Participants:
Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ001148A
|
00:01 ♪ ♪
00:29 What talks, burns a hole in your pocket, doesn't grow on trees 00:32 and makes the world go round. Yes you got it, money. It plays 00:39 such a big part in our lives. It affects nearly everything we 00:44 do and influences virtually every decision we make. Money 00:48 is one of life's necessities. We just cannot survive without it. 00:54 For most of us money can be a problem, usually because we 00:59 don't have enough of it. But today we're going to meet a 01:02 businessman who has a huge money problem, not because he hasn't 01:07 got enough money, but because he's got too much. Julian Archer 01:12 learned the hard way that when a person prospers either God 01:17 gains a partner or the person loses their soul. He knows all 01:22 too well that when we feel abundantly blessed we are often 01:27 in the most spiritually dangerous stage of our lives. 01:31 Today Julian's going to take us on a frighteningly honest soul 01:37 baring journey into the world of a successful Christian 01:40 businessman. He's an outwardly blessed man with a sinister and 01:45 secret struggle, an eternal life and death battle, to try to keep 01:49 God's blessings from becoming curses. This isn't fiction. Stay 01:55 with us and discover the secret of becoming truly financially 02:01 independent. Julian's amazing story will surprise and inspire 02:06 you and may even change your life forever. 02:12 ♪ ♪ 02:34 Money, money, money. We all need it. Money's important. It's as 02:40 necessary in our daily lives as food is for the body. Just 02:44 as you can't get along without food so you can't survive long 02:48 without money. Money enables us to have the basics of what we 02:53 and our family need to survive. Food, shelter, education, health 02:59 care. It assists us in achieving our goals and dreams. It's a 03:04 blessing and we all want to receive God's richest blessings 03:09 especially the cash ones. But money can also become a curse 03:14 in our relationship with God and others. What happens when you 03:19 realize that you're truly blessed but that your spiritual 03:23 life has become damaged in the process? What if you started 03:27 worshipping God's gifts instead of the Giver? None of us want 03:32 that to happen. So how can we become financially secure 03:37 without becoming spiritually bankrupt. Our special guest 03:42 today, Julian Archer, is the founder of Faith vs. Finance, a 03:47 global organization working with affluent people who seek to 03:51 wisely balance their finance and faith. He's an international 03:56 speaker and best-selling author. His popular book, Help! I've 04:01 Been Blessed has sold widely around the world and he's here 04:06 today to share his experience and insights with us. 04:09 Julian, welcome to our program today. You've lived a very 04:14 different lifestyle. Tell us about it. 04:18 My parents met when they were young, had children very young. 04:23 Got into business and then another business and then 04:24 another business and another business and another business. 04:26 By the age of 24 they had five businesses. They were what we 04:29 call serial entrepreneurs. But there was a challenge and that 04:32 is that while they were successful in business their 04:35 marriage was absolutely shot. And they had to make a choice 04:39 between marriage and business and they chose marriage. And 04:42 they sold four of the businesses as we moved to the bush in 04:47 southeast Queensland just west of Brisbane and became hippies. 04:52 Barefoot existence, growing up in the bush, trying to grow your 04:54 own food, living in a little tiny shed. There wasn't a lot of 04:59 clothes. We didn't have a washing machine, we didn't have 05:01 running water, we didn't have electricity. So it was a very 05:04 barefoot existence. Sort of Huckleberry Finn if you look 05:07 back on it, you know, from that point of view. 05:09 How did your family move from hippies back to being business 05:14 people? 05:16 You know, we were trying to grow our own food and so we had 05:19 a little health food store and that was fine but we wanted to 05:22 grow everything, our fruit, our vegetables, our oil and 05:25 everything, we want to grow ourselves. And so we planted 05:28 lots of little trees and found out that we had too many. 05:31 So you plant 05:33 20 seeds and hope that one or two would come up for a family 05:36 and 20 would come up. So we thought well let's start selling 05:38 some of these excess plants that we have and so we started 05:42 selling out of the back of our truck on the side of 05:46 the highway, fruit trees. And that became a little nursery and 05:48 then a bigger nursery and then things grew from there. But 05:51 during those times we became Christians. We met some people 05:57 who loved Jesus and they shared that with us. That filled a hole 06:01 in our hearts that we probably didn't even know existed to some 06:06 degree. Once we found Jesus it completely