Episode Transcript
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Ralph (00:00):
We've journeyed together for
almost 30 incredible episodes in this
series, and we've worked togetherbuilding powerful financial habits
and finding contentment and reallyanchoring our confidence in Christ.
But now you might be saying, Ralph, whathappens now that the series is ending?
Is financial peace adestination you just reach?
(00:20):
Or can it truly be a lifelongjourney of growth and faithfulness?
Stick with me today 'cause we're gonnaembrace the path forward together.
(00:41):
Hey there, and welcome back to yourdaily, financially Confident Christian.
I'm Ralph and it is great to be hereagain with you today as we talk about
the things of faith, and we answerthat big question, how can I become
a financially confident Christian?
That's our goal.
Today is a really special day as webegin to wrap up this series of dealing
(01:02):
with the stress of money worries.
And over the past 30 days, we'vewalked through major transformation.
We've transformed our mindsets,we've built practical habits, and
we've integrated faith into everyone of those financial decisions.
And if you've been with me the wholetime, I just wanna say thank you and
think about how much you've learned.
And if you miss some of 'em, you canalways go back and check 'em out.
(01:25):
We've explored big topics like challengingconsumerism and cultivating gratitude.
We talked about defining values, trustingGod, breaking that impulse, buying trap,
and making every dollar serve a mission.
And today we're gonna start tobring all those pieces together
and really embrace this ongoingjourney of financial stewardship.
(01:46):
So let's ask this question today.
Am I truly embracing the lifelong journeyof savvy and faithful stewardship?
That's really my focus and my goal today.
Am I truly embracing that lifelongjourney of savvy and faithful stewardship?
And you're listening right now.
Maybe you feel this, you'vemade some incredible progress.
(02:08):
You're feeling more confident,you're feeling less stress.
You're starting to feelsome of that peace.
Part of you says, you know what?
Crap, great, great, great.
30 days I'm done.
I wanna be done with this money work.
I just don't wanna worry about it anymore.
Maybe right now you're afraid that asetbacks gonna undo all your progress.
Man, I've been there.
And see, here's the strugglewe're talking about.
(02:31):
The struggle is really seeingfinancial peace as a destination.
We can't do that.
We can't.
We can't always be looking atfinancial pieces of destination,
some that we've reach and thenHey, hey, destination's over.
We made it, the busstops here and we stop.
' cause that's not howfinancial peace works.
'cause If you do that, you're going tofind yourself in a place of complacency.
(02:52):
You're gonna win and thendiscouragement, and then quitting
after you lose sometimes.
'cause you're not gonna win all the time.
Maybe for you, like me, maybeyou're burdened by perfection.
You just have thisperfectionist mentality.
I've heard many people say that to me,Ralph, you're just such a perfectionist.
Maybe you're listening rightnow and you feel that same way
(03:14):
and you feel burdened by that.
And instead of embracing thisongoing relationship with money,
and more importantly, this ongoingrelationship with God, now I'm done.
God, you've given me what I need.
I'm good.
The problem is that static mindset,that belief that it's just this
destination reach and I'm done.
It causes stress and that stressjust blocks resilience and it
(03:36):
blocks the true growth that youhave the capacity to get to.
Here's the thing I want you to understand.
My big takeaway for today, if you hearnothing else, I say, I got a lot to
say today, but if you hear nothing elseI say today, I want you to hear this.
Financial stewardship isn't a program thatyou just check the boxes and complete.
I can't give you a course on,Hey, financial stewardship.
(03:58):
Here you go.
You've won.
Here's your diploma.
Go enjoy life.
It doesn't work that way.
Financial stewardship is alifelong discipleship journey.
I talk about this onthe show all the time.
It's a journey.
My weight loss right now is a journey.
My, my health, you know,decisions are a journey.
Financial stewards is the same thing.
(04:19):
It's a process of learning,learning new skills, learning to
adapt to some of those skills.
But it's a process.
It's a process of growing.
And when you first started this, youmight say, I, Rob, I even thought
about, donating to charity or tithing.
Man, I'm, I'm up to 20% now.
That's growth.
And I hope at the end of this, atthe end of this series, we're gonna
(04:41):
start another one, just a couple days.
