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Hey everybody. Pastor Jack here and I want to encourage you to get a great book. Listen to this. Living Fearless in Christ. This is Hedy Amirahmadi's story, life story, why I Left Islam to Win Battles for the Kingdom. A former Muslim comes to Christ and her ministry and her testimony is powerful. Get a copy for yourself. Living Fearless in Christ Living Fearless in Christ by Hediya Miramadi. Available for the month of February for a gift of any amount@jackhibs.com that's jackibs.com

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Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

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If you are obedient in the area of finances, there is a high probability that you are going to be very wise regarding finances and money and the use of money. And it will better your life, it will better the life of your family and it will better the life of the people you know. And it will better the life of your church that you attend. And it's a good feeling because it's God centered you, Christ glorifying and it's the ministry toward others. Stop thinking that money is evil.

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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackibbs.com podcast today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

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Hey guys, we're talking about money, Money. In my old mind I can hear Money, money, money, money. That song that makes a lot of us older kind of sick to our stomach because it was played constantly until it made you sick. But money's a big deal, everybody, a very big deal. Here's the reason why Jesus introduces us most recently and graphically to the fact that money is a altar of worship. Money is an altar of worship. All that is something that is determined as all worship is by the one who chooses to worship what the object is. It's the worshiper that makes the object an object of worship. Jesus said you can either worship God or Mammon. Now, Mammon was the ancient Greek God of wealth and prosperity. A Mammon goes back with various names, various titles through every culture. But in our biblical worldview sense for us, all the way to ancient Babylon and the 360 gods that made up the Babylonian worship system, thousands and thousands of Years ago, mammon again manifests in itself in various ways. I think it's good to say at this moment that when Jesus says, you can either serve God or fill in the blank. Of course, in this case, mammon being money. Remember, behind the money, behind the. Excuse me, behind the pursuit of health or bodybuilding or looks or hobbies or sports or. It doesn't matter what it is, doesn't matter even. Doesn't matter how great it is. Our fallen nature, being spiritual creatures, we can take a really good thing and idolize it and thus making it an altar of worship. Hopefully that makes sense. For example, you can take shopping. You have to shop. Everybody has to shop. See, you might chuckle right now. Cause you're thinking, oh, my goodness, Pastor Jack, I didn't think you'd be into shopping. I'm totally into shopping. Almost once a week, Lisa will send me to the Trader Joe's or whatever, Albertsons or whatever. To shop, to buy food. And I've got my list and I go do that. Of course I shop. So do you. But see, you might have giggled a little bit a moment ago because you thought I was going to say Nordstrom's or, you know, fill in the blank. Macy's. I don't know what your world is, but we can make shopping an idol. Because, you know, when we're depressed and our feelings are hurt or we just feel like we're not having a good day, I'm going to go shopping. Interesting, right? That is the exact same thing as leaning on something else instead of leaning on God. Now, what I'm saying to you might be very abstract to some of your thinking, but there are some people who find their meaning in escaping by masking themselves through the inability to cope through a really rough day. They can't handle it unless they have a drink. It's been a rough day, man. I need a drink. That's an idol. It would be. Look, it'd be the same for me if I say, man, I've had a really rough day. I'm gonna go paddleboarding or surfing or riding or walking or whatever. It's not the thing. It's what I make the thing into be. And money is at the top of the list. Money's at the top of the list. And first of all, let's start here regarding money. The book of Ecclesiastes 3, 12, 13 says this. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the Good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. What does that mean? That is one of those verses that speaks about free trade, capitalism. Man works with his own hands, takes what he has crafted and sells it. And he makes his own life better. And he makes the lives of those who are his family and even those who are of his community better. Why? Because he rightly used his skills. Listen, everyone. He rightly used his skills, of which I am moving my fingers, announcing that this is the symbol for skills. And I've used my hands. I've used them to create something. This doesn't matter if I created music, if I created a brick, or if I created. You got my point? I use the skill sets that God has given me. Whatever they are for you, and you didn't sit idle, you