Hey everyone.

Welcome to the As Graph Show.

Today we're tack on a topic that's close to all of our hearts, and that's money.

Now, I've heard a lot of things about what the Bible says about money.

You know, stuff like money's the root of all evil.

Or maybe if you're wealthy, God must be blessing you.

But honestly, those are some.

Pretty simplistic takes on a complex subject.

So today we're gonna dig deep and look at some surprising truths that might just

change the way you think about wealth.

Specifically, we're gonna explore 11 surprising things.

The Bible actually says about wealth.

I recently put together a blog post and I thought it was so

important to share this with you.

Also, buckle up because we're about to explore some powerful scriptures that go

way beyond those common misconceptions.

And here's a spoiler alert.

I'm also gonna tell you about some exciting changes coming to the Daily Show.

Well, Craig, let me start by welcoming everyone to the show.

And Craig, thank you for joining me today.

I really appreciate you joining me.

It's great to be here, Ralph.

let me share some information about Craig, 'cause sometimes I forget to do this.

Craig is actually a professor.

He also has two excellent podcasts, one of which is AI goes to College, and the

other is Live Well and flourish.com.

I would highly recommend that you check out both of those

because they are very insightful and great pieces of information.

So I wanted to start by talking.

I'm sorry, Craig, did you have something to say?

I apologize.

I was just saying thank you, that's all.

Oh, no, you're very welcome.

And I wanted to start by telling everybody where this show's going.

Now, it's not really gonna impact the, the live show, but what I've decided

to do on the Daily Show is I decided that it's gotten too long and that

was never my intention to talk for an hour or, or even a half an hour.

So I've been working on kind of refining the message a little bit.

So I wanna let everybody know that starting this coming Monday, you're

gonna see shorter daily shows.

I'm gonna really try to drill down on.

One specific topic, and I'm gonna provide you with an achievable goal.

I thought like, have I, as I looked at the show, it was just to be too much.

It's really gotten to be too much.

So I wanted to just let everybody know that that's the plan.

So I'm gonna give you one achievable goal, and then I'm gonna give you a practical

tip each day to achieve that goal.

Now, one of the other things I'm looking to do is I'm looking to

launch another weekly podcast.

Yeah.

Like I don't have enough on my plate already, but I'm thinking about doing

another weekly show because I have a lot of clients that are small business people.

So I'm toying with the name.

Ask Ralph your Christian accountant, but.

Be on the lookout for that because I'm gonna be making some

announcements about that soon.

But it's going to be a weekly show or maybe go into it a little

deeper into the area of accounting and finance, that sort of thing.

So, and, and like I said, I'm even looking at maybe, and just this is just a, maybe,

maybe doing a live show for small business owners as well, but I would really love to

hear your feedback and your ideas on that.

The easiest way to do that is to just go to, just ask ralph.com.

Let me know your thoughts.

Well, now let's get to today's topic.

I'm sorry, Ralph, I'm guessing that's coming after tax season?

Yes, that's definitely gonna come after tax season because right now it's insane.

Craig, I, I don't know what happened, but like I, I guess April 1st came around

and everybody decided, you know what?

I guess it's time to do my taxes.

And unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess you can look at it both ways.

My calendar has been booked up solid for a month now and you know, we've been

telling the clients, listen, if you want to get on Ralph's book, it is really

important that you get on there soon.

So, um, I think that's really just an important thing, but it's

definitely one of those things that we've had to, had to work on.

So the big question today is what are these 11 surprising things

the Bible reveals about wealth?

So that's gonna be my aim today.

It's gonna be, our aim today is to look to give some financial tips.

Now it's, it's to reinforce how our faith and finances are completely intertwined.

See, the Bible offers profound wisdom that should really shape not only

our spiritual lives, but also how we think about how we handle our money.

We wanna see financial freedom that is rooted in our faith, and that's

really the point of why I do this show.

And so I wanna start off with the first thing and this one.

Might seem, they might like sting a little bit, and that's the first surprising

thing, and that is wealth can actually be dangerous to your spiritual health.

Remember what Mark 10 25 says, it's easier for a camel to go through the

eye of the needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

And see, at that point, Jesus was talking to the rich, young ruler, right?

A guy who had it all but couldn't let go.

It's not that money is evil.

But the pursuit of it can distract us from what truly matters.

So I gotta ask this question, Craig, and you know, we can have this discussion

right now, is how often do we find ourselves chasing more and more and

more and forgetting about chasing God?

