How To Have It All (250)

0:00 I want to welcome you to the 250th podcast of Quality Christian Living. I am your host, David Friend. This is a pretty exciting moment for me because I guess a couple years ago I didn't realize that we would be this far along in such a short period of time. But we're in a series dealing with success and abundant living and what prosperity is all about. Today's podcast is entitled How to Have it All. We're going to get into what having it all really means and how it applies to possessions. We'll look into the good and bad sides of being successful because some people receive financial success and they're just not prepared for it.

0:42 They're not spiritually ready to know how to deal with it. And how does a Christian keep in balance the blessings of God, the spiritual blessings of God, and the financial and other blessings of God? I'll comment on the question, what is success? But before we do that, let's pray because I don't want to do anything without the Holy Spirit's guidance and direction. Heavenly Father, thank you once again for who you are, for your word, your promises, and for the gift of our salvation. That gift came with a great price where Jesus gave his life for us. I pray now that you would bless everything that's said today. For those who are listening in, I pray, Lord, a special blessing and anointing would be upon them. Father, they'll receive something special from you today and you'll get a better understanding of how success and abundant living and even prospering should be a part of our life.

1:30 I just believe that. I believe it's going to be a very special podcast. I'm looking forward to it and I pray you would bless it, anoint it, and I'll be careful to give you the praise for it. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Well, I hope that you've come today prepared to receive something from the Lord because I believe the Lord has given me some insight as to how to help people understand that as a Christian, we can be fathers of Jesus Christ. We can be successful. We can be spiritually successful and financially successful. Our lives can have wonderful positive things taking place in it. We can live that abundant life, but we've got to understand how it all ties together and how it relates. So I pray that this particular podcast would open up the hearts and the minds of those Lord who are listening in.

2:15 So let's just get into it right now because I really want everyone to understand what do I mean when I say how to have it all? Because that's the title of this particular podcast. I've even thought about doing a book entitled How to Have It All because I believe it's such a strong statement for Christians and non-believers. A lot of people who are not Christians think that, well, if you become a Christian, you've got to be poor, you've got to be weak, you've got to be timid, you can't be successful, you can't have a nice home or a nice car. And that's really sad because there's really no restrictions on those things in the word of God. It doesn't tell us that we cannot have. All it talks about is what we can have and what we can receive and how to live the kind of life that we should live in order to receive the blessings that God wants to put in our life.

3:04 Now, when we talk about the blessings of the Lord, we're going to talk about possessions a little bit because possessions that we have are a part of the blessings of God. But I want to talk more about things other than just possessions, although they're great. I want to talk about how to be successful and also how to have faith and how to be a faithful Christian, how to have success in our walk with God and how to have success in our business and the activities that we have, how to live life and live it more abundantly. Remember, those are the words that Jesus said. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 10 that the devil comes around to kill, to steal and destroy. But he says, but I've come to give life and to give it more abundantly.

3:44 So here are some examples of what I'm speaking about in this whole area of how to have it all. As a pastor, members would often come to me and they'd say, pastor, there's so many things I want to do, but I just, I don't have the time or I don't have the finances to do it. They might say something like, well, I'd like to tie the, I'd like to give 10% of my income, but I can't do that because I can't afford to pay my bills. And I have to stop them and say, wait a minute, just a second. The word of God says that we can do both. We can pay our ties and our offerings to the church and still have plenty of money left over to pay our bills. And people will look at me sometimes and say, well, I just don't know how that's possible. Well, let me just insert a little comment here about a book that I wrote.

4:26 It's entitled, Experience the Joy of Dead Free Living. In that book, I talk about how to have it all, how to be able to tithe and pay your bills and save money and prepare for your retirement. Those are things that we can do. And the devil wants to rob us and say, well, just don't pay tithe because you can't do that. But you see, when we pay tithe, we become a better steward of what we have. People would tell me I can't afford to pay my bills and still give 10% to my church. But that statement, you got to think about that, that statement limits God. You see, we can tithe and pay our bills and have retirement money and go on vacations. We can do it all because God's word shows us how to do that.

5:07 When we decide to tithe, we must become better managers of what we have. Now, this is not a whole podcast on tithing, and you'll see that very quickly. Some Christians, they tell me that they can't find time to pray because their schedule is so busy. But if we pray first, then the rest of our time will be led of God. So we can have it all. We can pray and still have time for other things. Some believe that prayer is just something that you've got to set aside and you've got to block out huge amounts of time in order to spend time in it. That's just not prayer at all. Prayer can be 10 seconds, just stopping and seeking God. It can be an hour of prayer.

