#132 11/25-26/2023

Seminar: 7-steps to Financial Freedom God’s Way 5 of 6
Q&A: “Indulgence?”
Scam Alert: Govt impersonation Scam
Minute with Maxwell: “Never give up.””

(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 even during these very uncertain times.

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

• First, during your Radio Seminar time together, you will continue working through your 7-step process to move out of financial bondage and into financial freedom—today we will wrap up our time talking about setting God-honoring priorities of your work and your ministry. It is going to be yet another great radio seminar time together. .
• We will follow up the radio seminar with some real world questions about priority setting.
• You will learn all about a government impersonation scam that is starting to make the rounds.
• And finally, you will spend a great Minute with Maxwell as the NY Times best-selling Christian author, speaker, and leadership coach John Maxwell focuses never giving up.

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

During our previous Radio Seminar time together,

• You discovered that God’s plan for each of us is financial peace, it is not financial bondage.
• You also discovered that financial peace can best be described according to Proverbs 10:22 which says, 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, with all that He places into your care and custody, along with peace.
• So, that’s what financial freedom is, but how do we get it?
  • Well, we have already discovered that the first of the seven steps along the path to financial freedom is to get into His Word—to become involved with the spiritual disciplines—hear, read, memorize, meditate, and study the Word of God. That is the step one.
  • The second step is to acknowledge—to reaffirm before God that everything you have belongs to Him. He is the Owner. You are the steward or the manager. Recall we talked about that 3×5 commitment card you put on your refrigerator or that physical inventory you take on a regular basis.
  • Step #3 is to Pray.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “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.”

• #4 is to set a biblical balance in our life by setting and managing the major priorities in our life…and recall, there is absolutely no way we can manage time—time keeps on ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Managing our priorities is the only answer to maximizing the time we have. Now, what are the overall priorities we need to set in place and manage?
  • We have already seen the first three of our five major priorities. God, our spouse, and our children.
  • And our fourth priority would have to be our work—not our ministry but our work. Let’s talk about it.
• So, we get into God’s Word, we make sure He is the owner, we know what it is like to really pray,

And priority number four is our work, not our ministry but our work. We need to turn our work over to the Lord.

• Psalms 127:2
  • In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat–for he grants sleep to those he loves.
  • Another translation says that, “God blesses those He loves even while they sleep.”
• Maybe the most abused priority on our list…
  • STORY: Magazine Hero
    • Magazines extols the 28 yr old, worth $4m, operating in 5 states, and flying in and out of 13 different countries.
    • HOWEVER, the magazine does not tell us that he does not know his children’s names, that he rarely see wife (if she’s still there), or let us know about all the ulcers, heart attacks, land loneliness—what is seen on the surface is not what the reality is behind the scenes.
  • What we find is that as we turn our work over to God, we need to keep our work from consuming an inappropriate or disproportionate share of our resources, especially our time. Remember, it’s balance that the Lord wants for our lives.
  • STORY: Christian partnership
    • Was doing well, serving lots of people and making lots of money.
    • One day one of the partners found that his key not work, the other guy said,
      • “You not work here”
      • I put up money
      • You put up your time, and you have been more than paid for your time
    • Partner wanted to sue but went to Larry Burkett to get some advice first.
      • Larry said, “I think you should sue.” BUT “do you want to hear what God thinks?” Read 1 Cor. 6:1-8 where Paul says that a brother ought not to go to court against another brother—that it would be better to be wronged or cheated that to sue a brother.
      • The guy said, “I don’t like that!”
      • Larry said, “Me either, but God didn’t ask either one of us if we liked what He wrote.”
      • The guy said, “that is what your version of the Bible says. I’m going to check around and get back with you.”
    • Guy shopped around for next 30 days—
      • Read those verses in every translation he could find.
      • He found that 80% of the people said to sue and 20% said, nope, you ought not sue a brother.
    • The guy
      • Wrote a letter to his former partner outlining all the reasons he could choose to sue and also what the Bible had to say.
      • He choose not to sue and got another job.
    • About three years later this ousted partner got a call from the CEO of a major company
      • He was buying the partner’s company.
      • Attorneys came across the ousted partner’s old letter, and gave to CEO.
      • CEO wrote to the old partner, “Explain it to me…are you a fool?”
      • The old partner explained, I Cor 6:1-8.
      • CEO (who was a Christian) called the cheating partner.
        • “You are Liar and thief and God has made me instrument of His vengeance.”
        • “I’m buying your company for a total of $7M. I am going two write two checks. You will get a $2m check, and the partner you cheated will get a $5m check. You had better accept this or I’m going to make sure you never work in this country again.”
      • In coaching, the cheated old partner showed Larry the $5M check he had just received.
    • Not all stories end this way. The point is: turn your work over to God.

