Radio Seminar: God’s three Questions: #1
Dave Ramsey: Fives Steps that “Guarantee” Wealth
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Financial Freedom God’s Way Radio, 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 to have you with us again—it really is. What is on the schedule for our 30-minute time together today?
- Today,
- Today we are going to continue with the Your Finances in Perilous Times Radio Seminar as we consider the three questions He has asked godly men and women down through the ages who wanted to make a difference, a spiritual and a financial difference in His Kingdom. He asked the same questions back then that He’s asking you right now—you’ll begin to discover these Three Question is just a couple of minutes.
- Plus you will hear more great teaching from Dave Ramsey on the five things what will make you wealthy along with another Minute with Maxwell where John Maxwell will share with us his thoughts on the word….relationships
- Finally, if we have time we’ll work in a consumer tip from Clark Howard.
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
Your Finances in Perilous Times Radio Seminar
Now, as we get started with our next Your Finances in Perilous Times Radio Seminar, recall that you are going to prayerfully learn to blend the spiritual and the financial in ways you may have never experienced before. For example,
- You will learn to combine key biblical financial principles along with some critical, scriptural applications.
- Take a good look at some Jewish history and some Jewish word pictures.
- You will learn some Greek, hear some true stories about challenges and lessons learned,
- And along the way, well, along the way you’re going to also pick up some hints on how to live with a whole lot less financial stress around the house. Now, do you need a hit or two on how to live with a little less financial anxiety and stress?
During our last time together you discovered how truly unique you are within the Body of Christ because being here, listening to what the Lord has to say, is a great way to vote yourself off of Some Day Isle—to quit procrastinating and finally get around to becoming the financial steward you already know God wants you to become. And by the way, please remember you can go to our website at www.christianfinancialministries.org to either re-listen to or get a transcript of today’s program, or any of our earlier programs as well.
So, that’s a bit of where you are headed. Now today you are going to discover God’s Three Questions. Three questions He has asked men and women down through the ages and three questions He is asking you today if you really want to be used by God both spiritually and financially.
But, as we get started, I have a couple of questions for you of my own.
- First question, would you love to be mightily used to make a spiritual and a financial difference in the Kingdom of God today? Would you? Would you really?
- Now, the second question is this…do you believe it’s still possible for you or anyone to still make a spiritual and a financial difference in this world today, even in this lousy economy?
- These are great questions for you to consider, right? But more important than the questions are your answers. How are you answering? Let me venture a guess; let me see how close I can come. For example, I have to believe that your answer to the first question has to be “yes” or you wouldn’t be here right now—you would love to be able to make a spiritual and a financial difference in the world today—right? Then, according to the Bible your answer to the 2nd question ought to be “yes” because according to the Bible, it is still possible for one person, any person, for YOU to make a spiritual difference, and it is still possible for one person, any person, for YOU to make a financial difference. But listen, what’s more important—what you will soon discover—is that it’s also possible for you to blend the two together to make a huge difference, both spiritually and financially. It will take work on your part, that’s true. But it will be a whole lot easier than you might imagine. Why? Because according to the Bible, making a difference in the Kingdom of God has absolutely nothing to do with the amount or value of whatever you have. Making a difference in the Kingdom of God today has everything to do with your attitude and how you use whatever you have been given.
What you and I need to do right now is to set the tone for all of our times together…and it’s a spiritual tone. Because financial and material management, according to the Bible, financial and material management is first and foremost and always a spiritual issue. By the time we finish up the next several Radio Seminar sessions together, you will not only have considered these two questions from me, you are also going to discover, consider, and answer three foundational questions from God.
- Three questions He has asked countless folks throughout the ages who have chosen to be mightily used by God to make a difference in His Kingdom—you’re going to take a look at some of these people.
- Three questions that are the foundation for all of His work in and through you as He and you work through this Your Finances in Perilous Times Radio Seminar—you’ll have a chance to consider and respond to these same three questions as well.
- So, listen hard my friend, because these next several times together are the most important of all of our times together. You are about to take the first and most critical step along your road to Financial Freedom God’s Way. Are you ready? Great let’s get started.
Bible Characters
Now, right off the bat, I’m sure you already know and would agree that there are people out there in the world today, right now, today, who are making a huge impact on the Kingdom of God. You may know some of them; you might even be one of them. It was the same way back in Bible times. The interesting thing is that those who made a difference back then and you and those who want to make a difference today have quite a lot in common. To help you see this point you and I are going to take a look at several Bible folks God used in a mighty way. Then you will be able to consider how you—how YOU—have more in common with these Bible folks than you might first believe.
