Participants:
Series Code: ASIC
Program Code: ASIC000007A
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00:21 How beautiful
00:25 The hands that served 00:29 The wine and the bread 00:32 And the sons of the earth 00:36 How beautiful 00:40 The feet that walked 00:43 The long dusty roads 00:47 And the hill to the cross 00:51 How beautiful 00:58 How beautiful 01:05 How beautiful 01:10 Is the body of Christ 01:19 How beautiful 01:23 The heart that bled 01:27 That took all my sin 01:30 And bore it instead 01:34 How beautiful 01:38 The tender eyes 01:42 That chose to forgive 01:45 And never despise 01:48 How beautiful 01:55 How beautiful 02:03 How beautiful 02:08 Is the body of Christ 02:12 And as He laid down His life 02:19 We offer this sacrifice 02:26 That we will live just as He died 02:33 Willing to pay the price 02:40 Willing to pay the price 02:49 How beautiful 02:53 The radiant Bride 02:57 Who waits for her Groom 03:00 With His light in her eyes 03:03 How beautiful 03:07 When humble hearts give 03:11 The fruit of pure life 03:14 So that others may live 03:18 How beautiful 03:25 How beautiful 03:32 How beautiful 03:37 Is the body 03:40 Of Christ 03:46 How beautiful 03:50 The feet that bring 03:54 The sound of good news 03:57 And the love of the King 04:01 How beautiful 04:05 The hands that serve 04:09 The wine and the bread 04:12 And the sons of the earth 04:16 How beautiful 04:24 How beautiful 04:32 How beautiful 04:40 Is the body 04:44 Of Christ 05:03 Amen! 05:10 Good morning, ASI. 05:13 So happy to be here today. 05:15 How many of you remember 05:16 the first ASI Convention you attended? 05:20 I see some hands. 05:22 It was a memorable time. 05:23 I'm sure mine was way back in 1979. 05:28 I'd love to say that I was only 10 years old, 05:30 but that just wasn't the case. 05:33 We were in Colorado Springs meeting in a hotel ballroom. 05:36 And we were excited went on Sabbath, 05:39 we almost hit 400 people. 05:43 We've seen the organization grow year after year. 05:48 I remember being invited by Dr. Raymond Moore, 05:51 and his sweet wife Dorothy. 05:53 And as soon as we got there, 05:55 we were befriended by Henry and Robin Martin 05:59 who became lifelong friends from that very moment. 06:02 I know all of you should feel like ambassadors to ASI. 06:08 This morning I'd like you to welcome 06:09 our guest speaker Julian Archer, 06:13 coming all the way from Queensland, Australia 06:15 to join us today. 06:19 How many of you would come that far 06:22 to address an audience like this? 06:26 Well, this retired businessman 06:28 by the way from a successful career 06:32 was in his 30s 06:34 when he decided to start 06:37 a nonprofit Faith vs. Finance. 06:42 Today he's going to ask the question, 06:44 "Is it possible to be financially secure 06:48 without becoming spiritually bankrupt?" 06:51 I think his personal testimony will address that this morning. 06:57 Immediately following this presentation, 06:58 he'll be doing a seminar in room 370B. 07:03 And there he'll be talking about the Christian atheist 07:06 believing in God, but trusting in money. 07:11 I feel that ASI is the perfect audience 07:15 for Julian to be speaking to this morning. 07:17 We're filled with business people 07:21 that make their living in a variety of ways. 07:24 But you all have one thing in common, 07:27 you're using the blessings that God has given you 07:31 to further His work by sharing Christ 07:34 in your sphere of influence. 07:37 I mean, you're going to hear more from Julian. 07:39 But in my ASI heart, I know that he too will be blessed 07:45 by the warm welcome that ASI gives him. 07:52 Thank you, Sharon. 07:56 Christen, we have a problem. 07:59 I always wanted to say that. 08:03 But thank God that we also have a solution. 08:06 Amen. 08:07 We also have a solution. 08:09 Friends, we live in a time in earth's history 08:11 when it's not business as usual. 08:14 It's not business as usual. 08:16 And I want to this morning to open up a conversation. 08:21 Some say that it's a long overdue conversation. 08:25 It's not between me and you, 08:26 it's between your heart and God's heart. 08:31 And as Sharon has just shared it's around the question now, 08:34 "Is it possible to be financially secure 08:39 without becoming spiritually bankrupt?" 08:44 I want to start with my testimony. 08:49 My testimony is like any of yours 08:52 or like many of yours 08:54 begins not just with myself 08:57 but also with my family, my extended family. 09:02 There's a photograph of my family in 1971. 09:05 I'm the little guy, the smallest one. 09:08 My sister Kathie, beside me and my Mum and Dad, 09:11 Delphine and Ray Archer 1971. 09:16 Let's jump in ahead of the story. 09:18 Let's go back to when my dad back there on the ride. 09:23 I was 14 years old. 09:26 From birth through to 14 years of age, 09:28 my father had to attend church at least eight times a week. 09:33 In a busy week it was 11 times a week. 09:35 They weren't Seventh-day Adventist. 09:37 But he had to go to church between 8 and 11 times a week. 09:40 One of his jobs as a child 09:41 once he reached his teenaged years 09:43 was to be the home brew kid, that meant 09:46 that he was the member of the extended family 09:49 who had to make all of the beer for his own parents, 09:53 for the uncles and aunts, and everybody else. 09:55 And of course being the specialist, 09:57 brew maker in the family, he drank more than he should. 10:02 And so he had some challenges. 10:07 He hated church. 10:09 He hated God. 10:10 And he wanted to get away from his family. 10:14 He tried to not attend church. 10:16 He played with his parents. 10:18 He tried to disappear 10:20 when it was time to go to church 10:22 every day of the week. 10:24 But he kept getting dragged into church. 10:27 And so he thought the only solution. 10:30 There's only one solution to me to not have to come to church 10:33 next week or tomorrow 10:36 is if the church doesn't exist. 10:39 And he became what we would call a dynamite church planter. 10:43 He went to his uncle's farm and he got some gelignite, 10:47 it's like dynamite, and some fuses. 10:50 And at 14 years of age having sat there in church, 10:54 and looked at the structure of the building so many times, 10:56 he knew exactly where to place the gelignite and the fuses. 