in His intelligent design. He is a God of excellence. And so we also, in order to honor the Lord, in order to reflect his nature and character in our work, we must also strive to be excellent in what we do. And that means whether it's, whether it's you're selling a home and you are excellent in your negotiation skills, you are excellent in your customer service, you are excellent in your follow through, whatever that process necessarily is. Or if it's you are running some other kind of business and you desire to be excellent in it for me in the podcast to be excellent in creating content for you all that will serve you. That is the way that we reflect the Lord's nature. Now, you'll notice that Colossians 3 23 says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, not for human masters. But the beginning of that verse, whatever you do. It doesn't mean that just we show up in the moments where we've got a $700,000 buyer. know we're going to make a huge commission check. And in that moment, we're going to work at it with all our heart. It means whatever we choose to take on. So whether that's your real estate business, whether that's another business that you have, whether that's in raising your kids, whether that's in being a husband or a wife, whether that's serving in your church, whether that's just. working on something at your home, right? Some project that you're doing, seeking to be excellent is a way that we honor the Lord by reflecting His excellent character, His excellence in the design that He has created for this world. And so that's the calling that we have. Now, we're going to parse this out a little bit later, but here's the reality. Number one, we will never be as excellent as the Lord. It is something we should strive for to be excellent. But y'all, let's be honest, even with me in this podcast, right? There are times that I don't care about being excellent. I don't care about giving it all I've got. I just need to get it done. Right. There's just time. And I'm just confessing that to y'all. There are times when that's just true. There are times in my work when I'm like, I'm not excellent right now. I just need to get it done. need to get it over with. I don't want to deal with this. Whatever the scenario is, there are times in parenting, there are times as a husband, there are times in helping serve in my church that I just don't want to be excellent. I just want it to be easy. Right? We should strive for excellence. We will never be excellent, but we should strive for excellence. And number two, whatever we do, we should seek to do it as if working for the Lord, not for man. Right? That means that in every area of your life, you are seeking excellence. But it also means that the Lord cares about the input, not the output, right? Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. It doesn't say that we honor the Lord by whatever we do, make it succeed, right? That's not what it says. It says whatever you do, work with all your heart. And so it is the attitude, is the character, it is the passion, it is the mindset, it is the energy, whatever it is, it is all of those things inside of the work itself. It doesn't say that we honor the Lord by creating whatever outcome. It says the input, the work itself is what we do to honor the Lord. So we are called to excellence in the input of what we put into the business. The Lord will determine the output that is not for us to decide. I could be excellent in all that I do. I could be excellent in this podcast and it could never grow. It could stay exactly the way that it is. Serve exactly who it's serving. Never get bigger. Never get small. Certainly could get smaller, but never get bigger. Never grow in its reach or anything like that. But that's not what the Lord is looking at. He's looking at how am I showing up in the work that I am called to do. Now, I could do the same work. I could be excellent in it, and the show could blow up, and it could reach thousands and thousands and millions of people, but that's not the point. I don't dictate the output. I do control what is the input of my heart, my attitude going in. Am I striving for excellence? Am I working as if for the Lord, not for men? We've got to remind ourselves that our work is worship. Even in mundane tasks, excellence honors God. So excellence reflects God's character. All right, point number two, our work is a witness to others. Matthew 5 16 says, in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. You know, the truth is that people are watching how we conduct ourselves in business. When we perform with excellence, we bear witness to the values of the kingdom. Honesty, diligence, love for others, right? Being excellent in all things, we reflect the character of God. They're watching how we will conduct our business. It says to let our light shine before others that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. What does that actually mean? It's what are we doing on a day-to-day basis? How are we loving? our clients? How are we serving the other agent? How are we treating the other agent even in a nasty negotiation fair and honestly despite their best efforts to tear us down? How are we being a witness to the other agents on our team or if we run a broker inside that brokerage how are we being a witness to them? by the way we conduct ourselves in business, one of the ways that we do it is by showing up and being excellent. And so people look at us and say, why do you care so much about excellence and all that you do? Or why