Andy Mason (00:01.688)
Hey, welcome to The Conversation. I'm Andy Mason and you're with the Heaven in Business podcast where we're helping you navigate the messy intersection of faith, family and business. And we're talking stewardship. I got a friend in the studio with me today. You can hear about that. But most business people don't wake up one morning and say, I've failed in stewardship. They wake up surrounded by business, family, friends, cash flow, HR, payroll, all of these different things. And they're asking,
I mean, how do I know if I'm doing this with God? Where's God in this? Am I missing something? And so the beauty of that is I've got Steve Doolin with me today. And just as a brackets, really, really good friends of mine point to him and his mentorship of them and their business as a key to not just success, but stewarding what God has given them. So it's just a great privilege to have you with us today, Steve. Thank you.
Steve Dulin (01:00.907)
Well, thank you Andy for having me on. I really appreciate it. It's a great honor to be on your podcast. Obviously all the things you've done for the kingdom of God and my friends speak so highly of you. And of course we've worked together some and they've done ministry together. And so I'm just, I'm just honored to be here.
Andy Mason (01:20.216)
Thank you. So Steve, the reason we got you is this, you carry so much messages, but what I love is this pathway of business plus Bible plus Jesus plus serving local church plus generosity plus exiting well plus still engaged. You're involved in a significant church in Dallas, significant business, and then you're still involved with what you're doing in what I would say is one of the
premier kingdom business training platforms. There's so many. Give us a five minute overview for someone that has never heard of who you are and audiences, Christian business leaders with responsibility. Tell us a little bit about who you are and your story.
Steve Dulin (02:05.389)
Sure.
Steve Dulin (02:08.941)
All right, well thank you, Andy. Well, I was not raised in a Christian home. It's probably the first thing that maybe encourages some people. A lot of people think, gosh, were your parents a pastor or were they in ministry? No, I wasn't raised in a Christian home at all. And so growing up, I probably went to church maybe five times until my senior year in high school when I got invited to church, First Baptist Church of Denton, Texas.
And I started going the last, uh, you know, the last two or three months of my senior year and, you know, kind of trying to fit in, but then I went away to college to play football. went to Rice University and, just really, there was no support system there. went to church a couple of times. It was like, yeah, it's a really big church and I went to first Baptist Houston. So I don't know. I just, I just kind of fell away. Uh, it was pretty wild in college. By the time I graduated from college, I'd been in.
over 100 fistfights and 13 car wrecks. So just kind of wild. mean, Larry didn't know the Lord. I mean, never read the Bible, didn't know basic Bible stories. And I mean, thought David and Goliath was a rock band, right? So, so, but I met my wife, I met my wife in college and she started inviting me, you know, over to her house for Bible study and her dad did this Tuesday night Bible study for over 20 years. And through really his mentorship,
Andy Mason (03:11.2)
Yeah.
Andy Mason (03:20.445)
You
Steve Dulin (03:35.566)
And his discipleship, I started just reading the Bible and getting excited about the Bible and started changing from a very, very wild person to someone that, you know, who eventually gave my life to the Lord. Uh, when I was a senior in a college, so just, you know, then completely changed, right? I had to leave all my friends and, and my old friends, I was in a fraternity and, uh, I was actually in a fraternity at the university of Houston, even though I graduated and went to Rice University, it's a whole other story, but.
I had to really leave all that and really start pursuing the Lord. so, you know, I didn't have any preconceptions about Christianity. So when I went into business, I just thought, I need to be a Christian in business just like I am in real life, you know, in my personal life. So I just started following the Lord and he blessed that. I mean, we were very diligent in studying the Bible and reading the Bible and memorizing scripture and leading life groups and small groups. And I just started following biblical principles.
Andy Mason (04:17.836)
Yeah. Yeah. Good.
Steve Dulin (04:34.829)
And, uh, you know, and what maybe changed my life the most, which is kind of getting to the whole stewardship piece is that we've been married about six years when one morning I was praying on a Saturday morning and the Lord just out of nowhere said to me, Steve, I want you to start saving more. want you to start giving more and I want you to get out of debt. And I'm like, God, I'm a, I'm a, I'm like a project manager at a construction company and I don't know how to do that. I mean, we have two kids and.