But I hope you're growingthis reliance on God.
'cause here's the thing you gottaunderstand, life brings new seasons
at, at 52, I'll be 53 in September, I'vestarted to realize that life is a bunch
of seasons kind of strung together.
There's this season, there's thatseason, there's seasons of, I
(05:02):
remember when my kids were real young.
That was a season of, I'llcall it early fatherhood.
Then there was a season of, of theterrible twos, and then as they grew older
and then a season of them going to schooland playing sports and high school and
high school graduations, and the seasonof them finding my, my oldest, finding
his, his girlfriend and now wife andtheir seasons ahead with grandchildren,
(05:23):
we pray and all those type of things.
Life brings those seasons and itbrings new opportunities, and you
really have to understand and embracethis journey because your journey,
that journey is a testimony toGod's faithfulness in your life.
Let's look at the scripture book ofPhilippians chapter one, verse six.
(05:43):
This is a beautiful piece of scripture.
It really talks about that journey.
It says, he who began a good work andyou will carry it on to completion.
Until the day of Christ Jesus, hewho began a good work in you began.
That's a journey.
That's a start.
That's a first step.
(06:04):
We'll carry it on to completionuntil the day of Christ.
Just as we all pray for, if you'rea Christian, listen to this show.
You're looking forward tothat day when Christ returns.
That's what we, that's whatwe, that's what we prepare for.
Your finances work the same way.
God will complete his work inyour finances, but it's a journey.
(06:24):
Look at the book of Proverbs,chapter four, verse 18.
It says this, The path of the righteousis like the morning sun shining ever
brighter till the full light of day.
See your faithfulness growsbrighter over time, so you gotta
learn to embrace this journey.
Your ability to manage your financesis going to grow brighter over time.
(06:48):
So embrace the journey.
God is with you in every season.
So learn today.
If you do nothing else today,celebrate your progress.
You've done amazing things.
And maybe say, Rob, I'm just starting.
That's great.
You've made the first step.
You're starting.
Let's keep working together.
Let's keep learning and trust his process.
(07:10):
So now you're saying, okay, great,Ralph, that's what I wanna do.
I wanna be on that journey.
What can I do?
How do I step forward from here and,and live this faith-filled journey of
stewardship that you talk about, Ralph?
Well, here's the solution and thisis the intentionality part of it.
You gotta intentionally commit to lifelonglearning and gracious stewardship.
(07:34):
You've got to live with a mindsetof continuous improvement.
A lot of people don't get that,and I don't know if we do a good
job of training our kids with it.
Hey, you graduated fromhigh school, you're done.
Life doesn't work that way.
You're not done when you graduatefrom high school or you graduate
from college, or you have awife and, and you have a family.
And life doesn't work that way.
Life needs to be a, a set of continuousimprovements and you're gonna stumble.
(07:57):
So you also have to rely on that grace.
So I wanna give you yourone action item for today.
Sure.
One thing, I just want you tocelebrate the journey so far.
Yes, we're gonna start with a celebrationtoday, and in my head, I'm hearing
cool and the gang singing celebration.
You don't want me to sing.
It's not good.
But I want you to take five or 10 minutesto really celebrate your progress.
(08:18):
Those things that, thatyou've accomplished.
Bigger than that, I want you to write oneor two wins down from the last 30 days.
Write them down, put 'em on paper,and look at those and say, yes,
with God's grace I got here,that's gonna fuel your momentum.
The first thing I want you to do,the second thing I want you to do
is make that commitment right now.
Promise yourself to Almighty Godas well to keep learning, commit
(08:43):
to that lifelong learning and thatlifelong growth, and revisit those
key principles whenever you can.
And I'm gonna say at least quarterlyyou go back and re-listen to some
of the episodes we talked about,the different pieces of that puzzle.
I encourage you here nowread a new finance book or,
or take a workshop annually.
I'm gonna encourage youto tune in here every day.
I bring you content every day, butembrace that commitment to lifelong
(09:08):
learning and that lifetime growth.
Another thing I really think willhelp you is what I'm gonna say
is establish a financial Sabbath,maybe monthly or quarterly.
Just sit down and have a time of review.
Reflect on your budget.
