Christian Business Concepts
Christian Business Concepts
Conquer Temptations & Lead with Confidence
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Navigating the business world as a Christian leader requires more than just professional acumen—it demands spiritual vigilance against the temptations that can compromise our faith and integrity. In this compelling episode, Harold Milby identifies the ten most dangerous temptations facing Christian business leaders today and provides powerful biblical strategies to overcome them.
Standing on the foundation of 1 Corinthians 10:13, Milby reminds us that God always provides a way of escape from temptation. From dishonesty and ethical compromise to neglecting our spiritual lives and falling prey to pride, each temptation presents unique challenges in professional settings. The episode offers practical wisdom for maintaining truthfulness in all business dealings, making decisions based on biblical principles rather than worldly standards, and protecting our personal and spiritual lives amid demanding careers.
Particularly insightful are Milby's strategies for combating the subtle temptations that often go unnoticed—the tendency to surround ourselves with yes-people who never challenge our thinking, the creeping influence of materialism that prioritizes profit over people, and the paralyzing effects of fear that prevent bold, faith-driven leadership. Drawing from scripture and years of business experience, he demonstrates how Christian leaders can transform potential stumbling blocks into stepping stones for spiritual growth and professional excellence.
Whether you're leading a Fortune 500 company, managing a department, or simply seeking to honor God in your workplace, this episode provides the biblical perspective and practical tools needed to stand firm against temptation while influencing others for God's glory. As Milby powerfully concludes, Christian business leaders are called to be lights in the marketplace—demonstrating integrity, faith and servant leadership that honors God and inspires others to do the same.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with your host, Harold Milby. Christian Business Concepts is dedicated to guiding companies and business owners in becoming effective, efficient and successful through God's Word and godly principles. Now, here's your host, Harold Milby.
Speaker 2:Thank you, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business Concepts podcast. I'm your host, harold Milby, and I'm so very glad that you downloaded this podcast. If you're a regular listener, you know that I strive for each podcast to encourage you, to enlighten you and to empower you. To encourage you, to enlighten you and to empower you. You know we have a very simple vision here at CBC and that is we want to help business owners, business leaders, organizational leaders, department managers and leaders and other people help find true godly success by applyinglying Biblical Principles, and you know that's something that we're serious about. That's what we're about, and please help us to grow the CBC family, would you, by sharing this podcast with four or five others and by putting this podcast link on your Facebook and your LinkedIn page. You know, this week I really want to give a big shout out to Paris, france, for having so many downloads. Thank you. Thank you the fine people of France. We just are so appreciative that you are tuning in to the Christian Business Concepts podcast each week. Thank you so much and thanks to all of you who download this podcast and for those that listen regularly. We are so thankful and we hope that those of you in Paris are blessed as well as we do with others, by listening that you're blessed by listening to the CBC podcast. We want to be here to help and encourage and to serve, and you know that's what we're trying to do every single week through the podcast and through other ministries.
Speaker 2:Now I want to talk today. You know, I think we all understand that Christian business leaders are called to really uphold integrity and righteousness and Christ-centered leadership in their professional endeavors and in their personal lives as well. Now, saying that, I also believe that navigating this corporate world that we live in today and the challenges in our personal lives, I believe that they present various temptations that can really compromise our faith and our values. Today, I want to talk about some of the common temptations that we may face as a leader, and maybe even as a person, and provide some biblical strategies to overcome them. I believe this will help ensure that you remain steadfast steadfast as in your Christian walk, while you continue to lead, not just as a good leader, but you lead with excellence, and I truly believe that these temptations are very common, but these are the top 10 that I feel like that you, as a leader, or even as a person will face. But before we get into those, let me lay a groundwork, a foundation for you.
Speaker 2:So 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says no temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So it's really important to understand a couple of things. Number one, that there's no temptation that you may face that. Other people haven't faced it already and have been victorious, and some have failed, but it's not uncommon. So understand that. Then, secondly, understand that God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will make a way of escape that you can bear it, so that you can endure it. So it's not that God will never. You know, oh, I can't handle this temptation, so the Lord takes it away from you. What this passage is saying is that in every temptation God will provide a way to endure it, as this passage says.
