Video Transcript: The Gift of Being Thankful and Giving

In some ways, I think it's the most important lesson of all. And that is that we need to be thankful. And we need to be generous givers. I really believe that at the end of the day, the main reason why I teach this class is to teach especially Christians, that without God, we wouldn't really have anything, we wouldn't have life. We wouldn't have health, we wouldn't have our families, we wouldn't have all the opportunities and all the resources to be here. 

Now, sometimes people when they talk about the subject of money, they get nervous because they think, Well, if you talk to him focus so much about money, isn't that going to become your God? And the answer is no, not No, it doesn't have to be it's quite the opposite. When there's a verse in the Bible, where Jesus says, You can't serve God, and mammon, right, because you're going to be with one or not with the other. In other words, you can't serve God and serve money.

Most people would say, Well, I'd rather serve God. And yet, when you think about where they spend the majority of their time, they're spending the majority of their time working for money. Why? Because they're in debt. So where does all of their time and effort go into it goes into paying off debt, they're serving money, and they have no time and no money to serve God, right? Their heart is in the right place, but their time and effort is going somewhere else. To me, what that verse means is that if I want to serve God, I need to make sure that money is serving Me Not that I'm working for money, but that the money is working for me. 

So that I can take that money and serve God with it, because there's many wonderful things that we can do to reach people with that money than with the gospel. So that's why I am so intent on sharing this message of hope and this message of financial freedom with people and especially with Christians, to make sure that you pay off all your debts, and get that burden off of your back so that you can then focus your resources, and serve God with that money. So let's do a quick review of all the things that we've learned because we've come a long way since the beginning of this course. The first thing that we talked about was what is financial success? And why do you want financial success? We tried to discuss the topic of having a purpose in your life, understanding God's will for your life, and what is your calling? Then we discussed why it's important to have dreams in your life, why it's important to have goals, right? Why it's important to turn on that dream machine again, and have a burning desire. 

Once you are focused on what you want, and you have a purpose for why you want it, then we can start talking about the how right, the first thing that we need to get clear upon is our beliefs, our beliefs around money. And what this does, because so many people have a victim mentality. So many people have a poverty or scarcity mentality that it really binds them to poverty and to scarcity. We need to shake those things off once and for all, and realize that our God is all powerful, and he has an abundance of blessings for us, that we need to let go of those old ways of thinking. In the Bible, it says that we need to renew our mind, right, so that we can know what is God's will for our lives. So we need to basically change our beliefs, change our priorities, and start focusing on that which matters most. I already said that it's important to develop the ability to pay ourselves first. 

This means earning more and spending less, right, making money work for us and be wise stewards with the resources that we have. We need to develop a budget a budget is simply a spending plan on how you're going to spend your money to make sure that you make the most use of every penny and every dollar that comes through your hands. We need to learn to become better investors in the best place to invest in yourself. Invest in your money, invest your money in your mind, so that you basically have a better understanding not just of how money works, but have ideas of how the world works, you know, so that you can take advantage of opportunities that come your way to become entrepreneurs, to become investors in God's kingdom. Develop a positive net income every chance that you get every week, every month, every year. 

And make sure that you do something good with that net income. We talked about having a balance sheet analysis, where you analyze not just your financial debts and liabilities and your financial assets, but also your intangible assets and your intangible balance sheet. Liabilities, which at the end of the day are the things that are going to impact have the most impact on your financial balance sheet. We then said, you have to have a focus and a burning desire to become debt free, right. And you do that first by understanding how you got into that. And then how you get out of debt very quickly. We gave you the formula for how to eliminate debt from your life. And if you still have problems, understanding how to do that, send us an email, give us a phone call, let us help you out in terms of managing those finances with you. 

Then we talked about cash flows, and about protecting your money we also gave you 15 principles of investment. In this last lesson, we're going to share with you why it's important to be thankful to God at all times. And why it's important to be a giver, why it's important to share of God's blessings with other people. I created this course not to create a bunch of selfish people who only focus on themselves but to create a lot of generous people who can serve God with money and with the knowledge that they now have. So I would like to share with you a couple of videos which are going to set the frame for what we're going to discuss in this our last lesson. So I'm going to share two of these videos with you and hope that you think touch your heart.