changed the game for 06:10 our family's life, for our lifestyle, for what we were 06:12 doing in business, everything changed. The businesses that we 06:16 had been running took off. They grew incredibly quickly. We 06:22 ended up have an importing business, exporting. We had 06:26 distribution, we had a consulting business, we had 06:31 ran tours in other countries around the world. We were 06:32 exporting to 25 countries and it was crazy days. The businesses 06:37 were just going so well, 06:38 beyond anything that we could ever, ever dreamt of. 06:41 Money was pouring in, we didn't know what to do with it. We 06:44 weren't accustomed to this. It was just quite overwhelming. And 06:49 I realized as this was happening that it was actually having an 06:53 impact on my heart, it was having an impact on my 06:56 spirituality. I thought that well God just wants to bless you 07:02 lots and that's what we all want that's what we pray for. You 07:04 know Lord bless me bless me. But I didn't realize the other side 07:08 of it and that is that sometimes when we are blessed we start to 07:14 worship blessings. We lose our relationship with God, our 07:20 spirituality. 07:22 So it's a real battle, faith versus finance. 07:24 Just everywhere I looked in the Bible, in Jesus life, in his 07:28 teachings, through the whole of the scriptures, it was there. 07:32 Faith and money. So I wrote it all down and in that process 07:35 gave my heart back to the Lord. 07:38 I said, Lord it's yours. So I did it. It 07:42 turned into a book, a book called Help! I've Been Blessed! 07:45 which is a unusual title. But Help! I've Been Blessed! How to 07:50 stop God's blessings from becoming curses. 07:52 Are there any principles or words of wisdom that you've come 07:56 across that have been particularly helpful in your 07:59 years of battling faith against finance. 08:01 As I did a lot of research to try and work out how to sort out 08:06 this faith versus finance battle I came across all sorts of 08:09 people across all centuries who had been in the same battle. 08:11 It surprised me because I thought I was the only one originally 08:14 fighting this thing. I came across a guy called Oscar Wilde 08:18 who actually made a statement. He said: 08:27 And I thought, you know what, yeah there's some truth in that. 08:30 And then I came across a guy called John Wesley who in 1789 08:35 this has been a couple centuries He wrote that: 08:38 Wherever true Christianity spreads it must cause diligence 08:44 or hard work and frugality, or careful spending, which in 08:47 the natural course of things leads to riches! And then he 08:50 went on and he said: 09:00 It's a see saw situation where as the affluence goes up the 09:06 religiosity or spirituality of a nation goes down. When there's 09:10 a great financial crisis, or a war or something like that, boom 09:14 back up it comes. So the faith comes back up. But then as 09:17 things become good again and everybody's got enough and all 09:20 the rest, the faith goes down again. I've seen it happening in 09:24 my life. It happens in nations. And that's where my ministry is. 09:28 I now travel around the world speaking to different groups 09:30 about that challenge and what can be done then. 09:32 I was trekking a number of years ago in the Himalayas in the fall 09:36 with my two sons and I was at a tea house way up in the 09:41 mountains. And there was a little poster up on the wall 09:42 and it had a quote on it by Mahatma Gandhi and it said: 09:46 Whenever financial security occurs spiritual bankruptcy 09:52 also occurs. I can only speak for myself but as my finances 09:59 increased my spirituality decreased. It doesn't have to 10:03 be, it doesn't have to. But it often does. 10:05 In a day when most Christian books on money are about how to 10:09 attract God's financial blessings, why have you chosen 10:12 to refer to these blessings as curses? 10:14 What I've found is that the blessings coming from God I was 10:18 taking those blessing and getting very distracted by them. 10:22 I was spending a whole lot of time maintaining, insuring them, 10:25 trying to grow them, investing in them, worrying about them, 10:29 all the different things that you do when God gives you a lot 10:32 of stuff. And realized that those blessings had actually 10:35 become a curse in my spiritual life. Those blessings were now 10:39 getting between me and God and so that's why my book and the 10:43 ministry that I do. I talk about those blessings and how they can 10:47 be curses. God doesn't give them to us to curse us. It's our 10:50 reactions to them that becomes a curse if we react the wrong 10:55 way. 10:56 Julian, you suggest that it's almost impossible to be 11:00 financially secure without becoming spiritually bankrupt. 11:02 That's quite a statement, especially coming from an 11:06 affluent Christian. What evidence to you have to back 11:10 this up? 11:11 It's interesting in scripture that Jesus makes a statement. 