This is the Truth Network. Oh. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.
All right, if not for God with Mike Zwick, I've got David Belk back in the studio with me. And David, you are on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ, but we talk about a lot of issues in the church and we talk a lot about issues with other Christians. But one of the things that we probably don't talk enough about is how are we handling our money? And so today we're going to be discussing what is stewardship like for an employer.
So welcome to the show, David Belk. Hey, thank you, Zwick. Thanks for having me back on. You're very welcome. And so you actually are a certified financial planner.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do? Yeah, I'm a certified financial planner, also a certified kingdom advisor. And through both of those avenues, obviously most people understand the certified financial planner. We do a lot of planning and discussions for taxes, investments, retirement benefits, employee benefits, cash flow insurance.
So we kind of are a business coach of financial things, of everything, and we manage money at the same time.
So pretty much anything, money or anything that most people are dealing with, if they've got a question, we can kind of help them navigate through that. Through the Certified Kingdom Advisor program, that's a different landing platform because it's really designed to help people work on biblical principles. of finance. And what does scripture say for those people who really want to walk down and dig into am I being faithful to the scriptures and how I'm handling my finances and whatnot?
So they're similar, but there's a deeper dive from a spiritual and a biblical standpoint from the Kingdom Advisor program. Yeah, that's right. And I have a friend of mine named Pastor Ron Harris. He's at a church over at Greater Love World Outreach Center in Burlington. And he told a story.
He said, there was a dollar bill and a $100 bill. And they got together and they started to talk. And they said, where have you been? And the $100 bill said, oh, man, you should see where I've been. I've been to the nicest clothing stores.
He said, I've been on vacation over to France. He said, I've been, you know, skiing. I've done all of these high-class, the finest restaurants. And he turned to the dollar bill and he said, where have you been? And the dollar bill says, I've been from church to church.
To church, to church. And so sometimes, especially as employers, you know, who have more money, who have done really well financially, it's like we've got all of this money for all of these different things that are personal pleasure, nicest cars, nicest homes. And you can have that stuff, but let's make sure that we are being good stewards of what the Lord has done, especially as an employer. And you wanted to talk about that a little bit today. Yeah, employers have a special role.
I mean, God's entrusted us to so much more as an employer. Let me start with. You know, it's it's probably important to begin with four words that will challenge every owner. Every leader and actually even the employees that hear this. Um And here th here's those four words.
It's it's not about you. Hmm. We you w we live in a culture that tells us our careers should fulfill us. The company should enrich us and our money should protect us. And boy, that's a big one for a lot of people.
Scripture, it it it starts somewhere very differently. Uh our work our authority, the income, influence, and our opportunities are actually entrusted to us. And so the central question is not simply what can I get from my work. The question is, what does God want to accomplish. through what he has placed in my hands.
So that's a whole different idea there.
So again, it's not what can I get out of work, but what is God? want me to accomplish with what he've given me. for his glory. Um so I'm not going to go into a lot of personal stewardship. There are some corporate stewardship warning signs that I'll throw out, and I know we've done another talk on this, and I kind of threw these out that time.
But I think it's important for these to be heard. But you may have a corporate stewardship problem if your company actually has no stewardship program. That's kind of an obvious one. And I don't mean one charitable event at Christmas. I mean a deliberate process.
that teaches people how your company understands ownership. Understands the profit, generosity, employees, customers, and the responsibility to the community. If stewardship never really reaches Policy or budgets or compensation, it really is just it's a slogan. It's kind of a we've got it, but we don't do much with it.
So, um you you also may have a corporate stewardship program problem if, um, Your decisions ignore the families of your employees. When you hire somebody, do you I've got a task that needs to be done. And so I'm looking at this person, they can do my task great, the numbers work, the salary they want works, I'm good with that, let's go. Are you looking through that person? and saying, I'm taking on the responsibility of this man or woman their spouse and their three kids to make sure that they can have a lifestyle that is commensurate with what they do.
and they can fulfill the obligations that they need for their families and even for their kids to get a college education.
Now that's pretty deep to go that far on that.
So I'll let that kind of resonate for a little bit. And finally, I'll just throw out one more. You may have a corporate stewardship problem if your generosity Does not increase as profits increase.
Now, those of you who are not employers or managers, It applies to you too. If you're an employee. Does your generosity increase? as your income increases. Or does your lifestyle drift increase?
So Um healthy reserves in a company. and reinvestment matter. But prosperity in a company only enlarges owner distributions, generally executive rewards and corporate comfort. The business should ask whether abundance actually has a purpose beyond itself.
Now you gotta I'm a capitalist, so those of you who are listening, you need to hear it. I'm a capitalist. Mm-hmm. I'm an entrepreneur by nature. And so Every time I make a decision, the tension is real on how much does David get to keep.
somebody else's. stuff. that somebody else's is God. How the the real question is is is not how much should I give. But it's how much should I be keeping?