used them. And the Bible says, by all means, use them. Because you will be a blessing both to others around you, but to yourself. There's a sense of self worth. Listen. Self worth and meaning by the use of your hands. And so many young people today, and shame on us as parents, are letting our kids sit on their hands instead of pulling their hands out and using them in effort, in work, in sweat, digging holes. I'm not joking. Digging holes, planting things, laying foundations, digging. Use the hands. Build something. Look in your own home, for many of you who are homeschoolers or you've got kids in public school, have your kids build a birdhouse with hammer wood and nails and glue. Design it and then build it. I'm not joking. Why? A sense of accomplishment. Get up on the ladder, put it up in the tree, nail it up there, and your kids will forever in your backyard look up and remember, hey, we made that bird house. And then there's an overwhelming sense of satisfaction when you actually see a bird or a squirrel come in and out of that birdhouse. What has happened? You meaningful used your hands in a meaningful way. And you have self worth because you have ascribed yourself to do something. And God does the same thing with money. God wants us to use our money. God, listen, there is no virtue in poverty. But let me be careful to say this. I am not preaching prosperity, wealth and claim it doctrine. I'm against it. I preach and teach against that. However, God blesses obedience. That's a fact. If you are obedient in the area of finances, there is a high probability that you are going to be very wise regarding finances and money and the use of money. And it will better your life, it will better the life of your family, and it will better the Life of the people, you know, and it will better the life of your church that you attend. And it's a good feeling because it's God centered, it's Christ glorifying and it's the ministry toward others. Stop thinking that money is evil. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that money is evil. It's just not there. But we have pulled back to think, oh yeah, it is evil because this charlatan preacher, this guy's yelling and screaming about sending him $1,000. Look, I do hope, you know, never send televangelist money. Never send them money. Don't do it. I mean, do it if God tells you to, but don't do it if they told you to. Number one way for me to not send a ministry money is if they ask, will you send us money, please? Yeah. No way. So listen, so we already know that God is the creator of free trade, market man works with his hands, sells what he does to the betterment of his own life and the life of others. The Bible tells us that Abraham was a man who worked with his own hands. And God blessed him with a multitude of flocks and God blessed him when he stopped and they dug wells. God brought up water. Notice all these things are miraculous. All that was needed was Abraham to apply his human skill and God blessed it. Before Adam was ever married, before Adam was married, Adam had a job. I think that's significant for our day and age. Keep that in mind. Before Adam ever was given Eve by God, God gave Adam a job. And that is a significant part. Nobody should get married without a job. Hello. That's obvious. By the way. I don't care if you actually are listening to this podcast right now and you're worth a hundred million dollars and you get up in the morning and you sit on your hands, you're going to get in trouble. Your idle time with your hands. I don't care how much money you're worth, you're not supposed to stop using your hands for good. If you're worth a lot of money and you don't have to work like the rest of us do and you're using your hands and your skills to get into mischief. Boy, are you in trouble. Don't be surprised if your wealth sprouts wings like a bird and flies away from you instead of you using it for the advancement of God's love, kingdom and grace. Money. 1 Timothy 6, 10. For the love of money. There you go. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. You see, money's not Evil. Money is amoral. Okay, so football is not evil. Football is amoral. It has no morality until humans assign morality to it. You can go on and on with this. I hope you get that. We don't have the time to develop that. I wish we did. But money is amoral. It's used for good or evil based upon the person who is governing it. I have this Sharpie in my hand. I could write with this Sharpie with my hand that. So I write love you with the Sharpie. I wrote this with this same Sharpie. I could turn around and say something like, Down with you, or, you know, let's riot or something. This pen is amoral. Money is amoral. It doesn't have any morality until you put it into practice. That's why we are to be stewards over the resources we have. And you might say, pastor Jack, I don't have any resources. Yes, you do. Don't say that. You say, I'm so broke. Yeah. No, you're not. Listen, you're not. If you're living from check to check, you have the ability with $1 to bless someone or to use it for God's glory. Maybe you're on a pension or maybe you're on Social Security. God will call you and show you how to use a nickel for his glory. Do you understand? My friend, Please get this. It's not. In the eyes of God, a million dollars is not more good than a nickel. You can use a million dollars with the wrong motive to do the bad thing, the wrong thing, and somebody else can use a nickel, and it winds up in eternity being more honoring to God than a million dollars. I hope I made that point very, very clear. Back to 1 Timothy, chapter 6. 10. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some, having strayed from the interesting faith in the use of money, Having strayed from the faith, have become greedy and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Did you know that chasing wealth will pierce you through with many sorrows? Did you know that chasing wealth will get you into schemes and plots and plans that will end to your demise? I spoke to a man rather recently who said to me, because of my greed and my pursuit and my ambition, things began to. I fudged things along the way. And that man was sentenced to 127 years in prison because of money. And now the Lord's got a hold of his beautiful heart and he's telling people and writing to people saying, seek God first. Do not love money. What about two? Thessalonians 3:10. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this one thing. If anyone will not work. If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. I believe this principle needs to be. This should be the verse that is embossed in the front of the United States Federal Office of the Social Security office, the U.S. treasury, Health and Human Services. If you have the ability to make money with your hands, and you do not, you should not be given food. The Bible says that if you're a bum, the Bible says, let the guy who's a bum, let him get hungry enough, he'll go to work. Man, is this tough love or what? No, it's that tough love, its normal way of living. Look, I'm old, but I'm not a dinosaur. I grew up in a non Christian home that had enough sense that my dad's instruction to us was only spend what you have, save what you can. Put away a little bit here and there along the way. That was from a non Christian home. And I, since the day I was able to acquire money from my first job at the age of 15 in the summer, summer job working at a grocery store did exactly that. In fact, can I insert this at this moment? I know I'm eating up time here, but this is kind of personal. But I'm telling you this because it will make things better for you. I don't care how old you are or I don't care how young you are. So if I started at the age of 15, like a squirrel putting nuts away in a tree, I can tell you right now that I took my dad's advice on that and I started putting away nickels, quarters and dimes that eventually graduated out of a can. And in my dresser drawer, I started hiding an envelope and I would put dollars in an envelope and I would save up. I'm sorry, fighting something. I have done that since I was 15 years of age. The last time I checked, I have an envelope and that envelope has a date on it. And I think it's 1979 that I've been putting money in that envelope. Now today, in the modern age, you don't have to use an envelope. There's great apps like Capital with a Q Capital. There's many apps on how to save money. But why am I saying this is because if you're faithful in a little bit, God will give you the honor and the ability to be faithful with a little bit more and then a little bit more and then a little bit more. And you discipline yourself because I promise you this, if you've got $20 in your hand and you break it up and you take $5 of that and put it in an envelope or put it in a bank account and put it away, forget about it, you won't spend it. And by the way, there's apps today, like I said a moment ago, where if I go get $10 worth of gas, I have set my app to pay that gas bill, but also it sends the equal amount of gasoline. I paid $10 for gas. It turns around and it sends dol. I pay myself in a savings account. These are disciplines that are gloriously beautiful and it accumulates. And God will bless you with that management. Little faithful and little make you faithful and more young people start that today. Watch what happens. But I love how the Bible says, if you're able body, if you can make money and work, if you don't, you're not gonna get any handouts. If that happened today, a bulk of America's economic problems would be solved in a weekend. Did you know that this nation suffers because it pays people not to work? And that is a godless Antichrist concept. You don't work, you're not going to get any food. To those who can't work because they are debilitated, wounded, injured, hey, it's our honor to take care of you. Gladly. Because you can't participate that way. Proverbs 22:7. The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7 is a verse that warns us against abuse. And our nation is full of abuse. This probably be a good time for me to talk to you guys about, gosh, look at, look at me. I'm turning into your parent or to your grandparent. But that's okay, I guess, right? If it helps you, super. But not everyone can receive what I'm about to say. I know that. Oh, I can't think of his name. You know who he is? The Christian money guy. Whoever he is, he does not agree with me. But that's okay. I don't agree with him on this. In Proverbs 22, when it says the rich rules over the poor and the borrow is servant to the lender. I am a massive fan of using particular credit cards that are worthy of my