OK, our priorities so far are God, our spouse, then our children, our work,

• And now we come to our ministry
  • When we ask Jesus Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, God gives us spiritual gifts. We all have at least one and they may change over time. And if we spend time with Him we will likely discover that our gifts will turn into some kind of ministry.
  • But along the way we need to be careful and beware of anything that competes with our loyalty to Jesus Christ, right?
  • Well, I’m here to tell you from personal experience that one of the greatest competitors for our devotion to Jesus Christ is our service for Jesus Christ—our ministry.
  • My friend, it took me some time to realize we are not sent to do battle for the Lord. We are sent to be used by the Lord in His battles. And there is a difference. Let me say that again, we are not to do battle for the Lord, we are to be used by the Lord in in His battles.
    • Ministry is a natural extension of our faith—yes it is. The problem becomes—again, the problem becomes a question of balance. For example you can choose to
      • Substitute your work for the Lord for your relationship with the Lord. I believe we all know lay people and even some pastors who are out of balance in this area. Sometimes we spend so much time working for the Kingdom we forget to have a relationship with the King. Have you ever been there?
      • Likewise, we can get so tied up in working for the Lord that our time with, our relationships with our spouse and children suffer needlessly, Or we no longer “work as if unto the Lord” at our job.
      • Look at Mary and Martha. Do you remember Mary and Martha from the new Testament? Mary had a stronger desire to listen and be taught by Jesus than to serve Him. Mary chose being with Jesus, even above her service to Jesus. And Jesus said, Good choice.
      • Yes, we are to serve, but never at the cost of our relationship with God.
        • Ministries are a normal, natural result of a life that has Christ at the center. But if we depend upon anything but Him, we will never know when He is not there. Ministries are a priority, but not the priority; they must be kept in balance with all the other areas of our spiritual lives.
        • Visualize this—when I look at the priorities in my life, I see a wheel.
      • I see Christ at the center—he is the hub of that priority wheel.
      • Then out from the hub are the spokes of the wheel, each representing one of my priorities—my spiritual life, my wife and children, my work and ministry.
      • This wheel will run smoothly if each spoke is the same length of each and every other spoke.
      • The problem is that “smooth” is not life. What happens is that sometimes the “work” spoke gets a little longer than the “family” spoke.
      • Your job is to get that wheel back in balance and even out those spokes so you prayerfully work to cut back on the work and build up the family. Your job is to work to keep those spokes the same length with Christ at the center.

So, let’s review for just a second.

• Step 1 along our road to financial freedom is to get into God’s Word,
• Step 2 is to reaffirm your role as a manager and not an owner.
• Step 3 is to pray—to ask for His help and leading.
• And step 4 is to set the right balance in our life and we’ve just laid out a great sequence of God-honoring priorities to prayerfully manage—God, spouse, children, work, and ministry. And remember, again, our job is not to manage our time, we make the best use of the time we have when we learn to manage our priorities.

So those are the first 4 of the 7 steps we can take to move from financial bondage into financial freedom. That leaves three remaining steps and we’ll cover them next time…don’t miss it.

Q&A

Now, let’s review just a bit about what we have been talking about in the seminar, and let’s do that by taking a look at a couple of real-world questions from real-life folks. OK? Now remember we are talking about financial freedom and how to get it.

