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Omega Productions

It's Your Money! Isn't It?

G. Edward Reid

1- A Biblical Perspective on Money

Welcome to It's Your Money, a practical guide for managing the financial resources God has provided.

Your host is Christian attorney and financial counselor, G.

These audio recordings are provided for those who want to gain more information from the biblical principles of money management.

There will be 12 sessions and this is number 1.

We're going to talk first of all about the spiritual implications of money management.

Some people ask why all the fuss about money?

1 of the interesting things is that we all have lives to live and we all have money to manage.

Some people recognize that you can go through elementary school, academy, and college and never actually take a course or be required to take 1 that would teach you how to balance a checkbook or to buy an insurance policy or buy a car, whatever, just general management.

Well typically it's just trial and error and lots of both.

So what we're going to do is to look at this from a spiritual perspective because God understood that we would need to have this and he wants us to have an abundant life.

It's kind of interesting also that 2 Timothy the third chapter in the first 5 verses there describe our day.

And those of us who have a Christian perspective recognize that based on Bible prophecy that we're living in the end times.

And the Bible says there, but know this that in the last days perilous times will come.

For men will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, and then follows a great long list of awful things that people do without self-control and brutal and so on.

But it's interesting that the first 2 actually talk about money management.

1 is actually lovers of money or lovers of themselves.

And so what we're going to look at is to see if we can get out of this list of bad things and understand how God wants us to operate.

Those of you who have been at the seminar, you will have a workbook.

And if you don't, we'll tell you how to get 1 at the end of the program today.

But we're going to be on page 3, and I hope this will help you.

I'm sure it will be a good backup to have the material from the It's Your Money book and workbook.

We're talking about escalating bankruptcies.

It's fascinating to understand today that yet in spite of the fact that we live in 1 of the most prosperous nations in the world, for 2001 these statistics that we have indicate that 29, 000 American families declared bankruptcy every week last year.

That's 1.4 million families could not make it.

And you understand that we have been having prosperous times until the last few months, and we'll talk more about investments at a later session.

But I want you to contemplate the idea, is bankruptcy really an alternative for the Christian?

We'll talk more about it when we discuss debt, but the Bible indicates that in Proverbs 37, 21, that the wicked borrow and do not repay.

We'd like to understand that bankruptcy should be avoided if possible from a Christian perspective.

Today we see all kinds of interesting things in the news about us and in the publications.

I recently noticed a Forbes magazine cover that showed that the CEOs of large companies now are making up to a hundred million dollars a year, and many sports figures make huge salaries.

And of course, so you want to become a millionaire and other programs like that attract a lot of attention to people.

But what should a Christian do in all of this wealth and concern about finances?

I have found something that I call living in the land of the Philistines.

You remember in the Bible, It's in Judges chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 that God said, you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall not tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice.

But he says, if you serve their gods, they will be a snare to you.

So I'm going to give you a little illustration.

You understand that in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, there is a place called the land of the Philistines and of course the camp of Israel or the land of Israel.

And when Samson became involved with the Philistine woman, she was not the girl next door.

He actually had gone some distance to become involved with her.

So I want to ask you a question today just to contemplate, and that is from a spiritual perspective, say good guys and bad guys, where is the land of the Philistines today?

Area, frequently people say well that must be where it is.

Some people are concerned about the the escalating crime and violence and so on but I will tell you that it's not some town that you think of with violence and crime record and all of that but from the biblical perspective especially from the new testament god says where the light of the world where the salt of the earth So we're kind of all mixed in together.

People have access to television and just about anything they might want to get involved in today.

But it's not all bad that we're mixed in there because we are the salt of the earth, but in money management, frequently the world is salting us more than we are salting it.

Now I want to give you an illustration so that you can understand that.

Frequently the Bible indicates that debt is bad, but today many, many people are getting involved in debt and that's why we have such a high incidence of bankruptcy as I mentioned earlier.

Now we live today in a society where we want things bigger probably and sooner than we would before, but let me just give you housing as an example.

In some countries of the world that do not have mortgages, I had a friend from Zambia, Africa, attend 1 of my seminars and he couldn't understand the session number 8 on housing because the whole thing was on how to finance a house and he said in Zambia there's no such thing as a mortgage you just build and live in it as you can.

At any rate from a biblical perspective I will try to give you a little insight right now as to what we'll talk about in session number 8 as well but because of the availability of money and credit today Housing prices have really really shot up so like the median house price in the United States now is a hundred and 47000 dollars and that's just across the board the average.

Obviously in the Midwest you can find them a lot cheaper or a smaller home or in a rural setting but in large cities of course it's much much more than that.