What are your thoughts on that, Craig?

Yeah, it, uh, I think you're spot on there.

Our wealth becomes part of our view of self-worth.

Um, you know, we, we count, um.

Are worth by our bank accounts, which is not a good way to live.

And I think we just get way too attached to wealth as well.

And I know you're gonna get into that more here in a little bit, but, um,

but it's that, that's, that's a verse that's always confused me a little bit.

Uh, when I was a kid, I was picturing the eye of a literal needle, and

I guess that's not what it is.

It was a gate in Jerusalem.

Exactly.

But, but still it's, um, that's a confusing one for me.

So is it bad to be wealthy?

I don't think that's what the Bible's saying there.

You know, and I think that that's the way you have to look at money

is not necessarily good nor bad.

It's a tool.

And I think that, I talk about that on the show all the time.

It's really a question of how do you use that tool.

You know, I, I've used this analogy before, if you are a carpenter,

you're gonna use a hammer.

And if you use the hammer correctly.

You can build beautiful things.

You can make beautiful homes and businesses and all that sort of thing.

Now, if you take a hammer and start bashing stuff with it, well

obviously that's not its intended use.

And I think that's the way we have to look at money as well.

Craig.

So I, I agree with you.

That is a contradictory thing and, and I think it's really

hard to, to measure that.

And if anybody's in the chat, if they wanna chime in any comments,

we'd be happy to take them.

So lemme move on to 0.2, which kind of goes along lines of what

Craig was talking about that, and it's basically the, the idea here

is God may bless you with wealth.

See, on the flip side of what we just talked about, the Bible also says

that God may bless you with wealth.

Look at Proverbs 10 22.

It tells us this.

It says, the blessing of the Lord brings wealth without pain,

without painful toil for it.

So it's not that wealth is inherently bad.

Again, you hear these contradictory type things in the scripture.

You hear about, you know, the pursuit of evil and all this kind of stuff.

But it can be a blessing.

But I think here's the key you have to take into consideration.

We gotta recognize that God is the source of that.

It's not about our own hustles alone.

I, I say this on the show all the time.

It's about his provision.

It's his, you know, I, I get some hate mail sometimes when I say

this on the show, Craig, but I say.

It's not yours to begin with.

And that really is a stumbling block for people.

And you know, that's one of the things that we have to

really take into consideration.

It's, it's the provision he's given us.

And when you finally come to a point where you can accept that, the thing

I think is awesome about that is it.

Actually allows you to live more fully because then you're not so worried

about, you know, what you're pursuing.

Because listen, and I've, I've found this in my own life, as I've gotten

older, the things that really were interesting to me when I was younger

just aren't quite as interesting now.

And you know, not, not that I don't like nice stuff, and I'm

by no means saying to anyone.

Don't have nice stuff, but I think you have to recognize how you manage it.

And what I, what I put here to talk about today is it should

lead to gratitude and stewardship.

That's really what it comes down to.

What do you think, Craig?

you, you should own your things, your things shouldn't own you is, I think

another way to say what you just said.

Uh, you know, it also gets down to attachment.

I think that's a theme that I hear running through a lot of this is

we get so attached to our stuff, so attached to our, our money, our,

the numbers in our bank account.

And, and that's just a recipe for disappointment ultimately.

It really, it really is.

And I, and I think that's the sad part.

I think we live in a society where people are so measured and by what

they have and you know, the problem is all, you know, I say this to my wife

all the time, we've been very blessed.

Something could happen tomorrow that we lose everything.

And if your self-worth and everything you have is tied up into that belief

that, well, it's about how much is in my bank account, or it's about how

much is in my investment portfolio, or this big house, well, guess what?

You know, I know Mark's in the, in the, in the chat today, mark.

Mark talks about practical prepping.

And guess what?

There are scenarios where your house gets rolled over by a hurricane or a tornado.

Well, if that was what was.

Your, if that's what was your measurement.

Now all of a sudden your house is gone.

Like, are, are you worthless now?

And I think that's what you're getting at Craig, is that we, we

tie so much up into what I call the, you know, the highlight reel.

You know, what do you have, you know, let's, let's put

these pictures on Facebook.

Let's, let's put these pictures on Instagram and all the other social

media things that we, we fail to think about it sometimes at the real core

of that is what are you doing with

those things?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, and there's a, there's a thing I think I might've mentioned

before called hedonic adaptation.