Speaker 2:Now, if you go on to Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 15, it says for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So understand that Jesus, our Savior, was tempted. The Bible even talks about how he was taken out into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights, and so you know those temptations that he faced were very real. They were very real and very serious, and Jesus endured those temptations and he overcame them. Now you'll remember those. He always answered Satan with Scripture, with what the Word of God said, and that's what Jesus did and that's how he overcame the temptations. So the Word of God, the Bible, is very important to you as you're working through these times of temptations and you want to make sure that you stay in the Word. James 1, 13-14 says Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. So, again, another point to realize is that most temptations come from an unbridled desire that you may have that you don't recognize even. And so let's look at these top 10.
Speaker 2:The first one is the temptation of dishonesty. You know, lying about financial reports or misleading your customers, or maybe cutting some ethical corners, we'll say, or just being dishonest with others, with your friends, with your family. You know the biblical perspective is this Proverbs 11 and 1 says the Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him. And then in Colossians 3 and 9, it says Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices. So again, you know he's talking about dishonesty and God hates dishonesty. He really does. And so you want to make sure that you do everything you can to apply these principles, which one is to commit to being very transparent, very truthful in all of your business dealings and to establish some kind of a system of accountability within your organization, within your department. And then you want to make sure to seek some wise counsel from Christian professionals, make sure that maybe you have an accountability partner that helps you with that. You know this is a temptation that can be so easy to slip into just small little things, because it's the little things that eventually allow you to become so numb to it that then you're dishonest about a lot of big things.
Speaker 2:So number two is the temptation of compromise in your decision-making, making decisions based on worldly standards instead of biblical principles. Andrew Carnegie said strong men don't compromise and it is said, and principles should never be compromised. So he understood one of the all-time successful business people in our country, in the United States. In all of the time that this United States has been here, dale Carnegie was extremely successful and he understood this compromise of decision-making. You don't want to make decisions based on a worldly standard. You want to get your standards from the Word of God and you want to hold true to those. You don't want to compromise those the Bible says in Romans 12,. It says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you want to make sure that your mind is right. You want to make sure you're thinking right and that your thoughts are based upon scriptural principles. Joshua 24, 15 says but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. There was no compromise there. So seek wisdom. Seek wisdom through prayer, through Bible reading, before you make decisions and then surround yourself with really godly people and godly mentors and then make sure that you establish company policies, department policies, that reflect biblical values. So that's number two.
Speaker 2:Number three the temptation of neglecting your personal and spiritual life. That's really easy to do when you're a professional and you're trying to do everything you can to bring success, and it's really easy to forget about your personal life, your family, your physical being and also your spiritual life. We get so busy, we get so caught up and I encourage you, every morning, take at least 15 minutes to 30 if you can, before you start your day. Maybe have a daily devotional that you read, some scriptures, that you read and have something that you do every morning that includes reading the Word of God and praying and meditating on that Word. You don't have to start trying to do something for an hour or two hours a day. Start with doing 10 minutes a day, 15, 20. Start that way. And how do you overcome that? Well, keep in mind, keep in mind. You know.
Speaker 2:Mark 8, 36 says what good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Matthew 6, 33 says but seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as well. So it's important for us to not neglect our personal life and especially our spiritual life as well. Listen, if you're married, you have a family. If you're not married, you still more than likely have a family. So you don't want to neglect your family, you don't want to work so much that you just neglect your family. And you don't want to neglect your physical body. You want to make sure you take care of yourself, you want to exercise, you want to eat right. So don't allow that temptation of you neglecting your personal and spiritual life to take hold of you. Schedule Make sure you schedule time, block time out for prayer and Bible study and even worship, and make sure you maintain this work-life balance, one that would really, I would say, honor God and honor your family. So set some boundaries to prevent your work from overtaking, overshadowing your family and your spiritual growth. Make sure you do that. Your family and your spiritual growth. Make sure you do that, all right.