5:48 It can be a two-minute prayer. The point of it is we can find time to pray if we pray. Because if we pray, the Lord will help us to balance out all our other activities and our busy schedules. Very couples will say to me that they can't find time to spend time together because they have their children and their children takes up all of their time. So they can't do both. Well, that's just not true. I believe if we spend time alone as a couple, we will find a way to have both time alone and time with our children. Think about that. Many times when my wife and I would have, when we have a date night or when we would go away for a couple of days to just get away from the kids and just have a great time to be together.

6:28 What do we wind up talking about? The kids. We talked about those things. You might say, well, that's not a vacation. Yes, it is. You love your kids. We loved our children. We wanted to talk about them. We were concerned about them. But what's really important is when we spent time together, all of a sudden we found out a way that we could spend time together alone and also have all the time that we need to be parents and be good parents of our children. What I'm trying to show you is that we can have it all. We can live life more abundantly. We can live life more successfully. To me, how to have it all is defined throughout the Word of God in many, many scriptures. I'll just give you a couple here.

7:08 As Paul wrote, he gave us an example of living life where we can have it all. The apostle Paul wrote a very popular scripture. People quote it all the time. I don't think a lot of people understand the strength and the power and the broad range of areas that that particular scripture, the one I'm going to read you, really how it applies in our life. The apostle Paul talks about how to have it all. It's found in Philippians chapter 4 verses 4 through 8 in the New Living Translation. These words are words of encouragement from Paul. The apostle Paul knew that Christians needed to be encouraged. There was a lot of stress. There was a lot of attack on them both physically, emotionally, financially.

7:50 They were constantly under attack. He knew they need to be encouraged. So he wrote these incredible words to show us that we can have life and have it all. We can have life and have it more abundantly. So I'm reading it once again in Philippians chapter 4 verses 4 through 8 in the New Living Translation. Always be full of joy in the Lord. Let's just stop right there. Always be full of joy in the Lord. As a matter of fact, Paul felt that that was so important that he said, after he said that, he said, I say it again. Rejoice. He's saying, learn how to rejoice. Learn how to love God. Learn how to be happy in our relationship with God. First five, let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.

8:30 Remember, the Lord is coming soon. He's reminding these people that God's coming soon. Now people say, well, wait a minute. That was 2,000 years ago. And he said, coming soon. Well, coming soon in relationship to God's timing is a lot different than coming soon in our relationship. I believe that God is coming soon. Does that mean he's coming tomorrow? He could. He might. I'm ready if he does. If you're not a Christian, give your life to Jesus. Just say, I'm sorry for my sins. I surrender to you. I want you as my Lord and Savior. I promise to serve you. We need to get our relationship right with God because he could come tomorrow. But he's coming soon. And then he says in verse 6, don't worry about anything.

9:12 What amazing words those are. A lot of times I would preach that in church and I would read it. And then after the sermon, I'd go home and I'd think, you know, I should have spent more time talking about what it means to not worry. And then here Paul is telling you this. You see, we can't have it all. We can't have the blessings of God be faithful in church, give help to other people and still have enough time to take care of ourselves and our own needs. So he says in verse 6, don't worry about anything. Instead he says, pray about everything. So if you want to know how you can have it all in life, how you can prosper in all things and be in good health, even as your soul prospers, then we've got to what? Not worry about anything. And instead, instead of the worry time, let's convert that into prayer time.

9:55 So the next time we have something to worry about and you're thinking about it, I suggest you get a piece of paper and you write down your worry. Now this may seem silly to you, but I believe it's a good teaching. Write down the word, don't worry. And then write down your worry. And then when you look at it, pray about it. And I'm going to tell you something, by the time you're through praying about it, that worry will go away. That anxiety will either lighten up or totally disappear in our life because that's just the way God explains it in his word. We need to bring everything to him. When we do that, he's going to help us. So Paul says here again, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. That means everything. Now when he says everything, does that mean we should pray about where we should go have dinner?

10:37 I think it does. Everything, does that mean we should pray which direction maybe we should take, which route we should take when we're driving to church or when we're going to a friend's house or something? I think there's nothing wrong with that. I know when my wife and I get in the car and we back out of the car, before we actually put the car in reverse, we get out and come out of our garage, I pray, Father, would you guide and direct us? Would you help us, Lord, to be safe? I plead the precious blood of Jesus over us that we be protected from any evil, danger or harm. I pray you would bless us, Lord, while we're out driving around and you'd bless the home where we're away and we thank you for that in Jesus' name. We just can't pull out of the driveway without doing that. Now, some of you might say, oh, now that's just a little over the top. I don't think so. I don't think so at all because it starts us off on our little journey, whether it's just to go up to the bank or get something to eat or go visit someone or go to church because I think before we start out, we're putting our hands, ourselves, in the hands of God, putting our lives in the hands of God.

