Seminar: How God Uses $ 2 of 2
Q&As: Giving
Minute with Maxwell: “Overcome”
(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 can 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?
- During our Radio Seminar we will wrap up our series on different ways the Bible says God will use—ways God will use money and the other material areas of our lives to glorify Him.
- We will follow up with some great Q&A on the subject of giving.
- Finally, well finally, we will spend a great Minute with Maxwell as John Maxwell focuses on the word, “Overcome.” You will both hear from John plus I’ll share with you a simple two-step process to prayerfully overcome all the stuff that’s going on in your life right now.
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.
Earlier 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.
Then last time you discovered God can and sometimes will use money
- to direct your life
- and to unify the body of Christ
Today you will discover two more ways God will use wealth according to His definition to bring Him glory.
First, according to the Bible, God will sometimes uses money to demonstrate His power, both to us and to other people.
- The Psalm says,
Sacrifice unto God (sacrifice means to give up our rights to God) Pay your vows to the God most high (a vow is a promise).
- We are told to give up our rights and keep our promises, then we will have the right to call upon God in our day of trouble, and He will rescue us because it gives Him honor.
- He has the power to rescue us and He wants to demonstrate this power. The problem is that it requires trust on our part, not just saying we trust Him. We need to turn our words into action.
- Let me give you another personal opinion. I do not believe God gives us an overcoming life. I believe He gives us life as we overcome. This means
- I believe sometimes God would prefer to channel activity rather than create it.
- I believe there comes a time when we need to step out in Faith.
- And by stepping out in faith we demonstrate our trust and then He chooses to demonstrate His power.
Remember in Luke 6 when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, do you remember the guy who had a withered hand? Do you remember what happened.
- Jesus said “stand up, stretch out your hand.”
- As soon as the man did, his hand was healed.
- Notice the man first responded in faith to Jesus’ invitation. He put himself in a position to be blessed. Remember, I don’t believe the spiritual disciplines bless us—hearing, reading, memorizing, meditating, studying—they don’t bless us as much as they put us in a position to be blessed.
- Sometimes what we need to do is to get out of the bleachers, into uniform, and get into the game.
- For any of you who are in debt, I can give you a simple recipe to demonstrate trust and thereby allow God to work powerfully in and thru your finances so you can be in a position to be blessed and be a blessing to others. It’s a simple recipe to get debt free:
- Go home, preheat your oven to 425 degrees,
- Grease up a cookie sheet; put it into the oven…
- Then toss in all your credit cards and bake for 15 minutes.
- Then, prayerfully work out and stick to a disciplined spending plan to pay off all your debt.
- Write your creditors and give them your plan (send the melted credit card along with the first payment).
- Also, decide; make a commitment…no more borrowing.
- It’s simple and it works. Most families will find they will be debt-free except for their home in less than 3 years. And in 10 yrs can be totally debt fee including their home.
Now I realize that this goes against conventional wisdom, but let me tell you from personal experience, there is a sense of freedom that comes with following God’s plan that is worth whatever the cost. Allow God to demonstrate His power and you will find the cost is one you’re willing to pay.
We have time to hit yet one more way the Bible says God would use money in our lives—actually, we have really already talked about it a bit, but let’s hit it again once more lightly. Listen, God uses money to satisfy the needs of others.
- In Deut. 15:11, we find
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”
- God knew there would always be those who would not live life in ways that are pleasing to Him.
- For the most part we’re supposed to try to help those folks. I say “for the most part” because the Bible says there are some we are not to help, even some in the Body of Christ we are not to help. …more about that next time.
- But for the most part we are supposed to help. We are to help others as an act of obedience in faith that what we lend to the poor, God will repay.
Well, I love this lesson on how God wants to use wealth in our lives, I really do.
- For me, it really hits close to home.
- How about you, did you feel the HS tugging at your heart just a little bit?
It is important for us to know that God does have a purpose for every bit of wealth according to His definition that He places into our spiritual trust account, and, AND we can find out what His purpose is only by getting and staying close enough to Him to hear and recognize His voice.
So, God uses money in many ways…
- 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.
- to direct your life
- and to unify the body of Christ
- to demonstrate His power, and to
- help meet the needs of others.
Let me ask you, how many of these do you see up and operating in your life? The more you see the closer you are moving toward God in this area.
Q&As
Now, let’s build a bit on what we now know as ways God would use wealth in our lives. Let’s take a look at a couple real-world questions about giving.
As we do, it is important to know that when most Christians think about giving, it is almost always related to the tithe. However, Christians face other decisions about giving as well. I can tell you first hand than one exciting benefit of scriptural giving is that it allows a family to see God prove Himself faithful, as He promised. The Bible says one does not grow closer to God by giving. Instead, giving is a sign of someone who is already close to God.
Keep that though in mind as we tackle this first “giving” Questions. Listen carefully, it is a rather long but a very typical question.
Here is the question: “Bob, both my wife and I have parents who are in financial need. Neither set has a retirement plan, and both are trying to get by only on Social Security. Can we legitimately use a portion of our tithe to help them? I have asked several Christians this question. The responses have ranged from a plain “no,” to a cold stare, as if I were trying to seal from God. Can you help me?”
Wow, where to prayerfully start? It is interesting that the Ten Commandments God gave Moses included the admonition to honor your father and mother, but said noting about giving to God. I find myself in difficultly regardless how I respond to this question, either from those who are legalistic and believe the tithe is a commandment, or from those who are libertines and believe that a Christian should never be caught tithing.
Let’s see if the Holy Spirit will give us a scriptural balance.