Speaker 2:Number five is the temptation of pride and arrogance. You know I was sharing in a message the other day that I was preaching from the church that I go to and the pastor had asked me to fill in for him. He was out of town and I was sharing. Today, the difference between a boldness and arrogance and boldness is, you know, a godly boldness has to do with who we are in God and who God is. But arrogance is centered around us personally and I believe that pride is that temptation to take personal credit for success, for forgetting that all those talents and opportunities and the achievements are gifts from God, and it just really can lead to arrogance and you alienate yourself from other people and then you begin to have this sense of self-sufficiency that you can do it all, and that distances you from God and your faith. You know Leo Tolstoy said one time. He said an arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life and that is becoming a better person. So it's important because you know you can have consequences of pride and arrogance and some of those consequences is you'll have a strained relationship with employees or maybe partners or clients. You create this culture of fear or competition instead of collaboration. There's a spiritual disconnect that you'll experience from God's guidance.
Speaker 2:So make sure that you remember to stay humble. Remember that God says in James 4, 6, he said God opposes the proud heart but shows favor to the humble. So acknowledge that your skills remember, acknowledge it out of your mouth and say thank you, lord, for the skills you've given me, for the opportunities that are blessings to me, and so then regularly express thankfulness to God and to those even other people who have helped contribute to your success. And then be sure to follow Christ's example by leading with a servant's heart and prioritizing the needs of other people above your own, other people above your own and then publicly recognize some of your team's contributions maybe in meetings or maybe in some company communications, emails or what have you and then start each day with prayer, a prayer of thankfulness and asking God to keep you humble. You know, mentor other people and share credit. You know for their successes. Other people and share credit for their successes, all right.
Speaker 2:Number five greed and materialism. We see that all the time, greed is this insatiable desire for wealth, for possessions or power, and a lot of times, more often than not, it can be at the expense of even ethics and ethical considerations. It can lead to decisions that prioritize profit over people and purpose, and so you have to keep greed in check. Materialism you have to keep that in check, keep it at bay, because it'll create a lot of unethical business practices, such as you begin to cut corners, you exploit workers, you create this culture that's focused solely on financial gain and you don't think about an employee's well-being, you begin to experience a spiritual emptiness because you have all these material pursuits, and those material pursuits will overshadow your faith. So what do we do? Well, according to Philippians 4, 11 through 12, you've got to be willing to be content. You know, paul embraces this teaching to be content in all circumstances, to be intent in all circumstances and then be generous, give freely to others, reflect God's generosities, make some good ethical decisions, make sure you commit to choices that line up with Christian values, that line up with the Word of God, even if they don't seem to be as profitable, but that's what you want to do. So set your personal and company giving goals, such as tithing, maybe a portion of your profits to charity or supporting worthy causes. But have goals, have giving goals and ones that other people in your organization see and understand and can get behind. But they see that generosity. And you can do that by supporting employees to volunteer or maybe to give to certain charities or certain charitable initiatives, you know. So make sure that you do these things.
Speaker 2:Number six the temptation for lust and immorality. You know, lust and immorality can manifest, for example, in just not having a proper relationship with people, a misuse of power or isolation. And this temptation is very, very potent. You know, romans 13 and 14 says but put on the Lord, jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And that's what it is. It's just a desire to pleasure your flesh, whether it be some type of sexual type of temptation or an improper relationship or an improper relationship. You know you begin to have these broken relationships and families because of it. I've seen it multiple times in people's lives A loss of credibility and respect. And you've taken your whole life to build that. Why throw it away, you know? And you'll have spiritual guilt over it and you'll begin to feel this separation from God because you're building this wall created by lust and immorality. So you've got to be very, very careful and so you've got to commit to living a life that honors God, designed for relationships.
