Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Thanks to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called, Are We Litting in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. You know, surveys indicate that when it comes to money, people usually regret one, if not all, of these four areas of finances, saving, spending, investing, or giving to God's work. And today we're going to look at what the Bible says about each of those subjects. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, few issues weigh more heavily on our hearts than money problems. When prices go up, we feel the pressure.
When the economy falters, we fear for the future. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress offers practical advice for managing money in a way that provides for your needs and for God's work. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When God moved his hand over the earth and spoke the mountains and seas into existence, I'm convinced that he gave special attention to Alaska, or it seems like that. You really need to experience the majesty of Alaska for yourself. And this coming June 15th through 22nd, I'll be hosting the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.
What's keeping you from joining us? I guarantee you'll never regret taking this exclusive tour. Along the way, you'll be awestruck by God's creation.
More importantly, I believe you'll return home restored, refreshed, and renewed. Our special guests for the trip will be musicians Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien. We'll enjoy the comedy of Dennis Swanberg, and I'll open God's word to us multiple times along the way.
Check out the amazing itinerary and secure your spot on this luxurious cruise liner by going to ptv.org. Speaking of no regrets, we're in the midst of a powerful new teaching series. It's called Say Goodbye to Regret. Every single day, you and I find ourselves battling needless emotions that stall our spiritual progress. Regret is one of them. And as your radio pastor and Bible teacher, I want to help you gain victory over regret. Maybe you made some bad choices in your life and you've spent far too much time looking back over your shoulder. My book, Say Goodbye to Regret, will help you. This is the book I wrote when preparing my teaching series that you're listening to right now. And I'd be pleased to send you a copy when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.
I'll give more details after our study today, but right now, let's address one of the biggest stumbling blocks in life. I titled today's message, Say Goodbye to Financial Regrets. Even the most casual reader of the Bible can't help but notice how many times the Bible talks about the subject of money. 16 of Jesus' 38 parables deal with finances. You can't flip a page of the book of Proverbs without reading a word about money. Somebody did a study one time of Jesus' teachings and said of all of his words in the four gospels, Jesus spoke more about the subject of money than he did about heaven or hell combined.
Why is that? Why is money such a prominent topic in the Bible? I think one reason is money has a way of touching our lives every day in every way. You know, Paul said in 1 Timothy, if we have food and covering, just the basics, we ought to be content, but you can't even get the basics without money. Money determines where you live, where your kids go to school, the kind of healthcare you receive or you don't receive.
It affects you every day. But another reason the Bible talks about money is because our money determines the kind of heaven we experience one day in the future. No, you can't buy your way into heaven, but Jesus said our rewards will be based in part on how we handle our money. Remember Jesus said, if you can't be faithful in unrighteous money, who's going to entrust true riches to you one day?
No wonder the Bible talks about the subject of money. And that's why no series on saying goodbye to regrets would be complete unless we talk about how to handle and how to say goodbye to financial regrets. What are the regrets people have about how they handle their God-given money? Regret number one, I regret not saving more money. Why is it people don't prepare and save for what they know is coming?
Well, people have various excuses. Some people say, well, I'm depending on Social Security. Some people say, secondly, an excuse for not saving for the future, I don't have any extra income to save. The corollary of that is someday I'll have more income to save than I have right now.
Single people say, well, I can't save while I'm single, but when I'm married, I'll have more money. And the third excuse, and this is from Christians, you hear it all the time, well, I'm not worried about the future. I'm taking my cues from God. I'm trusting God to take care of my future needs.
Now, that sounds so spiritual and pious, and I agree 100%. God is completely capable of taking care of every need you and I have. But the question is, how does he take care of our future needs?