11:31 It's simple, make it routine, make it a habit and if you do it 10 or 12 straight times, it'll become a daily habit for you. So just a suggestion, don't get mad at me, but it says, pray about everything. And it says, tell God what you need. Well, that's what we need to do if we want to be blessed to receive what everything God has for us, the spiritual blessings of God and even the abundant living financial things that God wants to give us, or even the prospering that God says is okay for us to have. We've got to put it all together and believe that we can have those things and still grow closer to God. And you see, a lot of people don't want to hear a teaching on success or prospering because they think it draws people away from God. Well they're right, it can.

12:11 Yes, it can. It can draw people away from God if people get blessed financially too much to where they don't know how to handle it. They're not spiritually prepared for it. So therefore they mishandle the financial blessing and it takes them out of church or takes them away from being faithful to the things of God or they do things that they shouldn't do or go places where they shouldn't go and I can understand that talking about success and prospering and those things can be difficult for people. But I believe that God wants us to have it all. He wants us to have success. He wants us to have spiritual success and he wants us to have financial success. He wants churches to be successful and if success doesn't mean that they'll be lifted up or that the church is all puffed up about look what we've done.

12:55 I know the success is to give God glory and to reach out and help other people and draw us closer to God. That's what true success really is all about is living God's purpose for our life, operating in his will and seeking things that will be pleasing to God. That's true success and in that we can be blessed not only spiritually but financially. Alright I know this is an interesting way to describe it but I really believe this with all my heart. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Here's the apostle Paul giving us once again the steps to having it all. He says tell God what you need and then thank him for what he's done. I always like to start off saying Lord I just thank you for who you are. I don't like to start off by saying Lord thank you for answering this prayer and thank you for answering that prayer and think of it.

13:38 Kind of like to start off by saying Lord thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you've done for us. If I do that I'll keep things in proper perspective and then thank him for a healing or answered prayer or something very special that he's done for us. But we've got to remember that we don't need to tell God what we need and thank him for all he's done. Verse 7, then it says, look at that after all that other stuff has happened, then you will experience God's peace. Which exceeds anything we can understand. By the way that's prosperity by the way to live in peace. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Now that's success. That's prosperity. That's abundant living is to have peace.

14:19 It doesn't mean that you've got a nicer car than your neighbor. Although you might, you might not. That doesn't really matter. You have peace. And you have peace regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what you're going through. Regardless of what we go through we've got to be at peace with God. And verse number 8 draft this particular scripture up. And now it says, alright he said all that up. He says, what he said was let's recap it real quick. Be full of joy for the Lord and let everyone be considered of them and remember that God's going to come soon and don't worry and pray and bring everything to God and tell him what you need and he'll give you peace and all that. Then he says, and now he says, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. And this final thing is probably just as important. As a matter of fact it is just as important as anything else he said because when he said this one final thing this really brings it all together.

15:05 Fix your thoughts on what is true. You want to have success spiritually and financially and in your life and everything you do then fix your thoughts on what is true because a pure mind is pleasing to God. And honorable it says things that are honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Listen to this. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. I tell you I could give this podcast over and over again and if I didn't refer to the words that Paul spoke of in Philippians chapter 4 verses 4 through 8 in the New Living Translation or whatever translation you have, if I didn't bring those words up I'd be missing the point of how to have it all. We can have all that God desires for us.

15:47 We can live in God's purpose for us. We can live in God's will. We can have a balanced life. We can have financial success. We can have friends and family. We can pay our tithes, pay our bills and save for our retirement. We can do all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ and the promises found in his word. We're going to move on now because I need to define just simply the word success. Let me take a look at success for Christians. Success is doing God's will in everything we undertake. I think you have to agree with that. It's living life abundantly according to God's purpose for us. It's success in marriage, in parenting, in work, at church, in our health issues, in our family issues.

16:36 Everything that we do, God provides a plan for abundant living and success. We can have it all. Spiritual growth and success, spiritual maturity and abundance, spiritual increase and prosperity. In Proverbs 19, 21, New Living Translation, it says this, you can make many plans but the Lord's purpose will prevail. So in order to know what success is, we've got to operate in God's purpose. We can plan all that we want but it better line up with God's purpose for us and his will for our life. I have another scripture I think that tells us that we can have everything in life. We really can. It's found in John chapter 14 and verse 12.