It's just real easy to get stuckin that, in that it would just
keep on that process going.
There is a need for a financialSabbath to sort of reflect on where
(09:30):
you are, reflect on your budget.
Say, Hey, you know what?
I put this togetherthree or four months ago.
Does it make sense still?
Am I still doing the things thatthat Ralph said I should do that
I feel, you know, compelled to do?
Am I doing that tracking?
Am I looking at things andcomparing the two sides?
This, how about my giving?
Am I giving the way I should be giving?
Am I stretching that?
(09:50):
Am I, am I being a cheerful giverlike I talked about a few days ago?
Look at your progress.
Am I making progress?
Am I continuing to learn newthings or am I just stuck here?
And then I just want youto do one more thing.
Look at God's provision.
Just thank him for all that he'sgiven you, because the truth
is he has given you so much.
(10:11):
Make that a habit.
And then to do all these things, I'm gonnaencourage you to embrace grace and embrace
that forward motion because listen.
Perfection is not the goal.
I say this on the show routinely.
Some people say to me, Ralph,stop saying it, but it's true.
Perfection is not the goal.
Perfection will get inthe way of progress.
(10:32):
You've got to expect thatyou're going to stumble.
'cause guess what?
You're gonna stumble.
I stumble.
But learn, adjust and then keepgoing because your journey is about
consistency and it's about faith.
He might be saying, Ralph, okay, that'sgreat, but why does this even help?
Because it transforms yourfinances from task to discipleship.
(10:52):
See, I said this theother day about giving.
Giving is really worship.
Well, guess what?
financial stewardship.
That is worship.
'cause you're takingwhat God has given you.
You've taken the provision thatGod has given you and you're doing
what he wants you to do with them.
And that's just gonna build resilience.
It's gonna build resilience withgrace, and it's gonna ensure that
(11:14):
long term you have growth and you haveapplication what God is teaching you.
And the biggest thing it doesis it anchors your journey in
God's presence and God's peace.
And hey, isn't that wherewe all want to be today?
I dunno about you, but I wantto be in God's presence and
I want to be in God's peace.
Well, let's pray together.
Father God, we just thank youfor beginning a good work in us.
(11:37):
Yes, we recognize this isjust the beginning Lord.
This is just the start of a journey.
And Lord, we do confessour desire for quick fixes.
We live in a culture where we wanna havethe answer and we wanna have it now.
We wanna put that behindus and be done with it.
But Lord, we know that'snot how life works.
That's not the seasons that youpromised in your Word, Lord.
And we just ask that you wouldhelp us embrace this lifelong
(11:59):
journey of stewardship.
Lord grant us endurance.
Lord, grant us wisdom and grant usthe grace that we so desperately need.
And strengthen our habits,Lord, and guide our decisions.
And mostly anchor our peacein you and in you alone.
May our finances always reflectyour goodness, and we ask this with
confidence in the name of Jesus, Amen.
(12:22):
I just wanna congratulate you on thislast 29 days, almost 30 tomorrow.
We're gonna do a bit of a recap.
We got some listener questions.
I just wanna congratulate youon completing this journey.
You've made a huge start.
You've taken real steps towardsfinancial transformation, but as I
said, this is just the beginning of alifetime of faith-filled stewardship.
(12:44):
So I just wanna encourage you today, keeplearning, keep applying, keep trusting.
I also wanna say this, it's been an honorto walk with you and we're gonna continue
that walk tomorrow, and if this serieshas blessed you, do me a big favor.
Share it with somebody else.
If it's blessed you,say, Hey, you know what?
I listened to this series from Ralph.
I listen to this show every day.
It's blessed me.
(13:05):
It will bless you too.
You can find all of our episodes and ourresources@financiallyconfidentchristian.com,
and I've got a special gift for you.
I'd love to give you a copy of my book.
It's called Mastering Your Finances.
You can go to financially confidentchristian.com/master and you
can get a free copy of my book.
It's a brief read, but it willbe impactful to your life.
(13:27):
Well, let's all go out there andbe those financially confident
Christians on a mission, on a journey.
'cause you can do this.
I believe in you, and I justwant you to believe in yourself.
Stay financially savvy.
God bless you and youhave a great day today.