And most people Because that can ca that can that can go a lot of ways in people's minds. If I have to decide how much I'm going to give, I'm going to give as little so I can do what I want to do in my life.
so I can buy the toys, enjoy the games, take the vacations, Do whatever it is that I want to do. But if I decide and set a cap on my income, Just like David Green from the Hobby Lobby family, then I have opened up the world to give away. to all kinds of sources to build the kingdom. If I have to say, well, I think we'll give a little bit because this is all we got left. That's a whole different philosophy.
And so Business owners, and this is for each individual hearing this too, we probably need to start thinking caps on our income. What what is it that I should really be living off of?
Now People say, well, we make $14 million. That's great. How much of that do you really need? If you've got seven houses and you've got 42 homes, you know, if you've got a bunch of cars and a bunch of boats, there's nothing wrong with wealth. That needs to be very clear.
Whether you're an employee, an owner, you got it from inheritances, or you earned it, you built a great corporation. God has blessed you. And he blesses certain people for different reasons, and certain people go into the mission field, and certain people send those people into the mission field. But how much is enough if you're worth one hundred million dollars or four hundred million dollars or even a billion dollars. And somebody here in this is going to resonate with what I'm saying in these numbers because you get to do whatever you want.
In fact, you get to do so much, you don't even need God. Because you just make the decision what you want to do and you go do it. That might be an issue within itself. There's nothing wrong with being prosperous and the Lord prospering because he will prosper us. I can't answer the question.
I do not have an answer why everybody is not prosperous. I don't have an answer for that. I am not a person that says, well, if you do all this stuff, God's going to prosper you. I know that I've got a lot of rewards in heaven, and they're going to out trump anything that I think is great here. The best thing that I got here is going to be trash in heaven.
That's the way I feel about it. But God gives us a lot of things. But if those things fully have us and we still don't seek him because we got the money to do it anyway, We're probably going to be finding ourselves in a lot of heartache at the same time. I diverse Swig. I'm sorry.
You got to get me back on track. No, no, you're fine. You know, and it's funny. When you were talking, I was actually looking at something because people think that, oh, man, I don't want to give money away. I want to keep it all to myself.
What if I lose it? There's so many reasons and excuses why people don't want to give money. But David, you know, as I look into this, giving away money and giving away of your wealth, especially to the kingdom of God, I mean, that's the greatest thing that you could do, whether it's to foreign missions or whether it's Christians here in the United States who are doing really big things for God or churches or whatever it is that you want. Can actually be the most selfish thing that you can do.
Well, what are you talking about? According to Google, scientific studies confirm that unselfish and generous people experience greater and more lasting happiness than selfish individuals. The science of giving, global data, large studies involving millions of people show that happier individuals are much more likely to volunteer, donate money, and support others. There's emotional return. Sharing resources, time, or love fulfills a basic human need to feel useful, which yields higher emotional rewards than hoarding.
And as discussed on a philosophic blog, true giving breaks self-centeredness and creates internal peace. There's stronger bonds, there's less isolation, and there's a positive focus. And I heard a story about Billy Graham. Who went to go visit two people one day? And he said, One guy that he went to go visit was probably the wealthiest guy that he knew.
And he sat down with him, and Billy Graham was, you know, sharing the gospel and talking to him about the Lord. And this man said, He said, I can go anywhere that I want to go right now, and I can do anything that I want to do because I've got as much wealth as I need, and I can't even use all of it. And he said, But I'm the most miserable person that you would know, Billy. And Billy Graham tried to share the gospel with him and tried to encourage him and this and that, but it really wasn't doing a lot of good. But then later on in that same day, David, Billy went to another guy who was very poor, didn't have a lot of money, but who spent their whole day helping other people and serving other people.
Well, the second guy who had very little wealth was extremely happy because not only were they giving of their finances, but they were also giving of their time and they were spending time helping other people.
Well, if you're an employer, you may not have a lot of time like somebody else may, but you've got. A lot of times you've got, and I hope you've gotten more in the financial reserves than most people do. Otherwise, I don't know why you're an employer. But if you have some extra money, The most unselfish thing that you can do is to give that away because everybody is searching for happiness, David. But it says right here, even according to Google, this is secular.
This is not even the Bible. But I think it's funny when the Bible catches up. I'm sorry, when the world catches up to the Bible and when it says that, hey, if you really want to be happy, give of yourself and give of your finances, and you'll actually be a happier person. Have you seen that from your own personal experience, David? Yeah, it it is, you know.
Ron Blue is very clear. He said for years, and the more life passes, I come to realize this. Giving breaks the power of money. It breaks the power of money. And so i one of the things that that you alluded to there for a second, people that volunteer and give themselves away and do this.