The video notes;

I live with my grandparents, but sometimes I miss my mom

There are 10 in our family, I am the only one earn money for us, Lovely’s father was ans alcoholic and he wasn’t looking after the family, we don’t know where her mother is, she abandoned them, she was only 2 years old when the mother left her.We love our grandchildren and want to do our best for them, somehow we have to raise them

One morning Elvis Watson without working when he saw a truck collecting rags from the doorways in the alleys. He watched the workers keep the pals of  rags presumably to ensure that was free of rats. It was only when he saw a small man extend from one of the bundles that he realized that we're not collecting rags but the bodies of street children who had died over night

A dream was born that day to rescue children from poverty in Jesus name. This is now the beginning of the work of compassion. The work of compassion support over 1 million children in 24 countries and yet there is so much more to do. We've only just sensitivity out spoke. Over 600 million children are living in poverty around the world right now. When you speak to some of these families, they're only dream is see their children have a better life. 

Our lives have been a struggle. We don’t want our children to struggle. There are lots of poor children …like our neighbouring two children.Their father left them. So now they are very poor. 

I have been married for seven years, its very hard. My husband's family don’t help me. He is not good to me. There is no happiness, if the girls get sick…I can’t take them to the doctor.. because the cost of the medicine. When I go to work, I have to leave my children on their own.. The people in the community they look out for them. I give my girls rice and milk, but I can’t affort to feed them twice a day.

I feel very sorry for this lady’s family. But there’s nothing much I can do, we tried to do whatever we can. When they stand outside our house…all we can give is tea and biscuits. If I had better job..maybe I could do more..they need you, they need your help, they need your love, they need your compassion

The work of compassion is undeniably God breathed absolutely incredible each project is based in a local church children receive education food health care and a taught about the great love has cost, many of us I know already talked to children but perhaps there's room for one more in your family or maybe you know someone else foster children, all I know is that together we really can make a difference.

Now I want to do something good for my country.

I want to be a disciple of Jesus and tell everyone about him

I want to be a doctor

Today, you and I can help fulfill the dream these children have to their own lives not much more than $1 a day to make this happen.

We can’t do everything, but we must do something.

Please we need others to help us to raise our children. If people in Australia can help our children, that would be very good.

I thank God that he has given me the opportunity to study.

I want to study hard so that I can get a good job… so that I will be able to look after my grandparents, I want to thank  my sponsor…I pray that they always be happy….

I finished my college here was working for Taj Group of Hotels Bangalore. I saw a very old man he was eating his own human waste for hunger. I thought what is the purpose of my life? What am I going to do? In a star hotel, I feed all my guests but where in my hometown there are people who are living even without food. I quit my job and they started feeding all these people in 2002.

Good morning, Ven Pongal and Sambar. Ven Pongal is a blend of rice and dahl with a lot of spices. Ven Pongal and Sambar for breakfast, and for lunch we made tomato rice and Sabji. We feed the homeless, mentally ill destitute, and the old people who have being left uncared  of the society. People are suffering for food. they don't are food to eat, if you don’t give them food to eat, they will die out of human hunger. I cut their hair, I give them a shave.and give them baths,for them to feel psychologically that there are also human beings, there are people to care for them, they have a hand to hold, hope to live. Food is one part, love was another part. So, the food will give him physical nutrition, the love and affection which you show will give them mental nutrition.

Being a Brahmin community and an orthodox family, there are a lot of objections, Brahimin’s are not supposed to touch these people, clean these people have these people feed these people. Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood and I am just a human being for me everybody the same. There are 1000s and 1000s and lots and lots of people suffering. What is the ultimate purpose of life is to give, start giving feel the joy of giving?

All right. So what did we learn from watching these two videos? The reason I like to share these videos is simply because we have to get to a point in our life where we realize that life is more than just about us. There's a world out there who suffers a lot, because they lack financial resources even to survive or to have food to eat. It is said that about half of the population in the world, quarter lives on less than $1 a day half of it lives on less than $2 a day. 