Speaker 2:Set some boundaries, make sure you have clear professional and personal boundaries to avoid any kind of compromising situations. I've always made it a habit I do not meet alone with women. I just don't do that. I just will not meet alone with women. And if they demand that, then I tell them they have to find somebody else to talk to. I'm not going to compromise in that arena. It is too easy for either something to be said or somebody look at it and it not look right. And I, according to the Bible, I'm going to stay away from even the appearance of evil. So make sure that you do that, and that just is important and use accountability and regular check-ins, maybe with a mentor, and foster this workplace that promotes respect and professionalism. You know, because you want to stay away from those types of lustful opportunities that may arise All right.
Speaker 2:Number seven the temptation of anger and resentment. You know anger and resentment can just arise out of conflicts. You know they could be something that you perceive in your mind to be an injustice, something that needs to be righted where you were wronged. And if you allow those things to be left unchecked, it can really lead to some pretty strong grudges and a very toxic work environment. But what does the Bible say? Well, the Bible in Proverbs 16, 32 says whosoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. He goes on to say in Proverbs 15 and 18, a hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. You know, anger and resentment can really cause damage to relationships with either employees or family members, or partners or clients, and it also creates this culture of fear or retaliation. It also brings about a spiritual bitterness, we'll say, and that really can hinder you from prayer and it most certainly can hinder you from peace.
Speaker 2:And so what do you need to do? Well, first of all, you need to forgive. You need to follow Christ's example, to forgive others as God forgives us. That's Colossians 3.13. And then you need to practice patience. You need to recognize that others are also, they're just works in progress, just like you are, just like I am. And then you need to make sure you address issues, but do it real calmly and very constructively, and that will give you some really good talent to be able to resolve conflict. And when conflict does arise, take a moment. Take a moment and pray before you respond. Before you respond Even if it's to go to the bathroom and just pray before you come back out to respond to something, you respond, even if it's to go to the bathroom and just pray before you come back out to respond to something, somehow, take some time just to pray, and then you can implement some regular team building exercises that can really help foster, let's say, understanding that helps you with empathy, and then maybe offer some workshops on emotional intelligence and on conflict management for your team. That's also something that's very beneficial when we're talking about anger and resentment.
Speaker 2:Number eight laziness. The temptation for laziness and procrastination. You know, laziness and procrastination can tempt leaders to avoid difficult tasks, to delay decisions, to settle for what I would call mediocrity. I've said this a million, not a million times, but I've said it many, many times on this podcast that I don't want to be just average, because average is the best of the worst and the worst of the best, and that's not what we want to be. We should aspire to be people of excellence and to be at that higher level, and this can really. You know, when we talk about laziness and procrastination, this can really be challenging during times of stress, maybe a burnout. You know someone once procrastination is opportunity's assassin and I think that's so true. Proverbs 12, 24 says the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of a diligent shall be made rich. So it's important because you can miss a lot of opportunities. You can become stagnant and you can get frustrated with employees who rely on your leadership when you have laziness and procrastination.
Speaker 2:And you need to be or understand that you are called to be a steward. You're called to be a steward of the many things that God has given us and you can't be lazy and procrastinate and do that. You know. You've got to show diligence. You've got to embrace the biblical principle of whatever you do, work with all your heart as working for the Lord. That's Colossians 3.23. And you've got to set some clear goals and hold yourself accountable. You've got to have time management, prioritize tasks, avoid distractions, but you need to have good time management. You need to control your time well and then use tools like time blocking, where you block off so much time, or you use something like the Eisenhower matrix and you can Google that to manage your schedule and then break these large projects into smaller, manageable, bite-sized tasks. That will help you, because a lot of times we procrastinate because we just feel overwhelmed. We're just overwhelmed, and so if you can break things down to smaller things and then delegate some responsibilities to people that you trust, all right.
Speaker 2:Number nine fear and anxiety. You know, fear, this temptation for fear and anxiety. It can paralyze you. You can't make a decision at all when you get like that and it really leads to excess worry. You'll worry about the future, you'll worry about financial instability, you'll worry about failure, and these emotions that I'm talking about. It can really erode the trust that you have in God.
