Does God Care About Your Finances?

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. And make sure this is in a comfortable place for you all now.

Yeah. Yeah. If not for God with Mike Zwick, does God care about your finances? Does God care about your finances? And I've got a new friend of mine, David Belk.

I actually met him on a Liberty Bankers trip that we had over to Prague. And I believe it was last year. And we just started talking. And David and I met over at a Chick-fil-A. And David gave me some surprising statistics about what the Bible actually says about money.

Because, you know, David, we talk about heaven. We talk about hell. We talk about evangelism. And all of that stuff is important. We need to do it.

But you said the Bible actually has a few things to say about money as well. Is that right? Yeah, quite a bit. It actually speaks more about money than any other topic. Tell me about that.

Well, we talk about salvation, we talk about hell, we talk about heaven. We talk about all these. ideas, but the thing that grabs most people's heart is money Obviously God knew that. Things, material things, and he spoke more about that than any other topic because that tends to be the things that pulls us away or apart. From our true calling that he's bought us to.

That's good. And I've got this, I've got this book. It's called the Bible Promise Book. And there's a chapter on money. And this is what it says: it says, Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom.

Wilt thou not set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away in an eagle towards heaven. And that was just the first verse. But, you know, I'm reminded is that.

It's good to work hard. You know, the Bible tells us that we're supposed to be hard workers. And everything that we do in Colossians 3:23, it says that whatever you do, do it as if you're working for the Lord, David, and not for man. But at the same time, it's not just about building up wealth for ourselves. We have a bigger purpose as Christians, and we're supposed to be good stewards of our money.

Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah, Stuart said uh It's not just a monetary thing, it's a lifestyle thing. It was very clear in the garden he put us there to work. In America, we love to talk about retirement, what that looks like. There's no retirement in the garden.

There's no retirement. In a lot of the world, uh, retirement is kind of an American ideology that came about really well in the 70s that the investment firm started promoting, and now everybody wants to retire. Yeah. Mm-hmm. There's nothing wrong with that desire.

It's just what are you retiring to?

Okay. Am I going home to watch Bonanza every day? Or am I going home to work and volunteer every day? What does that look like?

So it's, it's. Stewardship is not just about money, it's about my time. My talents. What are the talents that God's given me? that I can use to help build his kingdom.

I'll come back to the kingdom conversation in a minute, but our body. is something with a steward. That we're told that our body is his temple. That's right.

Well, if we're his temple, How we doing? How we treating that temple? In America, I don't think we're doing too well, man. I can't go there and upset people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the reality is, is. Our body is a temple. Yeah. We should steward what we do with it, how we do it, how we care for it. And TV and I'm tired is not an excuse not to do that for our body.

Yeah. Warren Buffett, when you talked about your body, Warren Buffett actually said something years ago, and I never forgot it. He said, if you knew that you would have one car. And that's the only car that you would have for the rest of your life. He said, How would you treat that car?

Would you change the tires? Would you change the oil? Would you take care of that car? Because that is the only car that you're gonna get for the rest of your life. He said, Well, news flash here, you get one body.

For the rest of your life. And we wonder, and it makes me sad, David, when I see friends of mine who are, I'm in my mid-40s. And how old are you? 61. Goodness, you don't look it, man.

But you're 61 years old, and there are people, especially your age. They literally can't even get up. I mean, I was over in um Amen. I was over somewhere the other day, and where I was is I was talking to somebody and I said, Hey, you know, I'm going to pray for you because you can't even get up out of your chair. You're in a wheelchair.

Well, this lady was about your age, and it was, she had lymphedema, she had diabetes, all these other problems. And maybe some of that people can say is hereditary, but you know, we, this body is the only body that we will ever get for the rest of our lives. And I can tell you take care of yourself pretty well, too, huh?

Well, I do now. I didn't always. I mean, we've all. We've all Fallen in a lot of areas. I mean, um America, we love to eat.

I mean, if I have a passion, it's for food. I'm a foodie. And so I love to eat everything I shouldn't. Yeah. And I want to eat it in excess.

Yeah. And then take a nap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the reality is, the buildup of American lifestyle of eating, and this is just a part of stewardship, but the biblical or the American lifestyle of eating is about enjoying. As much as you want, whenever you want.