I know that's a big fancy PhD word, but basically it means that I, if

you want to satisfy yourself through pleasure, like through owning things,

it lasts a very short period of time.

And then you, that shiny new thing isn't shiny anymore.

And it's not new anymore.

And then you want the next shiny new thing and they call it the hedonic treadmill.

You're just constantly trying to keep up with that little dopamine

rush when you get, you know, a new vehicle or, or a new whatever, a new

pair of shoes, whatever it might be.

And that's, it really is just a treadmill.

You never get anywhere.

And I think wealth can be the same way.

You know, that you, you get that raise and you feel really good

about that for a little while.

And then that wears off and you need that next thing and that

next thing and that next thing.

And if, if that's what you're feeling, you're thinking

about wealth in the wrong way.

Absolutely.

It's Craig, and you just set me up for the number three point.

Fantastic job.

And the third point is this.

Here's a sobering thought.

That's right.

Here's a sobering thought.

Wealth is temporary and Proverbs 23, 5 says Cast, but a glance at

riches and they are gone for they were surely sprout wings and fly off.

The sky like an eagle.

Well, think about that.

You know, we really, we under, we need to think about that.

Material possessions vanish.

The market crashes, things break and circumstances change.

I. And I think that's why.

And what does that mean from a financial perspective?

I think that means we need to think about how these things are influencing

our long-term planning and we need to start to prioritize eternal

investments over those temporary ones.

And that's really where you were going with that, Craig.

I, I think about so many people that invest in those things that

they could go away tomorrow.

You know that car.

It's great when you go, you know, I just bought a H three Hummer ev, I

said, I'd never own a ev but I saw this thing and I said, I gotta have

this, this thing is cool, right?

But you know, when you drive it off the lot, it's new.

It's, it doesn't have any dings in it.

There's no, there's no bumps.

There's no bruises.

And, and you think about, oh, this thing is fantastic, but.

If you're gonna put it on the road, guess what's gonna happen like on

the way home from the car dealership?

Here's a great example.

You know, down here where we live at night, now the bugs

are starting to come out.

So we we're at the dealership and this thing is all shined up.

I mean, this thing looked fantastic.

S sparkling.

Why?

As I'm driving home, I'm here, boom, boom, and I get to the house

and man, the whole front windshield is covered with bug juice Now.

If I had measured my value on how beautiful this vehicle is or, or

how clean it was, right, just the natural driving from point A to point

B just totally destroyed that view.

And I think you have to look at your wealth the same way you have to look at

it, that what's important in eternal, you know, in eternality as as a big word

to use, but eternally what's valuable.

It's so easy to put our value in those temporary ones.

Yeah, ab absolutely.

Um, and I was wondering how many, uh, Teslas you can put

in the back of that Hummer.

It's pretty big.

I think,

you know, it's funny, Craig, 'cause I had a H two back in the day

and those were like the big, you know, the hogs on the, on the gas.

Well, so when I went to, like I said, I've never been a big EV person,

so I'm learning all about this.

It's really kind of cool.

But here's the cool thing about this, right?

I'm, I'm not a car guy, so I'm gonna be on, it has 835 horsepower.

So it, which is just amazing, insane.

So then I, it has this mode called launch mode.

Okay?

So you sit down in the car and you push a couple buttons, and this

is, this is cool, I think, right?

So you put it in this launch mode and it goes zero to 90 in five seconds.

Goodnight.

Yes.

And you know, and, and from what I understand now, it's all

about these batteries because it doesn't have a combustion engine.

And so it has three motors in it and this thing just takes off.

But here's the problem.

It all runs on electricity, so you can watch that meter of electric

go woo as it just drops out.

And I'm, yeah, so I'm learning all about that, but it's been an interesting thing.

But, uh, you know, it just, it doesn't have that same flash, you know, a

year from now or two years from now.

And if, and if that's what we're defining our success in, boy

we are really gonna be in for a disappointment in the future, aren't we?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yep.

Which gets me to point number four, and this is kind of what

we started to talk about and this is kind of what the teaser is.

I brought the show in and that is the love of money.

And you know, the love of money is the root of evil.

I've heard this so many times, Craig, I'm sure you've heard it too.

And this is one that is often misquoted.

And this is what it says.

It says, and this comes directly from first Timothy chapter six, verse 10.