did you allow that agent to be so rude to you and yet you in kindness acted fairly and honestly with him when we know he was trying to screw you over? Why did you do that? Why did you act that way? And we can say, look, it's this light that we desire to shine before others. Now don't say that if someone asks you that question, that'd be weird, right? But it is us seeking to let our light shine before others that they may see our good deeds, but ultimately so they would glorify our Father in heaven. We want our work to be a witness to other people. I remember I had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Baffini, which I hope all of you know who that is. If you don't go check them out, right? Sit down for lunch with Brian Baffini in 2018. A super quick story in 2017, I'm a super young real estate agent was doing well already. I think I was maybe 30 at the time and I'm out there in San Diego. He used to do these big mastermind events. I think this year actually was the last one, but he would do these big mastermind events. What was the year that he had actually unveiled his new book? the immigrant edge and the big pitch that week was if you bought 10 copies, you got to stand in line and he would sign one for you. So I'm a huge Brian Baffini fan. I stood in line, I bought my 10 copies and I waited for my chance to get a photo with him and get him to sign it. Well, I get up to where he is and we're getting ready to take a photo. I shake his hand and I say, know, Mr. Baffini, it's a pleasure to meet you. Hey, if I fly, I'm in Virginia, but if I... spend the time and money to fly out to San Diego. Could I come out of here and just get in an hour of your time, take you to lunch, buy you lunch and just hang out for an hour. And he, and he laughs and he said, not in a rude way, but he laughs and he says, know, Garrett, honestly, if I said yes to all of those, I would never have a free moment ever. Right. So he said, unfortunately, I don't think that's going to work out. And I said, I certainly understand. So we shake hands, we take a photo and I turned to walk away and he looks at his assistant, Jennifer. and he says, Jennifer, aren't we gonna be in Richmond, Virginia, which is like an hour and a half from me, aren't we gonna be in Richmond, Virginia in March? Why don't you set it up so Garrett and I can grab a salad together while we're at that event? And now in transparency, I was thinking, I don't want a salad. That's, know, I'm not that kind of guy. I want meat, right? I'm a man. Anyways, that wasn't funny. But I remember thinking, what just happened? Right? So I go talk to Jennifer and I'm... She gives me her email addresses like hey, we'll connect. We'll make sure this happens Well, y'all I emailed her so many times poor Jennifer like is this actually happening? But this was in August that he says this August 2018 or 2017 or whatever and in March 2018 Let's say is when we were gonna sit down and have lunch and I'm like, there's no way this is actually happening well fast forward to To that event in in March in Richmond. It's day one. It's a two-day event. It's day one and I'm wearing a suit and tie and if you guys know me I don't wear suit and ties, I'm like, I mean, I'm going to have lunch with Brian Baffini, right? Well, Tony Love, if you're familiar with Brian Baffini, Tony Love, who was like his right-hand dude for a long time, Tony Love comes, gives me a call and he's like, Garrett, at the break today, I'm gonna come out and get you, bring you backstage to have lunch with Brian. So I'm sitting there after the break and I get a call from Tony Love and he says, hey, I'll be right out. Well, I still don't think this is real, right? I'm a 30-old guy, like how am I gonna have lunch with Brian Baffini? Well, I get a call, Tony comes out. Tony brings me backstage and it's just Brian and his friend Joe Nego, if you're familiar with him, Joe Nego just sitting there at this table and they're just sitting there literally having a salad. And I walk over and I sit down and you know, these are big, well-known people, especially Brian. And I sit down and he says, you know, and I was freaking out. I was nervous, right? I had one question for him. Well, I say to or Brian turns to me and he says, hey, so remind me, you know, how did you get back here? And he didn't say it in a rude way. It was just like, you're a 30 year old kid. Like, how are you back here having lunch with me and Joe? And I said, well, I don't know, but I guess God's sovereignty. And he smiled real big and looked at me said, my man. And he shakes my hand. And so then I thought, okay, I thought he was a Christian. And now I'm like, all right, this guy's a legitimate believer. So anyways. So then he says, all right, do you have a question for us? And I said, you know, honestly, sir, I have one question, one question for you that I can't wrap my mind around. And I said, I've been reading all these books, I've been studying all these things, all these suggestions that you have. I mean, I love reading, I love taking in information. I love growth. I love all those things. And I said, but I struggle to understand how a Christian could justify and reconcile the ideas of, for example, think and grow rich because think and grow rich, the intent of that book is if I just desire it and think of it long enough, then I can go get it. Well, that's not what Scripture tells me. That's not what Scripture teaches. So I don't understand how to justify those books together with my faith and then what this book is telling