11:01 So that he could run in one door, 11:02 run around, light every fuse, 11:05 and then run out the back door before that church was planted. 11:10 He went to school that day. 11:11 He took the gelignite home. 11:13 He hid it at home. 11:14 He went to school and he told one of his friends, 11:16 "Tonight, I'm going to blow up my church." 11:19 Well, if anybody else had said that 11:22 other than Ray Archer, 11:23 the friend would have just gone, 11:24 "Oh yeah, whatever good one." 11:27 But because it was Ray Archer, 11:28 a young guy who had got the cuts on average every day 11:33 from grades 8 through to grade 10. 11:37 The friend knew that my dad was serious. 11:39 And so he told the principal, 11:40 and the principal told the police, 11:42 and the police came and took my dad away. 11:43 They said, "Son, what's the problem?" 11:45 And he explained to them 11:46 but he had to go to church between 8 and 11 times a week. 11:50 And they said, "Okay. 11:51 Where is the gelignite?" 11:53 And so they were probably not expecting that it was real 11:56 but dad took them home and gave them the gelignite. 12:01 And they then went and took his parents away, 12:05 they didn't take them far, 12:06 but they showed them the gelignite. 12:08 And they said, "Do you realize that your son Raymond 12:10 was going to blow up the church tonight?" 12:13 And they had no idea. 12:16 And the police said, "Look, you should probably back off 12:18 on the religion thing a bit." 12:20 Which they did but Dad already had enough 12:21 and soon after he left home. 12:24 Well, he went to live with his older brother 12:26 and they got into all sorts of mischief. 12:28 In fact it wasn't long before his older brother was in jail 12:31 for counterfeiting bank notes. 12:33 He didn't have a license 12:35 like your government to just print them. 12:36 And so he had to counterfeit them 12:39 on his own sort of printing system. 12:41 And so, Dad got into more troubles 12:45 drinking too much again, getting into trouble. 12:49 Ended up sort of living on and off the streets, 12:51 met my mother. 12:53 In the process was able to do a trade 12:56 in refrigeration mechanics. 12:58 And met Mum, had my sister and myself 13:01 as two young babies in the house. 13:03 The refrigeration mechanics business 13:07 while he was doing that well, 13:08 he started a small business on his 21st birthday. 13:10 He said, "On my 21st birthday, I want to be self employed." 13:14 And so he did that, right on his 21st birthday. 13:16 And he had a welder. 13:18 And a friend of his said, 13:19 "Can you weld for me a bench press machine?" 13:22 Now that's a piece of gymnasium equipment 13:24 for pushing the weights off your chest. 13:26 And so he welded it up for his friend. 13:27 And he sold it to his friend, and he made a small profit. 13:30 And he thought, "Hey, that's cool." 13:32 And so he made another one and he sold it. 13:33 And another and he sold it. 13:35 And he started another business 13:36 called Archer Body Building Equipment. 13:38 And this was in the late 1960s when the... 13:43 What would you call, 13:44 the pumping iron trend was beginning, 13:46 bodybuilding was happening 13:47 in California, in Australia, and in different places. 13:50 And so, Dad then decided, with, Mum, they said, 13:53 "Hey, we're making this equipment. 13:55 And so we can get it cheap, 13:56 why don't we open a gymnasium, a bodybuilding center." 13:58 And so they did. 13:59 And before you know it, they had 1000 members. 14:01 And so they opened another one and got another 1000 members. 14:04 And they thought, "Hey, we've got all these people 14:05 coming in for the gym, 14:07 why don't we open a health food store? 14:09 And then we can sell them all the protein drinks 14:10 and everything else that they need 14:12 to keep healthy." 14:15 By the age of 24, Mum and Dad had started, 14:20 and were running themselves five businesses. 14:24 They were what we would now call serial entrepreneurs. 14:27 They would see an opportunity and they would jump at it. 14:30 They were very successful. 14:33 But their marriage was absolutely hell. 14:36 Their marriage was completely shot. 14:38 God was not in the system. 14:40 They were working 18 hours a day. 14:43 My sister Kathie and I were being babysit quite a lot 14:46 because Mum and Dad were out a lot. 14:48 And they had to make a decision in 1974 14:52 between business and marriage. 14:55 And I thank God that they chose marriage. 14:58 We moved out to the what we call the bush, 15:00 you might call it the forest, or the wilds, 15:03 or I don't know some place hidden away out in the state 15:07 somewhere up in the mountains. 15:09 And we bought a little block of land in 1974. 15:12 It was only 33 acres. 15:13 On one side was a 1500 acre cattle property 15:16 with rolling hills and lots of forest, 15:18 and on the other side was a 2,000 acre cattle property. 15:22 And we lived there between those two. 15:23 And we tried to be self-sufficient. 15:26 Mum and Dad had sold all of the businesses 15:28 except the health food store. 15:30 We tried to grow our own food. 15:32 There was no electricity, there was no running water. 15:34 We were living in a shed 15:35 that was 8 foot wide and 14 feet long 15:38 out in the middle of nowhere. 15:41 We became hippies. 15:43 We're a little bit later, it was the 70s I know, 15:44 but that should've been done in the '60s 15:46 but we were busy in the '60s. 15:48 And so we became hippies with the long hair 15:51 and the long beard for Dad, and barefoot, 15:55 and we didn't wear a lot of clothes 15:57 because we didn't have washing machine. 15:59 And we didn't have neighbors. 16:00 And of course the only reason we wear clothes 16:01 is because we have neighbors. 16:03 And so we had the freedom. 16:06 And that's how I grew up 16:08 in a very carefree sort of lifestyle. 16:14 In fact on that I still remember 16:17 one day walking down to the dam where we used to bathe, 16:22 and of course no clothes, no towels. 16:24 Well, you don't need to towel, 16:25 you walk down to the dam to the pond, 16:27 you wash yourself off 16:28 and you walk back up to your little shed, 16:30 and by the time you get back to the shed you're drying, 16:31 you don't have to wash towels or anything. 16:33 So it was all good. 16:34 And I still remember walking down there. 