So the average person doesn't have the money to buy a house.

Well, they make a trip or 2 to the bank and they get qualified and they find the house that they want and they borrow the money.

And let's speak first about the Philistines.

If they want to buy or build a house and they don't have the money, they'll borrow the money and what is the typical time that they will take to pay it back?

Well anyone who is generally familiar with house financing knows that's 30 year mortgage in the United States.

That's not only typical here because some countries as I mentioned do not have mortgages, but some places like in Japan, if you lived in Tokyo or 1 of the large cities there, you may have a hundred year mortgage and it takes 3 generations of people to pay it back.

So let's just say that a Christian person decides that he wants to buy or build a house.

Well, typically they will do exactly the same thing and get a 30 year mortgage.

And that may be the way to set it up to begin with.

But you understand housing costs so much because credit is available.

Think about this, how much would the average house sell for if money was not available to borrow and to pay back?

Well, the Bible indicates that Christians or Bible believers should not be in debt longer than 7 years.

And you have that principle from Deuteronomy 15, verse 1 and other places like that.

So what we're gonna try to do is to help people to put their mortgage in perspective and to pay it off in a quicker time.

And I've done this personally twice and it really helps and a lot of people have come to me and felt that it was a benefit.

So credit cards, many other things, we take our cues more from the world than we do from the Bible perspective.

So let's take our Bibles now and we're actually going to go to the sixth chapter of Matthew and this is kind of an interesting setting because it is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount and most of you are aware that that's Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 and when you look at Matthew from this perspective my Bible is a red letter edition, so all the words of Jesus are in red, right in the middle of this famous and longest recorded sermon of Jesus, we find these words in Matthew 6, 19.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Now this is kind of a fascinating thing because we actually see here that we're talking about concerned politicians, other people today, but people are wondering, should I save up money?

But the Bible says, don't store it up on this earth.

To me that's quite a fascinating thing to see because it seems like the logical thing to do.

Now this to me is pretty interesting and I will try to make it plain for you here when we look at Matthew 6, 19 and 20.

By the way, the Bible is not telling us not to store up treasures.

It's just saying store it up where it will be safe.

So how do you store up treasures in heaven?

When you look through the Bible, there's actually a number of ways that you can answer that question but there's only 2 answers that you get over and over again.

And I'll try to give you a perspective on that.

1 of them was the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and he probably was in the category of a group of people today that we call dinks that's dual income no kids he's coming up in his fancy car and says to jesus what can I do that I could inherit eternal life well jesus didn't tell him to sell everything to begin with?

So Jesus actually started quoting some of the 10 Commandments.

And what actually happened in this case is he said, well you can stop, I've been doing that since I was little.

And Jesus told him to sell what he had and give to the poor and follow him.

Now a lot of people miss the next phrase.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, all of them mention this story.

He says thereby you will store up treasures in heaven.

2- For Now and Eternity

Hello and welcome to session number 2 in the It's Your Money series.

We're talking about the biblical principles of personal money management.

If you happen to have the workbook or the textbook that we use in this, you would be on page 5 in the workbook today or chapter 2 in the book and we're talking about eternal life in the balance.

So what we're going to actually do is to look at some biblical principles this time and in the first several of these we're talking about laying a foundation for a spiritual perspective in our lives.

Then of course in the middle of the series we'll talk about getting out of debt, buying your house, training your children to learn to manage money properly and things like that.

We'll also talk later about inheritance and estate planning and so on.

But today we're going to talk about the perspective that God sees.

And the first text we'll look at is Luke chapter 12 and verse 15.

The Bible says, take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

You know, from a worldly perspective, people think of success as fame and accumulation of things.

For example, how would you know if someone was successful in this life?

Well people often say, well the kind of car they drive, the clothes they wear, the house they live in, where they go on vacation, who their friends are, all those kind of things.

But From God's perspective, we're really looking at the success of the kingdom.

We want to be happy and have the things that we need for our needs and so on, but we're really thinking in terms of the kingdom because we have in mind not just this life, but the eternal perspective.

Now we read in the last session from Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount and verse 24 is identical to Luke 16, 13.

I'm going to read this and then I'm going to pause just a moment and see what word actually pops in your mind It says no servant can serve 2 masters For either he will hate the 1 and love the other or else he'll be loyal to the 1 and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon probably popped into your head because many of us memorized that from the King James Version of the Bible.

And when I read that I thought, well, this doesn't say anything bad to me because I'm not serving mammon I don't even know who mammon is but when you look at some of the new translations of the Bible that word there mammon is translated wealth or riches or money and Even the King James Version by the way in its margin references talks of it that way Now 1 of the fascinating things about this concept is the Bible does not say that it's difficult to serve God in money.