Andy Mason (04:55.214)
You
Steve Dulin (05:05.08)
And how am I going to save money in that? only, only, only debt I had was school debt, but still, uh, you know, which means of course, you know, we only married a little while that your car is a junker, right? Cause you know, I didn't have any debt on that. Right. So I just, I didn't know how I could do it. We were already giving 12 % of our income to the Lord. God, I don't, I don't know how to, we can do any of that. Save more, give more, get out of debt. And he said, well, I'm going to show you. And he said, he said, you know, you, you have to give 10%.
of your income to me. It's called the tithe and we don't give that to God, we return it to God. Because it's not ours, it's his. He says the tithe is mine. And so he said, but next year I want you to give 15 % of your income to me and if you'll do that, I will raise your income by 50 % because 15 % is 50 % more than 10%. The next year I want to give 20 % and I'll double that income. The next year 25 and I'll double it again.
30 % I'll double it again the next year, 35 I'll double it again. I'm like, I'm a construction manager at a, know, it is a really bad time in the construction business back in the late eighties. And I was like, I, I don't know how any of that's possible, but I knew it was God. So I went to Melody and said, I think we're supposed to start giving 15 % of our income. And, uh, and I knew it was the Lord and she knew it. We prayed about it. We knew it was the Lord. So we agreed together, but we didn't wait till the start of the year. We started right then. And so anyway,
Andy Mason (06:29.454)
Get the jump on God. I love that.
Steve Dulin (06:31.647)
Yeah, I got, Hey, this is exciting. We're going to obey you. So, you know, so, a few months later, it kind of toward the end of the year. This guy called me friend of mine and said, he worked for this business developer who'd had a construction company that went out of business and wanted to start another one. He was a, you know, had it's seven or eight office buildings and one to own another construction company, even though the previous one had gone bankrupt. And so I interviewed, he offered me the job on the spot. I went home and prayed about it. felt like it was the Lord. So I started off as the
president of this construction company, but I was also the, you know, the truck driver. was the superintendent. I was the secretary. So, and God blessed us and literally I got a percentage of the profits at the end of that next year. My income had gone up 50 % to the penny, to the penny. And so the next year we, you know, we gave 20 % and our income doubled. I mean, to the pin, it was a crazy, if we got one more job or one less job.
It went up to the, it was literally an incredible miracle. And so, uh, and then after that, felt like we were supposed to start our own company. So we gave 20, uh, 5%, you know, and God doubled our income again. And then 30 doubled 35 to double again. Of course, you know, at the end of that, we're like, okay, what do we do now? God, he said, just keep going. And so the next year we gave 40, the next year, 45, the next year, 50. And so for the last, so I started this construction company that got supernaturally blessed.
Supernaturally blessed in many ways. We did 2,500 projects overall before I sold the company and we never finished one job behind schedule. We never lost money on a project in 23 years and 2,500 projects never once lost money on a project. And as a matter of fact, the worst project we ever did made full profit. And so we just kept going, right? One year, God spoke to us and we gave 111 % of our income away.
Andy Mason (08:11.79)
That's amazing.
Steve Dulin (08:28.301)
And people said, well, how do you give 111 % of your income away? I said, well, it's really easy. You live off savings that year because you don't have any income. And so, and so we just kind of kept giving and God kept blessing. And that's kind of been our story, you know, is that God's a good God and we cannot out give God and God will be debtor to no man. And so as we obey him and we give according to obedience, right? We don't just go give and go, Oh, God will bless us if I'll give it. We ask God, what do you want us to do? And then he
And when we obey God, of course, he blesses, he blesses our.
Andy Mason (09:00.718)
So I love hearing this story where you really, if we're talking about stewardship, most people think that stewardship is just about money. And your story, it's not about the money, it's about hearing and obeying. But then talk to me more about the stewardship of a business, of a family, of... I mean, you've got this as part of your life journey is life story really is about stewarding.
Steve Dulin (09:14.24)
absolutely. Absolutely.
Andy Mason (09:29.602)
really, really well. When did stewardship become a deal for you? Did you recognize it as a con of the afterwards? You sound like someone that just he got in a bay straight away. There's just this, let's go.