me. Can you help me understand that? Right? Because Brian's a huge proponent of all of these pieces. Right? And so Man, I wish I had recorded that entire conversation and I didn't. I will tell you two things. The first one was I left that conversation more confident that this is a brother in Christ. So pray for him. He has a massive audience, Brian Baffini, a massive, massive audience, and the Lord, think, is using him. And so let's continue to pray that the Lord would protect him and his family and the Lord would grow his reach and specifically for the gospel. But he says, so here was the main part of his answer. And I'm getting there, I'm getting there, promise. But the main part of his answer is we talk about our work being a witness to others. He says, Garrett, here's what I want you to know. know, both Joe and I, right, Joe Nigo still at the table, he says, both Joe and I, we've been married, for Brian, he was like, I've been married over 30 years. We've got six kids. We have a great, happy family. All you don't see that in our industry. That doesn't happen. It's people that are at our stage or our level with the kind of influence and growth and size of business that we have. You don't see that, right? So first of all, that's one way that we witness to other people. And he said, but Garrett, know, and in response to your question, here's the reality. If I had not been excellent in the work that I had done and had succeeded at the level that I've succeeded, if I was not a multimillionaire, if I had not built a massive coaching company, and I'm paraphrasing some of this, right? But if I had not built a massive coaching company, if I had not flown all over the world, speaking and coaching and training, agents and business owners all over the world, if I had not succeeded as much as I have in my business, would anyone be at this event? And I said, well, no, I don't, I don't think so, sir. You know, if you were a nobody that had done nothing, no one is going to come. And he said, Garrett, that's exactly right. The reason that I desire to be excellent, this is Brian talking, the reason I desire to be excellent in the work that I do is that people will want to come hear about what I have to tell them about their business. And by the way, while they're here, I hope that they hear some gospel influence in there as well. And so I remember walking away thinking, that's it. The reason to be excellent in what we do. The reason that we are excellent as real estate agents, that we are excellent as business owners, right? It doesn't mean that we're walking around sharing the gospel all the time, every single day with every single client constantly and not actually doing the work laid out in front of us. It means we show up to be excellent in the things that we have taken on, the responsibilities that we have taken on, the work that we are doing. Why? So that someone will come to us and say, How are you doing what you're doing in your business? And we can say, well, look, let me show you, for example, for me, let me show you the biblical principles that I built this referral system on that I now turn into this e-course and I continue to work. Let me show you how I built that and how I work to be excellent at executing it. And they say, wow, that's really cool. And I give this to them and I teach them how to do it. And they look and they're like, man, you're doing this really well. And I say, well, yeah, let me show you how to do it. They start implementing these principles. And why do they work? Because the Lord set it up that way, right? So these principles start working. And then they come back to me like, man, this Bible thing that you were talking about, it seems to have a lot of wisdom. What else is in there? And you say, hey, let me tell you about it, right? Or they come back to you and say, man, the Bible's had a lot of wisdom to help me in my business. And I appreciate you sharing. about your course and I've seen how well you've done. my marriage is struggling. Does the Bible say anything about that? Yes, it does. Let me tell you about it, right? One way that we attract people into a gospel conversation is how we conduct ourselves in business. And when we become excellent, whether we succeed by a worldly standard or not, people are watching us. If you are a janitor, if you are, excuse me, working at the shipyard, the shipyard is right down the Newport News Shipyard is right down the road from us about 10, 15 minutes away. If you are just showing up to do what you would consider a quote unquote menial job every single day, people notice whether you do it with excellence or not. They're gonna say, man, you just, there's something different about you. You work hard. You care about what you're doing. You give it your all. Not the most glamorous job, but you give it your all. So agent, when you're sitting down with a client, are you giving it your all? Are you giving that same effort when you sit down to do their paperwork? Are you giving it the same effort when you sit down to make a social media post? Are you giving it the same effort when you stop to look at your own personal finances? We've got to know that in all things, we should work to be excellent and let our work be a witness to others. So when we go beyond the expectations of a customer, our business ethics are a testimony of Christ's love. and his character of excellence. Okay, finally, number three, we steward God's gifts well through excellence. In Matthew 25 verse 23, it says, his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. know, God