What it says is that it's impossible to do it.

So we have to understand that either we're going to be like the rich young ruler and go for the things of this world or we're going to live comfortably with God's blessing and plan on eternity.

Now The third section here on this page is the uncertainty of riches.

Paul mentioned in his letter to Timothy, godliness with contentment is great gain.

And this is from 1 Timothy chapter 6 and starting with verse 6 and 7.

For we brought nothing into the world and it's certain that we can carry nothing out.

So having food and clothing with these we should be content.

But the interesting part in verse 9 it points out those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and harmful lusts like get rich quick schemes.

We'll actually talk about get rich quick schemes, how to identify them, how not to lose money.

Do you know that many Christians have lost millions of dollars with these get-rich-quick schemes, and I'm going to show you how to identify them and how to be out from them.

There are 4 principles we'll talk about when we get to that section.

These will drown men in destruction and perdition.

And then this interesting statement that we're all familiar with, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith even in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

So it concludes don't trust in uncertain riches.

Now if you have your textbook or the workbook open I'm going to ask you to close it now because I want to give you a little quiz just from your own thoughts so you think about this the Bible gives many examples and 1 is in first Corinthians 10 6 where it says these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after the same things that they lusted after So this is going to be kind of fun.

I'm typically not a child's speaker or have children's stories, but I do love kids and I have 2 grown children.

But I want to tell you that when you go to children's groups, they're always wanting to answer and raise their hand and so on so you pretend like you're in a children's group this morning or whenever you have the opportunity to listen to the tape and what I'd like for you to do is think in the bible of anyone that you might think of in the Old Testament who lost their life because of their attitude toward money and possessions.

Now don't cheat and think about New Testament ones because those are real easy to think of but we're going to actually look at some and then we would go to the New Testament.

So let's open our books back up now and we're going to start actually with looking at some of these stories from the Bible.

And the very first 1 that we're going to look at is the story of Lot's wife.

Now when the Bible talks about remember Lot's wife, those are actually the words of Jesus and they're in Luke 1732.

So if you ever read letter edition of the Bible as I do, these words are going to be in red in your Bible.

Well, it's not just an abstract recollection here.

An abstract recollection would be, oh yeah, I remember that lady.

Didn't she turn into a pillar of salt or something?

Well, That's just remembering in an abstract way, but when you remember Lot's wife, I'm going to tell you the punchline to this story right up front here.

You remember that no person or anything is worth trading for eternal life.

For example, when you remember in the biblical sense, God, the Bible says, remembered Hannah.

And when he did, she had a baby boy that she named Samuel.

When you wake up on Sabbath morning, you don't just say, oh yeah, Sabbath, isn't it?

When you wake up, you remember this is a day to keep holy, a day to enjoy fellowship with other Christians, to spend time with God, to be outdoors in nature and so on.

So when you remember Lot's wife you remember that no person or anything is worth trading for eternal life.

So we're going to look at this story and if you look at it you might just want to take your Bible and follow along here because it's quite a fascinating story.

I've enjoyed it going through it because of the real vivid way the Bible tells this story.

But this story of Lot actually begins in the 12th chapter of Genesis when God came to Abram and said get up and get out of your country from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

And this call of Abraham is pretty fascinating because he says I'm going to make you a great nation I'll bless you I'll make your name great You're gonna be a blessing and I'll bless those who bless you and I'll curse those who curse you and then here's the amazing thing In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

So God has put us here to be a blessing to others.

Well when Lot, Abram's nephew, heard that he was going on this journey, he asked if he could come along and be a part of it.

And of course what any Christian would tell someone who wanted to join them in their spiritual journey, he said sure, come right along.

You might have to wonder sometimes how he talked his wife into going because when he told her about it she probably said well where is he going?

And Lot had to say well he's not real sure.

But anyway they went along And God is true to his word 1 of the things you learn about God is that he's big enough and powerful enough to do Whatever he says he can do and he said he was gonna bless Abram And if you look in the 13th chapter in verse 2 it says Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and gold and then verse 5 says lot also who went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents and these people were so wealthy that they actually could not live close together because they measured their wealth in their livestock and so on and apparently the shepherds were arguing about grazing rights and watering and so on.

So 1 evening Abram called Lot in and he says it's not good for brethren to argue and that's the lesson of course that we can learn even today it's not good to argue but what actually happened is he said we're going to have to divide the territory and you go 1 way and I'll go the other way and the interesting way he puts it if you go this way then I'll surely go the other way if you go that way I'll go the other way.