Steve Dulin (09:40.568)
I, you know, for me, the Bible was so new and it was amazing all these things that God, I I read all the miracles and I didn't believe that, you know, they passed away. thought, God does miracles. Let's go obey him and see what he will do. And he was doing miracle after miracle after miracle, which really encourages your obedience, right? And I think sometimes he doesn't do miracles because we don't obey. I mean, because obedience is our part, the supernatural.
Andy Mason (09:55.2)
Yeah, no one pulled you out of it.
Steve Dulin (10:09.953)
miracle is his part, but he wants us to do our part before he'll do his part. even the Lord gave me this same years ago. You know, people say, hear and obey. I believe you have to hear, believe and obey, right? Because you can hear and not believe and you will not obey. And you cannot obey if you don't hear and you will not obey if you don't believe. So I think you have to hear God, choose to believe him and then obey him.
Andy Mason (10:10.158)
Yeah, can't do that.
Steve Dulin (10:39.563)
And then I think that's when he does the supernatural part.
Andy Mason (10:44.718)
through 23 years, 2,500 projects. That's a remarkable journey and story. There's seasons when the economy's up and down in the middle of that. You said even your worst. What did stewardship look like? What did that look like in the most difficult economic seasons? As opposed to, because I think some people could listen to this and think that,
Steve Dulin (10:58.859)
Absolutely.
Andy Mason (11:12.524)
Yeah, you just sailed through and never had a challenge, No, I'm sure there were some challenges.
Steve Dulin (11:16.208)
Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, I, you know what the biggest challenge that ever I ever had was, uh, we had all these, uh, record years. mean, just record revenue, record profits. And by the way, I'd much rather have record profits than record revenues. Most people actually get that backwards. And so, uh, so, uh, but I remember after, I don't know, after 10, 12 years, something like that, I thought I said to myself, I think I, I think I really know how to run a company.
Andy Mason (11:32.987)
yeah.
Steve Dulin (11:45.966)
I think I finally know how to run a company. know how to run a company. It was like God said, Oh, you do, you? And we had a record year. had all these record years in a row. And, uh, so he shut the spigot off. And I mean, we were, you know, we're used to doing a hundred, 125 jobs a year. And it went to zero and lasted for months for months. And we're not getting anything and we're not even getting that many bids. And it was just, it was just a season where.
Andy Mason (12:09.068)
as if you're bidding on jobs, you're just doing.
Steve Dulin (12:15.149)
And none of it makes sense. said, God was trying to teach me a lesson. Like, no, you really don't know anything about running, running a company. What you do know is how to hear me, believe me and obey me. And what you do know is that if you'll do it according to my word, I'll bless you. And when I repented and finally got the message, you know, cause you tried to do everything else, right? You know, I need more sales or I need this or I need that. No, the answer was to get along with God and go, okay, God, what's going on? And then, you know, repent of your pride. And then, then also he just opened the door.
And we actually had another record year, even after months of no sales. I mean, like no sales. mean, like not one job. anyway.
Andy Mason (12:46.254)
you
But yeah, I love it. It's like Jesus saying, yeah, of myself, I can do nothing. It's like he could. He could have done a lot, but he chooses to do nothing independent, which is the core of what sin is. Come back once.
Steve Dulin (12:56.405)
Exactly.
Yeah. Well, I will say this one time, I tried to remember what it was. I think it was 2000 and, uh, it was like, uh, you know, when the.com bus hit and everything and, uh, and I go, God, I mean, what are we going to do here? There's we're, we're right. We're going right into the recession. We started getting into the recession. And I said, God, what are we going to do? He said about this recession, he said, he said to me so clearly, I have chosen not to participate.
Andy Mason (13:32.408)
man.
Steve Dulin (13:33.166)
And we had the best year we'd ever had. And what was interesting is our company was started on a good name, Robert's 22.1, a good name is more to be desired than great riches. Favor is better than silver and gold. And when you have a good name, in a recession, if you're a construction company, the owners and the clients are afraid you're going to go into business. So they're looking for the most stable companies they can use during that period. But we had such a good name.
Andy Mason (13:52.087)
It's even better.
Steve Dulin (14:02.485)
in the marketplace that the clients would choose us even if we weren't low bid. They would give us, we might be the only bidder many times because they didn't trust anyone else to do their project. And here we are this history of finishing all projects on time. We paid our bills, whether we've been paid or not to our subcontractors. so we actually, recessions were actually a good time for us usually, unless God was trying to deal with us about something.