16:36 And five years old and we met the neighbor on his horse 16:41 checking his cattle. 16:43 And I still remember in my little five year old mind 16:45 standing there looking up at the neighbor, 16:48 Mum and Dad, talking to him 16:50 about the weather, or his cattle, 16:51 or something and thinking 16:52 "Julian, there's something wrong with this picture." 16:55 It reminds me of a little girl and her dad 16:57 who were riding on their bicycle 16:59 somewhere I don't know I'm not sure where it was. 17:01 And Dad was out trying to show 17:02 his little girl a lot of nature. 17:04 And they're riding along there on their bikes. 17:06 And the father saw a sign that said, "Naturalist Camp". 17:08 And he thought, "Cool, we got to ride down there. 17:10 We'll see some more nature. 17:11 There's obviously a scenic spot down there." 17:14 And so as they're riding down the road, 17:15 coming the other way 17:17 three or four adults on their bicycles, 17:18 and they've got absolutely no clothes on. 17:21 It was a naturalist camp 17:22 or I thought it was a nudist camp. 17:25 And as the people go past going the other way, and they go on, 17:28 the Dad stops his bike and stops the little girl 17:30 and says, "Emily, Emily, 17:32 did you notice anything wrong with those people?" 17:34 And she said, "Yes, Dad, 17:35 they weren't wearing their helmets." 17:38 And that's a little bit like I felt as a five year old 17:40 standing there looking at this guy 17:42 going there's something wrong here 17:43 but I don't know what it is. 17:46 And so life went on. 17:48 And we had a health food store in Ipswich 17:53 that Mum and Dad used to go to one at the time 17:56 to work in the health food store. 17:58 And every day in that health food store a man would come in, 18:01 His name was Harry Walker. 18:03 Now Harry was an engineer in the railways. 18:05 And Harry would ask Mum and Dad, how are the kids? 18:09 How's the house building going 18:10 because by this time Dad was building a house. 18:13 In fact he was building a house out of sandstone and logs. 18:16 It took him seven years. 18:17 He cut a lot of the stone out of the ground himself. 18:20 And Harry would build this relationship. 18:23 Now looking back on what Harry was doing, 18:25 today we would call it friendship evangelism. 18:28 We had no idea what Harry was doing. 18:30 We just thought he was buying a loaf of bread every day. 18:31 And we couldn't work out 18:32 what he was doing with the bread 18:34 because Harry didn't have any kids. 18:35 It was just him and his wife Doth at home. 18:37 But Harry was building relationship 18:38 through those loaves of bread. 18:41 And one day Harry came into the shop 18:43 and he said to my Dad Ray, 18:45 he said, "Ray, there's a guy coming to town. 18:47 And he's going to tell us about 18:49 how the Egyptians built the pyramids out of stone. 18:50 Would you like to come along 18:52 because I know you're building a house out of stone." 18:54 And Dad went, "That sounds cool. 18:56 Harry, I'm going to come." 18:57 And so we piled into our old pickup. 19:00 And we drove down to town there every night 19:02 for this program to try and learn 19:04 about how the Egyptians 19:05 built the pyramids out of stone. 19:07 But we never actually worked out how to do that. 19:09 But we learned some wonderful people. 19:10 And then we went back to the bush. 19:12 Mum and Dad kept going to the health food store. 19:14 And Harry kept buying his loaf of bread every day. 19:17 One day Harry came in and eat, my mother was in the store. 19:20 And he said, "Delphine, there's somebody coming to town. 19:22 And they're going to be talking about vegetarian cooking. 19:26 Would you like to come along to learn how to do it?" 19:29 Well, Mum thought "Yeah, I suppose. 19:32 We're certainly not vegetarians. 19:33 But I'll talk to Ray." 19:35 So she went home and explained it to Dad. 19:36 And Dad said, "Vegetarians. 19:40 Well, you know, I'm a bodybuilder. 19:42 No, we have no interest in that." 19:44 And Mum said, "But, Ray, a lot of our customers 19:47 are vegetarians and maybe we could sell more stuff 19:50 if we knew how to cook vegetarian food." 19:53 Saw me up. 19:54 Dad just want to know where do we go. 19:57 So we all piled in the pickup again, 19:59 and we drove down there to the town of Ipswich, 20:01 and we learned how to cook vegetarian food. 20:03 And we went back to the bush. 20:05 And Harry kept coming 20:06 and buying a loaf of bread everyday. 20:08 Praise God for people like Harry. 20:11 One day Harry came in and he said to Dad, 20:12 he said, "Ray, would you like to go to church?" 20:15 Well, Harry didn't know all of Dad's background 20:17 and that he'd already been to church enough, 20:19 most of us will go in our entire lifetime. 20:23 And Dad would normally say, "Not a chance. 20:26 You know I'm..." 20:28 But Harry was his friend. 20:31 And he thought I've got to get a better excuse 20:32 and so he said, "That's it, that's it." 20:35 Harry, what day do you go to church? 20:38 'Cause he knew Harry would go to church on Sunday. 20:40 And Sunday was the only day that we never drove 20:42 from out in the country all the way into the city. 20:44 And so he's safe there, 20:46 and Harry said Saturday mornings. 20:48 And Dad went "Ah". 20:51 Because Saturday mornings were the only morning 20:53 that we all went to town 20:54 because Saturday morning 20:55 was when we went to buy our groceries. 20:57 And so sure enough the next Saturday morning 20:58 there we are all down in town buying all of our groceries 21:01 and driving up to the Ipswich Seventh-day Adventist Church. 21:05 We parked outside. 21:06 And we had a problem you see, 21:07 we, our old pickup was really old 21:09 and the doors didn't lock. 21:11 And we had a week's worth of groceries 21:12 in the back of a pickup. 21:13 And we thought "Well, what are we going to do 21:15 with the groceries." 21:16 And we thought "That's it, we'll take them into church." 21:18 So we picked up all their groceries 21:19 and the only cartons that we had to pack groceries 21:21 into would be cartons, 4 XB in Australia we spell "B". 21:26 Well, where I come from it's spelt XXXX 21:28 because we can't spell "B". 21:30 And so we had these 4 XB cartons. 21:32 And we walked into church. 