Faithful Finance - Part 1

June 19, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Faithful Financie - Part 1 

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Alive, applying God's word to your daily life.

As we finish the book of Deuteronomy, we're going to step aside for a few weeks and publish a workshop I did in August of 2024 called Faithful Finance. In that workshop, I explained our current economy, our current financial situation,

and did it from an economic background and a historical background, and most importantly, did it from a biblical perspective. In that workshop, you're going to find out why we are where we are as an.

As a nation, as far as our economy and what we should be looking at and why we should be looking at it for the future, not only for the future of the finances of individuals, but the future of the finances for our churches and for our country.

And so I would encourage you to just spend some time listening. Even though it is being published here a year later,

it is still true and it is still current for today.

Over time, I've had not only a couple of people, but on my own heart,

a desire to at least explain this to you, to the church, and to God's people in a way that will help people understand some things. Now, the first thing I want you to get, and this is really, really important that you understand this.

I'm not really telling you to do anything with this information. I'm not telling you to buy anything.

I'm not even telling you to act upon this information.

There's going to be a lot of Bible in it. So obviously,

if the Holy Spirit tells you do something about the scripture we go over, then I would ask you to act on.

But the information that we're giving out this morning is not information telling you to buy anything, because I don't really.

I would not want you to do that if you're not in a position to do it or you don't think that that's what the Holy Spirit's leading you to do.

I would just say to you to take this information just like we do on Sunday morning, just like you do in the world. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you.

And if God says do something, do it. If God doesn't say do anything,

then you just remain still until he does.

And so I'm not selling anything. This is not about that.

Some of y' all will be looking here and saying, where is Kathleen? She must be against this. No, she's for buying a wedding dress for Becca. So they're in Birmingham this morning buying a wedding dress, and I was told I couldn't go.

So I'm Here y' all are. My second choice this morning. I would have been in Birmingham buying a wedding dress, but I was told that's not for the bride's father to do.

And so I don't know all those rules. I've not.

I've not really studied up on those rules. So I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds right. All right,

questions. We're going to have questions here this morning. I'm sure you will. What we're going to try to do is going to try to take a break at 10 and take a break at 11 for a few minutes during that time period.

I'll just stay up here unless I really need to run to the bathroom. And I'll take questions during the. During the break time and people will be able to hear me.

I'll just be able to speak the answers. Questions out and then answer the question as best I can. I will tell you this. A lot of. This is a lot of what we're going to be talking about.

I'm not going to be as fluid at because I'm going to be talking about worldly things,

just to be honest.

And the Holy Spirit might not give me unction in that area like he does on Sunday morning.

A lot of times we have questions and comments during teaching, times that I do, and I don't know the answer to it, but the Holy Spirit does, and he tells me while I'm talking.

So I don't want you to think that I'm going to have all the answers to this, because I'm sure not. You go, well,

how did you get here? How did we get to the place where we're here today talking about this? Well,

I'm going to be honest with you. One of my idols is football. Did y' all know that?

All right. And you know that that season, that beloved season is coming upon us even as we speak. And one of the things that I love to do as far as football is concerned,

and it's. It's purely for the most important game possible,

and that's pride. I play fantasy football. Okay.

And that's. That's a joke, too.

We play for no money. But I have family and friends that I play in a fantasy football league with, actually two fantasy football leagues with.

And winning the championship during the year is one of the most important things that I do during the year is to win that. I try to win that. Okay? And it's purely for competitive pride with my nephews and family members and friends.

So I do A lot of research in that. And about three or four years ago,

especially with my.

I have an economics degree from Princeton,

and I have historically done a lot of research into economics just for church matters, just to have an understanding of what's going on in the world and be able to make application to the world.

So, you know, over the years, I've always studied economics. And y' all do know I have a great love for science and especially for philosophy and physics.

And so I love to study those things even though I have no application for them other than just to tell you things about the Bible. And we're going to even talk about some of that.

And so my wife told me about three years ago, she said, why don't you.

When it's not football season, why don't you start doing some research on,

you know, how to take all that stuff you got in your head and make money with it, okay?

And, and. And, you know, I thought about it and I came to the conclusion, you know, probably that's a good idea. Ought to do that. And so I began, you know, I just.

I began the journey. And the first thing I thought of, well, as I'll just start researching stocks.

And the more I research stocks, and I did pretty good job finding some stocks to invest in and making a little money off of it.

The more I real.

I researched it, the more I realized there are so many variables that play with every stock. And I tell you that if you don't know anything, you know, who runs the company,

what industry they're involved in,

how that industry's being affected.

Well, let me just say this about economics. As an economics major,

economics is called science. Did y' all know that?

But they put a word in front of it called the dismal science, okay? Which means it's just terrible. And the reason it's terrible is,

is because there's no real way to study economics, because every day the world changes and is permanently changed and is not the same as it's ever going to be before.

See, time has such a huge effect on economics that it's hard for you to really come to a.

You can't come to a solid understanding of something because something can fundamentally change just in an instant. It can change in an instant. And then how we invest and how we do these things is really, really difficult.

Okay? And so I realized, you know, there's got to be something that is. Is. There's got to be something, or maybe there's not. Lord,

there's got to be something that's what I was saying to God, there's got to be something that is. Is. Is more firm. And he says, well, sure there is. And so I'm going to take you through what God kind of gave me in my mind, in my heart, as far as an understanding of what I kind of already knew.

And I've said some of this to y' all over the last few years. Some of this stuff. You'll. You'll have heard me mentioned before during a sermon or something like that, just because God laid it on my heart to understand it.