Andy Mason (14:27.086)
So a technical question in the middle of this. So listening to the story of you hear God say, give more and your response, you're like, if I said of all the disciples, you'd be like, sounds like like Peter. He says jump and you're like, boom. And then, and he goes, no, no, no, not that way, this way. Yeah. And in melody, just your wife, just as such a rock and an anchor in the word as well. And obviously there's a family's legacy there.
Steve Dulin (14:41.515)
Yeah.
So, done now.
Steve Dulin (14:52.053)
Yes.
Andy Mason (14:55.596)
Okay, when you're going from year by year where it's just jumping up significantly in profitability, cash and tax and paying tax, how do you manage the tax side of that? Because this is like chunk, chunk, chunk.
Steve Dulin (15:10.775)
Well, you know, from the first few years, several years, you know, there's a, there's a kind of a Lammo. could be on a cash basis, right? So, so we wouldn't even bid. We wouldn't even bill owners at end of the year. We might not bill the last month, month and half, two months of the year so that the income would go into next year. So we wouldn't have to pay tax on it. We just roll it forward.
You know, I mean, and of course, you know, then you do a cruel and you can't do it anymore. then by then we built up so much cash that we can pay taxes just out of the money that we distributed or money that was in the company. So anyway, or, or, or, or if we didn't do that, we would, we would tell our subs bill us for January and we'd pay the bills in December. Right. Cause you're on a cash basis and you can do that.
Andy Mason (15:41.198)
OK. Yeah, but you're thinking so. So from a.
Andy Mason (15:53.974)
Yeah. Yeah. So talk to me about, there's one of these keys, you've talked about what we call as being hit with a humble stick is one of my family members have told us, it's like, my gosh, yes, I got into pride. Look, look how awesome we are. Wham. And it's like, and then you came to your senses quickly, which is, which is really cool. One of the keys that you mentioned was this sabbatical of
Steve Dulin (16:08.3)
Yeah.
Andy Mason (16:20.622)
how to recenter, reset, reengage in studenting what God's, how do I know what's God giving me is one of the things is get with God and listen and obey. Tell us about that.
Steve Dulin (16:28.417)
Yes. Well, and you ask about stewarding family and stewarding, you know, finances and during your marriage and all that as well, relationships. You know, I just felt like God gave me a revelation about sabbatical one year and I was, I was reading the Bible and, and God talks about a Sabbath is, know, Saturday or Sunday, depending on, you know, for the Jewish people, it's Saturday, but Christians, most Christians it's Sunday, but some Saturday, but a Sabbath, you know, God tells us that
rest on the Sabbath, six days of your work, seventh day you rest, and you dedicate that day to God. It's a consecrated day to God, a holy day to God. And so a sabbatical is just multiple Sabbaths in a row, right? And so I was reading in scripture one time and God just spoke to me through the scripture and he said, where he talked about, honor the Sabbath, but also there's three feasts every year that I want all the males in Israel to go to Jerusalem and celebrate and worship me.
Andy Mason (17:25.208)
Have a
Steve Dulin (17:26.797)
basically have a party, right? And there's obviously some solemn feast, but you know, usually it's a kind of a feast, right? It's a party. And so, and so I felt like the Lord said, I want you to take three times a year and go just meet with me. And I didn't know for how long, but I prayed about it. And so that next year I took the first week of the year and just went and spent it with God. And then four months later, I did three days with God. Four months later, I did three days with God. And for me, I've been doing that now for well over 30 years and I've been on
over a hundred sabbaticals of at least three days long. And of course, many sabbaticals for a day or two days or whatever. But I do that three times a year. And that's where I set my priorities. And the reality is if you want to steward something well, you have to prioritize it. If you want to steward your marriage well, it has to be a priority. So I established my priorities, which is God is always number one, Melody is always number two. My children, my two daughters,
are always number three, right? Then there's relationships and then there's ministry and then there's work. So work is actually a number six priority for me. And so, and so since it's the least, you know, that's the lowest, low, low on the list of priorities. mean, I guess there's some lower than that, of course, but, since it's number six, I don't give it as much time as most people give work. Most people work as their number one topic. So what we did in our, in our company, we sold it, you
over 10 years ago, an accident that really to do ministry. But, I don't know, the last five years of my company, the way I worked at our company, I only worked 15, 20 hours a week and didn't ministry the rest of the time. And so I was working more than 40 hours a week, but doing work at my company 15 to 20 hours a week, because it was a lower priority than ministry or relationships or my family or God. And so then I would go away on sabbatical.