And don't worry about it until And event occurs. And then everything that you learned in the third grade about how you should take care of yourself comes to reality that you have to put yourself back into that position and go find that.

So, truth be known, here comes July 31st, 2016: David had a heart attack. Oh, wow. You didn't even know this. No, no. That was an event that was cholesterol-related.

I didn't give cholesterol its credence. I didn't respect it. I didn't think anything about it. Parents had it, had issues with it. I've never had anything.

And my cardiologist said, hey, if you'd have just taken care of this, you'd never be here. You'd never been here. And so. Thank you for telling me I look pretty good for my age, but it takes a lot of work this morning at. 6.30 being in the gym.

It's not something I want to do, it's something I have to do. And it's something that's more of a respect, and often at times I don't want to eat healthy. My wife is good at helping me do that, yeah. I don't want to, yeah, uh, but it's hard, and so being a steward. of your body Being a steward of my time.

Because I can watch football all day on Saturday and Sunday on the sofa, and there's nothing wrong with that from time to time, but excess in anything is not good. Back to the money piece that we're talking about, stewardship is about understanding. Am I really here to build my kingdom? Or am I here to build his kingdom? Yeah, you got one choice.

Yeah. And that's a good struggle. It's a hard struggle. Because I'm either going to build one or the other. Yeah.

And I, I, and I build mine and I build his. Yeah. And there's a struggle. Purchasing is a struggle. I think I mentioned to you, Ron Blue says, um, that every spending decision is a spiritual decision.

Well, if I say I'm a Christian and I say everything belongs to God and he says everything in the earth. Is is that's me. Everything that I have has been given to me for. him from him. To build his kingdom.

That's right.

So if I steward that properly, then I've got to take the view that I'm here to build his kingdom. But I sure do like that Corvette. Yeah. I sure do like that boat. I sure do like the travel.

I sure do like all those restaurants. Yeah. And When you get caught in that realm, because that's what everything in our society says. Yeah. You know, what was Burger King used to say?

Have it your way. Have it your way. American lifestyle. Have it your way. Unfortunately, that's not a biblical lifestyle.

Yeah, I did an interview with a guy one time, and he had a near-death experience or whatever. And he said that when he left his body or whatever, he said he got to ask Jesus a few questions. And different people have different ideas about this. I'm just telling you this for a reason. But he said, one of the things that Jesus, that the Lord looked for in people was unselfishness.

And I've got Matthew chapter six right here, and it says, Take heed that you do not do your alms before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. He says, Therefore, when you do your alms, or when you give money, or when you help the poor, whatever it is, he says, Do not sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, that they have their reward. But when you give money.

Let not your left hand know what your right hand doing. that your giving of money may be done in secret. And your father, which is in, which sees in heaven, will reward you openly. And so I see a lot of people using that or seeing that, David, and saying that. He, this is what we need to do.

We, when we give money. We need to be quiet about it. And we do. You know, we're not, we're not saying, hey, I just gave money to somebody or look at me. And there's people who do this, David.

I just gave money to a homeless person and they're happy. Jesus said, You don't have a reward. But I think there's a part in that passage, David, that a lot of people miss. He says, when you give. He doesn't say if you give.

The the the win is a call. If if If I am being blessed, then I want to bless others. Um, and that should be as opposed to I'm being blessed, so how much more can I bless myself with what I've been blessed with? Right. Um.

The the call there is I firmly believe that We should give quietly. But I also believe there's a time when people need to know I'm involved. It doesn't mean they need to know how involved. But they need to know because they may need you another stewardship is your influence. We have influence and we need to steward that so people see that properly.

And how we're what are we promoting in the world?

Somebody may need help and assistance in fundraising in an organization.

Well, they may need to know that other guys have. Believed in this or supported it to know to say, okay, because sometimes people don't do their own investigations into nonprofits. And I think you should. Yeah. You should, big time, because there's a lot of money.

That's going to the people who started the nonprofit that shouldn't be because if it was all about their heart that they wanted to start, then why are they taking seven figures out of it? Yeah, I don't get that.

So you do have to be careful. About your promotion. There's a lot of people who want their name on everything. Yeah. And, and, Sometimes, again, it is okay for people to see your name, but are you doing it because your name has to be on the building?