Here is the first question;

• Louder, could you define what an indulgence really is? I own a Mercedes automobile and a home that is probably worth about $850,000, but my income is sufficient to buy and maintain both, just as easily as someone else would buy a Chevrolet and a $150,000 home. Are these indulgences because of their cost?
• James, by the tone of your question I believe you already know and believe that God clearly wants us to prosper and enjoy the fruits of our labor. However, in the United States today I have to believe that we have stretched this principle well beyond the boundaries of common sense. By that I mean that a good number of us, a lot of time, tend to need bigger and better to keep us content.
  • Now, an indulgence is anything we buy that has little if any utility to us. To determine if something is an indulgence, we have to look into our lives and ask, “Am I missing something as a result of not having this? Does this thing enhance my spiritual life, my family life, or my career?” You see, the cost of the item is not the key factor. Let me give you an example.
  • There was a successful businessman who bought paid $24M to buy an airplane. But for him it was not an indulgence. Why? Because he owned a commuter airline, and the airplane was simply a tool to earn a living…this plane had utility so it was not an indulgence.
  • You see, utility is relative to our life-styles. For example, what may be a need in my life could be an indulgence in yours. I have need of a car—most Americans do. On the other hand, a car would be a tremendous indulgence for most people in India. Because it is an indulgence for them, does not mean that it is an indulgence for me.
  • Now, having said that, it is possible that even a need can grow into an indulgence pretty easily. For example, let’s say I need a car. But my need can be satisfied with a 10-year old Ford. I might want a late model Toyota, and if money were no obstacle I might desire a turbo-diesel Mercedes. Now, in this case is the Mercedes an indulgence? Be careful here, be careful. Would the Mercedes be an indulgence? Well, it depends on God’s plan for your life. Does this mean that a Christian can never live above the need level? Absolutely not. But living above what we need can often lead to much more expensive objects that basically serve the same purpose. You see, most of us, most of the time, never outgrow the indulgence temptation, but we can learn to prayerfully control it—how, by living on a budget but that is a topic for another time.
• I will share with you that one common symptom of Christians who develop an indulgent life-style is that they are attracted to the prosperity teachers. These are the folks who proclaim a popular social gospel and use quotes like, “Live like a King’s kid,” and “Go ahead and do it. You owe it to yourself.” My friends, do not fall for that nonsense, or you may end up losing out on the greater rewards. The Bible says, “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. That is Luke 14: 11 and that is a great question.

Scam Alert

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 not giving up…let’s take a listen.

Wow, great teaching. Today’s Statement of Strength: “You will never see the end, if you give up in the middle.” –Joyce Meyer.”

Boy, it that true. And it is true financially as well. If you are in the middle of a financial crisis right now and you are trying to move from financial bondage into financial freedom, then you have to know that you cannot give up. You must keep prayerfully putting one step in front of the other. You have to keep going. Look back, see where you have been and what you learned. Trust that the Lord is going to be with you and walk along beside you. Listen, you will never see the end to financial bondage if you give up at the middle of the road to financial freedom.

CONCLUSION

Boy, this has been a great time together with the Lord and you—it sure has. Let’s wrap up by first taking a quick look back..

• During our Radio Seminar time together we continued working our way through our 7-step process to move out of financial bondage and into financial freedom—today we rounded out the priorities we need to manage…what were those priorities? God, spouse, children, work, and ministry. It was another great radio seminar time together.
• Next we took a look at a great question that helps us better understand what an indulgence is and how to avoid it.
• You learned about and how to avoid the government impersonation scam that is starting to make the rounds in our area.
• And finally, well finally, we will spend a great Minute with Maxwell as the NY Times best-selling Christian author, speaker, and leadership coach John Maxwell focuses never giving up.

So, thank you for being with us today. Remember to check out our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org, that’s www.christianfinancialministries all spelled out, and when you do you will now find some information on the live and virtual seminars, workshops and John Maxwell leadership training now on the books for January, PLUS you will also find each of our radio programs posted as Podcasts. So, you will now be able to go back and review and even download any of our radio programs anytime you want.

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.