Andy Mason (19:06.915)
Yeah.
Steve Dulin (19:24.117)
and say, okay, am I living out my priorities? And if I wasn't living out my priorities, I would repent and get my schedule back in order or get my priorities back in order or get my time back, whatever it might be. And that's what sabbaticals did for me is they allow you to reset and there are three days alone with God, I fast the entire time. And until you're fasting, that'll humble you, right? And you just humble yourself before the Lord.
Andy Mason (19:26.723)
Yeah.
Andy Mason (19:39.607)
recent.
Steve Dulin (19:51.564)
I always start all my sabbaticals with repentance. God, I'm so sorry if I've done this or done that. And that show me what I need to change. Show me where I'm thinking wrong. I need to change my thinking and go the other way. But I always, always say, I living out my priorities? And ask God to tell me if I'm living out my priorities or not.
Andy Mason (20:09.388)
Yeah. So so this is all about knowing what your pro's are. You talk about, you know, these different ones, God, Melody, as in your spouse, your children. Have you ever done this with Melody or she's been in a different space?
Steve Dulin (20:22.669)
We usually don't do sabbaticals together. She goes off by herself. I just felt like something God told me to do. Now we've done marriage retreats and we've done retreats away, but not really like a sabbatical. I'm pretty strict about, I'm going to bring some worship music. I'm going to read the Bible. I don't go read books and things like that. It's time to spend alone with God. And I don't really, I don't bring work. Now I may think about work and pray about work a lot because it's one of my priorities, but
Andy Mason (20:27.469)
Okay.
Steve Dulin (20:50.605)
but I don't actually do work on sabbatical. So it's really just a pretty individual time. We've gone on one or two kind of sabbaticals, but really it works best for me to go away and just spend time with God and Mellie does her sabbatical. Now we'll go away on vacation or we'll go away on a retreat and do something, but not really a sabbatical in the purest sense.
Andy Mason (21:14.134)
Yeah, one of the things that we're doing with Heaven and Business is training business people to see their work as worship and that for many of them, it is their ministry, is anointed work displaces demonic powers, what we get to do in discipling people in and through the platform of their business. You kind of had these two separate. Give us some context and understanding of that and how you would speak to the majority of business people that don't even see their work as one of the places they could steward before God.
Steve Dulin (21:25.175)
Absolutely.
Steve Dulin (21:31.318)
Absolutely.
Steve Dulin (21:40.982)
Yeah.
Steve Dulin (21:44.654)
Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the lies that we believe, right? That work is not a sacred ministry, church, religion is sacred, but work is not. But work is absolutely, God makes no distinction between work and ministry in scripture, right? As a matter of fact, when Adam and Eve left the garden, the Bible says, he sent them out to do work. He didn't send them out to do ministry, he sent them out to do work. And work.
is our ministry many times. I tell people, I ended up going into ministry, but I don't feel any more called of God to do ministry than I did work. And of course, while I was at work, I was doing ministry. And it's not like I'm trying to shove the Bible down people's faces, but man, there's so much opportunity in a hurting world where people have questions and the Bible has answers. God has answers. One of the things I say about sabbatical is that so many business owners are just going,
a hundred miles an hour, they're so busy trying to find solutions to their problems. When God's the one that has all the answers, but they won't go and spend time alone with him and ask him, God, what's the answer? And you know, I've talked to thousands of people about sabbatical and I know, I don't know, hundreds of people that go on sabbaticals and go and spend time with God. And they ask him though, how do I incorporate ministry into work? You know, because so many people say it's two separate things.
I have a friend named Ken Eldred who wrote a book called The Integrated Life and his premise is that look, don't separate work and ministry, you integrate them. They're not separate, they're integrated together. And ministry is work and work is ministry.