And I want you to take it. And this is for your edification,

okay? Oftentimes Paul says that in Scripture, I'm writing this for your edification. What does that mean for your growth? For you just to have it and information for you to have.

And then you may act upon it. And I hope you do, because I hope the Holy Spirit leads you to act upon it in some way. And it may not have anything to do with economics,

but we're going to start with the Word of God and God's work. And I think that's where we always need to start.

Psalm 33. 6 says this. It says,

by the word of the Lord.

Notice,

by the word of the Lord,

the heavens were made,

and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Okay?

So the scripture is saying that everything was created by God. We know that from John 1. Also,

John 1 says, everything was created by him. And it's talking about Jesus.

And it says that nothing that was created was not created by Him.

Now,

that's an important fact. In fact, this Sunday, we're going to talk about this.

God made the universe. And there is a law at the front of that universe that he made.

Actually, there's two laws.

And those laws define created from creator,

okay? Those laws defined created from creator.

And those laws deal with.

Deal with how the universe exists and how it functions.

And it deals with how mass and matter can't be made or destroyed and how energy cannot be made or destroyed.

Only God makes matter.

Okay? Only God makes energy.

Does that make sense to you? And we're going to talk about that in just a minute. But in Genesis 1:3,

it says, Then God said, let there be light, and there was light. This is Genesis 1:3. Now, the issue is that why did God have to say, let there be light?

Well,

Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, okay? Which means he created the universe that we live in.

In Genesis 1:2,

it says this.

It says that the heavens and the earth became formless and void,

okay?

It says that the heavens and the earth, they. They. They became.

I'm gonna use a word to. For you because it. It translates back and forth, but it is an explanation of formless and void. It became chaotic,

okay? Now, Isaiah tells us that God did not create the heavens and the earth chaotic.

Formless and void uses the same phrase, okay? Which means that something caused the heavens and the earth to become chaotic, okay? And that would have been a creature created by God.

And we come to understand that Satan,

who was placed over Lucifer, was placed over the universe. He fell,

okay? Took a third of the angels with him, and God's creation had what is, in essence, not God in it. Romans 1 tells us that all that might be known about God and what it's talking about is not his specific revelation to you.

But what it says is all that might be known about God can clearly seen his divine nature, his eternal qualities can clearly be seen in that which was created,

okay?

So what that means is that God's nature and who he is came out and what he made,

just like.

And I don't know anything about this either, okay?

But y' all know when people go to museums and art galleries and they look at the picture and they say, well, you know, he was feeling this when he painted that.

And I'm not making fun of it, although I am, because I have no clue what they're talking about,

but they know what they're talking about. They can see certain things in whatever they were made. I know that. You know, if.

If the coach calls quarterback snake, he must think his quarterback can get the first down. I do know that. Are you with me? But I don't. Not sure about the painting.

But I do know that God was an artist in making it. I mean, that's obvious that he was an artist when he made his universe. And so when he says that you can look at his creation and see the qualities of himself in it,

well, that's obvious.

And then understanding that's important because now I can know how things actually are.

I can understand them from God.

So once we get to that place where we understand that,

well, we can begin to look for,

in my mind, opportunities to know what's a value and what's not a value, okay?

And as far as God's concerned,

when Satan fell, now we have something that even defines God more. And you go, well, what do you mean by that?

Well,

really, it's hard to know what is without anything to show me what's not.

Does that make sense to you?

All right?

And I'm explaining that principle.

It's easy for me to say that the chairs most of you're sitting in are black,

right?

But if your only concept of color is black because you only know that color, then you really don't understand.

But if I take my 2 year old granddaughter and I say this is green,

this is black,

this is red, if she's not colorblind, which her father is colorblind, so she could be colorblind. But if she's not colorblind, she can see what black is in reference to what?

Red, yellow, white, green, orange.

She, you can look at it and see. All right?

Now when Satan fell,

Satan chose what was not God's will,

not God's plan, not God's way.

So now I can see who God is in his creation.

This is general revelation of the world.

And I can see what's not God through recognizing evil.

All right?

And so oftentimes I'll use that philosophical understanding.

I'll say this is God and not God.

And understanding that is very, very important.

So I can say this is God's will.

I can say this is not God's will. And then I can say, well, I don't know yet. I haven't seen, I don't have an idea yet. God has not revealed to me what his will is.

But I know that there's fundamental foundations where I can decide that. I can decide it off his general revelation in the universe and how he's made things.

I can determine it off of his specific revelation in Jesus Christ. Who is the Word made flesh. This is John 1,

who is the Word made flesh.

I can see it based off of his specific revelation of Jesus Christ.

Okay. He is the Lord God who spoke the universe into existence.

Makes sense.

And then I can know it personally.

A personal revelation how I fit in this creation by the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the counselor. God sent me to take the General and Jesus and, and His Word and apply it to the situation I'm in.

And then I have my personal revelation from God. God is revealing to me and by the way,

my historical background as far as my, my back. That was one of the fundamental principles of the church that I came out of, which was the Baptist churches, is the fundamental principle of priesthood of believers.

Okay.

The two really, the three really overriding principles is the autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of the believer, and the preeminence of God's Word. Okay.

Those were the historical teachings of the Baptist church. And I believe in all three of them. I believe in the autonomy of the local congregation.

I sure enough believe in the priesthood of the believer. Meaning each believer has a right to spend time with God, have a personal relationship with God, and.

And wrestle with God about their life and about the world that they live in. And God reveal Himself in them, and that he would ultimately glorify Himself through them in that struggle.

And then,

finally, I believe in the preeminence of God's word. Okay. That it is infallible, it is true,

it is perfect. It is God's revelation to us. Now,

why am I telling you all this? Well, as you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you,

that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today, in Jesus name.