11:14 He said that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 11:18 needle than for a rich person to get into heaven. 11:21 That's pretty challenging words especially when you're an 11:25 affluent person. Maybe you're in that one percent club of people 11:28 So we see it over and over in scripture where people are 11:37 blessed and then they turn away. The good news is that with 11:43 God, Jesus said this as well. He said that with God all things 11:47 are possible. That's the secret whether a person is wealthy or 11:52 not. Are they with God? The key word is with. And if they are 11:58 with God then it's possible for them to live a Christ like life 12:03 even in a wealthy environment. But if they're not with God then 12:07 they're not going to be living that life regardless of whether 12:11 they're wealthy or not. So it is a battle. The Scripture is very 12:15 clear. But we also have examples in scripture of people like 12:19 Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Abraham and others who were 12:26 affluent, were wealthy, but they had a very strong relationship 12:29 with God as well. Once they got it sorted out, once they 12:32 realized the relationship between wealth and their 12:34 spirituality they maintained a strong relationship with God. 12:37 That's an interesting picture on the cover of your book. 12:39 What are you trying to illustrate? 12:42 When I knew that a book was coming from all of this, I got a 12:47 friend to illustrate a cover for me and I said to him, I said, 12:50 Andrew, I want you to draw what the inside of my heart looked 12:54 like when I was in this battle. And so he drew this illustration 13:00 of Jesus standing at a door, knocking on that door, and 13:05 there's a guy inside, that was me, trying to get to the door. 13:09 I wanted to open the door of my heart to Jesus, I wanted to. 13:14 But I had so filled my heart with all the blessings that he 13:17 had given me, that I couldn't even get to the door. I could 13:20 hear him knocking but I couldn't get over all the stuff to get to 13:25 the door. I'm reaching out trying to open that door and I 13:29 couldn't do it. There was a guy called Billie Sunday, American 13:32 guy who once said that: 13:40 What are the warning signs that a Christian has started to 13:45 worship God's blessings rather than God himself? 13:48 In my life I find that if my morning devotion time, my time 13:53 with God in the morning, is starting to be compressed and 13:56 cropped and shortened or non existent then I have to go, Hey 14:02 Julian where's your priority? The blessings that he's given 14:06 you are starting to overcome your life again, your spiritual 14:09 life. The other way that I know it is if I look at my calendar 14:15 and my bank statements. Very revealing. When I look at my 14:18 calendar and see how I'm spending my time and I look at 14:22 my bank statements and see how I'm spending my money it's very 14:25 revealing the way my priorities really are. Are my priorities 14:29 on God? Is that obvious in my calendar and my bank 14:31 statements or is it on something else? And it could be just about 14:35 anything else. But God says, Julian I want your heart, I want 14:38 your whole heart. 14:40 Are there any stories in the Bible that show how God's 14:44 blessings can become curses. 14:45 Yeah, the Bible's actually full of stories about God's blessings 14:48 becoming curses. But I'll just share one with you. Back two 14:55 thousand years ago Moses and the children of Israel had spent 40 14:59 years traveling around in the desert around Sinai, the Sinai 15:03 peninsula in Egypt today. They only had food and clothing and 15:08 a little bit of shelter. That's all they had for these 40 years. 15:10 They then come to the river Jordan. And Moses knows that 15:16 on the other side of that river is what they called the promised 15:18 land. And this promised land is flowing with all the good stuff. 15:22 In fact, Moses knew that when they crossed that Jordan, they 15:26 would be, and he said this to the children of Israel, he said, 15:29 when you cross over this river you're going to live in cities 15:32 that you didn't build, so the inhabitants are going to flee 15:35 before you, you're going to live in their cities. You're going to 15:38 live in houses that you didn't build. You're going to eat from 15:40 vineyards and olive groves that you didn't plan. You're going to 15:43 drink from wells that you didn't dig, so basically they were just 15:46 going to be blessed as soon as they crossed over that river. 15:49 And what did Moses say? He said, But when you have all this stuff 15:52 don't forget God. What do they do? They cross the river, they 15:59 have all this stuff and they forget God and this is what 16:03 happened in my life. This is what happened in my nation. 16:07 And it's a real warning that this isn't something new. This 16:11 is not a new problem. This is something that's been around for 16:13 thousands of years. And if we are going to take our faith 16:17 seriously then we have to really seriously look at this faith vs. 16:20 finance issue in our lives and beyond. 