A Conversation with Chris Bernard

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries.

Welcome to Truth For A New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. The Word of God has a lot to say about money management, how we handle financial resources.

The Bible has a lot to say really about stewardship in general and being responsible. Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to another edition of Truth For A New Generation. We've got a very exciting show today because I have got a guest that I want you to hear from who, in my opinion, is an expert not only in business and financial management, but really as a Christian.

Chris Bernard has a lot of insight just about the direction of our country. And we are faculty members at Cares Bible College. And you know, one of the blessings of coming out here to teach over the last six years, I meet so many interesting people. And Chris, you and I met the other day. We were each coming out of teaching and we were talking. And I just felt, Lyd, that you had some wisdom that our listeners would benefit from as we talk about money, stewardship, and how God wants every individual believer to be following his plans for handling the resources in their lives.

But welcome to Truth For A New Generation, Chris. Thank you for having me, Alex. I did enjoy meeting you. And I do feel like I have a few things to say. I've been here at Cares Bible College for over five and a half years before I moved on.

Well, you know, I have to smile. You and I were talking about a movie that we both appreciate about the founding of McDonald's. It really is an interesting movie called The Founder. Ray Kroc, a very driven guy. And I'm not saying anything about, I'm not endorsing his ethics or whatever. But I'm saying, why is it that the world sometimes has a drive and a wisdom and an industry that very often, unsafe people seem to know more about success and handling money than even God's people do sometimes? Well, in the case of Ray Kroc, he's implemented a lot of biblical principles. You know, think and grow rich is a worldly principle.

But in the Bible, it says, as you think in your heart, so are you. And so he was driven. He had a passion. He had a vision. That's another godly principle is vision. God gives us vision and we move towards the vision. But you know, back in the beginning, God said that he created us and he gave us the power to get wealth. Why?

To establish his kingdom. And a lot of times, Christians don't realize God has empowered them to create wealth, not for themselves, but for others. I completely agree. I really do. And by the way, if you're just tuning in, this is Truth For A New Generation. We're talking with Chris Bernard of Merit Advisors in Gainesville, Texas.

But we are friends. We teach up here at Karras Bible College, Andrew Wommack Ministries. I want to talk about this because, Chris, I think for a lot of people, and certainly a lot of believers, the idea that you actually can succeed and that God wants you to succeed and that God wants to prosper you and elevate you, I think that's revelatory for a lot of people.

It really is. They don't believe that because it seems like the church or the leaders in the church have taught that money is bad. And what does the Bible say? The Bible does say the love of money is bad, but money is needed for everything we do. The Bible College that you and I teach at takes millions and millions of dollars to just operate. We can't share the gospel.

What we're doing right now, recording. You spent money on this. Money is having to be paid to get it aired. So money is just a necessary tool. Look at the various people in the Bible who came into great wealth. Joseph. Joseph was put in charge of an entire nation and became very wealthy.

Why? To preserve God's people. So it's a godly thing to create wealth, but it's not a godly thing to love wealth beyond loving God. And I'm just going to say this.

You correct me if I'm wrong. For every born-again believer, I just believe every Christian needs to be a tither. And it's got to start, you know, the Bible says, honor the Lord with thy substance. And isn't, well tithing, you know, giving 10% of your income and then offering above that. That's not a financial issue.

That's a hard issue, isn't it? It's absolutely a hard issue because tithing is not like, God, here I'm paying you back. Tithing is, God, I recognize you are my total source.

If I can't make it on 90%, I can't make it on 150%. And so here is what you have given me. I'm giving it back to you and so that you can take it and multiply it back to me as your word promises me. And beginning to tie then, you know, Chris, I just marvel at how the Lord has brought me along.

I give God the praise. But when I got saved at age 21, I mean, I was making $800 a month. I thought I was a Rockefeller. I didn't know it was legal to make that much money.

$9600 a year I did. And I will tell you the idea of tithing, I had to really think about it. And I took these baby steps, you know, and the Lord was so patient with me. But I'm telling you, folks, and I want your response to this. I heard this saying, if you give to God with a spoon, he'll give back to you with a shovel. Am I right?

You are exactly right. The one event in my life that really shows me that is I was getting ready to have my fifth child. I was in a lawsuit over a failed business. And I went to church and I'm sitting there. I'm going, God, what do I do? I have these five kids to feed.