21:33 Mum, Dad, Kathie, and myself carrying these cartons. 21:36 We put them under the backseats. 21:38 And then we went around 21:39 and we sat on those seats to look after them 21:41 because we weren't sure about some of the people. 21:44 But you know the interesting thing was 21:46 that the same people, and this was a curious thing, 21:48 the same people who had an interest in Egypt 21:51 also had an interest in vegetarian cooking 21:53 'cause we saw them at the same two programs. 21:55 And when we turned up at church those same people were there. 21:58 In a city the size of Ipswich. 22:00 This is a curious thing. 22:02 So we sat there. 22:04 Dad's long beard, my long hair, 22:07 Mum and Kath wearing hippie clothes, 22:10 bare feet, smelling different. 22:12 Dad was still smoking a bit, drinking too much. 22:15 And I give you all those details 22:18 because Ipswich Seventh-day Adventist Church 22:21 never said anything to us about any of it. 22:23 They just loved us. 22:25 They loved us into Christ. 22:26 And of course when we had questions 22:28 about some of those things 22:29 we had Harry, our friend Harry. 22:31 Hey, Harry, why don't people do this? 22:33 Why don't they eat this? Why don't they drink this way? 22:35 What? What? 22:36 And Harry would lovingly share us those answers. 22:40 Well, we went back into business. 22:42 And I won't go into a lot of the details about business 22:44 because I know you guys are business people 22:46 and you've experienced that all, 22:47 the stresses and challenges, 22:49 obviously you've experienced the miracles of God leading. 22:53 We started a small fruit and nut tree nursery. 22:55 God led us through Mum and Dad's faith, 22:58 they learned about Jesus through Egypt. 23:01 And so Dad just wants to tell everybody about Egypt. 23:03 And so he jumped on a plane, and flew over to Egypt, 23:05 and took photos of the pyramids, and came back, 23:07 and rented the local hall, and put an ad in the paper 23:09 and said, "Come along and learn about Egypt." 23:11 And people came and people were baptized. 23:14 And he moved to the next town. 23:15 And we ran the programs there and people were baptized. 23:17 And the next town, and the next town. 23:19 We finally ran out of towns. 23:21 And it was all self-supporting 23:22 through our little fruit and nut tree 23:23 nursery at the time. 23:25 And God led us to keep one of those we had 214 varieties 23:30 of fruit and nut trees in this little business. 23:32 And God led us to keep one of those trees, 23:34 it was the olive tree. 23:36 And we went out on the road doing evangelism, 23:38 we kept the olive trees. 23:40 And the olive trees then funded our evangelism 23:44 from that point onwards. 23:46 In fact God lead us, lead Mum and Dad 23:49 when they're on their knees going through that catalogue, 23:51 trying to work out which one of the 214 plants to keep. 23:54 He led them to the olive trees. 23:57 And the olive tree business within four years of starting 24:01 it became the largest olive tree nursery in the world. 24:04 Dad then led... 24:05 Sorry, God then led Dad and Mum, 24:07 primarily Dad into another business 24:09 called olive leaf extract 24:10 which is a herbal medicine business, 24:13 and we had 500,000 olive trees. 24:16 There may be some pictures here of an olive tree. 24:23 I'll come up when they're ready. 24:25 And in 2007, at the beginning of the global financial crisis. 24:34 I sort it down here. 24:35 In 2007, in the global financial crisis 24:39 we sold that business, 24:42 the last of 12 businesses for Mum and Dad. 24:44 And again went into full time ministries. 24:49 We have a family foundation and they got involved in that. 24:52 Dad, got involved with breeding butterflies 24:54 as a way of finding people for Bible studies. 24:58 And I am involved in a ministry called Faith vs Finance. 25:02 We saw God's blessing 25:04 in those ministries and businesses so much. 25:08 But as those businesses were blessed 25:10 and those hockey stick graphs went up rapidly, 25:13 the profits went up fast. 25:16 I wanted to ask you "What impact do you think 25:20 that had on my relationship with Jesus Christ?" 25:23 As we saw God leading in those businesses, 25:26 what impact did that have 25:28 on my relationship with Jesus Christ? 25:32 Did it go up, or did it go down? 25:37 You would think that surely with God leading 25:39 in so many different ways, 25:40 and us seeing the miracles in those businesses, 25:42 and using the profits of those businesses 25:44 to support God's work around the world 25:46 that my personal relationship with Jesus Christ 25:48 would have got stronger. 25:49 But it didn't, it actually got weaker. 25:53 Just having some trouble with the click here guys, 25:55 we've got no movement in that slide. 26:02 So let me tell you what happened in my life, 26:06 in those years of business. 26:12 Okay, we're back on track. 26:14 In those years of business, I became proud. 26:20 Number one, I became proud. 26:22 I became proud because God had given me a business to operate, 26:26 to run that was bigger than any of my friends had. 26:29 Regardless of the fact that the profits 26:31 were going into God's work primarily I became proud. 26:33 I became a Pharisee. 26:35 I became a Pharisee because in God's Word it tells me 26:39 "Julian, if you obey me, I will bless you." 26:42 I was always being blessed more than any of my friends. 26:45 And therefore I must have been being more obedient 26:47 than any of my friends. 26:49 Can you see the Pharisee coming through? 26:53 And I became self-reliant. 26:56 Subconsciously, I was thinking, 26:58 you know, God's blessed me so much 27:00 that I don't need Him anymore. 27:02 Of course I would never say that. 27:03 I was an elder at church. 27:05 I was taking sermons, 27:07 were supporting projects around the world. 27:08 On the outside, everything looked great. 27:13 But on the inside, I knew I had a problem. 27:16 I had let God's blessings become a curse in my life. 27:20 I started to focus on the gifts more than on the giver. 27:24 A few years ago, I was trekking in the Himalayas with my sons. 27:28 And I came across this quote by Mahatma Gandhi 27:31 which is say that, the fact is 27:33 the moment financial stability is assured, 27:36 spiritual bankruptcy is also assured. 