#115 7/29-30/2023

Radio Seminar: How God Uses Money #2
Q&A: How to buy a home
SCAM ALERT: Text message medical scam
Minute with Maxwell: “Alliance”

(UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT)

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Financial Freedom God’s Way, where you are continuing to learn, apply, and pass on, Bible-based financial principles and applications so that you and your family will not only just survive, but thrive during these very uncertain times.

Hi and welcome everyone, this is Bob Louder from Christian Financial Ministries, and it is an absolute honor to have you with us again—it really is. What is on the schedule for our 30-minute time together today?

• First, during our Radio Seminar time together, we are going to pick right up where we finished up last time. Last time we saw several ways the Bible says God will use money in our lives, today you will discover several more.
• We will follow up our Seminar time with a great question about how to buy and finance a home.
• Next, well next I have yet another SCAM alert for you fresh from the BBB.
• Finally, well finally, we will spend a great Minute with Maxwell as John Maxwell focuses on the word, “Alliance—alliance is in a partnership.” John will talk to us about combining forces with others to achieve big goals.

So stay tuned, won’t you. It is going to be a great time together. As we start, let me pray for us. Father, thank You for meeting with us again today. Please give us ears to hear all that it is you have planned for us, to Your glory, in Jesus’ mighty name, amen.

BODY

Radio Seminar

Recall that you have seen that there are ways God WILL NOT use money or wealth in your life and if you see any of those ways up and operating then you are either in or headed into financial bondage.

Now, just as there are ways God will not use money in you life, according to the Bible there are ways He will use the wealth He places into your hands. And these ways point to financial freedom.

Last time you saw that the Lord will use the material areas of your life to

• Help you see whether or not you trust Him
• To Develop your faith in Him
• To demonstrate His love, and to
• Develop your witness, your testimony.

Today, well today you are going to discover that according to the Bible there are yet more ways God will use the material areas of your life. For example,

——————– 5.

He wants to use Wealth to help direct your live.

• Galatians 6:9 says: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

God wants to money to direct your life. And He wants to direct by supplying as well as what?–as well as withholding. But you need to wait on the Lord to see which way He wants to go.

• By the way, borrowing isn’t bad; it’s not a sin. God says, “It is just the least I ever promised my people.”
• I hope I don’t offend anybody, but I believe that God never intended any Christian organization to ever borrow a dime. Why? Because I have not seen one place in scripture where God ever manifested Himself thru a loan.
• He does say, “If you trust Me and I’ll provide.” He built three churches that we know of (two tabernacles and a temple) and the last one cost about $300 M about three thousand years ago. Now that’s a lot of money. He said if you trust me I would provide.

• <CHURCH BORROW TO BUILD GYM>
  • True story…
  • There was a pastor a few years back sought CFC help:
    • Want build $250K rec center debt free at church
    • Wanted to trust God, lift his people
      • Same time, member seeking counseling at CFC
        • How to invest inheritance into God’s kingdom/250K
        • Give to church if church held to “debt free”
        • Church not know
      • Vote on what to do
        • Pastor/deacons want to trust
        • Congregation wanted to build.
        • Vote to borrow
          • $250 to another purpose
• The money was there; all they had to do was to trust God. It was there.
  • “Ask, believing, and receive.”
  • They didn’t, and we don’t, especially in the area of money.
    • I wonder just how many times we miss God’s best when we don’t wait for His direction, when we use credit. By the way, that’s the purpose of credit for the most part; we use credit so we don’t have to wait on God.

Yes, God does use money to direct our lives. And He uses money by giving and as well as withholding.

——————– 6.

God can use money to unify the body of Christ.