We have a good illustration of that in Genesis chapter 41 that tells us how God plans to take care of our future needs. Remember the story from our study of the life of Joseph? In Genesis 41, Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, had a troubling dream. In the middle of the night, he had this dream about these seven fat cows that came out of the Nile River, followed by seven skinny cows that came out of the Nile River. Pharaoh awakened in the middle of the night. He asked Ms. Pharaoh to get him some Alka-Seltzer, and he went back to sleep again. In his second dream, he saw seven plump ears of corn, followed by seven skinny ears of corn, and he was perplexed about what these visions meant.
And so, Joseph was in God's place at God's time, and he provided the interpretation from God. He said, Pharaoh, this dream means there are gonna be seven years in which there's an abundant harvest in Egypt. We're gonna have more grain than we know what to do with. But those seven years of abundance are gonna be followed by seven years of famine, when there's no grain for anybody. So what should we do?
Not panic, but let's prepare for what we know is coming. And in Genesis 41, this is what Joseph said to Pharaoh. Look at verse 34. Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land, and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance. In other words, set aside a fifth, 20%, of the harvest every year for seven years. Then let them gather all the food of the good years that are coming, and store up the grain for the food in the cities under Pharaoh's authority, and let them guard it.
Let's save 20% every year for seven years to prepare for the famine that is coming. That was God's way of providing. He didn't say to the Egyptians, oh, just enjoy your money while you have it, eat all the grain you want while you have, and then we'll figure out what to do seven years after that.
He said, no, this is how I am going to provide for you. Set aside some of your current abundance for the future. And God says the same thing to us.
That's God's plan to take care of our future. And that leads to a second regret people have about their finances, and that's related to spending. I regret wasting so much money. Have you ever come to the end of the month and wondered, where did all my money go this month? We kind of feel like Solomon, who said in Proverbs 23, verse 5, Wages sprout wings, and they fly to heaven like an eagle.
Money just flies out of your pocket, or out of your debit card, into the sky, and you never see it again. You know, if there is one lesson we ought to pass on to our children and our grandchildren, it's this verse from Proverbs 21, verse 20. You'd be wise to have your children memorize that verse. It says, there is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but the foolish person swallows it all up. A foolish person is one who spends everything he earns, and then some. But the wise person is one who learns how to spend less than he earns over a long period of time. That's how you become financially independent. Third, people say about their finances, I regret not making wiser investments. There are people who have learned this principle of spending less than they earn. They save regularly, but then they end up losing it all through a bad investment or an unwise investment. That's what Solomon was talking about in Ecclesiastes 5.
Look at it again. Solomon said, there is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through a bad investment, and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing left to support him.
As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. Here is a man who worked all of his life, saved faithfully, had a big pile of money, and he lost it all through a bad investment. Now Solomon is quick to say, we come into this world and we leave with nothing either. The fact is all of us are going to lose all of our money one day when we die.
When we die, we leave it all behind. But that's not the tragedy. The tragedy is to lose all your money before you die, to have a lot of life left and no money to support yourself or your family. He's talking about avoiding bad investing. What are the mistakes people make in investing that lead to this kind of situation?
Let me mention several. Mistake number one, postponing investing. Oh, I know I need to do what the pastor said, what Solomon said, but right now is not a good time to do it. I'm going to postpone investing. Money invested early, a little bit, is much more powerful than a lot of money invested later.
John D. Rockefeller called interest the eighth wonder of the world. My grandfather used to say to me, interest is your best friend when it's working for you and it's your worst enemy when it's working against you because either way it's working 24 hours a day. A lot of people make the mistake of postponing their investing. A second mistake they make is failing to diversify their assets. Mark Twain one time said, put all your eggs in one basket and then watch the basket.
God's word says the different thing. In Ecclesiastes 11, Solomon said, you need to diversify your savings. Don't put it all in one place. Have a diversity of investments.
And by the way, studies show the wisdom of that biblical wisdom. Ibbotson and Associates in Chicago did a 60 year study of the returns on various investments. For example, if you wanted to play it safe and put all your money in a money market fund, over 60 years you would earn an average of 3.5 to 4% a year. If you put it in bonds, all in bonds, a fixed rate investment, you would have about 8% a year you would earn. A blend of investments between stocks and bonds 60, 40 would yield almost a 10% return over those 60 years.