Andy Mason (23:25.678)
I love this. So number one, you talk about here, believe and obey. I mean, that's the first step of a service. was your connection with God himself. Number two is the busyness is the greatest. The force that will work against you most in studying what God's given you is is busyness. So get alone with God. If that's.
Steve Dulin (23:43.597)
100%. Which is so funny, right? Because busyness and business, they sound a lot alike, don't they? Not the same.
Andy Mason (23:48.832)
Yeah, like sounds lit. No, but they're not. They're not. Come back a step is how do you know what what is a a godly stewardship and what is someone else's that I've taken on someone else's responsibility? Where's my my job to steward this? And now I'm actually becoming the savior of somebody else.
Steve Dulin (24:13.261)
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because stewardship and faithfulness are not the same. Matter fact, I think it's 1 Corinthians 4, 2 that says, is required in a steward that he be found faithful. So if you're going to be a godly steward, you have to be faithful, but you can be a steward and not be faithful. As a matter of fact, there's a whole parable written in Luke 16 about the unfaithful steward or the unrighteous steward. So the key is to figure out what God's calling you to steward.
Right? Obviously we're called to steward our money. We're called to steward our, our, relationships, our families, our businesses, our ministry, our, we're supposed to steward our gifts and callings. And I think if there's a one thing that, that I see that, that is really a great need in the, in the, Christian business leaders is to steward their gifts and callings. Right? So many times it's just so easy to go, look, I'm stewarding my business.
So that's what I need to steward. That's my number one priority. But really it's the gifts and callings that allow you to do your business the way you do it. If you'll steward those in a greater way, your business will actually do better, but your ministry will do way better, right? Because there's these giftings and callings that we all have, God tells us they're irrevocable in Romans 11. He gives each one of us giftings and callings and wants us to develop them, wants us to execute on them, wants to plan them, wants to hear from God about how to accomplish it.
And I think that's probably maybe the greatest need of stewardship in the body of Christ is to really understand what God's called us to do and the giftings he's given us and then develop them to build his kingdom.
Andy Mason (25:55.182)
I love this. Just listening to you, Steve, I mean, I'm wondering even some of our language makes it difficult. Because what I'm hearing you say is you're a steward before God, everything's the Lord's, you're stewarding one, your relationship with God, two, your relationship with your wife, three, you're stewarding the service to your family, four, you're stewarding your service to others, which is ministry. And then whichever the next one was, the work, the relationship.
Steve Dulin (26:22.637)
Relationship. Yeah, then work.
Andy Mason (26:25.722)
The work is effectively the ministry, but it's in the vehicle of work. Ministry as a whole, compared to ministry through the vehicle of my work. I love that. I think that's a really powerful way to look at it. First, it's not to make money. First, it's serving people, which leads me to, there's a bunch of business people that have achieved a measure of success, confidence. You've been faithful and unrighteous man, and I'll give you true riches.
There's something far beyond the money. And yet I see so many that have relegated themselves or reduced themselves to writing out a check to something. And yet you touched on this, is the greatest value is actually these skills, abilities and the way they serve people in the midst of it. Talk to us about that as in you've actually, I mean, call it ministry, call it whatever it is, but there's something that you are doing that is way beyond what you do in terms of generosity.
Steve Dulin (27:15.02)
Yeah.
Steve Dulin (27:24.333)
Yeah, think that, you know, one thing we can do, we can make ourselves rich. Look, biblical principles work, whether you're a Christian or you're a non-Christian, they work. And so if you are diligent like the ant, for example, if you're a diligent person, that will help you in your business success. And there's so many biblical principles that will make you rich. The problem is, is when you don't use biblical principles to be rich.
Right? And we don't use biblical principles to be rich. The things that you have to do to become rich are the things that destroy your life, destroy your marriage, destroy your relationship with your kids. I don't know how I can have a better relationship with my children. I really don't. I have a great relationship with my children, great relationship with my wife and friends and relationships. but when you, when you, that's, that's, but then when you start like lying and cheating and doing dishonest things, which are clearly not biblical or anti-biblical, I mean, then you really,
start bringing all these problems upon yourself. know, Proverbs 10 22 says, the blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it. When we make ourselves rich, then we add sorrow with it. And there's so many companies that have so many problems, have so much sorrow because the Lord's not blessing them. They're blessing themselves, quote unquote, and they're getting sorrow with it. And probably one of our greatest testimonies at our company was,
Andy Mason (28:25.826)
Yeah. Ed Sorrer.
