Founder Opening Keynote

It is so good to see our SurgeU community come together.

Who is glad to be here?

Some of you traveled across the country to be in this room. Some of you rearranged your entire schedule. Some of you are brand new, this is your first event. Some of you have been with us for over a year.

I want to say something to every single person in this room: Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for investing in yourself, in your family, in generations to come, all for Kingdom Impact.

Frame the 3 Days

So, what is going to happen over the next 3 days?

You are going to hear from some of the most incredible speakers and leaders in the country. You are going to get strategies, tools, and you are going to be surrounded by a community of people who are serious about growth.

But I want to be honest with you about something before we start.

None of these will save you.

We can give you the best real estate strategy in the world. We can give you the most advanced trading education available. We can hand you a rock-solid plan.

But if your mindset is not right, if your heart is not right, if you are not approaching this with the right faith-driven foundation, none of it will matter.

A great strategy with a broken mindset produces nothing.

That is why I am standing here right now, before anything else happens this weekend. Because my job today is to help get you in the right mindset. A mindset that has completely transformed my life over the last decade.

Let me ask you a question, and I want you to think about it honestly.

Are you living for comfort, or are you living for your calling?

I'd be inclined to say that because you chose to be here today, you've already made a decision: you're stepping outside comfort and pursuing calling. So, well done. Everyone, give yourself a round of applause.

But here's what I've learned after 30+ years as an entrepreneur, after building and losing businesses, and after going from over a million dollars in debt to building an organization doing over $160 million in revenue:

1. Most people think comfort vs. calling is a one-time decision. It's not. It's a daily, minute-by-minute, internal fight and choice you must make.
2. And most people, even people in this room, even after choosing calling, slowly drift back to comfort once they arrive.

• • You are playing it safe when God is calling you to play it bold.
• • You are protecting what you have instead of multiplying what you have been given.
• • You are settling for what is comfortable when God has called you to something so much greater.

And I can say this because I was that person.

For the first 15 years of my entrepreneurial life, I was choosing comfort and calling it wisdom. I was avoiding risk and calling it responsibility. I was living what I thought to be the Christian faith but not producing fruit.

But I was not being faithful, or fruitful. I was being fearful.

And there is a massive difference.

The Line in the Sand

Here is what I need you to understand before this weekend goes any further:

There is no middle ground.

You are either moving toward your calling, or you are settling into comfort. You are either multiplying what God has entrusted to you, or you are burying it in the ground.

Satan owns the fence. If you are sitting on the fence between comfort and calling, you have already made your choice.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about what the Kingdom of God will be like. He says, a master is going on a journey. Before he leaves, he calls three servants and entrusts them with his property.

• • To one, he gives 5 talents.
• • To another, he gives 2 talents.
• • To the last, he gives 1 talent.

Each one according to his ability. Then the master leaves.

Now watch what happens:

• • The servant with 5 talents goes to work immediately. He trades, he invests, he multiplies. He turns 5 into 10.
• • The servant with 2 talents does the same. He turns 2 into 4.
• • But the third servant? He takes that 1 talent, walks outside, digs a hole in the ground, and buries it.

The Master Returns

The master comes back and settles accounts.

To the first two servants, the master says the same thing, and I want you to hear these words because this is what every one of us should want to hear at the end of our lives:

"Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."

Good And Faithful. That is the standard. Not successful. Not wealthy. Not famous. Good and faithful.

The Third Servant

But then the third servant comes forward. And listen to what he says:

"Master, I knew you to be a hard man… so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground."

Did you catch it? I was afraid. Fear. That is what drove his decision. Not laziness on the surface, fear.

And the master's response is devastating:

"You wicked and lazy servant."

Let that hit you.

The master did not say, "I understand, it was a tough economy." He did not say, "At least you kept it safe."

He called him wicked. He called him lazy. And he cast him out.

The Application

Every person in this room has been entrusted with talents by God.

Your skills. Your resources. Your time. Your relationships. Your education. Your ideas. All of it, entrusted to you, by God.

And the question is not how much you were given. The 5-talent servant and the 2-talent servant got the exact same response: Good and Faithful.

The question is: What are you doing with what you have been given?

1. Are you the good and faithful servant who multiplies?
2. Or are you the wicked and lazy servant who buries it in the ground because you are afraid?

Now let me show you what this looked like in my own life. Because I have been both servants.

The Expectation vs. Reality Chart Comparison

Steady Growth Chart: If you look at this chart, this is what most of us expect life to look like. Steady climb. More success. More impact. More resources.

But the reality is, this is what success really looks like:

Reality Growth Chart (Joe's life no labels)

The funny thing is that my team took my entrepreneur journey and built this out based on my real life charted out.

Reality Growth Chart (Joe's actual events labelled)

These are real events. Real failures. Real breakthroughs.

Hope Deferred vs. Hope Fulfilled — Two Halves

I divide my adult life into two halves.

1. The first half, roughly 20 years, I call the long season of hope deferred.
2. The second half, the last decade, I call the season of hope fulfilled.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." — Proverbs 13:12

The Hope Deferred Years

If you heard me speak at Life Surge, you have heard me talk about the hope deferred years, here is what my life looked like:

• • 4 business failures.
• • Over $1 million in personal debt.
• • Lost a business overnight, lender called the note, took the collateral, and I was left with nothing but the debt.
• • Six kids. Wife homeschooling. No income. No assets. No plan.
• • I remember doing the math in my head: it will take me 30 years to dig out of this hole.