16:22 Your book addresses a lot of questions that affluent 16:25 Christians need to consider. Please tell me more about the 16:29 last one, on raising Godly children. 16:31 One of the challenges that we face as Christians living in 16:36 affluent society is how do we raise Godly children? 16:39 It's really hard in a materialistic world where they 16:43 are being bombarded and surrounded by all these messages 16:46 saying we need all this stuff; you won't be happy without all 16:48 this stuff. It's really hard to raise Godly children. In my book 16:53 I have 12 different steps that my wife and I have done. We're 16:58 not claiming to be perfect, our boys are 18 and 19 at the moment. 17:03 They've been great through their teen years, they're going to 17:06 look after us, but they still got a life ahead of them. But those 17:10 points take parents through some of the things they can do. 17:14 Tell us a little about these 12 points for raising Godly 17:18 children. 17:19 One is pray. You've got to pray for your kids. Family worship. 17:22 Be intentional. Not just thinking well our kids they'll 17:28 sort it out. 17:29 We have to be very intentional about this. We need to pass on 17:32 our values. Quantity time. Limited screen time. 17:36 Choice of peers. 17:37 Take them on mission trips. Wisdom, pass on your wisdom. 17:40 And what I call the rule of tens That's basically very simple. 17:45 It's an old Jewish principle. The first 10 percent of your 17:48 income goes to God, the second 10 percent goes to others, gifts 17:52 for other people and the third 10 percent goes into your own 17:55 savings. The other 70 percent it'll go fast enough, but those 17:58 three 10's. That's the rule of 10's. Financial planning: 18:03 Actually helping our children to plan financially and another one 18:06 that we had, my wife and I, is abstinence. We said to our boys 18:11 we want you 18:12 to abstain from certain things in life. And that's from 18:15 drugs, sex before marriage, alcohol. We want you to abstain 18:21 from those things because we know that those things can bring 18:23 a lot of challenges to a young person's life. 18:26 Lots of Christians are struggling with these issues 18:29 in our affluent society. What can you offer them? 18:33 Look all I can really offer Christians who are struggling 18:36 with these today is Jesus Christ and my testimony of what Jesus 18:42 has done in my life: 18:48 And it's quite true. I found that the more that I focus on 18:52 Jesus on a daily basis all the blessings, all the material 18:57 things that he's given me just grow strangely dim, they're no 18:59 longer a priority, they're no longer what I'm here 19:02 for. And I'm able to just focus on things that really, really 19:07 matter. People just think if I just had that bigger house or 19:11 another ten thousand dollars a year salary, that would be 19:14 enough. But I can tell as somebody who's had the bigger 19:17 house and the million dollars a year extra salary, 19:21 it's never enough unless Jesus is what you want. 19:24 When Jesus is what you want, 19:28 He's enough. If you're chasing stuff, you'll never have enough. 19:31 But if you're chasing Jesus, when you get what you're chasing 19:35 you've got enough. 19:36 Julian, I've heard you say that you've got manure in your wallet 19:40 Really? What do you mean? 19:44 Clint Murchison, Jr., who was the founder of the Dallas 19:47 Cowboys made a statement many years ago. He said that: 20:00 And I see a lot of truth in that You know, if we pile up all our 20:04 money, we hoard it for ourselves selfishly for ourselves it 20:08 starts to stink. 20:09 What do you suggest is the first step for a person who realizes 20:13 their busy lifestyle is damaging their spiritual life? 20:18 Ultimately it's about our heart it's about our heart. Are we 20:22 filling our heart with the blessings or are we filling our 20:25 heart with Jesus. This can be more than just affluence. You 20:28 might be blessed in other ways, but if your blessings are going 20:31 up, your knees need to go down. It's as simple as that. So I 20:36 just encourage people, if you're being blessed, if your blessings 20:41 are just pouring into your life get down on your knees and be 20:46 thankful for them, humbly thank God for them. And that will lead 20:49 to sacrificial generosity because that's what God wants us 20:52 to do. He blesses us so that we can pour those blessings out and 20:56 give them to other people. 20:58 Julian, it's been a pleasure to have you on our program today. 21:01 Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us and I'd like to 21:05 wish you God's richest blessing in all your endeavors. 21:09 Thank you very much, Gary. It's been an absolute pleasure being 21:11 with you. 21:14 The Bible has a lot to say about money. Did you know that there 21:19 are over 2300 references to money in the Bible? That's 21:24 almost twice as many as verses about faith and prayer combined. 