I don't have the money. I owe all of this. And he said, give that lady $1000. And I jumped and I kind of looked around and said, God, who are you talking to?

And I leaned over to my wife and she said, do it. I gave the lady the $1000 that I did not have. And two stories on that.

One was the lady. She had been coming daily saying, God, you know, I have nothing and here's my last $10. And God said, I'm going to meet your need. And she told me later, she got two checks that day, one for gas and mine, and mine met her need and more. But then my $1000, she told me later, she prayed, God, give him 100 fold. Almost a year to the day from that, I sold some property to a man. And I was not selling real estate at the time. I was only appraising real estate. I sold a property to a man and my commission check was $98,900, almost 100 fold. I said, you know, God, this isn't quite a hundred fold. He said, but you get to manage the property. And from that time until I let that property go, I ended up earning over a half a million dollars on just that management.

So you got about five, six, 700 fold. We've got to take a brief break. Folks, Truth For New Generation is going to come back. You don't want to miss this. Chris Bernard is going to give us some wisdom about navigating these times financially and doing it with God's favor and blessings. Stay tuned.

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Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and local Christian bookstores. Welcome back to Truth For A New Generation. Alex McFarland here. We're talking with Chris Bernard of Merit Advisors, talking about money and stewardship and how if we follow God's principles, I am one thousand percent convinced that you can navigate the unstable economic waters that likely lie before us.

But Chris, before we go any further, just introduce yourself. Tell the listeners what you do and any advice you might care to give about their finances at this time. Well, I'm a lifelong real estate person. My family started our real estate company the year I was born. And I have a brother, two brothers, my mom, nephew, all in the real estate business. And so I grew up in real estate. I've been an appraiser at the top level. And then I came out here to Bible college and, following what God told me to do, and ended up becoming an instructor and then ran the business school here. And now I'm back in Texas. I initially went back to develop senior housing.

That had some challenges, which we all get into. And so I ended up at Merit Advisors as a real estate appraiser. And so right now, that's what I'm doing. But I do a lot of teaching and a lot of presenting at things like Wealth Builders with Billy Upperheart. And we talk about wealth and wealth building.

And what you said is exactly right. If they apply God's principles, if you really look at all the principles of every successful business, successful person, and you dig back into what they're really applying, they're really applying godly principles. You know, many listeners know our story. We were in the egg business for 68 years.

And I jokingly tell people, if you need to lose a lot of money, and you need to lose it fast, go into the chicken business because you can lose copious amounts of money. This was back in the 70s and 80s. But no, had a very godly mom and dad. And they were devout followers of the Lord. And they did believe in tithing and more. But at the same time, my mom and dad, rest their soul, they had a number of financial reversals in farming.

And they, I love them, but they were convinced that there was no way out and that they were doomed really to poverty. So here's my question, Chris. What do you say to the person who maybe has struggled for years? And they say, you know, I know I'm a Christian, but you know, really struggling is just my lot in life. Has God woven into reality principles by which anybody with Jesus and his word can succeed?

Absolutely. And that's the principle of seed, time, and harvest. God has always, he's always about multiplication. And you take one seed, I live on a little ranch now, and we've done a little bit of gardening, and we grew some tomatoes over the summer. One little seed, we ate all summer, tomatoes out of that one seed.

That's what God says when he says, plant a seed and you will reap a harvest. Give him something to multiply. And I was reading one of the parables recently, and you know, I guess there's the Sermon on the Mount, and he's getting ready to feed everybody, the feeding of the 5,000. And he's going like, what do we have?

And I saw him not in the, you know, okay, what do we got? But looking around and going, what do we have that I can multiply? Because there's got to be something physical that I can multiply. That's what God's asking for, something physical that you're giving that he can multiply. If you give him nothing, he can't multiply. You know, zero times zero is always zero. You've got to give him something to multiply. And that's the principle.

What little you have, he can multiply into much. And you know what, and by the way, folks, if you're just tuning in, this is Truth for New Generation. Alex here.

I'm with Chris Bernard. We're talking about looking at life and finance is God's way. Chris, that goes not only with money, but even things like with relationships. The Bible says if a man would have friends, he must show himself friendly. So my friend, here's one of the principles of life and this will revolutionize your world. And here we are at Christmas.