It says this, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

And if you read it, you're like, okay, well money is bad, money is evil.

But the thing you've gotta do is look at the context of

that, what it's really saying.

It's not money itself.

Money itself, like I've said at the beginning of the show, is a tool.

It's nothing more than a carpenter's hammer or a plumber's wrench,

but the love of it, that's where it becomes that problem.

That's the unhealthy attachment.

That's where the problem is.

So we have to ask ourselves, you know, how can we guard our

hearts from that cur, you know?

Uh, Craig, have you ever felt that yourself?

Like, and what have you put into practice, sort of guard your heart from that?

I.

Well, I, I try to remember that money is only one form of wealth.

You know, there, there's a lot of other more enduring forms of wealth

that are more worth pursuing.

I mean, I, I like money, I like having nice things like most people

do, but, um, it's when money makes you stray from the right path.

That that's when I think that's the point of that verse.

So it's not, it's the love of money and the fact that it makes

you stray from, from the path that God intends you to be taking.

And so I, I try to just always circle back to, is this

something a good person would do?

You know, if it's, whether you find a $5 bill on the floor or whatever it is,

you know, you're, you're doing some kind of a business deal, you know, is this

something I could, could I use my mother?

Could I lick my mother in the eye and explain?

What I, what my action was in this particular circumstance.

And she was about as good as they get, and so if she approved it was

probably the right thing, but, but you always have to ask yourself, am

I, is this pursuit of material wealth?

I. Pushing me down a bad path.

And it's interesting you say that, Craig.

'cause one of the things I say to my clients, they come

in to get their taxes done.

A lot of times they'll say, they'll send me, well, what do you think

about this deduction, Ralph?

I said, well, here's the thing.

Would you be able to prove it to your grandmother?

And, and as I say to 'em, I said, really?

I said, you know, if your grandmother was sitting here next to us and you

said, grandma, here's what I'm thinking about doing as far as a, a tax deduction.

It's a silly example, but.

Could you prove it to your grandmother?

Because my experience is most people don't lie to grandma.

And, and I think what you're really getting at Craig is

a deeper, more seated issue.

And that is what are your motives?

You know, check your motives.

And I think that's really what this Bible verse is really talking about is

that, you know, if, if, if love of money becomes your mean motive, it becomes your

first love, and now you have a problem.

'em.

And I think that's an easy place to get to.

I look all around us and I see people who have empty lives

and, and lives that just there.

There's nothing that fills 'em up anymore, and I know why that is.

Or at least I should say, I think I know why that is, because

they've lost their first love.

And you know, once you've lost that first love, it's so hard to get back

to where you were before and, and I think you nailed it, like you said.

I mean, you know, you know, try to be a good person.

Try to try to guard your heart against that and always check your motives.

I think that's really the key to the whole thing.

Well, and if I could add one more thing, um, there's a

slippery slope problem here too.

So the, the, the analogy I've heard is that it's really hard to cheat

on your spouse the first time.

It's a lot easier the second time and easier still the third

time, and so on and so forth.

And so when you're facing a financial decision that might be

kind of a little bit on the edge, if you take the wrong path once.

You've kind of broken that seal and it makes it easier to do it the next time

and the next time and the next time, and then you become a dishonest person

who's living for the, the love of money, the love of wealth, and not the love

of what you ought to be living for.

If that makes any sense.

No, I think that's a very valid point, Craig.

And know, and it's funny, you kind of see this glamorized sort in the gangster

movies, for lack of a better explanation of, they say once you have your first

murder, the second one's so much easier.

I have no idea what that feels like, 'cause I've never murdered anybody.

But I think I, you know, that's kind of what you're saying is

that once you make that decision, you use the example of, you know.

Being immoral with your spouse, right?

I mean you, or stepping out on your spouse.

And I think you're right.

I think once you've crossed that bridge and maybe your conscience spoke

to you, maybe that, you know, that discernment we talk about as Christians

was speaking to you, you know, it's like, don't do this, don't do this.

And you just wonder like that next time, does that discernment not speak as loudly?

And I think that's what we have to guard ourselves in.

And I, and I think that's where you always have to be checking your motives

and asking yourself, okay, why am I finding myself in this position?

Which leads me to point number five, and that is wealth can

be, I'm sorry, go ahead, Craig.

Sorry.

Can I, can I, for the record, I got that

example out of an article that is not from my personal life about stepping out.

Oh, gotcha.