Abraham
Now, you could choose from a long list of well-known Bible characters to get started. For example, there was Abraham. You remember that God called Abraham to leave his country and head for a new country. Now there was a man who had a little trouble with God’s timing, didn’t he? Abraham had to have a push or two or ten to get going and to keep going but God still used him. Do you and I sometimes have an issue or two with God’s timing? Probably so.
Jonah
Or, how about Jonah? Jonah was a victim of some of the social pressures of his day, wasn’t he? But God still used him. Again, do you and I ever have a history of having to deal with social pressures in our spiritual and financial lives? Again, probably yes.
Moses
There is a whole long list of people we could consider as examples, but if you really want to dig deep here for just a bit, which is exactly what you and I are about to do, one of the most fun and exciting folks to consider is Moses.
- Now, you remember Moses. He was born then was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, grew up in the palace of the Pharaoh, and was trained to rule, Moses was trained to lead. But then one day his temper got the best of him and he killed a man, so he had to run for his life and went to hide out and live in the land of Midian in the Sinai Peninsula, where he met and married his wife and then took care of his father-in-law’s sheep. Later on God met with Moses in a bush that burned but didn’t burn up on Mount Horeb, where God called Moses to go back and to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness and then on into the promised land.
- Someone once said, I wish I would have said it because it’s a clever saying, someone once said, “Moses lived 120 years. He spent the first 40 years learning to be a somebody in the courts of Pharaoh, then he spent the next 40 years learning to be a nobody in the desert of Midian, and finally he spent 40 years, leading the people of Israel, discovering what God could do with a somebody who was willing to become a nobody, for God’s.” And that just about sums up Moses’ life doesn’t it?
- What I want you to do is to go back and focus for just a minute on the burning bush experience Moses had, you’ll find it in the third chapter of Exodus. It takes place at the end of Moses’ second 40 years and this is where you are going to discover God’s three questions. Remember the burning bush experience that Moses had
- Now, what you see here is that Moses is having an encounter with God. Notice that right up front in this conversation God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.
- Did you ever wonder why in the world it was that God started His conversation with Moses by telling him to take off his sandals? Lots of historians will tell you that taking off your shoes was a way to show respect. You took off your shoes before you entered the church, or the synagogue, or the temple, or even somebody’s house—taking off your shoes was a practice that demonstrated respect.
- However, a deeper look shows that it was actually a whole lot more than just showing respect. Why did God tell Moses to take off his shoes? Because God and Moses both knew that taking off your shoes in the Jewish culture at that time also meant you were giving up your rights. You see, to go barefoot before God means, “God, I don’t have any rights before you. I am your servant. I’m in your service.”
- We know this is true from Bible history because we see that when you stood at the gate to the city and agreed to sell your property, you concluded the sale when you took off your sandal and gave it to the buyer—it demonstrated to everyone at the city gate that you were giving up your rights to your property—you were transferring your rights to the property to the new owner. The most obvious example of this is when Boaz bought the property that had belonged to Naomi’s husband on his way to getting together with Ruth.
- We also know that for the most part, slaves in Bible times, slaves were never permitted to wear shoes. Why? Because, for the most part, slaves had no rights. That’s why one of the first things the father did when his prodigal son came home was to put shoes on his son’s feet. You see, the son wanted to present himself to his dad as a servant, so he took off his sandals. But the father said, no, no, no. The father wanted his son and everyone else to know that the son was coming back as a son; he was not coming back as a slave, so the father put shoes on his son’s feet.
- And that’s why God said to Moses, “Take your shoes off, this is holy ground.” It was God’s way of saying, “Moses, you need to recognize that I’m God and you, Moses, you are my servant.”
- Then, remember? God went on to tell Moses exactly how he was to serve…remember? God gave Moses some very specific instructions on how to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And you also recall that Moses was a little fearful that he couldn’t speak well enough; maybe he thought he couldn’t act well enough; he wouldn’t be at the right place at the right time. Moses didn’t believe he had what it took to make a difference for God. He had a lot of excuses, didn’t he? He had an early version of “excuseitis.” Moses seemed to be camping out on Someday Isle for awhile, wasn’t he? But, do you know what? In this case, Moses was absolutely right. He was not ready to serve.