Are you doing it because you want to know you got the plaque and everybody saw you get that? Are you doing it because you really care about that organization and that's what you're given to because of the cause of what they're doing? And that drives your heart that God's called you to that. And only God knows your heart, right? And it says in the Old Testament, it says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God searches the heart.

And so it's funny, you're you've been in sales for a while. I've been in sales for a while. We're part of the same company, Liberty Bankers. Um, but one of the things that a lot of people miss, even in the Old Testament, it says where that man looks at the outward appearance.

So when I go out to sell insurance, if I'm wearing Birkenstocks and a shirt with holes in it, then people probably aren't going to want to listen to me.

So I want to present myself in the best way that I can, not because that pleases God, but because if I want to be presentable to other people, then I realize. That other people are going to look at me. The first thing that they look at, what did they say, first appearances, right, David? Yeah, first appearances matter and they're crucial. That doesn't mean you have to be to the T's with wingtips.

I think I gave my wingtips away. I haven't got them in 10 years. I finally gave them away this feature. Yeah, somebody wears them. They're pretty good.

And I was taught. Yeah. Wingtips. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Put the towel and put everything.

This is pretty much the way I dress: a collared shirt and khakis, 90%. That's my uniform now. Yeah. So whatever I do. You do have to present yourself because, again, if you're doing as for the Lord, you're presenting yourself to where you want to draw people to you so you can share.

Yes, if you're in sales like you're doing, you want people to hear your message and you want people to understand that. You're a professional at what you do. And a stewardship of your profession is making sure you're on top. It's not making sure you make the most sales, it's making sure you're prepared. for the question that you may only get once this year.

Yeah, it's being able to relate to people that also draws you that they see you're different. You're different now. I don't know what's different about you.

Something's different about you.

So, people will inquire so they can draw closer, so you can have real intimate conversations about what's really important. Life insurance, none of this, what you're talking about, what you do. That's important in our world. Most people don't have what they need, you know, that. But at the same time, You've got to have people that are really willing to accept the fact that I'm going to leave this place.

Yeah. Well, if you're talking about people that they're going to leave this place, you've got a wide open. Territory and talk to them about God and anything else. That's right.

But you've got to be able to allow them. To relax so they see that you truly care. Yeah. And it's sad to say that sometimes dress makes that happen. Yeah.

Because you can't see my heart with a suit. Yeah. You can only do that by what comes off the tongue. Right, that's true. You know, and one of the verses when it comes to giving is 2 Corinthians 9:6 through 7.

It says, The point is this: whoever sows sparingly. will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now I know that's in there. And I believe that. But for Michael's Wick. When I first started to give money, and I was making money when I was in my 20s or whatever. It was really hard for me to do it at first.

And so at first, I don't know if you call it reluctantly. It was just hard for me even to throw a $5 bill or a $20 bill on the plate. But what I noticed, David, is that when I started to give, even if it was small, even if it was something, I tell people all the time, give something, even if it's a dollar, even whatever you got. But then when I started to do that, Then I noticed the joy in giving.

So, the first thing that I had to do was take that first step.

So, if there's somebody listening right now or watching right now, and you're not giving anything. Start off with something, but what would you say?

Well Yeah. It goes back to Where did it come from?

Well, I got the job. I did the work. I got paid.

So, somebody allowed somebody to have the heart to hire you.

Somebody allowed the person to teach you the task so you can do what you do, whether that's sales or you're working a task on a day-to-day job, whether you're a receptionist, whether you're a doctor, whatever. You know, the more professional you are, Oftentimes, it's more about what I've done for myself. Yeah. But those doors have still been open, or God's given you the gifts for you to be able to do stuff.

So the question is: what are you doing? Those are those gifts again.

So if God's given me the ability to make money, What am I going to do with it? It's funny how people who make a hundred thousand dollars Can't make it because they need a million dollars, and the people who make a million need more. It doesn't matter if you're making $50,000 or $25,000, it's always more. Because we get it out of line.

So the question. It probably should be flipped. Not so much how much should I keep, or not, not how much should I give, but how much should I actually keep. It is the flip.

So, um, There there's plenty of people who've set Finish lines. Yeah. on income. This is where we are.