There's a chapter in Peter Daniels book how to be happy, the rich, which is called wealth is relative. And what he says there is that oftentimes all of us see these types of videos and we say well, I'm going to just pray that God will send some rich person or a millionaire to send some money to them. And yet they do nothing. What wealth is relative is all about is that wealth is relative in the sense that to those people, you are rich, you know, so there's always we can't probably help out everybody, but there's always something we can do for somebody. 

So whatever is in your capability to do, I pray that God will touch your heart and show you what he wants you to do, who you can help. Maybe it's a small child in your own neighborhood. Maybe it's somebody in the country right next to you. Maybe it's in your own city, maybe it's somebody across the world. It doesn't matter. The point is open your heart, and ask God to show you how you can contribute to somebody else's life. Of course, there's always going to be somebody who's richer than you. But there's also going to be a lot more people who are poor than you.

 And you can show God's love to those people, by not just giving them the word of God, but also giving them a hand up. I really believe that our purpose should be to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people, not just through words, but through action, sowing love, sowing time, sowing money into people's lives. Remember what Jesus said, He said, It's more blessed to give than to receive. We have all been blessed, and we have received a lot from God. Now it's time that we give thanks to Him, and that we show our thankfulness and appreciation through our giving. So we're gonna discuss some of the key questions too, about this topic of giving. We already talked about financial success. 

The key question is why do we want more financial success? Why do we want more money? Why do we want to meet it free? Is it simply to be living selfish lives? Or is it meant to be shared with others? Now, what can you give or what can you share? Of course, we can share money, but we can also share other things which sometimes are even more valuable than money. We can share our time we can share our knowledge, we can share our talents, we can share our love, right? When it's all said and done. And when you're gone from this earth, what's going to be your legacy. What are you going to leave behind? What are you going to teach to the next generation? It's time for all of us to give back right from all the things that we have received. 

Think for a moment on what God has given to you You are very rich, you are very generous, you are very prosperous. You were born rich? In what sense? Just think about your own life? How much would you give up? Or would you be willing to receive in exchange for your pair of eyes? How about your hands? How about your life? How about your lungs? How about your children? What are all those things worth to you? When you think about it, the most important gift that was given to us at the cross by Jesus Himself, which is the gift of eternal life. So everything that we have comes from God, right, all of the blessings come from God. And why did he give us all those things? He gave us all those things simply to acknowledge and recognize that all the blessings come from him. 

And he says, Don't forget, we're all the blessings came from, don't forget that all the wealth, everything was given to you by God. Right? He says that God gave you the power to get wealth. We discussed yesterday, he's giving you a will, he's giving you a mind. He's giving you a heart, he's giving you a body's giving your mind all the things that you need. In order to do well and to get to become prosperous in this world. You have the power to get wealth, it's just a matter of putting it to work for you, right? Now what happens if you forget that God is the one who gave you all these things?

If you forget, basically, don't be surprised if you end up going backwards, losing a lot of it. Because that's what God said would happen to disobedient people who forgotten that he was their source. We have to keep in mind that our role on this earth is to be stewards over all the resources that God put in our hands and through our hands. We're not owners, there's only one owner. And that owner is he himself. He's the one who owns all of the gold, all of the things on this planet. We are simply stewards and as stewards Our job is to be faithful, and to give an account for the things that he's given us. God showed us the his love through giving.

What does the Bible say the most famous verse in the Bible is probably John 316, which says, For God so loved the world that he gave, what does he give us? He gave us everything, he gave us his best. He gave us his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What did Jesus gave for us and to us, he gave his life for his friends. He said that Greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends, right? He gave his life for you, and for me. And now it's our turn to give our everything for him by reaching other people with the love, and the gospel of Jesus. 

So the gift of giving and success is really the hallmark of being a successful person is to learn to not make things your God and not hang on to the material possessions, but to learn to be a generous person, a generous Christian, when you learn to give to others, it just brings a source of joy that nothing else can compare with it. Now why is it important to give, it's important to give simply because it releases you in a way that nothing else can. It helps you experience life in a different dimension. If you haven't tried it, I invite you to start going out of your way, and start giving to others without expecting anything in return. To give expecting something in return is called trading that or barter that's not giving. Right? So we're going to talk about a few basic questions of how do we give and who do we give to? We're going to discuss why we should give what do we give? When do we give how often should we give? How much do we give? Where do we give to whom we should give? How do we give? Let's get into it. 

