#130 11/11-12/2023

Radio Seminar: Path to Financial Freedom step #3
Q&A: Should a mom work
Clark Howard: November shopping tips
Minute with Maxwell: “Teachable”

(UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT)

INTRODUCTION

This is Bob Louder from Christian Financial Ministries, and it is an honor and a privilege to have you listening in to this program today, it really is. So, what is going to be on the agenda for this 30-minute time together?

• First, during your Financial Freedom God’s Way Radio Seminar, you will continue unwrap a 7-step approach to help get you on and stay on your personal road to financial freedom God’s way. Last weekend you learned about steps one and two. Today, this weekend you will discover step three—it is going to be a great time together. I promise. And remember, you can always re-listen to or even get a free transcript of last week’s program, or any of our past programs, by heading over to our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org.
• So, first, your radio seminar. Then, you are going to follow up your seminar with a couple of great real-world listener questions on the responsibilities a dad or a mom can expect to have as they head down the road to financial freedom God’s way for their family.
• Plus, you are going to hear some November shopping tips from consumer advocate Clark Howard. That’s a great thing for this time of year. You sure do not want to miss that.
• And finally, well finally, you will hear a fantastic Minute with Maxwell as the NY Times best-selling Christian author, speaker, and leadership coach John Maxwell talks with; you, about being teachable.

So, stay tuned, for some great Bible-based financial information you can start using this very day. It is going to be another great learning time together.

And, as we start, as we always start, let me open us with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the opportunity You are giving us to study your Word together today. Will you please give us ears to hear all you have planned for us to hear, and begin to apply, and pass on, to Your glory, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

BODY

Radio Seminar

During our Radio Seminar time together last weekend,

• You discovered that God’s plan for each of us is financial peace, not financial bondage.
• You also discovered that financial peace can best be described according to Proverbs 10:22 that tells you….It is the blessing of the Lord that brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
• Simply put, you can have financial freedom when you combine your salvation, all God places into your care and custody, along with peace.
• So, that is what financial freedom is, but how do you get it?
  • Well, the first of the seven steps to get on and stay on your path to financial freedom is to get into His Word—you heard all about this last weekend—basically, you need to become involved with the spiritual disciplines—you need to regularly hear, read, memorize, and meditate on the Word of God. That is the first step.
  • The second step, is to prayerfully find one way to transfer ownership of everything in your hand back over to God. You need to do it often–put it on your calendar, you need to make it a priority. What are some ways you can transfer ownership back to God?
    • Recall you learned about the 3×5 commitment card. That is where you write something like, “God, today I deed over to you all that I have.” Then you date it, sign it, and put it where you can see it and be reminded of it.
    • You can also travel through each room of your home, and around the land you live on, and claim it all as God’s to be used to His glory.
    • Step number two is where you affirm before God that He is the owner, and your job is to manage all that belongs to Him, in ways that are pleasing to Him.
  • And by the way, if you would like to re-listen to or get a written transcript of last week’s program, or any of our radio programs, you simply need to head over to our website at christianfinancialministries.org.

So, last week—steps one and two down you path to Financial Freedom. This week, you are going to discover step number three. What is it? What is step number three? According to the Bible, one of the things you must learn to do, to move from where you are financially, to where the Lord wants you to be financially, is to pray. Step number three is to pray. Let me show you what I mean.

• In the Bible book of Isaiah, chapter 55, and verses 8 and 9, you find this:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

• You see, my friend, if you want to accurately understand the leading of God, you need to get better acquainted with His “high ways” than the world’s “low ways.” You need to pray a whole lot more. By the way, that is exactly how Jesus operated, wasn’t it.
  • The Bible says He got up before daylight to pray. Sometimes he spent the whole night praying. Jesus made spending time with His Father in prayer the number one priority in His life. That is how He knew what God wanted Him to do—where to go and who to heal, and all the rest.
  • And His disciples knew by watching Jesus’ lifestyle that His power was connected to the time He spend praying. I believe—personal opinion here—I believe that is why the disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11:1, Lord, teach us to pray.”
    • We need to pray and bring our concerns to God. Then we need to give God time to provide. You need to prayerfully learn to wait.
      • But, that is easier said than done, isn’t it? Why? Because so many times our attitude is more like, “I want it. I do not want to wait for it. I have to have it now.”
      • And of course, that is one reason you carry around your credit cards, right? So you do not have to wait, so you can get it now and pay for it later. I am sure you already know that a credit card can become a sphere of influence that can flat get you into some serious trouble.
    • Now, some of the folks who come in to us for help say they do wait. I hear some say something like, “I’m just waiting on God. I’m waiting on Him to bless me, to prosper me…I’m waiting on Him to deliver me.”
      • Sure these statements sound good, almost spiritual, don’t they. But I wonder if these folks really know much about God. Because the Bible clearly teaches that when it comes to the blessings of God–we are never waiting on Him. He is always waiting on us! And in some cases, He has been waiting for a long time. What is He waiting for? Mostly our obedience and trust.
      • 2 Chronicles 16:9 says this:

The eyes of the Lord range through the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

• By the way, here is something Larry Burkett taught me a long time ago, listen to this: “Patience in the Kingdom, waiting in the Kingdom, is never a waste of time. Patience frees God to answer prayer. Patience will help you know when to act and when to wait.”
• For example, we see in the Bible that Jesus’ disciples had to learn this lesson the hard way. Consider this, when Jesus was about to leave the earth, He told His Disciples to do what? Do you remember? He told them to go to Jerusalem and tarry—to wait—not to do anything until they received the Holy Spirit. However, what did they do? Peter, good old Peter, Peter led the guys to replace Judas. Without the Holy Spirit they had no communication with Jesus so they “cast lots” to choose Matthias. Now, let me ask you, do you think this was a good choice—a bad choice? I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that we never hear any else about Matthias anywhere in the Bible. What I do know is that after the giving of the Holy Spirit, the Disciples received very specific instructions from the Holy Spirit, time after time after time after time.

• You see, the Holy Spirit is your guiding hand in the daily affairs of your life, including your financial life. You cannot possible know how best to earn, spend, save, invest, give, and all the rest, without the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. He can lead you by telling you “yes” or “no.” He will try to stop you or open a door for you. He warns you away from certain people, places, situations, and financial decisions.
• So, what you need to do is to get to know what it means to pray and wait. Again, the Holy Spirit will tell you when it is time to act…if you are listening.
  • And when you pray—listen to this, this is so good—when you pray, according to the Bible, when you pray, you need to pray according to His will. However, that brings up a great question, doesn’t it. We get it all the time, and it is a question I rather imagine you have asked on or more or even many more times. What is the question? How can I know the will of God?
    • Let me ask you, do you think it is possible to know the will of God? “Yes, No, I’m not voting on that one.” There are countless resources in the Christian Bookstore on knowing the will of God.
  • But I remember this, I remember when my wife and I were first married. I was in the Air Force at that time stationed in Dayton, Ohio, which is where Debbie and I met and married. Then within just a couple of weeks later, we were due to head out to a one year, remote assignment, in Izmir, Turkey. Normally, remote assignment means that you do not take your family with you—they stay and you go. Now, I had grown up in the military so I was used to traveling from place to place all the time. But Debbie had hardly been out of the state of Ohio. Traveling to Turkey was no problem for me—but being separated from Debbie for a year was going to be a big problem for both of us. Well, we found out that the military did offer some limited family services in Izmir, but that the Government would not pay her way over and back. So, no problem, we would pay for her round trip ticket and be able to enjoy our first year together.
  • So we were in Turkey together for our first year of married life and it was hard in a lot of ways but it was a whole lot better than being apart. I had a great job, and, I was coming up for a promotion, and it’s always best to stay around folks know you and help you get promoted rather than move to a new assignment and be with folks you don’t know. So to me, it made great sense to extend our time in Izmir for another year. I can recall going back to our apartment and telling Debbie something like, “Deb, you know, I believe the Lord is telling me we need to stay in Turkey for another year.” Debbie said, “Oh, really?” And I said, “Yes, I really believe the Lord would have us stay here another year. What do you think about that?” Without batting an eye, she said, “The Lord hasn’t told me that. I don’t think that is the will of God at all.” And I said, –I put on my very best military voice—I had only been a Christian for about a year or so, Debbie, on the other hand had known the Lord for many years. So, I put on my best military voice and said, “How would you know it would be God’s will that we spend another year in Turkey?” And she said, “That would be very easy.” I said, “It would be?” And she said, “Yea.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Well, I’m going to go to bed tonight and pray about it. And when I get up in the morning, and look under my pillow, and if I find a note that says, ‘Dear Debbie, Stay in Turkey, Love God.’ Well then I will know it’s God’s will we spend another year in Turkey. Guess what, we came home after our first year was up—we did not stay another year.
  • Don’t you wish it was that easy? “Dear Bob, go here, go there.” You know, sometimes I would just like to check out next Wednesday. Like I would have some veto power over or better prepare for what’s happening a week from Wednesday. But that’s not how God works—most of the time that is not how God works. .
  • So, how can you better know God’s will…well, I believe you need to ask. But many times we tend to ask the wrong question. For example, I used to ask, “God, what is your will for my life.” However, I have now come to believe, there is a better question—a better question is simply, “God, what is your will?” Do you see the difference…what is Your will for my life and, what is Your will? What I find, is when He shows me His will–when He shows me where He is working, that is His invitation for me to come along then His will, becomes His will for my life. You see the difference? We need to place the emphasis on His will, not our life.
  • I believe sometimes–God may sometimes, show us what He is going to do. But He does promise us to always reveal to us who He is–and that is really all we need to begin to discern God’s will.
  • And one last thing. I do not believe we will ever know God’s will until we determined ahead of time, that whatever it is, it is OK with us.
• So, to better know God’s will, you need to pray and ask, give God time to respond, seek His will, AND, learn to follow His directions. No matter how slight God’s instructions may seem to you at the time, you need to take them seriously. Remember, God does not start showing you His will by sending you to the ends of the earth. That would be a big thing. Oh no, He starts in the little things. He starts where you are today. He starts by telling you to do one little thing that would change your whole life. But He probably will not tell you it will change your whole life. He will just tell you to do it. And if you obey, guess what, you will find your whole life will be marvelously and wonderfully changed. If you do not, it will not. You need to find out what God wants. That process includes prayer. Then once you know His will, we need to act on it, to make it part of your agenda. (Appendix How to Know the Will of God)