No, we, we wanna make sure we can.

Yeah, we

don't wanna get you in trouble.

Absolutely not.

I agree with you because Tracy watches a replay.

I don't, don't want that out there.

No, no, I agree.

Which actually though like, but like I said, let me lead on to

PA point number five, which is wealth can be a test from God.

Now, hey, wealth can even be a test from God.

That's just the truth.

Exodus, the book of Exodus, chapter 16, verse four, talking about manna.

I'm talking about manna, which was what fed people in the wilderness.

And it said this.

It said, I will test them in this way to see whether or not

they will follow my instructions, whether we have a little or a lot.

God is watching how we handle it.

That's just the truth.

And so these things that we're talking about right now actually perfectly led me

right to number five, Craig, and that is.

It's all about our obedience and our trust, and are we

generous when we have plenty?

Because that's, a lot of times people don't realize that is, you know, I've

heard it said, and I don't know if it's biblical or not, to whom much

is much is given, much is expected.

But the question is, you know, are we generous when we have plenty?

Are we faithful?

Even when we don't have much.

I've done a few shows on that.

You know, I, I kind of picked Sundays to do sort of my more deep spiritual

dive, and I've said, you know, how do you maintain your giving?

How do you maintain charity when you feel like the walls are closing in around you?

And that's really a tough situation.

So, you know, and it, and you know.

Craig, I, I'm not, I'm not a believer.

You know, there's this belief, the Calvinistic belief, you know, and you

probably know what I'm talking about here.

You know that God somehow sits on the class and he's pointing with

his finger down and you know, this fire and brimstone approach.

I honestly don't believe we have a God like that.

But you know, does God give us that free will?

Does he give us that ability to test?

Because, see, my personal belief here is that God wants us to

love him because we choose to.

So is he giving us the opportunities to find wealth and to find success

in, in worldly ways as a test?

What, what's your thought, Craig?

Well, that makes sense to me.

I, I'm, I'm with you.

I don't believe in the angry God, um, version.

Um, but you know, our parents tested us.

You know, they give you a little bit of freedom.

And if they were good parents, they give you a little bit of

freedom and see how you do.

And if you don't do well, they correct you.

And if you do, they give you a little more and they give you a little more.

And I think there's a bit of an analogy here.

If we, if we look at kind of a benevolent God that's like our,

you know, overarching parent, uh, that makes a lot of sense to me.

I think we do get tests every day.

Um, and, and this idea of pursuit of wealth is one of them.

Absolutely.

I remember when I first got my first car, I was 16 years old and my dad bought

me this, used, it was a Chrysler Baron.

It was like a K car, but it was fancy 'cause it was the Chrysler

one and it had the, it had the fake rag top, you know, like that.

I don't know what it was, a pleather or something like this.

So my dad gives me this car for my 16th birthday.

Man.

I was living, it was fantastic.

It was a four cylinder, so I had to like use my Fred

Flintstone feet to get anywhere.

But I remember the first weekend I took it out.

And the next morning I got up and I was getting up in the morning.

My dad, he's banging on the door.

He's like, we need to talk right now.

And I said, what's going on?

Right?

He says, you come down here right now.

And he walks down.

We go out to the garage and my car's sitting out there.

Well, Sundays around our house was clean.

The cars day, I think it was my dad's way of teaching us the,

the, the, the, the, the, the value of taking care of your stuff.

So he says, I am so angry with you right now.

I'm like, dad, what's going on?

Right?

He goes, look in your backseat.

And unbeknownst to me, one of my knucklehead friends had decided he was

gonna put his foot up in the back window.

Okay?

So we had gone somewhere to a football game or something and his foot was covered

with grass or dirt or something like this.

So in the back window is this smudge of just dirt and mud running down the thing.

And my dad's like, why do I give you nice stuff if you're not gonna take care of it?

And you know, it's, I remember that to this day, and that

was so many years ago, but.

He was, he was, he was saying kind of what God is saying to

us and like, I'm gonna test you.

I'm gonna give you a little bit more.

I'm gonna give you a little bit more.

How are you gonna honor that?

And like, I remember Craig, like at first I was mad.

I was like, dad, what's the big deal?

It's just a little mud.

But then I realized where he was really going with that.

He's thinking, well, if you can't even take care of your own car that you

don't even own, 'cause it was like dad's car, you know, but you can use it.

Then how are you gonna take care of more stuff?