First of all, why should we give? We give simply to thank the Lord and to honor him for all of his blessings, as we said, everything that we have comes from Him and His for him, and so is our life. So basically we give to honor God and to say thank you. What should we give? Lord? The Bible teaches us that we ought to honor the Lord with the first fruits of all our increase. The first part is something that we ought to give to the Lord. How often should we give? The Bible says that the first day of the week, everybody should put aside based on how much they prospered so that you don't have Have to give, you know, at a later time a lot of people wait till they're asked to give this is showing us that we ought to set it aside. 

Before we even are asked to give. How should we give the most important thing is to realize that God doesn't need your money. Right? What God is after is your heart. He wants you to give with an cheerful and willing attitude. That's the most important thing. If you review all these verses that come from the Bible, what God shows us is that God is after your attitude, he's after your heart. And he's going to accept what you give. If you give with the willing attitude, if you give with a cheerful heart, it says that God loves a cheerful giver. And that if you give willingly, it's going to be accepted whatever you offer, if you don't, you might as well keep it because there's no point in giving, with angry hard or with a sad heart right? Now, how much should we give? Some people try to put a bucket around how much you should give some people say 10%, or whatever. 

But the reality is that 100% of what we have is God. So why don't you ask God, how much he would have you to give? What is clear here is that God, He wants you to give according to what he what you purpose in your heart, because God loves a cheerful giver, it's going to be accepted according to what you have not according to what you don't have. So many people are pressured into giving so called promises of faith, right? They're basically saying, Well, if you don't have the money, just pledge it anyway. And go borrow it. No, that doesn't. That's not what the Bible teaches. I

t says here, if you is going to be accepted according to what you have, not according to what you don't have. We should be generous in our giving. But it should be a part of what we have, right? It's not asking us to go get into debt that would go against God's principles to be out of debt. Now to who should we give, there's a few categories of people that we learn from in the Bible, who we should give to. First of all, it says that we ought to honor those who teach the Word of God. So that's one type of people, it also says that we ought to give to the poor, right? Jesus was clear about giving to the poor in the Old Testament, many times it talks about giving to the poor. 

The Bible also talks about giving to orphans and widows. And it says that if we give to orphans, and widows, it's the same as giving to God Himself. Now, how should we give, we should give on a consistent basis on a generous basis on a periodic basis on a pre emptive basis, we should give consistently with the purpose with the plan diligently with a good attitude with a plan. That's how we should give. Now, let's talk about tithing for just a minute, because this is something that many people are still hanging on to even on a weekly basis. Tithing is something that goes back to the Old Testament and was a practice that the Israelites used to use to support one of the tribes, which was the Levites. In today's world, we don't live according to the law, right? We don't keep the Sabbath. We don't keep certain circumcision or other things to be saved were saved by grace. 

And that's the main thing that we have to keep in mind. When we go back and look at the teachings about the tithing, the tithing was never money in the first place. Back in the days, when there was types, there was also money, but yet, the people weren't asked to bring money, or gold, they were asked to bring types of what of the things that they had in the field such as oil, cattle herds, you know, some of their crops etc. Now, what were they supposed to do at that time, they were supposed to bring it to the temple, and create a feast and share it with others. Now it says that if somebody lived far away, they should sell all that stuff for money, then take the money and what, go back and buy those same things, and share it with the people now who were they supposed to invite to the celebrations. It wasn't just meant to be shared with the Levites. It was also meant to be shared with the poor people, with the widows, with the orphans, and believe it or not, even with foreign people who came from other lands.

The basic bottom line here is we live in are saved by grace. The word teaches that we are no longer under the law. Right? Cursed are the people who try to save themselves through the law. We are saved by grace we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not according to our works, not according to trying to keep some commandment. The only two commandments that Jesus gave us were Love the Lord was the All of your heart and your soul in your mind and your strength in Love your neighbor as yourself, right? Be careful who you give to because a lot of people do not have good fruit. 