So, back to our seven steps down your road to financial freedom God’s way, after you get into God’s Word, give Him title to all you have, and spend time in prayer with Him, then, STEP NUMBER 4…, you need to establish the right balance in your life. Step number 4—we will save that for our next Radio Seminar time together, next weekend, so don’t miss it.

Q&A

Now, let’s build a bit on what the Lord is showing us about financial freedom. My guess is that you are married, or are going get married or remarried. That being the case, let’s take a look at some real-world questions from real people that deal with the sensitivities that surround the responsibilities of the wife or husband as you lead your family down the road to financial freedom God’s way.

First, just a bit of background.

• For example, you need to know that typically, money is either the best area of communication in a relationship, to include a marriage relationship, or it is the worst. Unfortunately, for most couples, it is the worst. The pressures of finances on a couple, especially debt, can absolutely destroy a relationship. It is not uncommon for one partner to fear debt, and want to live within the budget, and sees the other as uncooperative and indulgent. One may be seen as a “spendthrift,” the other as “cheap.”
• What few couples seldom seem to grasp is that spouses are almost always opposites in a whole lot of ways. For example, one likes to sleep in, while the other is a morning person and is up bright and early each day. One is apt to be neat, the other messy. One get lost, the other always can figure out how to get from point “a” to point “b.” One is a good bookkeeper, the other never keeps records, and on and on and on. If some or all this is the case, and it usually is, it seems logical that if any couple wants to fulfill God’s plans for their family, they must learn to prayerfully work together. Genesis 2:24 tells us,

For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. — Note the “shall become one flesh.”

Ok, that said, let’s take a look at some real-world husband and wife responsibility questions that can help you and yours become one.

Here is the first question:

• Bob, I really want to be home with my children, but my husband wants me to work because he feels we need the money. I am almost afraid not to work because we are barely getting by.
• Sally, I hear the pain in your words—I really do.
  • I know that you have already learned that that many women with pre-school-age children are working for virtually nothing. By the time you calculate transportation, clothes, childcare, eating out, and all the rest, it can take a pre-tax income of $30k or more just to break even.
  • My prayerful response to your question is this: If your husband insists that you work, and you believe you should not, but rather stay home to be a mom and a wife, then you need to explain your thoughts and hopes and dreams to you husband. If he still believes you should work, then you should respect his authority and do as he asks.
  • However, and this is a big “however,” if your husband’s decision to have you work is motivated by the desire to achieve or maintain a certain life-style, then you need to know, that most often, within a year, you and your husband will find yourselves dissatisfied with that life-style—you are going to want to reach to the next level, and then you will have few options—you will have to continue working.
  • The real issue is to learn to be content with your present life-style. Phil 4:11 says,
    

    I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

  • By the way, Sally, if you and your husband find it hard to talk about this, I suggest your prayerfully get some help—the first place I would go would be to your pastor.