And, and I think that's just something we have to be cognizant of is, you

know, I hear a lot of people say, you know, God's not blessing me.

God's not giving me things.

Like, I had a client in, it's probably been a year ago, Craig, and he said to me,

he says, Ralph, I just don't understand why my business isn't getting anywhere.

And I said to him, well, tell me what you think's going on.

He goes, Ralph, you know, I'm really making, I was really making good money.

He says, man, I was, I was throwing invoices out there, man.

I was so, I was sticking it to people, man.

I, I was overpricing stuff and all stuff.

I said, dude, well think about what you just said.

I said, you want God to reward you for what you're doing, but you're scamming.

He wasn't scamming people, but he was not being as transparent as

he could have been, is probably the best way to say it, Craig.

But he looks at me like I'm crazy and I'm like, dude, like you are.

You are intentionally like, you know, given the double barrel middle finger

to God and saying, look, in spite of you, here's what I'm gonna do.

And you wonder why God's not blessing you.

And I think it's part of the test as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

That, that sort of short term thinking is usually a bad idea period.

Regardless of whether it's money or something else.

You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get this while I can, is not a good way to live.

Yeah.

And so many people fall into that trap and then they wonder why they're stuck

in this position where the short, and you think about it in your own life, how

many times have you made a short-term decision that had lasting consequences?

Mm-hmm.

Well, your money's the same way.

You know, I recorded a show this morning talking about that.

You know, you decide, I don't wanna pick on, I don't drink coffee, but I'll pick on

the people who go buy these $10 coffees.

Well, that might seem like a short term decision.

Like it's just a small thing.

But do that every day for a month.

That's $150.

Yeah.

And then you say, I don't have an emergency fund.

Well, guess why not?

Because you're making a decision every day to go buy a $10 coffee or a five do.

Like I said, I don't buy coffee, so I have no idea, but I'm just saying.

But I think you, I think it's goes along with what you're saying there.

It's those little decisions that add up to something much bigger.

Right?

Absolutely.

Which leads me to, and this isn't a good segue, but we're

gonna go to the next point.

That's point number six, and that is the wealthy should be generous.

And you know what's interesting about this, Craig?

I, I got some real life, like real scenarios here.

It's funny, I'll have a client come in and see me, you know, and I get

to the point of the conversation.

I'll say, Hey, let's talk about charitable contributions.

And I'll say, you know, did you give anything?

Oh yeah, Ralph, I'll tell you what, man, I gave a ton this past year.

And I'm like, that's fantastic.

You know, that's great.

And I, and I'm looking, okay, well how much did you give?

And they'll say, you know what, Ralph?

We gave 300 bucks.

And I'm not judging them, but I'm looking at their tax return.

They just made 300 grand.

And they thought $300 was a lot, which this is biblical.

The wealthy have a responsibility to be generous.

Look at one Timothy chapter six, verses 17 and 18.

It commands us.

Now, there are many places in the scripture where it

commands, which is what it says.

It says, command those who are rich, to be rich in good deeds and to

be generous and willing to share.

So my big takeaway from this is generosity isn't optional.

It's a command.

And it reflects our understanding that everything we have, it goes back

to what I said the beginning, Craig.

Everything we have belongs to God.

And you know, it's funny because I, you know, it, it says, you know, as you get

more generous, if you, as you and the thing that I have learned in my own life.

Is those times, and I had clients say this to me as well, those times when

they were struggling, they pushed and they gave a little bit more, and

all of a sudden they were blessed.

Now, I'm not one of these prosperity people, you know, give, and it'll

be, I, I'm not, I don't believe that.

But the Bible's commanding us to be generous and listen, here's the

thing a lot of people get hung up on.

They get has to be money.

Doesn't have to be money.

It can be your time, it can be your, your experiences, it can be your talents.

So Craig, what, what's your thoughts on that?

No, I, I was gonna make the same point.

Money is one way to give, but it's not the only way to give, as, as you were

talking about that I, I got to thinking, you know, maybe when you are generous

with your money, you're trading one form of wealth for another form of wealth.

And I know I'm sounding like a broken record here, that there are lots of

different kinds of wealth and, and financial wealth is only one of them.

But it could be a good feeling, it could be, you know, honoring

God, it could be honoring your family, it could be whatever.

But I, but I think it's a, it's a little bit of a transaction where you're

giving up a little bit of your financial wealth for another form of wealth.