entrusts us with gifts, skills, businesses, resources, talent, Excellence is a way to steward those gifts wisely and multiply them for his glory. The master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Now this is where we've got to understand the difference between striving to be excellent in our work and success by a worldly standard. Okay. When we look at what our opportunities are, let's say the real estate industry. We could look and say, look at the opportunities in front of us and they are numerous in the Lord's kindness. And we can say, you know what, I'm just going to go build this massive business and I want to make a million dollars a year. Now you can go do that, right? And you could, I guess, theoretically be not excellent and actually create a business that makes you a million dollars a year. But that's not the point. The point of this passage is The Lord says, the master replies, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of more. You've been faithful, right? It's not about the outcome. That's not how the Lord looks at us. Let's go into the church world. When a church, a church can't be compared. by the size of the building and the number of people that attend on Sunday. And if a massive mega church has thousands of members on a Sunday and the church down the road or in the small town, whatever, has 20 people on Sunday, that's not the way to determine who is being more faithful. It might be the way to determine who is most effective in getting. butts in seats? Sure. Right. And who has the bigger reach? Yeah, of course that's true. It's the big mega church, right? That pastor has more influence in reach than the small local pastor in the tiny little town. Right. Of course it does, but that is not the measurement that the Lord is using. He's not using the size and the quote unquote success of the church. He's using and looking at the faithfulness of the members. in that church. He's looking at the faithfulness of the stewards that he's called to lead that church and pastor that church. He looks at faithfulness, not worldly outcome. Now, it doesn't mean that a big mega church pastor is not super faithful. Very possible that he is. Right? And if he is, and the Lord has decided to give him and bless him with more influence and opportunity, praise God for that, because he's looking down and saying, well done, and faithful servant. You've been faithful with little. I'm going to give you more. Right? That's what the passage is saying. His faithfulness, right? Not his successes, not his outcomes in previous situations, but his faithfulness, just like the Lord could also say. The faithfulness of this pastor with the 20 member church, his faithfulness, the Lord could say, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. That many things doesn't mean we've grown into this false idea that many things or whatever the success is going to look like, that it's going to be outward. It's going to be thousands and thousands and millions of people following you on social media, that it's going to be millions and millions of dollars coming into the bank. It's going to be a comfortable lifestyle and income coming in. It's going to be getting to do whatever you want with your time. All of these things. It doesn't mean that those aren't potentially the outcome, but it certainly doesn't mean that is the only outcome. The pastor who is faithful with those 20 members, the Lord might say, you've been faithful and little. I'm going to give you more. Maybe. more people come in. Maybe he has the opportunity to help revive a dying church body that is also local to him. Maybe he has the opportunity to raise up a young man to go out and preach to more people the good news of the gospel of Jesus. It is a question of your faithfulness, a question of your faithfulness. What does it mean to be faithful, to be excellent in all things? to give God the glory above all things, to seek to work at all things as if working for the Lord, not for man, to be aware that in all things do good work, that it might bring glory to our Father in heaven. That is faithfulness. And faithfulness is not solely defined by the success outcome, the quote unquote worldly outcome that we're seeking. You could be incredibly faithful and your business could stay small. You could be incredibly faithful in your business. It gets huge. You could be incredibly unfaithful in your business day small. You could be unfaithful in your business gross. That is the Lord's choice for whatever purpose He's using you for. Whatever the outcome is, He's going to use it for His own glory. But the point is our focus must be not on the success in the outcome, but on the faithfulness of ourselves. in giving ourselves to the work that the Lord has called us to. One way we do that is by excellence. Remember that excellence reflects God's character. Our work is a witness to others and we steward God's gifts well through excellence. So brothers and sisters, as always, remember that excellence is not about perfection, but it's about doing everything as unto the Lord. It's about being faithful and what he has put in front of us. Let us run our businesses in a way that glorifies him and draws other into his glorious light. Until next time, brothers and sisters, keep trusting in the Lord's sovereignty. Focus on excellence and faithfulness. He will decide and has already decided the outcome. Focus on excellence and focus on faithfulness. I love you, faithful agents. I will see you next week.