• Paul said we are to share with others in our time of plenty and others will share with us in our time of need.
  • Now I don’t believe he was talking about socialism or communism.
  • He was talking about oneness…oneness in spirit, unity within the Body of Christ, the knoinea within the Body of Christ.
  • You know, I really like Paul, he was a true exhorter of the Word, and he had a rather soft pen. Now James and John, on the other hand, they were also teachers of the Word, but they didn’t much care if you liked what they said or not! Their pens were much harder. For example, James begins his letter by saying, “You dummies–what are you doing?” (Granted that’s a rather liberal paraphrase, but that is the bottom line). Now Paul, bless his heart, Paul begins writing to the Galatians about the same kind of problems, but Paul begins with a much softer pen by saying, “Greetings in the Name of the Lord from your loving brother Paul…you dummies–what are you doing?” Same message, just a softer pen.
    • The HS tells us thru Paul’s soft pen, that God provides enough resources within the Body of Christ to go around for everyone. But the problem is that the Body of Christ has a distribution problem.
      • Too often we position ourselves so we can’t “afford” to share with those in need.
      • Many of us are living so far beyond our means that there’s no way we believe we can share with others. We can’t maintain our own self-indulgent lifestyle much less be used by God to help others.
      • I believe that if there is someone in the Body of Christ suffering, someone else in the Body isn’t doing their job.

The symptoms of this condition are fairly clear. Let me describe for you a set of symptoms that many families go thru before they get a divorce.

• Symptom number one. A young couple gets married and believes they ought to be able to accumulate in just a couple of years what it took their parents a lifetime to accumulate. (Examples) So, after about 15-18 months they build up a large amount of debt, and can’t meet their payments on a month-by-month basis. So they start to treat the symptom rather than the problem. What do they do?
  • They take out a bill consolidation loan. That bill consolidation loan takes all those debts on a monthly basis, shrinks them down, but stretches them out for a longer period of time.
  • That frees them up. It helps with the cash flow. It takes some of the pressure off and makes them feel better. Consequently they go out and start spending again.
  • And within about a year they’re deeper in debt that they ever were before, but now they not only have all these new debts, they also still have the old bill consolidation loan as well. They’re literally worse off.
• Symptom number two: “We need more money.” What do they do?
  • Right, either the wife goes to work, or the husband takes a second job, or maybe both.
  • True, this generates more income, which again frees them up; followed by…you guessed it…more spending.
  • And within another year they’re deeper in debt than ever before.
  • Now the wife has to work. No question about it.
• Opinion on wife working:
  • There’s a difference between a wife who wants to work and a wife who has to work.
  • The middle-income working spouse with children has to earn better than $18-$20K just to earn a net of $1 per hour. She can save more than that by staying at home and cooking, living on a budget, etc.
• Symptom treatment No 3. “I can’t stand all this pressure.
  • And the husband says, “I believe I’ll buy a new car.”
  • Or the wife thinks, “I can’t stand all this pressure, I believe I’ll take a vacation…get away from it all.”
  • To buy something makes them feel worthy.
  • They do one or both, on credit, and when they come back, things are worse than ever.
• Now the next stage, symptom treatment No 4, is usually when they do not pray anymore,
  • Because every time they sit down to pray nothing comes to mind but problems, financial problems. They don’t read the Bible, because every time they sit down to read they don’t get anything out of it. They don’t talk to each other any more because all they ever do is have time of intensive fellowship…mostly about finances. And by this time they probably argue about most everything.
    • Then he decides, “I can’t stand her anymore. I can’t stand her nagging any more.” Or she thinks, “I can’t stand his irresponsibility another single day.”
    • So they split. Symptom No 4, they get a divorce, remember–over 50% of the time they get a divorce. Then they go out and find two people exactly like the two they divorced, get married, and within two years the new marriages are right back in the same mess again for the same reasons. And this second marriage, 80% of the time, is threatened with divorce for the same reasons that helped bring down their first marriages. Why, because they’re dealing with symptoms, not problems.
  • Or, perhaps they don’t get a divorce, they decide, “We’ll go bankrupt. Symptom treatment 4b, no divorce, we’ll just declare bankruptcy. That’ll solve our problems, right. If we can just wipe the slate clean and start over…we’ll be smarter the second time around. No way we’ll make the same mistakes again.” So they go bankrupt.
    • They don’t consider that Bankruptcy doesn’t cover school loans, taxes, alimony and child support.
    • It’s really doesn’t help emotionally because all of a sudden your family and friends know your problems, maybe they’re even some of the folks that suffer when you don’t pay back what you owe.
    • True, their credit is somewhat good again (at least at the small loan companies), because they can’t go bankrupt but once every 7 years. Now for about 6 months they are somewhat disciplined.
    • Then the car breaks down, the refrigerator quits, there are some unexpected dentist bills, vacation, birthdays, anniversaries, and they go back on credit. Within two years they’re deeply in debt again. Why? They’re dealing with symptoms, not problems. The symptom are financial, the problems are spiritual.