So what, what do you think about that?

I absolutely agree with you, and I think it's just because.

People view wealth in like the balance sheet, you know how much is in my account.

But you and I, Craig, I think we're on the same page here.

We, we started to realize as we get older is that wealth is not necessarily,

man, it's not how much money you have.

It could be the relationships.

Like you and I have developed a really good friendship and we've

just, we've known each other through podcasting, but we've relationship,

I've got the same relationship with Marcus in the, in the chat room.

You can't value those money wise.

You know, it's not, it's not a give or take thing, but it's a relationship.

And I think you're right.

You trade that.

You trade this.

You know, one of the things you said a long time ago is you either pay

with money or pay with time, and I think this is right in that same

realm of what we're talking about here, investing in other people.

It do, like I said, it doesn't have to be money, but you're

building that relationship.

Well, guess what?

You know, he that dies with the most friends wins.

Maybe that's what we're really talking about here, because I

think there's wealth in that.

Well, and, and there's also, uh, a ripple effect that we often

discount when we're charitable.

You know, you, you give to some charity, you give to some,

cause they help some people.

That enables those people to help people.

And there really is that ripple effect.

A lot of times when you're generous.

Yeah.

And, and sometimes you don't see it.

Like I had a, a, a lady, she was a, an older client.

She's passed away a couple years ago and she was one of these

people that in her church supported missionaries and she would come in

every year to get her work done.

And I never really understood the whole missionary thing.

I'm like, well, why don't you support your church here?

And she said to me one time, she goes, Ralph, you don't understand

this dollar reverberates.

And she goes, there will be people touched by this, who I

will never meet my entire life.

Well, when I will never forget when the lady passed away.

They had a service for her, Craig, there was more people than they could

fit in a church, and 98% of the people didn't even know who she was, but

she, they knew what she had done.

She had set up these missionary things and, and that's, you're right.

I mean, and that's what it comes down to is the ripple effect of that.

Well, let's move on to point number seven, and we kind of talked about this.

We kind of danced around this one, but this is dishonest.

Wealth is cursed.

Hey look, the Bible is clear that dishonest wealth is cursed.

Look at Proverbs 1311.

It says this wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished.

I think that's a nice way of saying don't be dishonest.

If you, and we talked about this with my client, the other, you know, a few

minutes ago, shortcuts and shady deals.

They might seem tempting, but they never lead to lasting blessings.

And see, one of the things, one other, one of the things I wanted

you to take away today is our.

Faith should inform our ethical practice in business and finance.

You know, I wrote a book about this.

It's called the, the Gospel of Entrepreneurship, and you can catch

that on my website@asgraph.com.

But I'm not trying to sell the book today, but I talk about this and that

is, you don't check your Christianity at the door when you have a business.

A lot of people don't understand it.

They say, well, you know, I don't wanna talk about, I don't

wanna talk about my faith.

But what you don't understand is a lot of people will come and do business with you.

Because of your faith.

I don't know how many times I'll get a new client, Craig, and they'll say to

me, because I always ask them, I say, you know, where did you learn about me?

Well, I, I saw you on Facebook.

So I, I did some investigation and I like to press him.

I like, okay, well what does your investigation look like?

Well, you know, I checked to see if you had a license.

I'll be, well, that's a good check.

I meant it's a good thing to look into.

And I said, but then I, you know, I looked at your website and I noticed

you had a scripture at the bottom.

And I, and they said, you know, you're the only accountant we found that

had a scripture on their website.

And you know, we weren't sure what to think about that, but we're like, well,

if anything else, we might not agree with him, but at least he has character.

And, and I think that's part of this.

And you know, and, and the thing is, if you are going to put

yourself out there and listen, you can choose to be a Christian.

You can choose to be whatever you want to be.

It's not my place to judge you.

But what I do say is if you think you're going to get by swindling

people and taking advantage of people, it's not gonna work.

No.

It's just not gonna work

well.

And even if you don't want to put your Christian faith forward, your

business practices still ought to align with your Christian faith.

Absolutely.

If you feel like it's not appropriate to be that upfront about it, people

should still know you by your witness.

Absolutely.

And that's what I'm saying, like I'll never forget, it was about, I think

it was about 15 years ago, I was working with a, a local fire company

and on the bottom of all my emails, I have a scripture and I sometimes

I'll change it around or something.

Well, one of the fire people, they sent me this blasted email.