Steve Dulin (28:51.179)
was that the Lord blessed us and we really didn't have sorrow. didn't have jobs that finished behind schedule. I'll say something, in 23 years and 2,500 projects, we never had a reportable accident on a job site. Not one. Not one. Well, you can't do that yourself, right? And by the way, all the stuff I say about our company, you can't do it yourself. What you can do, what God's called you to do, God does the rest. It's kind of like Moses, you know, at the Red Sea, right?
Andy Mason (29:04.503)
unbelievable.
Steve Dulin (29:21.429)
What was Moses's job? Moses's job was to raise up the stick. That was his job. Just raise it. It was God's job to part the Red Sea, right? And so we can get prideful and think we can do more than raise up the stick, but the reality is God's pretty happy with it. We'll just raise up the stick like he told us to and he'll do the rest. But that's such a key. What you build, you have to maintain. What God builds, he will maintain.
Andy Mason (29:30.211)
He he
Andy Mason (29:36.824)
Yeah.
Andy Mason (29:41.326)
you
Steve Dulin (29:49.902)
If God, if you own it, you'll have to maintain it. If God's owns it, he'll maintain it. Right. And so, and so it's, it's, it's, it's this crucial, crucial difference in a Christian business owner who is a steward of his company versus owning his company. And God's called us to be stewards. I'll tell you kind of a funny story. I remember I was driving down the road one day and I was just thinking, gosh, God, you really blessed us. And you know, I mean, I'm just driving down the road. I've had this, I hope a hot.
Andy Mason (29:53.966)
you maintain it. Yeah.
Steve Dulin (30:18.765)
I said, you so blessed us. I'm so grateful. Thank you, Lord, you've done it. And I've just tried to follow you, but you really blessed us where, you know, most people would say today that our family is rich, right? And then a scripture came to my mind out of Matthew 19, where it says, is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember the scripture? And I'm like, oh, hang on a second. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle?
Andy Mason (30:44.151)
Yeah
Steve Dulin (30:47.703)
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And I'm familiar with that there was a needle gay and then the camel would have to get down on his knees and go through this needle gauge really hard. I've been to Jerusalem and I can't find the needle gate. I asked around, I tried. And so I'm stuck with this. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. I said, well, that's true, Lord. I don't want to be rich. I want to enter the kingdom of heaven. I'll never forget. was like he laughed and said, you're not rich. He said, I'm rich. You're just a steward.
Andy Mason (30:59.658)
You
It.
Steve Dulin (31:17.613)
And that really, mean, those little revelations, those things that the Lord shares with you, that He's so gracious and loving to share with change your life. And really, that was a demarcation point where I never ever really again doubted that I was a steward and that he was rich. I'm not rich.
Andy Mason (31:17.826)
Yeah. It's lib writing.
Andy Mason (31:25.998)
Yeah.
Andy Mason (31:36.622)
I love this. There's so much more to your story that we're just not even going to have time to pack and jump into. But just reiterate is here, believe obey. It's really the core and the start and the end of stewardship is that. It's the earth is the Lord's, not yours. Two is get alone. Get alone and listen, God, what have you given me to steward? It's relationships first and then and then the vehicle by which I serve those people.
Steve Dulin (31:54.337)
Hold it zero. Yes.
Andy Mason (32:05.294)
could be business, could be other avenues. Yeah, I love it. Number three, never forget, you're just raising a stick. There's a lot to do. But I mean, this is really cool. Just raise up a stick. I'm not sure how you're supposed to articulate, but that just captures it. Actually, what I'm doing is I'm raising up a stick. I am a steward. I'm a faithful, faithful steward. Thank you, God, that you have blessed me.
Steve Dulin (32:06.829)
could be anything, absolutely.
Steve Dulin (32:15.725)
That's right!
Andy Mason (32:32.308)
that I've much in what we get to do. I am so grateful as I've been faithful. Steve, would there be anything else that's real practical that you would challenge or give people to do to action in thinking through what we've talked about?
Steve Dulin (32:38.754)
Yes.