At any rate 1 of the strangest and saddest verses in the Bible is recorded there in chapter 13 verse 12.

It's pretty interesting because Lot had been looking around apparently and he knew about this pretty valley with a river running through it and he said I found this place I'd like to go over there.

It says, Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom.

Now it's pretty interesting that a lot of people today are generally aware that from a biblical perspective, if it's possible, and we don't live in an ideal world, I understand that, but if it's possible, you're better off living in a rural setting.

I can just tell you that with the satellite technology that we have today, scientists are actually able to pinpoint where the grizzly bears are hibernating in Yellowstone Park.

Now having said that, where are you going to hide?

You don't go to the country to hide, you go there to be away from the noise and the pollution and the crime and the violence and the evil influence of the city.

And anybody who's ever lived in a city knows those things exist there.

So you want to raise your family and maybe even teach them gardening or to be away from all those evil influences.

But this text says he pitched his tent towards Sodom.

Now in chapter 14 we find that he's actually living in Sodom.

This is pretty interesting because 4 Elamite kings came warring into this valley and they actually subdued 5 of these little city-state kings and they destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and actually ransacked them and took all the people and all the stuff.

Now most people haven't really thought too much about this but you can name almost any 2 cities that you know and if you were able to take all the stuff of value from the banks and from Walmart, you know, any place that you saw anything, Lowe's, wherever it was, you just took all the stuff, you'd be wealthy, I mean you'd be a billionaire.

Any city's got just billions of stuff there and They hauled all this off and they took Lot and his family and other able-bodied people to be slaves for them Some guy escaped and ran into Abram's tent area where he was set up and said, your nephew Lot has been taken captive.

Now what could Abraham have said right then?

I remember 1 saying, he made his bed, let him sleep in it.

I mean he chose to live down there, what is that to me?

But he's called the father of the faithful and by this time he was so wealthy that he had his own army.

And you can read about it in Genesis 14 verse 14 when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house and he pursued them as far as Dan.

Now you understand that he took some of his friends with him but they had divided into groups of 3 and actually into 3 groups and attacked at night.

And they were able to rescue the hostages and get all the stuff.

There's probably not a person alive in the United States who has never dreamed of winning the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes or some big lottery, even though as Christians we don't get involved in gambling, but just wouldn't it be great if you could get a million dollars or maybe the 10000000 dollars.

3- In Everything You Do Put God First

Well hello, We're ready for our third session in the Biblical Principles of Money Management in the It's Your Money book and workbook.

If you have those with you, you can open to the third chapter or to page 8 in the workbook.

What I want to share with you in this session is just a basic, simple outline of about 7 principles that will help us to understand what God had in mind.

Somebody said, well, if there's 2, 000 verses, why don't we have something just real simple like the 10 commandments that we could talk about?

So what we are going to look at today are maybe 7 or 8 principles that will be very, very helpful to us.

And we'll make some application as we go along there.

The very first 1 is that we need to trust God with all of our heart.

Proverbs the third chapter is 1 in chapter 22 also a number of Proverbs chapters have to do with money management because Proverbs is actually a book of wisdom.

It's not so much a right and wrong it's about smartness and foolishness actually or wisdom and foolishness.

So we're going to look at here, Chapter 3 of Proverbs, and we'll look at about 5 verses real quickly just to kind of set the stage for this particular session.

The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't lean on or depend on your own understanding.

Now, would that include the management of our money?

And so you understand, and everything you do, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

So sometimes people come to me and say well I've got this money what should I do with it and I talk about or I have this job opportunity and what you really are looking for here is what counsel can you get from God in this area.

So many people today have a good education and I'm well trained myself I think, but you look at this in verse 7 It says don't be wise in your own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil It will be health to your bone your flesh and strength to your bones And then here comes the counsel about the money management Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase Now, why do you think God asked us to put him first?

Well, we know 1 thing it's not because he needs the money We're gonna recognize that in just a minute, but I want you to understand it's not just because he's God.

But if we acknowledge him first, then he will bless the rest.

Verse 10, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." There are many, many wonderful promises here, but now let's get into the principles.

If you trust God and you want to look at his plan, what are the things that you must know?

I've thought about this idea of financial literacy, in other words what every Christian needs to know about money management and maybe these are the principles.

If you understand these then you'll be able to see how important it is in just a moment.

So we're going to number 2 then, God is the owner of everything.

That's the principle that I think is very, very important.

And it's not just because he's God, but because he is the creator.

And Psalm 24, verse 1 says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

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It's Your Money! Isn't It?

7- Train Up a Child

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