Speaker 2:The Bible says that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. So it's not God that brings fear into our life, but when we have that, it causes us to be very indecisive, we miss opportunities and we really create this culture within our organization, a culture of caution instead of innovation. And so what you need to do is make sure you have trust in God's promises, because you can trust him to provide, and you need to delegate to people you trust, delegate responsibilities, empower your team and then bring your concerns to God, bring them to him in prayer. Start each day with a prayer of surrender, just saying God, I can do nothing without you, but through you I can do all things. But, lord, I'm just laying this at your feet and you help me and guide my decisions. Today that's just a quick prayer, but you should pray every day and share your concerns with even a prayer partner, maybe that you have, or a prayer partner maybe that you have, or even a small group that you have. Share with a group and then encourage this culture of innovation and you celebrate these calculated risks that they're taking and you learn from your failures. So I think this is a very important one, this fear and anxiety.
Speaker 2:I have done a podcast on fear before. I hope that you go back and listen to it, but it's very powerful. Then, number 10, we have this temptation to surround ourselves with yes, people, with yes men, yes, women Leaders may prefer to surround themselves with agreeable people, but when you avoid dissent and you avoid challenge, it just creates this echo chamber that just kind of limits any kind of critical thinking or innovation at all. Leonardo da Vinci said one time the greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. Suffer is from their own opinions.
Speaker 2:The founder of Wrigley Chewing Gum, walter Wrigley. He said once that when two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary. You don't need people to agree with you. You need people that can disagree with you and show you why they disagree with you. Because when you don't, when you have a group, an inner group, an inner circle of just yes people. You're going to make bad decisions, there's going to be assumptions that are not going to be challenged, you're going to have blind spots blind spots to risk or opportunities or even the need for changes and you'll stifle creativity. You won't have any creativity, and so you want to be able to look at that, and so you can have very diverse perspectives.
Speaker 2:Recruit people around you that have a lot of different kinds of backgrounds, a lot of different viewpoints, and you want to foster constructive criticism. You want to foster that. You want to reward people with these really thoughtful challenges to ideas and decisions. And then you want to look at your decisions all the time. You want to look at them post-decision reviews to assess how you could improve. You want to look at those before. You want to make sure that you hire people with great character and competence.
Speaker 2:You need to make sure that you value integrity, value skill over agreement in any team building situation, whenever you're trying to build a team out. A company, for example, may assign a devil's advocate in meetings and his only job is to disagree and have reasons of why he does disagree, and it'll help you to have stronger strategies. And so in your next meeting you should ask for alternative opinions or assign someone to challenge that. So Christian business leaders are called to be lights in the marketplace. We're called to demonstrate integrity and faith and servant leadership. And when you begin to recognize and be proactive about addressing these common temptations, I think you can remain very steadfast in your faith and yet excel in your professional calling. And through prayer and accountability and a commitment to these biblical principles, I believe that Christian leaders can navigate the business world in a way that honors God and influences others for his glory.
Speaker 2:Lord, I come before you on behalf of these listeners of this podcast. Lord, I ask you to help each and every one of them, to help them during these times of these destructive temptations that could ruin their lives, and I pray, lord, that you would open their minds and their hearts to recognize that any time one of these temptations begin to come against them, that they would be reminded of these principles we've talked about today. And, lord, I pray that those principles would strengthen them to be able to overcome those temptations. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray Amen. Well, thank you again for listening to today's podcast and just feel free to click on that link that's at the top of the description of this podcast and you can link and it will come right to me and you can share a testimony, a prayer request or maybe a suggest a future topic, but we'd love to hear from you. Well, that looks like that's all the time we have for today, so until next time, remember that Jesus is Lord and he wants you blessed.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning into this week's Christian Business Concepts podcast. Go to christianbusinessconceptscom for more information and resources. Be sure to check out other podcasts that will help you take your business and your personal life to a whole new level of success.