I was living the wicked and lazy servant's life, not because I was literally lazy, but because I was operating from fear. I was making decisions to protect myself instead of multiplying what God had given me.

The Turning Point

My wife Lindsay had just prayed over me. And I went to my office, got on my hands and knees, and I just started begging God.

"Why is this happening? I thought I was serving you."

I had so much anxiety I did not even feel like I was breathing.

That's when my forever life verse popped into my head: James 1:2.

"My brothers and sisters, consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature, complete, and not lacking anything."

In that moment, my anxiety was gone. I felt like I was floating. God had answered me.

My problems did not go away, they actually got worse. But my mindset changed. I had a different posture. I went from fear to faith. From comfort to calling.

The Faith-Driven Decision

From that point forward, I made a decision: I was going to stop operating like the wicked and lazy servant and start operating like the good and faithful servant.

• • I went to an event. I learned from a mentor who taught me how to invest, how to multiply resources.
• • Four months later, I did my first real estate deal.
• • The next year, over 20 deals.
• • Within 3 years, I paid off that million dollars of debt.
• • Then I took those resources and launched what God had put on my heart, Life Surge.

Our organization went from $100,000 in revenue to over $160 million.

But what I am most proud of is the Kingdom impact:

• • Over 25,000 people gave their lives to Jesus last year.
• • This year, we are believing for 100,000+ salvations.

That is what happens when you stop burying your talents and start multiplying them.

And let me be very clear: none of that happened because I was smarter or more talented than anyone in this room. It happened because I changed my mindset. I went from comfort to calling. I went from wicked and lazy to good and faithful.

Now I want to take this deeper. We have talked about the parable. We have talked about my journey. Now I want to give you a framework you can take with you.

The difference between the wicked and lazy servant and the good and faithful servant is not just a Bible story. It is a pattern that shows up across every area of your life.

Land It

For me, when I went from hope deferred to hope fulfilled, the economy did not change. My work ethic did not change. My debt did not change (still $1M).

My mindset changed.

During the hope deferred season of my life, I showed up as the wicked and lazy servant: comfortable, fearful, partially invested.

During hope fulfilled, I showed up as the good and faithful servant: Kingdom focused, called, and the desire for multiplication.

The Mirror

Now here is the uncomfortable part.

As I was going through those seven areas, a lot of you probably saw yourself on both sides of that table in different areas of your life.

Maybe you are the good and faithful servant when it comes to your eternity focus, but wicked and lazy when it comes to your faith. Maybe you are strong on perseverance, but you have an earthly focus when it comes to legacy.

Nobody is 100% on one side; we all wrestle with being on the right side at different points of our life. But here is what matters: which direction are you moving?

Are you moving toward good and faithful? Or are you drifting toward wicked and lazy?

Because remember: Satan owns the fence. There is no neutral ground. You are either moving toward one or the other.

So, here is what I want to do. I do not want this to just be a talk you heard. I want this to be a moment that shifts something in you.

The Stand-Up Exercise

I want to try something. This is just between you and God.

I am going to describe two groups. You must pick one. You cannot sit this out.

• Group A:You would say right now, today, that you are showing up in your life, your business, your faith, and your finances as the good and faithful servant. You are multiplying. You are all in. You are pursuing your calling with everything you have.
• Group B:If you are honest, you have been operating more like that third servant. Playing it safe. Burying your talent. Choosing comfort over calling. Maybe not intentionally, but when you look at your actions, that is where you are.

Group A: please stand.

Everyone look around. Congratulations. Give them a hand.

Okay, you may sit.

Group B: if you were sitting, please stand.

Now look around.

That is a lot of us. And that is okay. Because here is the good news: you are not alone, and that is exactly why you are here.

You may be seated.

The 3-Day Challenge

Now here is my challenge for the next 3 days. I want you to write these down:

1. Pick your 2–3 areas from the comparison and commit to shifting them this weekend. Look at those 7 areas: Eternity, Faith, Perseverance, Service, Fruitfulness, Multiplication, Legacy. Where are you operating as the wicked and lazy servant? Name it. Own it. And over the next 3 days, make a conscious decision to shift toward good and faithful in those areas.
2. Meet 3 people you did not know before this weekend. Get their name, their number, and schedule a follow-up call. Kingdom multipliers do not build alone.
3. Ask God every morning: "What do You want me to do with what You have entrusted to me?" This is not about what the speakers say. It is about what God says to you through it.

Let me leave you with this.

We all have one life. One.

So many people regret wasting it. Not because they do not want to do something great, but because they are living by the world's standards instead of God's standards.

This weekend is not just about getting better at trading, or real estate, or building a business. Those are tools.

This weekend is about getting your mindset aligned with what God has called you to.

It is about going from the wicked and lazy servant's posture to the good and faithful servant's posture.

It is about moving from comfort to calling.

You were not given talents to bury them. You were given talents to multiply them.

So, over the next 3 days:

• • When a speaker challenges you, do not resist it. Lean in.
• • When you feel uncomfortable, that is growth. Stay in it.
• • When you have the choice to sit back or engage, choose to engage.

Let's all choose to move toward being the good and faithful servant this event.

Because at the end of your life, there is only one thing that matters: hearing your Master say,

"Well done, Good and Faithful Servant."

Let's have an incredible 3 days.