Here’s another very similar question for you to consider.

• Bob, do you think it is biblical for mothers of young children to work outside the home?
• As you can see, these are not easy questions.
  • Pat, I suggest to you that no biblical references prohibit a wife from working outside the home, provided the other areas of the family life are in balance. However, just because the Bible does not discourage it, does not automatically imply the Bible encourages it. That is a prayerful decision each couple must make together.
  • Also, there are those who would argue that most mothers of young children need to be at home if at all possible. This obviously means that a family has to learn to get along on the husband’s salary. Experts tell us that during a child’s first five years, is when basic attitudes are developed, and a mother’s influence is the greatest. Many mothers of older children know that once those early years are lost, they can never be recovered. Many mothers would later, rather trade a hundred times what they earned to be able to have a greater influence on their teenagers.
  • Also, a working mom may actually spend more than she makes if she has to pay for day care, transportation, and a work wardrobe, not to mention the taxes on her income.
  • Also, there are alternatives for women whose families need money. For example selling homemade crafts, telephone surveying, part-time temporary work, baby-sitting other children in the home, and many others.
• So, Pat, the Bible does not say you should or should not work outside the home. Again, this needs to be a prayerful—a mutual decision between the husband and the wife with some possible outside help…great question.

Well, there you have it…the first two of quite a few questions we will talk about having to do with the financial responsibilities of husbands and wives.

Clark Howard

• It is finally here: the biggest month in the deal savings calendar! Black Friday and Cyber Monday are both prominently positioned in November, so the 11th month of the year has tech deals galore. This is true, even though, as we head into the Christmas season, fears are mounting that massive inflation and ongoing supply chain issues will make this holiday one of the most expensive in memory.
• None-the-less, there are some great deals out there, right where you are, right now. Here are the best November deals according to consumer advocate Clark Howard.
  • OK, so TVs are the obvious category for deals in November. Historically televisions are one of the main items retailers hope will entice you into the store for Black Friday.
  • Food: November has a few notable food holidays that usually offer you the opportunity to get some discounted or free food:
    • National Sandwich Day was Nov. 3 and national Donut Day was Nov 5th—I never heard of either one!
    • And then there is Fast Food Day on Nov. 16^th.
  • TVs, Food, and also Small Appliances: Bottom of FormSmall appliances are promoted heavily during the holiday shopping season. This is the time to take advantage of great deals on things like personal blenders and coffee makers (which can make great gifts). Be on the lookout for great deals from the likes of Belk, Kohl’sand Macy’s among others.
  • November also means great deals on wedding dresses: While most peopletry to plan a spring or summer wedding, October is traditionally the last big month for nuptials. So that puts November firmly into the off-season for wedding dresses.
  • And how about all that winter sports Gear: With winter just around the corner, now is a great time to pick up a deal on winter sports gear. Be on the lookout for big savings on snowshoes, ice skates, hand warmers, thermal socks and more. And remember that REI has a used gear section, and stores such as Play It Again Sports offer pre-owned sporting equipment at a discount.
  • Winterizing Materials: For example, pipe insulation, door sweeps and caulking supplies all tend to go on sale this month
  • And finally, softlines such as bedding, throw blankets, towels and air mattresses are likely to go on sale in November. And the timing is perfect when you think about it; these so-called “softlines” can help get your home ready for guests during the holidays.
• So, there you have it. According to Clark Howard—and Clark Howard certaintly knows what he is talking about, according to Clark, Nov is the time to shop for TVs, Food, small appliances, wedding dresses, winter sports gear, winterizing materials and softlines.
• One final thought. You can always check out what is on sale by checking out clarkdeals.com—that is clarkdeals.com.

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, John’s Minute with Maxwell is all about being teachable…let’s take a listen.

Wow, great teaching. What John is telling us is that if we want to start out then continue down the road to Financial Freedom God’s Way, you must be a teachable or coachable person. Let me ask you, do you have the ability and the attitude to learn, apply, and even pass on to others what God has to say about handling the material areas of your life…do you? I believe the answer to that question has to be yes or the Lord would not have you here right now.

CONCLUSION

That wraps up our time together today. Remember to be back next weekend for step #4 to get on and stay on your path to financial freedom God’s way…and remember to check out our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org. to re-listen to and even get a printed transcript of today’s program, or any of our past programs.

Now, as always, 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.