It's God's Money!

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Friends, I'm in Greensboro, North Carolina sitting next to a certified Kingdom Advisor, and he has agreed to tell all of us what that is, but this is a man of God. He's been a Christian radio partner for some time and loves Jesus, but he's been in the financial world for years and has been real successful.

Can you do both? Does the Bible talk about money, David Belk? Is it even come up ever in the parables in the Bible?

What do you think? Well, I think there's over 2,300 scriptures that specifically talk about scripture, talk about money, and it's such a large portion of the things that we do every day and we think about how it controls our lives. I think God knew what he was doing and Jesus, as he talked about it so many times, that we were going to get caught up with it, and it is an area that we do as Christians get caught up with quite a bit. Yeah, the whole eye of the needle parable, the whole deal with the love of money. Of course, a lot of folks say money's the root of all evil, but it's the love of money, right?

You have to correct people on that too, don't you? It is the love of money and it is the eye of the needle. That story is helpful often. I walk in your office here in beautiful Greensboro, North Carolina, home to our flagship station, AM830 and 97.7 FM, WTRU, part of the Truth Network, and we're so grateful to all of our affiliates, awesome friends at AFR, Wilkins Radio Network, everyone that carries Truth Talk.

So thank you so much for putting up with us and we're grateful. You're going to be so glad, everyone, when you hear this guy's story. But I walk in here, look at your screen there, you got a big Zoom call, it says, The Bible and Money. David Belk, people would walk in, maybe see those words together and think, wait a second, how can you even bring anything into, you know, with spiritual in the context of money? But that's what you've been doing as a certified kingdom advisor. Talk about that, what that is and all. Yeah, well, it's ironic, the real title of the show tonight that we're going to be doing is what the Bible really says about money.

And so I think there's so many misconceptions about what people say and how they say it often that it just needs dug into. I think we often use scripture, not just about money, but in all areas to kind of satisfy what we're looking, our own biases to confirm. And so, you know, becoming a certified kingdom advisor was actually a mistake on my part. I've been a Christian most of my life, grew up in the church, got saved as a young kid, didn't always live as a Christian. After college, found my way back to that, and got started in the insurance business and out of boredom, I kept adding things, okay, I've kind of figured this out, is there something else?

And so as time went on over the 32 years I've been in practice, I've gone from insurance to understanding mutual funds to understanding financial planning to the advisory mode. And then the whole time, we've had a part with Dave Ramsey being a part of the smart investor program there as well, that we've always had an interest in helping people get a better understanding of what does the Bible say about money for those and whether they're Christian or not, because we do emphasize certain principles, whether they're a person who's a Christian or not. And we have clients of all walks that we have from all faiths, not believers of Christ. And they know who I am, but they know where I stand. And I've never budged on it. And I've often asked them, why do you do business with me knowing what I talk about? And it's been a trust issue. And so I'm thankful for that.

But, you know, looking at the certified kingdom advisor program, there's a group of guys in in town, who now I'm a partner with, at Carolina Financial Advisors, they used to call me, or one of the guys used to call me about the day before they have a monthly meeting say, hey, why don't you get together with us for lunch, and we're going to talk about some Bible stuff and money. And I was like, well, I can't tomorrow. I mean, my calendar is booked.

I normally keep a two to three week calendar, as you know. And so, so, I'm grateful for that. And so, so, after so many calls, he happened to call one day, it was it was October, two or three years back. And I happened to be open. I said, Okay, I'll come. And so I went, I enjoyed the meeting, I enjoyed the discussion. But I still didn't realize what the organization was about. And so, next month came November, and he said, Hey, can you come?

And I was like, I can't, I can't. But in the meantime, they put me in the big, the big organization's email book. So I started getting information about what was going on. And they started talking about this annual conference. So the annual conference highlighted Brian Westbury, Chief Economist for First Trust, Bob Dahl, who's now with Nuveen, who's an investment person.

And I think it was Matthew West. And so I was like, wait a minute, I can go to Orlando, I can listen to my top economist, I can listen to Bob Dahl, and I can have a good Christian concert. I said, I went home and told my wife, I said, honey, we're going to Florida for a couple of days. And she goes, why?

I said, I don't really know. But I know this, these guys are going to be there. We'll have good music and food.

And if we don't like it, we'll spend their time at the pool. And God knew what was going on, even though you weren't totally sure what you're getting into, huh? That's true, because I probably spent three days crying, trying not to let anybody, and 2600 to 3500 people there as investment advisors to learn about the Lord and finances, to go back and share it with their clients, and to integrate that into their lives.