27:40 Ouch. 27:42 For 15 years prior to reading to that quote, 27:44 reading that quote I had worked very hard 27:46 to become financially stable 27:48 and had succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. 27:52 But in my heart when nobody else saw, 27:56 not the person sitting beside me at ASI, 27:58 not the person sitting beside me on the plane 28:00 going off on a mission trip, 28:01 not the person listening to my Sabbath school lesson, 28:03 when nobody else saw I knew 28:07 that I was losing my first love with Jesus Christ. 28:09 I knew that money had its claws on me. 28:13 And I was in trouble. 28:15 I began to realize that when I was abundantly blessed, 28:19 I was actually in the most spiritually 28:20 dangerous stage of my life. 28:24 And I desperately needed to find out how to stop 28:26 God's blessings from becoming curses, 28:29 which brings us to the question, 28:30 is it possible to be financially stable, 28:35 financially secure 28:37 without becoming spiritually bankrupt? 28:40 And I thank God that the answer is yes. 28:43 We can. 28:45 But there's conditions attached. 28:47 Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew 6. 28:50 Matthew 6:19-24. 28:52 It's Jesus speaking, 28:54 it's the middle of the Sermon on the Mount... 28:56 Matthew 6:19-24. 28:59 And in Matthew 6:19, we read this, 29:02 Jesus speaking do not lay up 29:04 for yourselves treasures on earth. 29:06 Is that a suggestion or a command? 29:10 It's a command, isn't it? 29:13 "Julian, do not lie up for yourselves treasures on earth, 29:17 where moth and rust destroying 29:18 with thieves break in and steal. 29:19 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven 29:21 where neither moth nor rust destroys 29:23 and where thieves do not break in and steal 29:25 for way your treasure is there you, what? 29:28 "There your heart will be also." 29:31 Let's skip down a couple of verses to verse 24. 29:35 Again it's speaking to me, it speaking to you, 29:36 Julian, put your name in there. 29:40 No one... 29:41 How many people? 29:42 No one can serve two masters, 29:44 for either he will hate the one and love the other, 29:46 or else he will be loyal to the one 29:48 and despise the other. 29:49 Julian, you can't serve God and money. 29:52 Yes, I can, Lord. Yes, I can. 29:53 What I'm doing is I'm working really hard in business 29:56 and I know that's taking like 60-70 hours a week, 29:58 and it's taking a lot of my family time. 30:00 And I know I don't have enough time to spend with You 30:01 in the morning sometimes. 30:02 But I'm working really hard in business 30:04 and it's Your business. 30:05 And you know I'm doing it for You. 30:07 And because we're giving lots of money into Your work, 30:08 and the gospel's going to all the world 30:09 because we're supporting it, 30:11 and that's how I'm serving You and money. 30:15 Julian, you can't do it. 30:18 Your heart can't do it. 30:21 You either love Me and serve Me, 30:23 or you love money and serve money. 30:26 Look at your calendar, Julian. 30:28 Who do you love? 30:30 Look at your bank account, Julian. 30:32 Who do you love? 30:34 You can't serve both of us. 30:37 Right in the middle between those verses 30:38 I skipped a couple of verses 22 and 23, 30:40 where he talks about the lamp of the body is the eye. 30:44 And I couldn't work out 30:45 why he would talk about our eyes 30:46 in the middle of a section on treasures 30:48 on heaven on earth and money. 30:51 And I thought well, maybe it's because with our eyes we covet. 30:55 And I thought, yeah, that's it, we covet things, 30:56 that's why it was in there. 30:58 But then I thought of something else. 30:59 As I looked at my own life 31:01 and the challenge that these passages brought to me, 31:05 I realized that I had one eye on my heavenly treasures 31:10 and the other eye on my earthly treasures. 31:14 And I was a cross-eyed Christian. 31:16 And I was wondering 31:17 why when I tried to follow Jesus 31:21 that I was stumbling because I couldn't see clearly. 31:22 I was a cross-eyed Christian. 31:25 One eye on heaven and one eye on earth. 31:29 The problem that I faced was this. 31:36 The teeter totter problem. Seesaw problem. 31:38 I don't know what you call it in your country 31:40 where you're from. 31:42 As my finances went up, my faith went down. 31:47 When my finances went down, my faith went up. 31:49 Please Lord, help me. 31:50 I need money. We got bills to pay here. 31:52 It's your business, you know. 31:55 But when He blessed me, 31:57 I didn't have enough time for Him again. 32:00 The teeter totter principle, faith vs finance. 32:06 Ellen White in the book Evangelism, page 561 says this, 32:10 "In the history of men 32:12 we learn how dangerous is prosperity. 32:16 Prayers are often requested 32:18 for men and women in affliction, 32:19 and this is as it should be, 32:21 but the most earnest prayers should be solicited 32:24 for those who are placed in a prosperous position. 32:27 These men, these women are in the greatest danger 32:30 of losing the soul." 32:34 Friends, when a person prospers, 32:36 either God gains a partner or the person loses their soul. 32:41 It's that simple. 32:46 We're going to talk more about this in the seminar following. 32:49 But I'm going to give you 32:51 the crux of the message right now. 32:53 And that is that as our blessings go up, 32:58 our knees must go down. 33:03 As our blessings go up 33:04 whether they are material blessings, 33:06 whether they are talents, whether it's education, 33:08 whether it's positional status, whatever it is 33:10 as those blessings go up, our knees must go down. 33:14 And if they don't, we're not going to heaven. 33:19 It's serious, friends. It's serious. 33:21 The more our blessings go up, 33:22 the more our knees must go down. 33:24 Otherwise, we're fooling ourselves 33:26 in our relationship with Christ. 33:30 Man looks on the outward appearance, 33:32 but the Lord looks at the heart. 33:36 The Gallup Poll, 33:37 those are international secular research agency. 33:41 On one of their surveys done in... 33:43 I think this was done in about 175 countries, 33:45 they asked this question. 33:46 Is religion an important part of your daily life? 33:49 It was a yes, no scenario. 