It's a wonderful time to talk about this. But what you need, you think, well, I'm lonely. I wish I had a friend. I'm struggling. I wish I had money. My spiritual life is dead or in the doldrums. Here's the thing. Give away that thing that you need and you'll get it back. If you want friends, begin to be kind to people.

If you want to be loved, then show love. Chris, am I right? In God's reality, give away that thing that you need and you'll get it back many times over.

Darrell Bock That's exactly right. Because, again, God needs something to multiply. And he said whatever you sow, that's what you're going to reap. So like my wife and I, we planted a nine by ten square area of plants. And that's what we reaped back is in that area. Whatever that area could produce, we reaped back. Well, it wasn't enough to feed the whole town, but it was enough to feed us and we could give away a little. But if God asked me to feed the whole town, I'm going to have to sow more seed in a bigger area. It's going to be a little harder work for me. But guess what?

I still get to eat as much as I want of the tomatoes and I'm going to have plenty left for the rest of the town. And that's the way God works. He needs something to multiply here in the earth. He does not have money in heaven to drop down to you.

So he needs you to give him something to work with to multiply that you can then turn into whatever it is you need. But again, like you said, if you do need friendship, be a friend. How many times do you walk past a person with a scowl on their face that you're not going to talk to them because they don't look friendly? Well, are you that person with the scowl on your face that doesn't look friendly? Then smile.

Give away a little smile and you'll get some smiles back. I want to encourage everybody listening to read Proverbs 6 and Proverbs 23. It's in the Old Testament. Proverbs 6, Proverbs 23. Chris, there's some famous lines in there.

I'll queue this up and we'll come back after the break. You and I both have to go teach a class. But it says, look at the ant. I love how the old King James renders it. Go to the ant, thou Lord.

He doesn't have a captain but they go forth like soldiers in an army. And then there's this warning. It says a little sleep, a little folding of the hands and poverty will come on you like a thief. Proverbs has a lot to say about being proactive and industrious and wisdom and increase, doesn't it?

Absolutely. Again, if you look at all the principles of every successful person, successful business, they've probably drawn a lot of their principles out of the Word of God and they don't realize it. And most of it, not most of it, but a lot of it comes out of Proverbs. Very great place to go for wisdom on what to do. Stay tuned. We're back after this brief break. More with Chris Bernard of Merit Advisors coming to you from the campus of Karras Bible College.

Merry Christmas. We're going to be right back after this. One of them answers questions from skeptics. It's cleverly titled Ten Answers for Skeptics. Today's skeptics are looking for authenticity, integrity and straightforward truth. And in the book, Alex McFarland identifies the 10 most common types of skepticism that plague doubters minds and offers believers proven strategies for connecting intellectually and spiritually with those who are skeptical about the claims of Christianity. Learn how to answer intimidating questions, identify the root issue behind those questions and dismantle the spiritual bombshells dropped by atheists. Plus find encouragement to face hostility by persevering in love. The ultimate apologetic Christians can offer as a witness to our loving God.

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Our supporters and people praying for us and people donating. In the last year, just in 2021, we did our big conference in Myrtle Beach. We had people from fourteen states.

We had twenty people come to Christ on the first night. And I've been in Illinois and I've been in Michigan. I've been in Texas twice.

I've been about four times to Mississippi, once to the West Coast. And I want to say thank you. Your prayers and support have enabled us to lead about five thousand people to Christ this year. We've shipped out many thousands of copies of books, and we have staff that helps me with email, because so many people have Bible questions. So people are spiritually hungry and you, my friends, you are helping us tell them about Jesus, salvation, and how to thrive as a Christian.

I do want to remind you of a couple of things coming up. July eight through ten, I'm going to be at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in western North Carolina. We're going to be doing First Peter, the book of First Peter. Then next year we'll do Second Peter. But this would be a wonderful gift to give somebody.

I want to encourage you to go to the website, thecove.org, and we will learn from First Peter how to defend the Christian faith. The other thing I want to say is our youth camp is coming up July seventeen through twenty-second, twenty-twenty-two. Now this is for middle school, high schoolers.

They're going to love it. The theme for our twenty-twenty-two camp is called Unashamed, Building Your Biblical Worldview. We need to help young people love God and country.