And those what seem like small percentage difference add up to big dollars over the long haul. Listen to Solomon's wisdom in Ecclesiastes 11, two. Divide your portion, divide your money to seven or to eight for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.
We can't predict the future. That's why we need to have a balanced investment. Mistake number three, waiting for the right time to invest. All right, I've got this money, I know I need to invest it, but pastor, the world is so unstable right now. There's an election coming up.
There's all these problems with China and Russia and all the global problems and so forth. Is now really a good time to invest? There's an old Chinese proverb that says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time to plant a tree is today.
Do what you're going to do today. And then finally, and I think this is what Solomon really had in mind in Ecclesiastes four is avoid get rich quick schemes. That's the poorest investment usually you will ever make in a get rich quick scheme. Some investment possibility that promises big returns. I think that's what he meant in Ecclesiastes 5.14 when Solomon talked about riches lost through a bad investment.
Now you don't lose money in the stock market unless you sell for less than you bought, but it doesn't go down to zero. But one way to lose all of your money is through a get rich quick scheme. You know, I have to confess, in my younger years I made some big mistakes by investing in get rich quick schemes. You know, all of my bad investments had three things in common. Number one, they dealt with something I knew very little about. Real estate, silver futures, oil wells. Secondly, they promised larger than normal returns. And thirdly, they resulted in my losing all of my capital.
Don't make that mistake. Solomon said in Proverbs 28, 19 to 20, he who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty and plenty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished. You know, somebody pointed out to me this week that many times senior adults are prone to these kind of schemes. They're trying to make up for lost time, maybe mistakes they made in the past, and they can be vulnerable to get rich quick schemes.
Remember the old adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A fourth mistake, a fourth regret people have in their finances is this. I regret not investing more in God's work. I regret not investing more in God's work.
I know what you're thinking. Pastor, do people really regret that, or are you just trying to shoehorn a tithing sermon into this one? Do people right now say, oh, I regret not investing more? The average Christian invests about one and a half percent of his income into God's work. But do most people regret that?
I admit, no, they don't. They don't have any regrets about that, yet. But these are regrets that are postponed for the next life, when they will have regrets of not being more faithful.
Where do I get that? The passage we looked at last time, 1 Corinthians 3, verses 13 to 15, that talk about the evaluation, the judgment every Christian will face of his life. Remember verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 3 says, each person's work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If each man's work, his life, which he has built on it, remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire. God is going to judge how we spend our time, our talents, and yes, our money.
That's what the judgment seat of Christ is about. Every one of us will experience the fire of God's judgment to determine whether our work is eternal, gold, silver, precious stones, or it's worthless, wood, hay, empty pursuits. And those whose lives, the way they spent their time, talents, and their money, those who have spent it on trivial pursuits, will see their lives go up in flames. Now, they'll be saved.
He makes it clear. They'll be saved, but by the skin of their teeth, as by fire. But those who invest in the eternal matters will receive a great reward. You know, we saw a tragic illustration of that in those Maui fires. They say 2,000 homes were destroyed in those fires. Can you imagine what those people experienced as they got out by the skin of their teeth and yes, they were joyful over escaping the flames, but they saw everything they had, their homes, their possessions burned up.
Now, hopefully, thankfully, they'll be able to rebuild and reacquire those possessions. But the Bible is saying there's another kind of fire that's coming. God's evaluation of our life. And if our lives are seen by God to be worthless, burned up, there's no chance, no second chance once we're in heaven.
Everything is fixed forever. And that's why it's so important that we minimize regrets in the future by investing in God's work now. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus told, to me, the most fascinating parable that he ever told. You remember the story about the business, the wealthy man who had a business manager who was in charge of his finances and one day he calls him in and said, you're doing a lousy job, so I'm gonna fire you. Well, the financial manager began to panic. He thought, I'm gonna lose my job. I don't have any marketable skills.