Now, we may inflate our income by 3% for inflation every year and take a little bit more, but everything above this cap is going somewhere else. Yeah. Now, there's very few people that do that. And a lot of people will use even God for the reason that they're not doing that.

Well, if I do that, I can't serve him, I can't do other things, right? Or God wants us to have this lifestyle. The danger of that scripture is that people will read that and think that. If I do this, then God will do. If then, we love if then statements.

In college, computer class was all about if then. Yeah. God's not sitting there. At any time, trying to make a deal with you, he's saying, I want your heart. What are you willing to do?

It doesn't mean he's going to bless you here if you give him 50% of your income. It doesn't mean you're going to have a financial blessing, or something's going to blow up, and you're going to have a money tree in the front yard next year. It just doesn't mean that. The blessings or in heaven. Mm-hmm.

For a lot of people, that's skews because I don't think people have a good view of what heaven's really about. Randy Alcorn has a book called Heaven. Yeah. I think every man in the world should read that book because it will change the dynamics of how you think. It is not us sitting in the clouds singing kumbaya or whatever else.

We've got jobs to do, we've got tasks to do, and based on what we do here will be our tasks there. And those rewards are there.

So I could go on about that. Yeah, well, go on. I'll go down a total different round. But when you were talking about that, one of the things that I was thinking about is that you, you're not just a businessman because you can use these, you can actually use Christian principles that can actually help you in business. Work hard, work six days a week, you know, even giving.

There was a secular, one of these money guys or whatever who was not a Christian who said there's something about people who donate money or give money where they're more successful.

So you could just use it to make more money. You could just use it to advance your own kingdom. But did you grow up in the church or? Grew up in the church, grew up Southern Baptist in a church that Don't take this wrong if you hear this wrong. That I was going to hell every week because I needed to be redeemed every week.

So I often say I kind of grew up Catholic in a Baptist church because I had to repent. I had to do repentance every week. But really, there were men in that church from World War II that taught a lot of the classes.

So it was a place where I learned about Jesus. I learned about people loving. I learned to know the Lord well. I walked the aisle. On Mother's Day of 1972.

And I can tell you that because I've got the picture.

Okay. All right. And I joined the church because my brother went down the aisle and I said, What's he doing?

So I went with him.

Okay. So that had nothing to do with my spiritual context with Jesus, though. It probably wasn't until I was about the seventh grade to where I really realized I'm as lost as I can be. And I was a good kid. Like a lot of good kids in churches who know the word because they've been pumped with the word, but they don't have a heart for the Lord.

And I was one of those kids until about the seventh or eighth grade. And I was fine through high school until I went to college and I broke up with a girl. And I was like, well, heck, if that's the way it's going to be, I thought I'd marry her, you know, at 17, 18. Yeah, yeah. Crazy with all kinds of ideas that don't come true.

Yeah. Went a little haywire for quite a while, probably about 10 years. Um got married. Um Actually, I cleaned my life up. When I say cleaned it up, accepted the Lord or rededicated my life to the Lord with some businessmen, as a matter of fact.

And then my wife did the same thing. She was not my wife at the time, but we were dating, and we both realized we were not living a lifestyle that we needed to be living or anything of that nature. And, and, round 26, 25 to 26, that got cleaned up and The struggle is real because life is real, and America is real, and the tension is real with. Um The struggles of The draw of the world.

So it hadn't been perfect for us all these years. It hadn't been perfect. I haven't walked a perfect lifestyle. And most people know me, they can tell you plenty of things that's wrong with David Belk, you know, those things. But man.

Thank God. He saved sinners. And I'm definitely one of those who needed to be saved and picked up and cleaned up along the way and brushed up. I'm still working on that. Me too, man.

Plenty of it to go. Me too. You know, it says in 1 John 1:9, it says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. And so, you know, I've heard people say that, you know, God will forgive you right away, but a lot of times it's hard to forgive yourself. Yeah.

You know, it's funny you say that because. I heard somebody recently say, and I'm not exactly sure who it was. Because I think we all struggle with. We won't say I don't forgive myself, but we struggle with things that keep coming up. That's right.

We allow Satan to bring it back up. That's right.