This could make the difference between the entire future of a young person. So the website for our youth camp, our biblical worldview camp, is ncrefuge.org, as in North Carolina, Refuge. We're about an hour east of Raleigh, North Carolina. People come from all over the country, ncrefuge.org, and I'd love to see your youth group or your teens at our camp, and I'll be there, staff from American Family Radio. We're going to teach them how to walk with Jesus and defend the faith.

Well, I'm so honored to be speaking with Chris Bernard. I don't want to take any more time because we've only got a few more minutes, but Chris, as I was prepping for the interview and I was reading, I read that inflation might reach thirty-nine percent. I don't know all the numbers, but there are some rather dire prognostications about the future of the U.S. economy, the debt ceiling being raised over and over and over, trillions of dollars of indebtedness. What's your take the next one, two, three years of our national economy?

What do you think is going to happen? This is going to push new leadership. Those of us who have been in the background and not been politically active because we think, oh, separation of church and state, we are finding out that when we are not active, then we've abdicated our will and what God has told us to do to the world, and we're seeing the effect of that.

Now, what that also does is you can go right back to God and say, God, in this time, in this season, it's dark out there. There's a lot of people losing a lot of money, and we can't just do business as usual like we used to do and just kind of bump along. But God will have very specific instructions for you on how to prosper during this time. You're ministering the last two years. Should not be prospering.

Absolutely should not. But it is, because that's what God is doing, and you're listening to what God's telling you to do, and you're following His plan. What is His plan? I do a lot of teaching with Wealth Builders, with Billy Epperhart, who's the CEO of this ministry of Keres Bible College, but he has Wealth Builders. I encourage you to look at WealthBuilders.org, and they speak to the economy.

They speak to what's going on, investing in real estate and all of that kind of thing. And I just attended his real estate conference, and one of the things he talked about is, yes, it is dire. But when things are dire, that means there's opportunity.

There is opportunity, and there's going to become more. As inflation rises, people are going to unfortunately lose their homes. They're going to lose jobs.

They're going to lose businesses. On the other side, somebody needs to come in and capture those for the future. And that is a wealth transfer, and you can be on God's side of the wealth transfer, or you can be on the world's side of the wealth transfer. And it's up to you, but you've got to hear what God's telling you to do. And I can't tell you exactly what to do, because God's got you positioned somewhere with a certain realm of influence that he's needing you to step up and use and step into. Chris You know, we've got to have a conversation again.

I need to have you back on. But folks, I want to tell you something. Psalm 1 talks about the righteous man is like a tree planted by the rivers of water and produces fruit in due season and blossoms, even in the time of drought. And let me say this as we talk about the rocky road that I personally think because in our nation's problems, Chris, they're not just political or economic, they're spiritual. Our nation needs to turn to Christ. But you don't have to be paranoid. Now, alert, informed, but not frightened and paranoid. Christians can walk into a storm with confidence, can't they?

Darrell Absolutely. The word says that, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That's not a good place to be. But what does he say? You're going to walk through it. Your light's going to lead me through it. And you know what?

Somebody just told me this the other day. Your light, somebody is in that valley of the shadow of death looking for some light. So as you walk through that shadow of death, that valley, your light is going to draw others that have been looking for the light.

And you're going to lead them out of that shadow of death, that valley. Chris Folks, as we enter towards Christmas, you know, we talk about giving and receiving. And the Bible says God gave the greatest gift ever. He gave his son, Jesus. I want you to know Jesus loves you.

Jesus wants to be your Lord, your master, the friend that sits closer than a brother. If you've not done it, give your heart to Jesus. Christ is as close by as a prayer. And right now, if you call on the name of Jesus, he will forgive you. He will restore you. The Lord Jesus will save your soul and bless your life. And if you need help in understanding what it means to come to Christ, on the website, alexmcfarland.com, there's a little tab.

What does God say about my relationship with him? Go there. And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us. The final thing I want to say, we appreciate you throughout this year.

And listen, the next two years, we're in it to win it. We're boldly going forth with the gospel. Thank you for your prayers and support. I wish you God's blessing in all things.

And I look forward to the next time we visit on Truth For A New Generation. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, PO Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's PO Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-YesGod1.

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