- In Matthew 15:5-6, Christ confronted the Pharisees with their hypocrisy, saying, “But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
- Christ confronted the Pharisees who were teaching that the Jews could not help their parents because their surplus funds had been committed to God and could not be diverted. The Lord said that their parents were as much a part of God’s kingdom as the storehouse. If your parents have a need, and you have no additional money with which to help them, they are your first priority. However, I believe you need to be absolutely sure that no other funds are available in your budget. Otherwise, you could be robbing God to maintain your life-style.
- Now, if this response does not sit too well with you, here is what I suggest. Find a quiet place and a quiet time, sit down with your Bible open to Mathew: 15:5-6, ask for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, then allow God to tell you what He wants to tell you about this verse and this question. My friend, do not shoot the messenger. It is not my job to convict you about anything the Bible has to say. My job is to help lay it out before you spiritually with some practical suggestions and allow the Holy Spirit to convict you to act or not act. This is one of those questions that is bound to drive you to your knees seeking God’s instruction. Seek wisdom from others, yes, but only act as the Lord leads.
Now, here is yet another hard question—you can see we are not pulling any punches here, the questions are real and common and our responses—well, our responses don’t always sit well…for example, here is another giving question we hear quite a lot:
- “Bob, What is the difference between a pledge and a faith promise? Are they Scriptural?”
- Well, a pledge is a legally enforceable commitment to pay a fixed amount of money during a given period of time. In fact, some churches resell pledges (at a discount of course) to lending institutions to they can get their money right away—I personally disagree with that practice, however.
- With a faith promise, one makes a commitment to give if the funds are available. In other words, if God provides, you will give. The author of Hebrews says, “…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I believe a faith promise is scriptural. It allows a church to plan, based on the income that the congregation members have promised if God provides it to them.
- However, I believe the pledge may be either scriptural or unscriptural. A commitment or a pledge to pay that fits into your balanced budget would seem to work just fine. However, a vow to pay when you see no clear way to pay violates the principle of surety.
- Again, if this Q&A doesn’t feel comfortable to you, go to the Lord and His Word and ask Him to give you the responses He has for you.
OK, let’s see, yep, I believe we have time for one more quick question—this one has to do with giving and the IRS. Here is the question:
- “We give to an organization that sends gifts such as books or tapes in exchange for donation. Can I deduct from my taxes the full amount of my check, or must I subtract the value of the book or tape?”
- As of today, it is my understanding that you are required to deduct the fain market value of the premium from your cash donation. Some organizations do not make that clear, but it is the responsibility of you as the donor to reduce your gift by the value of the premium. Having said that, please as that question to either your tax preparer or directly to the IRS.
Minute with Maxwell
It is time again 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, “Overcome.”
We’ve all had times in our lives when we feel the pressure rising—there’s so many things to do and not enough time or energy to spare; you’re exhausted, and you feel as though you are moving backwards, not forward. This is a moment of being overcome by life’s pressures. But when you believe you can push back, and you take action to climb back out of that pile of “stuff,” that’s when you become an overcomer. Are you going through some tough changes in your life right now? Many of us are. Here are two statements give to me I want to share with you In order to overcome you must
- First, evaluate, learn from, but do not live in the past.
- The, plan for, visualize, and expectantly live our today and the future.
Thanks John for another great Minute with Maxwell
CONCLUSION
Okkkkk, that just about wraps up our time together for today. What did the Lord show us?.
- During our Radio Seminar time together, He expanded your view as to how He wants to use money in your life. Recall, God will use wealth according to His definition 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.
- to direct your life
- and to unify the body of Christ
- to demonstrate His power, and to
- help meet the needs of others.
- Then, we had two tough and one not-so-tough giving Questions and responses.
- And we had yet another great Minute with Maxwell as he gave us some thoughts on the word “Overcome.” Remember, to overcome first prayerfully evaluate, learn from, but do not live in the past. Then plan for, visualize, and expectantly live out today and the future. Two great steps, prayerfully give them a try.
Now, just before I pray us out, let me share with you some exciting news. As you know, for over 30 years it has been my great privilege to work with Larry Burkett, Christian Financial Ministries, Crown Ministries, the Dave Ramsey organization, John Maxwell, and Aidan University in Florida. Well, the good news is that beginning in January, we are going to be brining you live and online seminars, workshops, and John Maxwell Master Mind groups. As the matter of fact our first seminar will be “How to raise money wise kids God’s way.” Here you will experience the ins and outs of Bible-based financial principles and applications along with ways to pass them along to our children and grandchildren. It is going to be a great week end time together, I promise.
Also in January, you will be able to be part of another brand new weekend seminar titled: Widowhood: What to do Before and After. The fact is that most wives outlive their husbands. And, unfortunately, most wives are not prepared to live a life as a widow. This Seminar will help prepare wives and widows to live as a single…again, this is going to a great weekend time together.
Finally, in January, we will launch our first virtual John Maxwell Master Mind Group titled, Everyone communicates, few connect.
And more good news is that the Lord gives you all of our ministry services including all the seminars and workshops at no charge—we simply ask for any donation the Lord and you believe best. We have absolutely nothing to sell, only a ton of Bible-based information and applications to share. Plus, we don’t refer you to anyone who does have some product or service to sell. We even offer refreshments on a donation basis.
So, as you can see, in addition to our weekend radio program and our bi-weekly columns in the North GA News, the Lord is opening up the chance for He and you to be part of several new opportunities to help guide you down the road to financial freedom God’s Way.
Trust me, you will hear much more about all these opportunities as time goes on.
For now, thank you for being with us today. Remember to check out our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org. Let me close us in a word of prayer. Father God, I thank you for bringing us together today and for each of the days to come to Your glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Have a blessed day, won’t you, and we’ll see you next time as we continue down your personal road to Financial Freedom God’s Way.