21:29 And Jesus had a lot to say about money too. In fact, Jesus spoke 21:35 more about money than he did about love and more than he 21:40 talked about heaven and hell combined. Nearly 15 percent of 21:44 everything Jesus spoke about related to money and possessions 21:49 Over 30 percent of his parables deal with the topic of money. 21:55 That's a lot. Money is a big deal to Jesus. Why? Because 22:03 Jesus knows that there is a very clear connection between our 22:08 spiritual life and our attitude toward money and possessions. 22:11 And he knows that we need lots of direction and clarity on the 22:16 whole money issue. Jesus knows that money is one of the most 22:19 likely reasons for us to reject him, ignore him or leave him. 22:24 Jesus knows that it's a heart issue. Notice what he said in 22:30 Matthew chapter 6 and verse 21: 22:38 Jesus knows that how we think and behave with money affects 22:43 our spiritual condition and he outlined very clearly just what 22:48 the issues are and what's at stake a few verses further on in 22:53 Matthew chapter 6 and verse 24: 23:10 Jesus presents us with a very clear choice. Will we serve God 23:15 or will we serve money? Jesus says you cannot serve both. 23:20 It's impossible. It's one or the other and all of us must choose. 23:26 Yes, the issue is simple. Who will you serve. Jesus want's 23:33 only the very best for us. He loves us and cares for us. He 23:38 doesn't want anything to come between us and him. And he 23:43 knows that our relationship with him can be deeply affected by 23:47 our relationship with money. He doesn't want money to harm us 23:52 or separate us from him. So he lovingly warns us to be careful 23:57 and to get our priorities right and to use money as a tool to 24:02 bless our families, others, those in need and to use it to 24:07 share his love with others and expand his kingdom. Jesus offers 24:12 us a friendship, a relationship with him that brings peace and 24:18 happiness. If you'd like to ensure that you keep your life 24:21 in balance and in harmony with God, and that nothing ever 24:25 separates you from him, why not reach out to him and ask him to 24:30 assist you right now as we pray. 24:33 Dear heavenly Father, thank you for your love and goodness to 24:39 us. Thank you for the promise to provide what is good and best 24:43 for us. Thank you for helping us to deal with the challenges and 24:47 temptations of life. Thank you for guiding us and helping us to 24:52 get our priorities right. May we not allow anything to come 24:57 between us and Jesus. Lord, we want to experience happiness and 25:03 live life to the full. Please bless us now as we reach out to 25:07 you and move forward in our lives as you intended us to do. Bless 25:13 us and please give us hope and fulfillment. We ask this in 25:17 Jesus' name, Amen. 25:22 Julian Archer learned the hard way that when a person prospers 25:26 either God gains a partner or the person loses their soul. He 25:31 knows all too well that when we feel abundantly blessed we're 25:36 often in the most spiritually dangerous stage of our lives. 25:40 But he reminds us that the Bible is full of guidance and wisdom 25:45 on how to balance our lives, get our priorities right and stay in 25:50 harmony with God. If you'd like to find inner peace and 25:54 happiness, if you'd like to strengthen your relationship 25:57 with people and with God, if you'd like to be financially 26:01 secure without becoming spiritually bankrupt, if you'd 26:05 like to find a better way then I'd like to recommend a free 26:09 gift we have for all our viewers today. It's a booklet called 26:14 Money, God and You. This booklet is our gift to you and it's 26:20 absolutely free. There are no costs or obligations whatsoever. 26:24 So, please don't miss this wonderful opportunity to receive 26:30 this free gift we have for you today. Here's the information 26:33 you need: Phone or text us at 0436333555 in Australia 26:42 or 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website www.tij.tv 26:54 to request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 26:58 free of charge and with no obligation. Write to us at: 27:21 Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:26 If you've enjoyed today's journey into the world of money 27:29 and finance and our reflections on the Bible's wisdom regarding 27:34 balancing our lives and ensuring that we are financially secure 27:38 without being spiritually bankrupt, then be sure to join 27:42 us again next week when we'll share another of life's journeys 27:46 together. Until then remember the ultimate destination of 27:51 life's journey. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And God 27:55 will wipe every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more 27:59 death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for 28:04 the former things have passed away. 28:06 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-08-03