Steve Dulin (32:45.485)
You know, as you were speaking, this thought crossed my mind. I think it's from the Holy Spirit. I think there's so many people out there that are almost afraid to get with God. Maybe they haven't done it exactly right. Maybe they haven't, know, maybe they've made some mistakes. Maybe they've done some things that are wrong or whatever. And they're like afraid to get with God because they're afraid he's going to chew them out.
Andy Mason (32:59.874)
Yeah.
Steve Dulin (33:11.563)
Right? They're afraid he's gonna be mad at him or he's gonna do something to them.
Andy Mason (33:15.5)
or I'll get nothing, it'll be empty, or yeah.
Steve Dulin (33:18.453)
And I look, he's just like the prodigal son who went off and wasted his inheritance with prodigal living, with sinful living. When he came back, the father was so happy that he threw a feast. He didn't chew him out. The Bible doesn't say chewed him out. He said he welcomed him with open arms and threw a feast for him because he missed the times with his son. He missed the relationship with his son.
And so I want to say to every person, listen, if you are concerned about getting with God, look, God may, he may speak to you and go, you need to change this and change this. That's for your benefit. That's so he can bless you. He's wanting to speak to you so that can have a deeper relationship with you so he can bless you so he can do things in your life and in your family and your ministry and your business and every area of your life. So don't hesitate to spend time with him, but be prepared to go in every
Andy Mason (33:57.891)
Yeah.
Steve Dulin (34:16.941)
Every time I go on sabbatical, most times when I pray, Lord, I repented today. I'm so sorry, Lord. And sometimes God brings something specific. Most times, anything you want to adjust, Lord, in me, please adjust, right? So I think we start with repentance, then we come to God. And if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1, 9. He cleanses us of those sins and we could stand before him and have the relationship that...
Andy Mason (34:28.184)
Yeah, spend me.
Steve Dulin (34:44.609)
that he wants and the relationship that we should want as Christians. So that would probably, that's my encouragement to not put it off because, you know, God may be mad at me. No, he's not. He's wanting a deep, deep intimate relationship with you.
Andy Mason (34:54.093)
No.
Andy Mason (34:58.83)
Yeah, I love that. Just so I appreciate that. Steve, I'm just gonna get you to, I just know there's such a value that we've missed too in getting people that are seasoned, that have walked with God, that have got the credibility and the reputation in their family and in their community and in their church community that have walked like you is to just release a blessing. And I'm gonna get you to pray for all of us. But I'm so excited because you're gonna be speaking at our Heaven and Business Conference in Dallas at the end of August.
If you're listening and you are near there, you wanna come, just jump on to heavenandbusiness.com slash conference dash Dallas. It's gonna be so good, we'll have time to interact with Steve some more, because there's a few decades of life that we're not even gonna capture this. So we can unpack that some more. But before we just launch everybody, Steve, would you just pray and just release a blessing of the grace on your life that gets multiplied through our listeners.
Steve Dulin (35:49.44)
Absolutely.
Steve Dulin (35:53.111)
Absolutely, I would love to, love to. And Father, we come in Jesus' name. Lord, we thank you that you're such a good God. And there's so many times when the enemy and the world and our flesh just wants to take us away from you. And then we kind of get like, gosh, don't know how, how do I come back to God? It's really easy to say, God, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? He says, yes, my son, yes, my daughter, come to me. And so Lord, I just speak blessings over.
every person listening, Lord, I ask that you bless them, that you be with them, that you lead them and guide them, Lord, that you show them your ways. God's ways work. And there is a way that seems right to them, and it's end is the way of death. But Lord, there's also a way that leads to life and abundant life. And so Lord, that's your ways, the ways that you tell us to walk. And so Father, I just speak blessing and grace and provision.
And Lord, I even pray for people who are anxious or worried or fearful right now that they'll cast their cares upon you because you care for them. And Lord, I pray that as we do our part, you'll do your part, the supernatural part that we all desire and that we all need. So Father, ask you to rebuke the attack of the enemy from those listening and Lord, I ask you to bless them. their families, their marriages, their ministries, their work, everything that you called them to do. Lord, I just ask that you bless them in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.
Andy Mason (37:13.62)
Amen. Thank you, Steve.
Steve Dulin (37:16.556)
Great to be with you Andy.