We see it all the time. Most people who come for help don’t need more money they need discipline to better manage the money they already have.

• Here’s a real sound economic principle we’d like you to consider. “Don’t borrow money and you can’t get into debt.” And if you’re already in debt, here’s one for you… “Don’t borrow any more money and you can’t get any more in debt.”

God wants to use money to unify the Body, but this doesn’t often happen, I believe, because we all have the tendency to deal with the symptoms, not with our problems. We need to recognize that God’s Word deals with problems. Most of us don’t need more money; we need an attitude change and discipline. When that happens, I believe the Body of Christ can really start to come together.

Q&A

A great follow up to our Radio Seminar time together would be a question about borrowing money to buy a home.

Here is the question: Bob, if God does not want Christians to go into debt, does that make a home mortgage wrong? Response: Great question Peggy. Recall from several of our times together, you discovered that God’s Word does not prohibit borrowing. Yet, most young couples need to borrow to buy a house—they need a mortgage. The problem is that a home loan often results in what the Bible calls surety, which is taking on a debt without a sure way to repay. Now avoiding surety is a principle, not a law. It is a biblical principle that if ignored may result in some significant negative consequences. For example, if you borrow to buy a home, then for whatever reason, you cannot afford the payments; the bank will repossess and sell your home. If the sale price is less than you owe, you will not only lose your home, you will also need to sacrifice other assets to pay the difference between the sale price and the amount remaining on the mortgage. Ouch! So, what can you do? Well, you can prayerfully work to avoid the consequences of surety by making certain that your home is worth more than what you owe. How? Only borrow to buy a home based on what your cash flow will support–this means you must be living on a balanced budget. Then, make a commitment to as quickly as possible, reduce the mortgage to the point the house is worth more than you owe. Finally, get some help–do some homework to figure out how to pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible.

There you have it, a great question about your home mortgage…if you have others, drop us an email through our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org.

Scam Alert from the BBB

Minute with Maxwell

It is time for one of my favorite times together with the Lord and you…it is time for another Minute with Maxwell. Recall that John Maxwell is a #1 New York Times bestselling Christian author, coach, and speaker and considered the world’s most influential leadership expert. Today, let’s see what John has to say about the word, “Alliance.”

What I hear John saying is that if we want to accomplish much, we need to prayerfully form alliances—we need to learn to prayerfully work with others to increase our effectiveness. If you have small goals and want to accomplish very little, go it alone. However, if your dream is big and you want your increase your reach far, you’re going to need more than a one-man or woman crew. Working with alliances can help make great, world-changing things happen! Another great Minute with Maxwell.

CONCLUSION

Okkkkk, that just about wraps up our time together for today. Recall,

• During our Radio Seminar, you discovered, that according to the Bible, God can, He wants the chance to use money, to use the material areas of your life to both direct your life, and to help unify the Body of Christ.
• We followed that up with a great question and understanding about how to more appropriately borrow money to buy a home.
• You learned about and how to avoid the text message scam that is currently going around, and finally,
• Finally, you just learned from John Maxwell how important it is to form alliances—to work together with others to accomplish world-sized goals.

Now, as we close, three things.

• First, praise the Lord and thank you for being with us today.
• Remember to check out our website at christianfinancialministries.org for a transcript of today’s program.
• And finally, Father God, I thank you for bringing us together today and for each of the days to come to Your glory in Jesus’ Amen.

Have a blessed rest of your day, won’t you, and we well see you next time as we continue down your personal road to Financial Freedom God’s Way