And I was like, how have I been doing this for 30 years, and didn't know this kind of stuff was even here. So I was extremely convicted and on board. And at the conference, I'd made the decision that I was going to become, I was going to go through the certification process. So within a week of coming back, I registered. This was in February, August of that year, I was certified Kingdom advisor. And so that's the story of how I got in this.

But it's ironic. I've met other guys. And I've heard other guys tell the story in a similar they found themselves there.

Didn't know why. And it's kind of like the mud was taken off my eyes. What would you say the biggest moment was the biggest kind of moment of enlightenment was here, you're a believer. Here, you've been so successful in the finance world, helping advising people with their money, right, which is kind of an important deal. And you had clients that were believers and non believers like what happened that conference what resonated in your soul with this whole, you know, certified kingdom advisor thing that say the the what was the aha moment for you in your life?

That really changed everything? I'm not exactly sure that there was a single moment because it was it was continuous realization of three days that this is good. This is awesome. And this was a part of the fulfillment that I've been trying to find out how do I really serve people and what I do, you know, everybody's got a career, you enjoy it, it's it's it's a career, you enjoy it, it satisfies you to a degree, but you're like, there's got to be more.

And as I told you, I've always there's got to be more. But when I realized, I can do this. And I can, I've already been sharing my faith with people and I have conversations with non believers about their money. I bought but now I've got a format and a group that can support me and help me and assist me and coach me through that process even more. So it was it was a life it was it was almost 30 years of progression to get me ready for what I've got to do. Bad part is I don't have 30 years in front of me. But but part of that whole process that week was I don't have to quit.

I'm in the retirement planning business. And I'm not a Levite. And my understanding is that's the only people who are supposed to, or did I don't know if that that's a part I don't know if that's still for pastors.

I'm not gonna say that to anybody out there. But there is no biblical retirement. Yeah.

Wow. And so once you understand that, it's not just about not maybe quitting a job that you did, but it's continuing to invest in the kingdom for the greater good. Amen. Amen. He's been a sponsor on Christian radio.

He's just, I just love walking into office. And this is a successful like this is a nice firm and your partners, everyone in here is accomplished. But you have right here on the board, the Bible and money, biblical truth, all these scripture verses. God's word is true.

I'm just so encouraged by that David Belk, who is a kingdom financial advisor, certified kingdom financial advisor, David Belk, real quick, as we wrap up, take us to ground zero. Someone's out there listening, and they're trying to reconcile, you know, it's, it's the, they say one of the top causes of divorce, they say, you know, churches are splitting over all the time. We're talking about money. It's the angst of politics. It's the issue globally. No one has enough of it. There's never enough month at the end of your money or however that goes, right? So much debt.

It's nuts. Even our national economy would take us to ground zero for everyone listening out there. What's the principle we can hang on to that is something that you when you're first introducing people into this whole, you know, kingdom financial advisors world that you're in? Can you give us something as we take as we as we get out of here or scripture, whatever that would be? Well, you know, it takes me back to number one is we are always quick to say, I know God owns it all. But we don't often live out God owns it all. And I firmly believe when, when that gets into the depths of our understanding, we tend to understand that we've got a bigger cause, and our money can serve us. We're going to we're going to serve a kingdom, it's either going to be my kingdom, or it's going to be his.

And there's a lot of toys that I would love to play with and a lot of places I would like to go and all the things that this world entices me with. But the riches are in heaven. And my reward is in heaven. And the whole purpose that we are here as Christians is to build wealth to build his kingdom, not ours.

What a great word. What's the best website folks want to learn more about this whole kingdom financial advisors world? Maybe they want to find a guy like you, you know, to help them like you're the kind of guy that I'm like, Hey, can you help me out with this stuff? Because you're gonna say, Hey, listen, what where's God in your picture of your finances?

What are you building for? I love that God's given to you to give through you those kind of principles. What's the best website that people can go to for kind of to get more direction?

Learn, listen to the radio program that you sponsor, things like that? Yeah, well, I'm actually going to give to and they're totally affiliated money wise calm. That's the spot that we we love to promote and also kingdom advisors calm so money wise is going to link you to guys who are part of the kingdom advisors, kingdom advisors is definitely going to link it to people who have said this is a part of the world of finance that I want to be a part of and they should be preaching and teaching biblical financial issues. Well, thanks for sharing your story. And thanks for living your story out in this office and in your home.

And I've learned all about your family excited to meet them all here one day too. But God bless you, man. Appreciate your testimony. Great.

Thanks to appreciate it. And you can meet David at truth network.com. You can go to truth talk, listen to the podcast and share it with everyone you know, and be encouraged. Remember, we're just a passing through. So let's make let's seek first the kingdom and let's lay up not on treasure on earth, but let's lay up treasure in heaven. This is the truth network.