33:52 And you can see that in nations 33:54 where the annual per capita per person income 33:56 was between $0-2,000 USD, 33:59 95% of the population said, 34:02 "Yes, religion is important in my everyday life." 34:06 But when the income got to $25,000 a year or more 34:10 on average per person in that nation, 34:12 less than half of the people 34:13 were still interested in religion on a daily basis. 34:17 Teeter totter friends, up and down, faith vs finance. 34:21 This isn't something that just affects individuals. 34:23 This is something that affects congregations. 34:25 This is something that affects entire nations. 34:29 Some of you will know of the group Credit Suisse of 34:33 a Swiss financial services company. 34:35 They do a lot of research around the world as well. 34:37 And in fact every year they put out 34:39 what's called the Global Wealth data book. 34:42 And I track this book every year. 34:45 And I look at a copy of it, you can see it for free online. 34:48 They survey around 200 nations, 34:51 not surveying the people by phone survey, 34:53 but looking at all of the government data 34:56 on wealth, and finance, and investments, 34:58 and everything in those nations. 35:01 And one of the things that they identify 35:04 is the average wealth level of adults in that nation 35:10 for more than 200 nations around the world. 35:13 Can anybody guess for me 35:15 which nation has the richest adults? 35:19 Not the biggest GDP 35:20 or some of these other measures. 35:22 But just the richest private wealth adults as on average. 35:26 Any guesses? Haven't heard it yet? 35:32 Norway. No. 35:34 Switzerland. I heard it down here somewhere. 35:35 Yeah, Switzerland, correct. 35:39 The Swiss adults are the richest in the world. 35:41 Let's have a look at some of the data. 35:45 There we go. Switzerland, number one. 35:48 Iceland, number two. 35:49 Australia, number three. 35:50 United States, number four. 35:52 Bermuda, Greenland, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, U.K. 35:54 the list changes each year slightly. 35:58 But the top 15 nations 36:00 sort of take their ranks in the top overall. 36:04 But look at the column on the right hand side 36:06 for those top 10 nations 36:07 the percentage who answered 36:09 "No, religion is not important in my everyday life." 36:12 And compared with the percentage 36:13 that answered "No" 36:14 in the poorer countries at the bottom. 36:17 There it is again, Credit Suisse. 36:21 It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle 36:23 than for a rich man for a rich nation 36:26 to get into heaven. 36:28 When God blesses us, we tend to walk away from Him. 36:33 And some of you will have noticed something interesting 36:35 about those top ten nations. 36:43 And that is that those top 10 nations 36:44 were all founded on which religion. 36:48 Yeah, most of them were founded on Christian principles, 36:51 their laws were built on God's Word, 36:55 and God blessed us because of it. 36:57 And like the children of Israel 36:59 when they walked over the Jordan River 37:00 to the other side, 37:03 and lived in homes that they didn't build 37:05 and cities they didn't build, 37:06 and ate from vineyards and olive groves 37:08 that they didn't plant, 37:09 and drank from wells that they didn't dig, 37:11 what was Moses' warning to them before they crossed over? 37:13 He said that's what's going to happen to you 37:15 when you get over to the other side, 37:16 you're going to be blessed zillionaires. 37:19 But do not forget the Lord, your God. 37:22 And what did they do? 37:24 In the midst of the luxury, they walked away from God. 37:30 It's not a modern problem. 37:32 Well, it's a modern problem 37:33 but has been around for a long time. 37:36 John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, 37:38 a man of God said this in 1789, 37:41 he said that, "Wherever true Christianity spreads, 37:44 it must cause diligence, hard work, 37:46 and frugality, careful spending 37:48 which in the natural course of things, 37:49 must create riches! 37:52 And riches naturally create pride, 37:54 love of the world, and every temper 37:56 that is destructive of Christianity." 38:00 Friends, I've seen that in my life. 38:02 I've seen it in the life of my nation. 38:06 It's true. 38:07 Wherever true Christianity spreads, 38:09 it must cause diligence and frugality. 38:13 Which in the natural course of things creates riches. 38:18 And riches naturally create pride, 38:21 love of the world, and every temper 38:25 that is destructive of true Christianity. 38:28 It's a dangerous cycle. 38:33 I asked a friend of mine 38:35 to illustrate for me to do a drawing that illustrated 38:39 what the inside of my heart looked like. 38:41 In those years, when I was living 38:43 as a cross-eyed Christian. 38:46 In Revelation 3 Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door 38:49 and knock the door of my heart, 38:50 the door of your heart, 38:51 but what I had done is I had taken the blessings 38:53 that God had given me." 38:55 And by the way we didn't own all of these blessings. 38:57 We saw the awful tale many years ago. 38:59 But the things in the picture represent things 39:03 that might be in your life that were in my life. 39:06 It could be sport, it could be travel, 39:07 it could be education, it could be preaching ability, 39:09 it could be music, it could be a screen time, 39:13 it could be a collection of something 39:15 that you just love to collect, 39:17 but it's getting between you and the door of your heart. 39:20 It's getting between 39:21 you and your relationship with Jesus Christ. 39:22 It's taking your time, your money, your energy, 39:24 your focus, your attention, 39:28 and drawing you away 39:29 from the urgency of the time in which we live. 39:33 And that's what my friend drew for me. 39:36 Billy Sunday, the American evangelist said 39:38 that many a man is going to slip into hell 39:41 with his hand on the door knob of heaven. 39:46 Maybe there's something in there 39:48 that you see in your life 39:50 that you really need to talk to God about, 39:52 you know, heart to heart conversation. 39:56 In the Review and Herald, November 2, 1886 says, 39:59 "The true witness behold I stand at the door knock, 40:03 the heavenly guest is standing at your door 40:05 while you are piling up obstructions 40:07 to bar his entrance." 