Make sure that where you give the ministries you give the church where you give, it's a church that's showing good fruit. Jesus said, Buy your fruits, you will know them. What do we mean? What do we mean by this, a lot of people in the war Bible warned us are going to exploit us for money without showing any good fruit, right? They said they were going to be false prophets who are going to come in, they're going to exploit us because they're covetous. Now you have to be sure that where you give is not just the place that says, give me your money. And I don't have to give you an account what I do with it, make sure that where you give, they give you an accounting of where the money has been used. You know, I look at it. 

And I'd say in the world of Wall Street, if public companies are required to give an accounting to shareholders of how much money came in and how it was used, and what profit was generated. How much more should a nonprofit be held to a higher standard in terms of accountability, and in terms of sharing with those people, they're asking to donate where the money is going. So I would encourage you check out where the money is going. Make sure that the organization where you're donating money is using it for the gospel, to send missionaries to teach the gospel to save people to teach the Word of God to others, and isn't just using it for themselves. The truth is that the world needs Jesus, we need to reach the last. There's billions and billions of people who don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So we need to do our best to reach those people. There's multiple ministries, which are doing the very best to try to reach people from other religions, right? Muslims, Catholics, Jehovah, witness Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, et cetera, Jews, there's so many religions out there so many people who don't know the gospel, and it's our job and our mission, to reach them with the gospel. You can also invest in the life of a child, right? The best way to invest in the life of a child, I believe, is through education, teaching them about the Bible, but also giving them a means to earn a living. 

So you can sponsor a child, I showed you a video on compassion as many other ministries, I'm not just limiting it to them, I'm just using them. As an example. There's a ministry for those of you who may be architects or engineers out there, that you maybe haven't heard of it, called EMI stands for engineering Ministries International, I encourage you to look at it and maybe consider volunteering your time, what these what these guys do is they organize teams to go to third world countries, and to basically go and design offer their design expertise, architectural, civil engineering, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, to go and design clinics, and hospitals, churches, orphanages, etc. I've been to three of these trips, and they're just wonderful opportunities for you to serve. Look for an orphanage, either somewhere where you live, or maybe in a country nearby to where you live, or maybe even on the other side of the planet where you can bless some kids that don't have parents. 

There's some right next door to us here in Mexico. And so make sure you try to find an orphanage and send some money to support them. Maybe look for an opportunity to give a scholarship investing a young person, somebody who could appreciate that help. You know, compassion has a leadership program for those children who are already finished their high school and they want to go on to college, to good way to invest in the life of somebody who can transform their community. At the end of the day, the conclusion here is to be generous, to be thankful to be a cheerful giver. Make sure that when you give you give consistently, give with a purpose, give diligently give abundantly give with a plan, right? There's so many people in so many areas that God can use you to be a blessing. I hope that the series of lessons have encouraged you to get out of debt, and to make sure that you are a profitable and a prosperous human being and a Christian who can help further the gospel by not serving money, but by serving God with money and through money.

 Make sure that money is simply a tool in your hands. And then you pray to God and ask God God, how can I use this money in these resources to make more and to have an impact on this world for you? So remember what Jesus said these are my closing words. It is more blessed to give than to receive. So ask the Lord today this tell you how you can give more, what more you can do, how you can prosper more, so that you can be a source of blessing to many others around the world. If you want to have a speak at your church, and to provide this seminar, we're open to these opportunities. 

Contact us, here's our contact information. If you want to write it down, To Book Alex Barron to Speak and Share the Financial Freedom Seminar at your church. Financial Freedom and Success Institute, 13 Diamond Crest Ln, EI Iaso TX 79902, seminarsfinancial@freedom.org (915) 637- 5040, give us a call, we'd be happy to try to work something out to come and speak at your church, and to share the financial freedom seminar over a weekend with you and other people that you invite. And most of all, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to share this message with you. I hope that you learned a lot. I hope that you took some good notes. I hope that you're able to review this material once again. And I hope that this message gets out to bless many, many people around the world and to help them become financially free and prosperous, to serve the kingdom of God. God bless you and if I can be of service don't hesitate to reach out and give us a call or send us an email. Thanks so much for your time. God bless you