You know, Retirement. is an American fallacy that's Gone viral around the world now. There's nothing biblical about it, but it is something that is. been greatly marketed in our country and that it's it's seeped out everywhere else. And so The hardest thing for those people that are ready to retire or are retiring, and somebody hearing this is going to resonate with what I'm saying, is What are you the question I'm always asking is, what are you retiring to?
Okay, I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing right now at some point in the near future, and I'm going to cut off the lifetime income, and whatever I've got saved, that's how we're going to live off of the rest of our life. That's great. You've got it whether you've got a lot or you've got a little. That's fantastic. You've got that planned out.
But tell me. what are you gonna do The next fourteen weeks after you do that. And most people are just looking so forward to, I'm not doing this anymore, they're not looking past that mark. to get there. And what we have found The hardest part that we do is to help people get ready for retirement.
And it's not the financial piece. It's the emotional time factor and what am I going to do because you still, every person still has to have a fulfillment factor. And you can't get fulfilled going home and sitting on the sofa and watching Bonanza in Westerns every day. Or going to see the grandkids every other day. It everything gets old.
The the diminishing return rule is the more I do the things I even love, The more ju the less joy I get out of it.
So, whether that's playing golf, whether that's I'm fishing, whether that's I you name it, you put it out there, you're gonna lose. the joy of that over time. And so The biggest joy hoppers that people get are when they find where they can give back in their community. They can volunteer at their church, a food bank, go read to kids in elementary schools and help them with their reading, where they give themselves back. and get ready.
So that's more than you asked for on that, but you have to have Fulfillment in that in your day-to-day role. Even as a Christian, there's things you have to do.
Now, you can burn out by going to the church every day and working.
Sorry, pastors who are listening, and everybody who's grabbed trying to grab everybody to church, but we all know that happens. You're going to burn out everywhere.
So there's places you need to be, and there's multiple places, and then you've got to build that out. But that's the retirement piece where people have to look at it. And whether you're a business owner, to sell in your business? Or you're the person who's been working for one company for 35 years, it's the same. What are you retiring to?
You gotta find the fulfillment and what are you gonna get back? And you gotta give back where you know you're making a difference. That's huge. That is huge. And one of the things I remember when I started selling insurance, David, was I had a, there was an employer that I had, or my boss at the time, and he said, you know, what's your goal for the year?
And it was, you know, $100,000 or whatever. He says, okay, what's your plan, or how are you going to do it? And nine times out of ten, people would say, oh, I don't know. I don't really have a plan. But what you do, David, is you actually help people to plan for this stuff.
Is that right? Yeah, planning financial planning is about getting ready for numbers, getting the numbers ready, getting the budget set for, you know, nobody likes the word budget. You've got to have a budget all your life, and it doesn't matter once you retire, you still have to, unless you're one of those people who just Say, we have so much I can do whatever I want, and I don't even look at it. And there are people like that, and so they hire other people just to try to track their spending because they're just out blowing money. And I don't mean that ugly, that's that I probably shouldn't have said it quite that way, but but many of them are.
I don't have that problem, David. There are lots of people who do a lot of great things with their money. I should point that out. We know people who are so generous to so many organizations, and they do live a good life because they know they're building kingdoms and they're helping people. But yeah, financial planning i i is about helping people get ready for those things.
So we spend a lot of time kind of nailing down those things for individuals and owners and boards and and you know We work with churches, we work with corporations, we work with individuals, we work with families. Family planning is probably one of the funnest, hardest things we do. And those are generally with the company owners, families that we're doing that stuff with. But we work with We work with mom and pop and grandma. And so uh our our goal is to serve people.
and to give them the m give them we tell we like to give the Paul Harvey story. We never want people to we want you to know the rest of the story of what everybody else is trying to sell you on that they haven't told you. And then if you still like it, then go do it. But you need to know the rest of the story because everything in my world is a tax. law pretty much been created by IRS permission.
And so there's always an ugly side of the story. And um I like to explain it that you know I'm a I'm a breakfast person. I think there's more breakfast foods and you can eat breakfast 24-7 for $365 and not get bored because there's so many things you can eat for breakfast. But one of my favorites, is bacon and sausage.
So I love the smell of it. I love the flavor of it. But there's things that go along with that that I'm not paying attention to, and that's the fats and the cholesterol that's going in my body that I got to work on cleaning out.