God’s Three Questions to Moses
And this is where you get to God’s three questions. You find in Exodus Chapter Four that God used three questions to get Moses ready to serve. Let’s take a look: First question: “Moses, will you show me your hand?” God said, “Stretch out your hand. Show me your hand.”
- That had to have been a hard thing for Moses to do. Because Moses knew a little about how God worked. Moses knew (and here’s a great word picture) Moses knew that to stretch out his hand before God in that culture at that time was to totally open himself up to God, and in Moses’ case it meant to confess that his hand had blood on it. Remember? Moses had killed a man. And the last thing Moses wanted to do before the Lord God of the Universe was to knowledge that his hand wasn’t clean. It had to have been very hard for Moses to say–he did, he said it, but it had to have been hard for him to say something like– “Okay, God, here it is. I’m opening myself up to you. I’m stretching out my hand. I’m confessing my faults. I acknowledge that there is sin in my life, and that this sin is standing between You and me.”
- And God said, “I know, Moses, and, I’ve known it all along. Now, here’s what I want you to do…”
- “…put your hand inside your coat.” And Moses did and when he brought it out, you remember the story, when he brought his hand out of his coat his hand was covered with what? Sure, leprosy–his hand might have been either white as snow or more than likely it was all shriveled up and deformed, and possibly all bloody and oozing with open sores. Leprosy was a terrible disease. Now, we know from Bible history that Leprosy was also a symbol of sin, and Moses’ leprous hand was God’s way of saying, “I know Moses, I know your hand is bloody. I know there is sin in your life. I know your heart needs cleansing and our relationship needs restoring before I can use you…before you can make start to make a difference. I know that…
- …so, Moses, here’s what I want you to do next. Moses, put your hand back inside your coat.” Now, I always thought that must have hard for Moses to do as well…to take that diseased, highly contagious leprous hand and put it back inside his coat. I rather imagine he did it with a great deal of care and tried his best not to touch himself as he did it.
- Then God said, “Now look at it.” Moses pulled his hand back out and it was?…sure, it was clean; there wasn’t a sign of the leprosy. It was completely healed. You see, it was just like the father and his prodigal son. God wanted Moses to know for sure that he had been forgiven. And like the prodigal son, Moses could actually see that he had been forgiven because the symbol of his sin, the leprosy, had been completely removed. The symbol of his forgiveness was the fact that his hand was completely restored. God and Moses were communicating big time here. Moses understood that he was cleansed, a right relationship with God was now in place, and that he was about ready to serve and be used in a mighty, mighty way.
- That was the way it was with Moses all those years ago, and it is exactly the same first question God is asking you today. “Will you show me your hand? “Will you open yourself up to me? Will you confess you’ve made some mistakes in the past?” “Will you confess so I can forgive so we can move on to the second question? My friend, will you choose to show God your hand? You don’t have to. It’s your choice. But it’s a choice you need to make if you want to choose to make a difference.
So, God’s first question is, “Will you show me your hand? Now, God’s second question—well, we will hold the second and third question until next time, so don’t miss it.
Dave Ramsey.
You may already know that it’s been my very great pleasure to have been part of Dave’s team of Certified Financial Coaches since 2004. He speaks financial truth based on God’s Word and gives you personal financial applications based on a whole lot of financial experience and education. Today let’s see what Dave has to say about the five things that will absolutely make you wealthy–even in today’s economy. Listen to what Dave has to say because what he has to say works—no question about it.
Now, that’s a good word from someone who I believe is the top Bible-based personal financial teacher, trainer, mentor, and coach in the United States today. And if you like what you hear and you need some help to apply what you hear I suggest you get in contact with the Dave Ramsey organization at www.ramseysolutions.com. That’s ramseysolutions.com. Thanks Dave for another great word of encouragement.
CONCLUSION
Well, that wraps up our time together for today. Recall, .
- During our Radio Seminar you started to consider the first of God’s three questions.
- Dave Ramsey shared some dynamic words of encouragement and instruction.
- We will save our Minute with Maxwell and our consumer tip from Clark Howard until next time.
- Remember to check at christianfinancialministries.org to either re-listen to or get a transcript of today’s program.
Right now, let me close us out in prayer. Father, we 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 rest of your day, and we will see you next time for Financial Freedom God’s Way Radio.