And we say, I just can't forgive myself for that. And I'm, and the speaker, or I read it again, I can't remember exactly where it came from. He said, Who am I to think that I'm above God's forgiveness? I can't forgive myself. That's kind of a mute conversation because who am I?

I'm not above him. I don't have anything to forgive myself for. I don't have the ability to forgive myself. That's right.

That's right.

So to have that. Thought process is kind of, there's nothing scriptural about it. And I was like, so when you brought that, I was like, hmm. That's a tough one because we all say, I just can't, I can't, I can't let it go.

Well, that's a prayer thing and it's a Satan thing at the same time. Yeah. So. That's that's a tough one that I think everybody deals with because we have the deceiver who just wants to mess us up, yeah. And on the other hand, going back to the finance stuff, is that you we can't, you know, by us giving a certain amount of money, it's not like we're earning God's good favor or something like that, just no, I mean.

You know, oftentimes when people start giving, it's out of obedience.

So the question is: as we've chatted earlier, is, well, what's that amount?

Well, is it the 10%? Yeah. Is it not?

Well, You got to start somewhere. If you're not, that's a pretty good place to work. If you're going to give yourself 10 to 15% in your 401k, don't you think he deserves at least that much? Yeah. So, you know, whose kingdom are you building?

Now, it doesn't mean you do a trade-off and people say, Well, I don't have enough to give. I'm like, Well, maybe you shouldn't be going to McDonald's 14 times a month, or maybe you shouldn't be or smoking cigarettes or whatever the habit is, or we all have habits.

So we've all got places where we we're going to spend some money. And we're okay with it. Mm-hmm. At the end of the month, if that's when you're waiting to do it, it never works. It's the decision on the front.

to give And you can give pennies and dimes if you want to, but. Is Does that show that you're appreciative of what you've been given?

Now, a lot of people hear this will say, Well, I couldn't do that if I wanted to because I got a lot of debt or I've got all these payments.

Well, I don't believe God talked you into those debts. I don't believe God talked you into those things. God talked you into the lifestyle that it takes every dime of what you've got that you can't do something. That was a, as James calls it, I went down a road, I kind of slid, I slip slit, slip sliding away, slip slid into it. Yeah.

We get our own compassions or our own things that we want, and we slide into them before we know it. We're like, how'd this happen? And I've been there. I mean, I've been in debt. I've been like, what in the world?

We're making all this money. You're making $60,000. You think you're making a lot of money? early in our marriage, but it was all going out.

So, everybody that I know pretty much has probably experienced a dead issue. Yeah. The question is, what drove you there? And then I'm using that as the reason why I can't do what I should be doing. Yeah, because, well, as you know, you're in finance and you help people invest.

What's the name of your group? Carolina Financial Advisors. Carolina Financial Advisors. And so what do you guys do? We're a financial planning firm first, which basically means a lot of people want to be wealth managers, quote unquote.

They just invest money. They'll give incidental advice about things.

So they just kind of manage money and talk to you a little bit. we think that the plan drives the money because of what you're trying to accomplish, whether that's give money away, save money for college, save money for your retirement, whatever that looks like, all that drives what you do with your money. The money, a lot of people say, well, when I get some money, I'll get a financial planner. I've heard that my entire career. And the reality is, when most people get money, that's a lie to most people because when they get some money, they're going to take another vacation, or they're going to buy a new car, or they're going to redo the kitchen or something, something, something.

If you've got a financial plan, you know what you're working for when money comes.

So it's not a surprise. If the plan is put in place, to top your priorities. You're executing the things that are important to you because you've already decided what's important.

So now you know what to do with that money when it comes in to get closer to that goal or get that thing paid off or get that check, whatever the check mark is. and then you move to the next one.

So it's about goal planning. And you can't close that down to make it so small that it sounds, well, that just sounds too easy.

Well it is easy. But it's really hard. Because when the money comes in, Do I want to take that vacation or do I want to pay that credit card off that I've been talking about for sleep two years?

So, because the vacation I get some joy. credit card. I get joy because I have to pay it next month, but I don't really want to do it. Yeah. So, you know.

There's trade-offs.

Well David, we've run out of time, if not forgot. All right, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty s wick Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. Yeah. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video.