17:16 It's in the New Living Translation. I tell you the truth. Anyone, this is Jesus speaking, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and even greater works because I'm going to be with the Father. Now some people say, well, how does that prove your point that we can have it all? Well, what Jesus is saying is there's no limits on us. There's no limit to what we can accomplish through Christ Jesus and we can have more than what we think we can have because Jesus says that we'll be able to accomplish more than what we think we can. What did Jesus mean when he said greater works we would do? Now this does not mean that we would be greater than Jesus because if anyone has ever told you that, that's ridiculous.

18:02 There's no way that he's talking about that. Let me give you five little points here I think that proves what Jesus meant and what he was referring to us and what he was telling us in that scripture, John chapter 14 and verse 12. The first one is Jesus trusted his disciples. When he made that statement to them that they would do greater works because he trusted them. Now, just like he trusts us, have you ever related to that? Jesus trusts us just as much as he trusts them. When we first became Christians, when we become Christians, we do not have to earn the trust of Jesus. All along in our life we don't have to earn the trust of Jesus. He trusts us. He has confidence in us. He wants us to be blessed. Now obviously if we make a mistake we've got to repent of that and ask God to forgive us.

18:46 That does not mean we're getting saved all over again. I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is that when we make a mistake we should be regretful of it and be sorry for it. We just wrap up point number one with Jesus trusted his disciples just like he trusts us. Here's point two on what Jesus was talking about in that scripture, John 14-12. Jesus knew the Holy Spirit would be with us and gift us with supernatural gifts just like he had. He said you'll do greater works. The Holy Spirit would be with us and we've been many, many more years than he did on this earth. Jesus said that word because he knew the Holy Spirit would be there to help us. Point three, Jesus worked his adult ministry for only three years.

19:27 Jesus knew his disciples and all his followers would be available to work in ministry longer than he did on earth. Point four, Jesus knew that our wants and desires would be God's wants and desires as long as we are led by the Spirit of God. And point five, Jesus saw great potential in his followers just like he does you and I, he sees great potential in us. We've got to remember that. We can't allow ourselves to be robbed of the blessings of God and the goodness of God by going around feeling like well I can't do this and I can't do that and if I do that then I can't have that, that type of thing. We've got to let that go and ask God to direct those things.

20:10 So I think I've proven my point. I think I've said enough on it so I'm going to move on. Now as we're closing out to the end of this podcast on how to have it all, let's look at greater works Jesus spoke to his disciples and future followers kind of in a different manner. Let me just give you some comments. I want to express how our God looks at us. It's so important to accept the promises Jesus made to his disciples because these promises were for us today. Our inability can be clothed with God's ability. Let me repeat that. Our inability, what we lack can be clothed with God's ability and who he is and what he can do. Man, we can't be limiting ourselves.

20:53 Let God be God. Let him do what he wants to do, how he desires to do. I'm not saying we have any way to control what God does. I'm just saying allow God to do in our lives what he wants to do in our lives. Our lack can be replaced with God's abundance. However, in order to have it all, we need to have the evidence that God's Word is in us and that we understand God's will and his purpose for us. We can have success and prosper and have abundant living if we live for Christ and bless the kingdom of God with our success, our prospering and our abundance. See the reason that we are blessed is to be a blessing.

21:34 When God gives something to us and blesses his people, he does it so that we can then extend that blessing to others. To meet our needs, yes, and to take care of us and provide for us, but also to bless others. We must believe that God desires. He wants to bless us. God wants to bless us, but we must be made available to his leading, his guidance and his direction through the Holy Spirit. Moses told God to get someone else, remember, to lead Israel because he said, if I can't speak, I'm kind of tongue-tied, I just can't speak. But eventually, Moses surrendered to God's will. So we need to yield to God. When he tells us something to do, when the Holy Spirit says, volunteer at the church or be extra kind to your family or to your wife or to a friend or do something to bless someone else, we've got to listen to that inner voice, that still quiet voice that tells us what we need to do in, quite frankly, every situation.

22:26 As I close this podcast, let me give you seven words to think about. Just these seven words. I believe it'll help you understand what I'm talking about that we can have it all. Here are the seven words, where some see nothing, God sees everything. You know, I wrote a book entitled, Receive Everything From What Others Call Nothing. It's a book designed to tell us and help us understand what the apostle Paul was teaching in the book of Romans chapter four and verse 17, where he basically says to learn how to call forth things that are not as though that they are and not to give up on past dreams. That means not to give up on things that you believe could have happened or should have happened or needed to happen in your life and you kind of gave up on them.