use. I mean this sincerely, folks. Now I'm taking off my pastor's hat and I'm putting on my personal hat for Jack's life. I am not. For the record, I am not a financial advisor, nor do I pretend to be one. Or play the role of. But I am a steward over what God has given me. As you should be over you. And so, for example, young people, listen carefully. Research the best credit cards that pay the most in points and or dollars back for credit card use. The best cards are going to have fees. Don't let that scare you. If you, for example, I'm just going to go big. If you, for example, apply for a credit card because you choose to apply for this particular. Let's say. I hope I can say this legally. I'll make one up. Amex, American Express. I'm just using that as an example. I'm not promoting them. I'm not doing a commercial for them. But the annual fee is 500 bucks. What? 500 bucks to have their credit card? Hold on. They're not dumb. There's a reason why they're charging you. If you are a young person, this may not be the card for you. You might want to go with something that. The annual fee is 55, 75 or $100 a year. Why would I do that? Because every time I use this American Express card, it gives me so many points or dollars for money spent. For example, if I fill my gas tank up at Shell oil, I get 4 points or $4 for every dollar spent that is put into or that is in the American Express account. Fast forward through all of this. Watch this. I travel a lot. And so you know that $500 fee. Here's how I justify it. I pay them 500 to have their credit card, but I don't care what their interest rate is because I will only spend on that card what I can pay at the end of 30 days. I use their money to make money, meaning I pay my bill off at the end of the month so that I'm not charging. So they're not charging me interest, but they just gave me, let's say I spent $1,000 on new tires for my car. I have that $1,000 in my pocket, but I'm not going to use it. I'm going to use the card and then at the end of the month, send the money that's in my pocket to the credit card company. Because now we just broke even, right? We're all zeroed out. They're paid, I paid for it, it's done. But they wind up giving me 1000 or 2 or 3000 points. Are you with me at tracking the points I use to travel? The points I use are for a hotel. It's free money. I will only use a credit card. That pays me to use their card. I use them to make money. Now people will say don't use credit cards, you'll go into debt. This is true for people who do not have self control and for people who do not understand how to use somebody else's money. Use the bank's money. Use the credit card company's money to your advantage. They are literally banking on you not being a good Christian steward over money. Does that make sense? Beat them at their game. Citibank, Chase, I don't care who it is. Research for yourself. But here's the fun thing about this. I will not become indebted to the lender. I actually use the lender to capitalize off of their lending. I hope this makes sense. It's so simple. I'm going to. I got to hurry up. I can't believe it's 26 minutes already we've been talking on this stuff. He said, yeah, but Jack, you still have the $500 problem. It's a $500 fee. Not a problem at all. Because certain credit cards, certain credit cards, all I have to do. I know this like a science because I've been doing this all my life. For example, here's an example. 500 bucks I pay a $500 fee. Do you know what that means to me? That means I have to rent a car at least four times this year if I'm traveling and I rent a car from Hertz. I'm not paid by Hertz to say this. If I rent the car from Hertz, that particular credit card, the benefit for paying the 500 is I don't have to pay for any of the liability insurances that they want to charge me every day that I use it. It's covered by the insurance company. Now not all cards are the same. You got to research this. Be very careful, be very smart, be very shrewd about this, Apply yourself, be a good steward. But I know my math. It saves me four car rentals. And I am well on my way to, to using that $500 or getting that $500 back of the fee that I've used. On top of the fact any airline. I'm not going to tell you cause I don't want to get in trouble. But I have a particular well known credit card that if I book any travel on that card during the duration ticketed dates of that card, if I die during those ticketed dates of that travel that I used with that credit card, it pays a $1 million life insur for the duration of my Life. If I die while using that flight, that train, that plane, that cruise, and the ship sinks because I bought the ticket on that credit card, that's one of the perks. You see what I'm telling you to do as a Christian, use money wisely and be a good steward over it. What I want to do is I want to make enough money to feed my wife. All my kids are gone now, but I want to lay up a treasure for my children and grandchildren. But first I tithe to the work of God. Always first, always first. That's between me and God. And I'm not going to tell you what percentage I use. That's between me and God. My goodness. We could go on and on about this. I don't know how much time you have. I don't even know how much time I have. I'm going to wait for the producers to start yelling at me. Proverbs. Oh, wow, here it is. Proverbs 13:22. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. I just said that. I didn't even know that was the next verse that was printed out. Did you know that as elderly people, we are not to borrow or we're not to lean upon our children for help? Did you know that as elderly people, we are to have blessed our children so that they are blessed because we have seen to it that we're not a burden to them? So in other words, if we got our home and we paid it off, we are now no longer a burden to our children and our children's children because we'll never be homeless. Or if you buy in America, a lot of people can, after they pay their home off, they can buy a second home or they can reinvest in other things. That's great. That's great. Just don't become a burden to your children or your children's children, but rather a blessing. President Trump, I don't know if you know about this. President Trump just initiated the Trump. The Trump. Anybody know what that's called, you guys? The Trump Savings Account for children. It's never happened before in the history of America. Trump initiated the Trump Savings Plan for children that are born from 1920. From 20. Born from 2025 on. The government puts a certain amount of money. I think it's in the thousands, two, three or $4,000, something like that. Oh, it's $1,000. The government of the United States of America. Trump said this is a good idea. By the way, he did this with his kids. That's the way he's doing it for you, which is great. Everybody, you know, I don't care what you think about him. He did a great thing here. And kids get a government account with $1,000 deposited in it that's managed by the United States government and it's tied to the market. And when they become 18 years of age, they get a note from the United States government saying, you have this much money now that has earned interest and increased in percentage, and it was $1,000 that grew in the stock market. And here you go. Trump did that. The Bible said that thousands of years ago. It's awesome. And then we'll have to end with this. My goodness. 31 minutes. Malachi, chapter three, verse ten. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, God says, and try me now in this thing, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessings, that there will not be room enough to receive it. Such blessings. Let me end with this. What is such blessings? This is a test, right? This is a test of the national broadcast. Listen. This is a test by the National Security Agency. This is a test. Give to God's causes, whatever God's concerned about, and he will return to you blessings. What does that mean? If you think money, you're thinking wrong. I want you to take a deep breath and relax. Think bigger. Think bigger. There's a lot, a lot that's bigger than money. Put God first. Support his work. He'll bless you back with blessings. You can have a billion dollars and you cannot buy health. What if God blesses you with health? You can have a trillion dollars, but you have rotten relationships with your wife or your husband or family. You can't buy it. Two different economies. You know what God does? God says, you know what I'm going to do? This is what I'm going to do because you put me first. I'm going to bless you back. And let him bless you back. Don't tell him. Well, that means I'm going to get a raise. It could. I don't care about that. I'd rather have my life favored by the grace of God. Good relationships with my kids, grandkids, my staff, the ministries, businesses, people, health, influence. Come on, you can have all the money in the world and you can't influence anybody. What if God gives you favor? To influence people? That's precious. Well, there's one thing that God did not bless us with, and that is with enough time. Which means God who is sovereign knows that 34 minutes is time to stop. So, you guys, thanks for joining. If you'd like to hear more stuff, if you'd like me to expound more on some of these things. Was this too practical to you or what about other topics? Please, we'd love to hear from you. Give me ideas, give me topics. I bumped into a kid. Where was I? It doesn't matter where I was. It was very recent. This young man, I'm impressed. He's 17 years old. The guy was like 6 4. And he said, pastor Jack, I listen to your podcasts all the time. I said, oh my gosh, that's great. You just blessed me, man, by saying that you listened to an old guy talk to you about life. And he said, no, no man, I'm just loving it. And I said, you could really do me a favor if you just sent me ideas and questions and thoughts from your generation that you represent. He said, I'd love to. I'm going to do it. I said, great, do it. Please, friend, do that. What do you want me to talk about from a biblical worldview? What do you want me to talk about? This is something we just got done talking about that otherwise did not look like a biblical worldview issue, did it? And look how much in short period of time does the Bible talk about you and I staying clear, dangerous, free from on guard against the love of money? Nope. The Christian call is be wise to use money, if it's even a widow's might a little bit. Be faithful in that and God will make you faithful in more. And that's not just money. Make you faithful in more of life. Until next time, God bless you guys.