40:08 Friends, I had never read this 40:10 when my friend drew this picture. 40:11 This is just my experience 40:13 and somebody sent this to me a couple of years ago. 40:14 And I was in tears when I read it. 40:16 Jesus is knocking through the prosperity He gives you. 40:19 He loads you with blessings to test your fidelity 40:22 that they may flow out from you to others. 40:25 Will you permit your selfishness to triumph? 40:27 Will you squander God's talents 40:28 and lose your soul through idolatrous love 40:31 of the blessings that He has given? 40:34 In Luke 16:13, 14, 15. 40:40 We read Jesus again saying, 40:45 "You can't serve God and money." 40:48 In verse 15, it says, "But the Pharisees 40:52 who loved money were sneering at Him." 40:57 And what did Jesus say to them? 41:00 Man looks at the outward appearance 41:02 but God looks at the heart. 41:06 And He said what is wonderful in your eyes 41:09 is an abomination in the eyes of God. 41:14 God looks at the heart. 41:16 In Ezekiel 14:3. 41:21 We have a similar problem, 41:23 in fact, if you got your Bibles, 41:24 turn there very quickly. 41:26 Ezekiel 14:3. 41:29 Remember Ezekiel was this reluctant prophet, 41:33 who was sent out. 41:34 And before he went, God already told him 41:36 that the people aren't going to listen 41:37 to what you have to say. 41:39 Mentioned that. 41:40 A life calling, where God says go out into your life calling, 41:43 you basically be of no effect but you need to go. 41:47 Man, Ezekiel went out. 41:48 And in chapter 14:1, let's start there. 41:51 Now, some of the elders of Israel came to me, 41:54 came to Ezekiel, and set before me. 41:57 And the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Son of Man, 42:01 these men have set up their idols in their hearts 42:06 and put before them that which causes them to stumble." 42:11 Ouch, idols in my heart. 42:15 Put before me things that causing me to stumble. 42:23 So what was the solution? 42:25 What was the solution to my faith vs finance battle? 42:29 Friends, I had to have a heart attack. 42:32 I had to have a heart attack. 42:33 You see the heart that I was born with 42:34 is a selfish heart. 42:36 The only way that I could clear all the stuff out of my heart 42:40 wasn't through trying to daily stop looking 42:43 at the advertising forward 42:44 and not focusing on it, and selling it, 42:46 and all that sort of stuff. 42:47 No, what I needed was found in Ezekiel 36. 42:52 And that's where I had an epiphany. 42:53 One morning, as I was battling this fight 42:55 faith vs finance battle. 42:57 I was doing my morning worship. 42:59 I came across Ezekiel 36:25-27. 43:02 I'm going to share what happened to you there. 43:05 What happened to me in that time. 43:08 One morning my son came home from school, 43:10 he was 14 years of age. 43:12 And he stood in front of me. 43:14 And he said, that afternoon he said, 43:16 "Dad, if I stand here like this, 43:17 can I turn over my hand from there to there 43:20 without twisting my wrist?" 43:22 And I said, "No, it's impossible." 43:23 And he said, "No, I can do it." 43:25 And I said, "You can't." He said, "I can." 43:28 I said, "Show me." 43:29 And he went like this. 43:31 One, two, three, 43:36 four, five, six. 43:41 When God puts blessings in our hands, 43:46 it's the exact same message that He gave to Abraham, 43:48 "I'm going to bless you, so that you can be a blessing, 43:51 so that you can pour it out. 43:53 I'm going to keep putting them in your hand 43:55 but you keep pouring them out. 43:56 Don't put them in your heart, pour them out. 43:59 Pour out those blessings." 44:01 Let's have a look at Ezekiel 36:25-27. 44:04 Do this movement with me if you'd like. 44:07 We're going to put your hand out in front, 44:08 we're going to go up, across, out, up, down, and out. 44:14 I'm going to do it as we read this text. 44:16 Every time I say, "I will or you will," 44:17 we're going to move our hands once. 44:19 So we're going to see God do a miracle. 44:20 He's going to turn us over from our selfish heart 44:22 that wants to hold on to everything 44:24 to pouring it out. 44:27 You tell me how much of it do you, you do 44:29 and how much does God do? 44:31 Let's go. 44:32 It's God speaking, "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you 44:35 and you shall be clean. 44:37 I will cleanse you from all your filthiness 44:39 and from all your idols. 44:40 I will give you a new heart 44:42 and put a new spirit within you. 44:43 I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh 44:46 and give you a heart of flesh. 44:47 I will put my spirit within you 44:49 and cause you to walk in my statutes." 44:51 Which way is your hand facing? 44:53 How much of it did you do? None. 44:56 God did it all. 44:57 He gave you a new heart. 44:59 And then you will keep my judgments and do them. 45:03 Make a note of that in the marginal Bible, 45:04 friends, that's good one to share. 45:08 Ezekiel 36. 45:11 Ellen White, Steps to Christ, page 18 says, 45:13 "It is impossible for us of ourselves to escape 45:18 from the pit of scene in which we are sunken. 45:19 Our hearts are evil and we cannot change them. 45:22 Education, culture, the exercise of the will, 45:25 human effort, attending ASI, going to church every week, 45:28 taking lessons, being an elder at church, 45:30 going on mission trips 45:32 they all have their proper sphere 45:33 but here they are powerless. 45:36 They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, 45:39 but they cannot change the heart... 45:42 There must be a power working from within, 45:44 a new life from above, 45:46 before men can be changed from sin to holiness. 45:49 The power is Christ." 45:55 You remember in John 3 a man called Nicodemus. 45:59 Nicodemus was rich. He was powerful. 46:00 He was respected. 46:01 And he had lots of other problems too. 46:04 He was a member of the Sanhedrin 46:05 the 70 leaders of Israel, religio-political leaders. 46:12 He was looked up to, he was respected, 46:15 on the outside everything looked good. 46:17 But in his heart Nicodemus knew that he wasn't saved. 46:22 And so he went to Jesus at night time in the garden, 46:24 and remember that Jesus said a number of things to him 46:26 and one of them was "Nicodemus, you need to be born again." 