23:10 Maybe you had a dream to be a painter, but you gave up on it. Maybe you had a dream to write a book. Maybe you kind of prayed that someday you could go to college or whatever it might be. We should not give up on those things unless we know that the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to go in that direction. So this podcast was designed to help us understand that we can call forth those things that are not as though they are. We can tie and still have finances to take care of everything else. We can spend time in church and bless the work of the church and still spend plenty of time with our family. We can be a married couple and we can go out and have a date or we can get away for a little bit of time and still have plenty of time to be with our children. So please don't just look at things in your past and say, well, I just can't do that anymore.

23:53 Pray about it, seek God about it and know His will in your life because God sees what we think is nothing. God sees everything and everything is possible with our God. We must not continue where we are today if we have dreams for tomorrow. Why not go where the Holy Spirit wants us to go? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity I've had. I pray that you would bless those who listened in. I really believe you bless this podcast. It was one I look forward to doing. It's been delayed a couple of weeks in getting it together and getting it written. But Lord, I know now, God, Lord, the reason that you have me speak this because I believe there's people out there right now who need to dream again.

24:36 They need to believe that not to give up on their past dreams and hopes and the things that they desire. I pray that you would bless them and I pray there are people that put limits on God and say, well, I can't do that and I can't do that. No, with God, all things are possible. So I pray that they would receive that word and walk in it and I pray that God will bless them. I pray that all of us will understand that where God sees everything when we see nothing is very important to understand. We've got to realize when we don't think something is possible, we've got to stop and say, but to God, all things are possible. So Father, bless each one that's listened in today. I pray that they would prosper. I pray that you would bless them, that you would help them.

25:18 I pray that they would understand the significance of success first spiritually to grow in the Lord and then receive the blessings of the Lord and understand that you desire for them to live the abundant life. Otherwise, Jesus would not have said that in the word of God. So Father, once again, I pray a special blessing on all those who've listened in today and I'll give you praise and give you glory in advance for what's going to take place. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, I hope that you've been blessed by this. I've enjoyed it. It's been fun and challenging at times. But on the other hand, what isn't challenging that has value? Anything that we accomplish in life, if we didn't put much effort into it, then it may not have been really anything that's all that great and all that important to us.

25:59 So it's important we understand that we need to press into God. And when we press into him and draw close to him, then he'll draw near to us. So I pray that you've been blessed by this. If you would like to know more about quality Christian living, that's the name of our podcast. You can go to my webpage at davidseatfriendauthor.com. And when you go to my webpage, the front page popping out, the very front page, will have a link there to all my podcasts. This is podcast number 250. So that tells you there's a lot of podcasts and a lot of topics that we've covered. We've covered areas dealing with prosperity. We've talked about the issues of faith, faith for miracles. We did a long series on that. I had a series of about 20 podcasts on how to have a Christian business.

26:39 I did another series on how to get out of debt, and that was probably another 10 or 15 or more podcasts dealing with that. We've talked about the importance of drawing close to God. I had a series of messages on the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit and how to operate in those gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. So there's a lot of things there that are available to you. So I hope that you would scroll down the list and find something of interest to you and let your friends know about these teachings that are taking place. So once again, I'm so thankful that you've listened in today. And I would encourage you to let your friends know that we're going to continue our teaching in the area of success. Now my next podcast that I'm going to do for two sessions in a row, I'm going to be addressing things to our veterans.

27:20 You might want to let your veteran friends know that we're doing a series. Every year I take at least two or three podcasts out and do a couple of them right around Veterans Day, which is on the 11th of November. So in that area, every year I'll do a couple of podcasts for our veterans. Me, interest in them is always quite surprising to me and it's some of the largest attended podcasts that I do each and every year. So I pray that you would let them know. That'll be the next two podcasts that I do. And then when we come back from that, I'll be picking up a new beginning back into this series and it's going to be entitled, that'll be like three podcasts from now. It is a spiritual battle to have success. And I'm telling you, you'll want to get this one. You'll want to listen to it because the Lord's giving me some very special things to share with you.

28:02 And I thank you for listening in. I just have a few closing words for you. First of all, if you would like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that by going to cpnshows.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you're interested in any of the books that I've written that I refer to in this podcast, you'll find them at the at momfront page on davidseefrendauthor.com. There's a list of the number of books that I've written that will maybe have helped you and I pray that they'll bless you. So with that, let me close with these words. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. May you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. So until next time, may God richly bless you and may you receive the fullness of God's blessing for you to have success, abundant living and prosper.

28:52 Thank you again for listening into quality Christian podcast. This has been podcast number 250. I'm your host, David Friend.