I don't like hard work and I don't wanna have to beg for money. What am I going to do? He panicked. But then he came up with a plan.
He was gonna use those last days of his employment to prepare for the future. And so as the financial manager, he had all of the accounts receivable that belonged to his master, all the bills owed to him. And so he started discounting them. If a guy owed his master $100, he discounted the bill to $80 or $50 or $20.
Why did he do that? His hope was once he joined the ranks of the unemployed, he was out there on the streets. These people he had done a favor to would become his friends and hire him and take care of him. Now you would say, that's blatantly dishonest.
Yes, but it is shrewd. And when the boss found out what his financial manager had done, instead of being angry, he praised him. He said, in effect, you know, if you had shown this much initiative while you were my employee, you'd still have a job. Hats off, congratulations for your wise thinking. And then notice what Jesus said, the application he made in Luke 16 nine. I say to you, make friends for yourselves by the means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal dwellings. Jesus said, your money is going to fail you one day, the day of your death, when you leave it all behind.
Proverbs 11 four says, riches do not profit a person in the day of judgment. You're gonna leave it all behind, but what you can do is send some of it on ahead of you by investing in those ministries that win people to Christ so that when you leave this earth and you leave everything behind, there'll be people who will welcome you into heaven, people you're responsible for leading to Christ. And that's why I'm so grateful for so many of you here in our church, so many on Pathway to Victory, who've made the wise decision to invest some, not all, but invest some of your money in that which counts for eternity. If you're looking for someplace to invest, invest in a ministry that's proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's proclaiming there are not many ways to heaven, there's one way to heaven, and it's through faith in Christ.
And every day from this place in downtown Dallas, the gospel message is going out to 195 countries, leading people to know Christ as Savior. That's wisdom on your part. Generosity, yes, but it's wisdom to invest in that which counts for eternity. To paraphrase the words of one philosopher, the best use of money is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
That's the best way I know to say goodbye to financial regrets. This is one of those days I wish we had more time to broadcast my entire message. Because of time constraints, we've omitted much of what I shared in my original presentation.
But in a moment, David will explain how you can receive both the audio CDs and the video DVDs in their unedited form. Again, the series is called Say Goodbye to Regret. And then as I mentioned in the opening of today's program, I've written a best-selling book by the same title. In my book, Say Goodbye to Regret, I address 10 regrets that cause Christians to get hung up.
Issues like saying goodbye to relationship regrets, saying goodbye to sexual regrets, and the one we're talking about today, saying goodbye to financial regrets. I'd be pleased to send you a copy right away when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Maybe today's message has prompted you to evaluate your financial investment in ministries that are truly making a difference. Did you realize that Pathway to Victory has a process for giving monthly automated gifts? We call these loyal friends our Pathway Partners. By participating as a Pathway Partner, you actually become the one who sends this daily Bible teaching out all around the world and to places you probably will never visit.
Your gift empowers you to become a truth teller through radio, television, and all the different ways we send Pathway to Victory out each day. David will give you all the contact information now, and I look forward to hearing from you today. Thank you so much for your continued generosity.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory or when you sign up to become a Pathway Partner, we'll say thanks by sending you the best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress, Say Goodbye to Regret. You can easily automate your monthly giving when you go online to ptv.org.
And when your investment is $75 or more, we'll also send you the complete unabridged collection of audio and video discs for the Say Goodbye to Regret teaching series. Now, this brand-new resource would be perfect to use in your small group Bible study or Sunday school class. Here's the phone number to call, 866-999-2965. Again, that's 866-999-2965, or go to ptv.org.
You could also write to us if you'd like. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back next time when Dr. Jeffress presents a message called Say Goodbye to Sexual Regrets. That's Thursday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click on the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast, from Pathway to Victory.