46:31 Nicodemus was bit confused about what that meant. 46:33 We understand it much better now. 46:35 And it's a pillar of our faith. 46:36 It's a foundation of our faith. 46:38 And he said, "Nicodemus, I'll be lifted up. 46:41 I must be lifted up." 46:42 And later on in John, He says that, "When I am lifted up, 46:44 I will draw all men unto Me." 46:47 Another beautiful illustration that Christ gave 46:50 of the message of salvation and of Calvary. 46:53 But both of those fade into insignificance 46:56 when you realize that it was to Nicodemus. 46:59 A one man audience out there in the dark of the garden 47:03 that Jesus said, "Nicodemus, God so loved the world 47:07 that He gave His only begotten Son 47:09 that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, 47:11 but have everlasting life." 47:15 Nicodemus was convicted. 47:17 But he wasn't converted. 47:19 Nicodemus was convicted. 47:20 He went back into the Sanhedrin. 47:21 On two occasions we have record of him 47:25 acting to save the life of Christ 47:27 when the Sanhedrin wanted to kill Jesus. 47:29 He was convicted but not converted. 47:31 Friends, when was Nicodemus converted? 47:37 At the cross. 47:39 When he and Joseph of Arimathaea came 47:42 to take the body of Christ then. 47:44 It's the same time the disciples were converted, 47:46 "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me." 47:50 We're told in the Desire of Ages 47:51 that Nicodemus died a poor man. 47:53 If you want to know what he did with his money, 47:55 read the Book of Acts. 47:56 Nicodemus funded it. 47:59 He funded the gospel going to all the world. 48:00 Friends, it's not business as usual today 48:03 because Nicodemus set us an example, 48:07 that if God is blessing you, 48:08 it's so that you can take the gospel to the entire world. 48:12 In Florence, just up from what is my wife and children 48:17 tell me is the world's best chocolate shop 48:20 is a museum with a statue in it, 48:23 and it's called the Florentine Pieta... 48:28 carved by Michelangelo. 48:31 Michelangelo, incredible artist. 48:34 It was carved from the top of his own tomb. 48:35 The pope came to Michelangelo and said, 48:37 "Michelangelo, you've done so much for us, 48:38 we want you to carve this for your own tomb, 48:40 and so he carved it." 48:42 Nicodemus and the two Marys 48:43 taking down Jesus off the cross. 48:45 But the historians, the reason I wanted to see this 48:47 is because there's a plaque beside it. 48:49 And the historians say that the face of Nicodemus 48:51 is the face of Michelangelo. 48:53 It was a self-portrait. 48:55 Michelangelo was converted late in life. 48:58 After a life of much success, 49:00 finally he gave his heart to Christ 49:02 in the midst of success. 49:04 And he wanted everybody to know that if he had been there 49:09 when his Christ had died, 49:10 he would have done what Nicodemus did. 49:12 He never made it to his tomb. 49:14 There were some faults in the marble, 49:15 and he pushed it aside. 49:16 But to me it's a reminder that no matter where we are in life 49:20 God is a God of second chances, and third chances, 49:23 and 77th chances. 49:26 My dad used to say to me as I was growing up 49:28 and he was on fire for Christ. 49:29 I was a teenager. 49:31 He'd say, "Julian, if you died tonight, 49:32 could you be sure that you had eternal life?" 49:35 And I didn't know. 49:37 I want to tell you for many years 49:39 I knew that I didn't have eternal life. 49:42 But through that process in Ezekiel 36, 49:45 getting a new heart from God. 49:47 I want to tell you, 49:48 it's the most painful but most beautiful thing 49:50 that's ever happened to me, a new heart. 49:54 And now I love that verse John 5:13. 49:58 Where John says, "Beloved, I write to you, I speak to you, 50:02 who believe in the name of the Son of God 50:04 so that you may know that you have eternal life." 50:09 Not so that you might hope that maybe one day you could 50:11 if you're good enough for if you give enough. 50:14 No, he said, "I write to you so that you may know 50:18 that you have now eternal life." 50:24 Ministry of Healing, the life of the Apostle Paul 50:26 was a constant conflict with self. 50:28 Friends, that tells me that when you get the new heart, 50:30 the battle isn't over. 50:32 The battle is a daily battle. 50:34 He said, "I die daily. 50:36 His will and his desires every day conflicted 50:39 with duty and the will of God." 50:41 But here's the interesting thing, 50:42 "Instead of following inclination, 50:45 he did God's will, 50:46 however crucifying to his nature." 50:49 In Philippians 1:6, we have that beautiful assurance 50:53 "That he who has begun a good work in you 50:55 will complete it." 50:58 And then in Steps to Christ, page 64, "Don't be discouraged, 51:01 there are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ, 51:04 and who really desire to be children of God, 51:07 yet they realize that their character is imperfect, 51:09 their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt 51:11 whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. 51:15 To such I would say, it's Ellen White writing here, 51:18 "Do not draw back in despair. 51:19 We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus 51:23 because of our shortcomings and mistakes, 51:25 but we are not to be discouraged." 51:28 Friends, we do need to be cross-eyed Christians 51:33 not because we've got one eye on heaven 51:35 and the other eye on earth, 51:36 but because we've got both eyes on the cross of Jesus Christ. 51:42 Paul knew what he said, "I determined not to know anything 51:44 among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 51:53 In 2 Timothy 4, the very last letter 51:55 that we have of Paul's life in 4:7, 51:59 there's a verse that to me is really important 52:01 in this faith vs finance battle. 52:05 He says, "I've fought the good fight. 52:06 I've finished the race. 52:09 And I have kept the faith." 52:13 Friends, I encourage you to keep the faith. 52:17 It's a battle. 52:18 It should be faith and finance. 52:19 It should be faith regardless of finance. 52:24 But in my life it's been faith vs finance. 52:27 And I thank God that whilst we have a problem, 52:30 God has the solution. 52:35 I encourage you as your blessings go up, 52:39 may your knees go down. |
Revised 2018-02-07