So there's a bad side to that, but there's also the mess that's over on the stove. I got to clean those frying pans, I got to clean up oil that went everywhere. in in my world of planning everybody wants to know, Hey, well, what's the best thing we should do? And I was like, Well, there is no best thing. There's optimal planning.
with the optimal decision that you can live with because I don't know what's going to be best for you based on how you grew up. How your family taught you about finances, what your grandpa said about something, what the people at work have told you that's not a good idea, and you've got all this stuff in your mind. And I explained it, I was like to husbands and wives, I'm like, I'm sure you guys agree on everything. You've been married for 30 years, y'all agree on everything, right? And they're like, yeah, they just start laughing.
And it's because. They've we've got different opinions. There's no best. We come up with optimal solutions with everything we know. with the negative side of what IRS has put on the table for you too.
you to make a decision.
So Anyway, we make optimal decisions or help people make optimal decisions to move forward. I want to jump back over onto the employer part of this of what we're really talking about today. Um you know for an employer, God also He he stewards power. to an owner. or a manager.
And that's a position of authority that God has placed us in. And That's unusual power that people don't think about as power. We just assume, hey, this is my company, you do what I say. That's kind of how most people think. They may not say it quite that blunt, but people expect, well, I'm going to do what I'm saying.
Mr. Jones says,'cause Mr. Jones owns the company.
Well, power itself is not the problem. The question is what your power actually produces. You steward capital. Budgets reveal priorities more honestly than the mission statements that a company has. And profits matter because a business that cannot remain healthy cannot continue serving or paying their employees.
But profit functions as a tool and a measure. But it cannot become the master. And too often Wall Street The quarterly profits are the master. You know, you you have to store your culture We're talking about stewardship and what you reward grows. What you ignore.
Gross. That's important. If you're an avoider, You're allowing things that will grow.
So be careful there. But What you reward grows. What you tolerate, this goes back to what I just said, what you tolerate spreads. A higher producer who mistreats people teaches the entire organization that revenue outranks character. Ooh, that's good.
I'll say okay, I'll say it again. A higher producer who mistreats people. teaches the entire organization that revenue outranks character.
So You also stored the succession of your business. Not just how much what's the multiple I can get. Is a private equity going to come in here? Am I going to sell it to the employees? Am I going to do that?
How much can I get out of here so I can walk away and I can go sunset and in my kingdom? Your succession is a stewardship to continue care for The business? The Giving that the business has done, the employees who brought you along the way, and have helped you get where you are.
So It's important. to just keep different things abreast while you're making profits and what are those profits for. As a young entrepreneur, It was all about me. I started this out saying it's not about you. But I can tell you, as a young 23, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 30, 35, 40-year-old kid.
And I was still a kid at forty in the reality of scheme of the world. It was all about me. And It can't be. It can't it just can't be. It can't be.
And when I'm hearing you saying this, one of the things that I think of is this: we talked about this on the last show. If you are an employee and you're doing an excellent job and you're serving your boss and you're doing really well and you're honest and this and that and the other. Your employer may look at you, or your other coworkers may look at you, and they say, Hey, there's something different about this guy. I want what he's got.
Well, he's a Christian.
Okay, maybe I want that Jesus that he's got.
Well, I would say it's like that, but maybe even more so if you're an employer and your employees know that you're a Christian. Yeah. You when you're in a a leadership role, People are looking at everything you do. If you are treating people. Right.
whether they become a Christian or not, they know and become Trustworthy of you and they speak highly of you, where other people, your influence, you know, there's this thing today that I don't want to mention names, but one of my good friends wrote a book about significance. And as a young guy, in a worldly person years ago, that was probably one of the most Appealing things. I want to be significant. Don't we all want to be? Sure.
A buddy asked me a couple of years ago a a coach that I'd hired and he said, Hey, what do you what do you what do you really want? to be remembered by and I said, I don't care that I'm remembered any more I said Ten. that used to matter so much. And I could care less. I don't mean I could care less like I I don't care, but I don't have this desire to be put on some podium or put on a plaque on a wall or somebody bronze me up somewhere and put me somewhere because I did I don't care about that anymore.
I'm more interested in what can I do for the kingdom now and still take care of my family. That's true because one day we're all going to have to answer to God. And so, as we finish up the show, there is a lot that you help people with. You help people with their finances, you help people make a plan. But it's David Belk.
He's a certified financial planner and a kingdom advisor. And if people want to get in touch with you, you've got a website. Is that right? They can check out? Yeah, they can reach out to us at www.carolinafinancialadvisors.com.
Um or you can call us in the office, speak with me at 336. 5743132, and we help clients across the country.
So we have clients on end pretty much in most states at this point in time.
Well, David, I want to thank you for your time and let's all think about this. Whether you're an employer, as we talked about today, or as an employee, as we talked about last week, we can all do something. Serve, give, and love the Lord your God with all your heart. God bless you guys, and thanks for coming on again, David Delk. Great.
All right, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty's wit Just like, subscribe and hit that notification bell.
So you'll be alerted when we have our next video.