They said, how dare you send us a Christian based.

Message at the bottom of your email.

We're, we're a fire company.

We don't need to hear about that stuff.

And you know, I said, Craig, it was funny because this was a

main client of mine at the time.

I mean, this was the major, like, you know, for an accountant it was a big,

what we'll call a big account for me.

And it was a, it was a, it was a spiritual crossroad for me because the, the panther

least resistance would've been, you know what, let me email this guy back

and say, you know what, you're right.

Let me take that, take that the Bible message off my emails.

But I really thought about it.

I prayed about it and I said, you know what, here's what I say to the guy.

I apologize if I offended you.

And that's all I said.

It didn't, it didn't change the dynamic because what you just said is pointed

Craig, and that is, you don't have to wear it per se, but the ethical

practices of your business should be.

Part of that.

And, and you know, like I said, I, I think you can go overboard with it and maybe

at times I've been overboard with it.

I, you know, as I get older, I guess I just don't care as much,

you know, you know, when I was young and, and trying to find that next

client and, and all that was like, you know, that was important to me.

Like, I didn't wanna offend anybody.

And, and we, and, and this is gonna get a little bit controversial, but

I think we live in this time of like, everybody's so afraid of offending

people and I just don't know how effect.

That is to be human.

You know, I, I had a client in the other day, I used the word,

you're gonna love this one as being an educator, a human beingness.

I, I think I made that word up, but you know what, it's okay to be human,

you know, it's okay to have character.

It's okay to do.

And I think that.

And like I said, I don't wanna go down a whole rabbit hole of, you know, political

beliefs and all that kind of stuff.

But you know what, if you believe in something, as long as it's not something

that is directly offensive, like if you say to me like, Hey, I'm, I'm a believer

in the church of cut people's throats.

I mean, that's ridiculous, but I'm just saying like, that would be an issue.

But if your basic tenets of your faith, or I treat people with respect, I, I give

unto others, I, you know, I do all those things and I say, wear that proudly.

I What, what do you think

Greg?

Absolutely.

Uh, although I would temper it with a little bit of humility as well.

I mean, there are basic things that are part of your character that, that you

just, you know, they just are who you are.

But there's a lot of stuff around the edges that are really not core

beliefs that we sometimes get stuck in and think our way of viewing

it is the only way to view it.

And, and that's really not the case.

We always need to, you know, Jesus was very, very humble.

Especially given who he was, I, I would've been very arrogant if I was a son of God.

I'm just putting that out there.

But you know, we need to have a little bit of that humility as well, and, and

be accepting that there are people that have different views that we are than we

have, and that's okay, but that doesn't mean you should change who you are.

No, absolutely agree with that.

You know, and it's funny because I don't know how many churches I've

been in where they had a church split because of the choice of carpet.

You know, literally the church broke up because they were building a new,

uh, uh, uh, you know, a building for the church and oh man, they wanted

to put red carpet in, but this group over here wanted green carpet.

And you know, this group, you can't have a drum set in front of church.

And like I said, we're, we're crossing, we're, we're, we're doing all the

things we shouldn't talk about Craig.

But I'm just saying, it's just funny though, but like, I, I love what you

said there, Craig, and it's have some humility and I think that it's, it's

easy to not be humble these days.

And I, and I think you, you really nailed that, which

leads me to point number eight.

And that is contentment is better than wealth.

And I think that's something we really need to key on.

In Proverbs 1516 says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord

than great treasure with trouble.

And I read that when I was preparing for the show and I thought, you know what?

That is a very, very good verse to sort of internalize.

I'm a, I'm a believer in memorizing scripture and it's not something

I've really done a lot till the last, like six months or so, but

I thought this was a great one.

Better is a little with fear of the Lord than great treasure in trouble, you know?

And, and it goes along the lines, kind of what you said Craig, and that is

peace and of relationship with God are worth more than any amount of money.

That's not exactly what you were saying, but you were saying, look, be, you

know, stand for what you believe in.

Right,

but have humility around it and, you know, we can, we can, we can

see the same thing about our wealth.

You know, are we content with what we have or are we, are we always

chasing that next big thing?

I don't know about you, Craig, but I've met people, especially

in the business world.

I mean, they just never is enough of, there's never enough for them.

They get this and they want this, they get this and they want this, and it, and it.

I actually feel sad for them.

Because it's like there is never going to be anything that's going to truly fill

that tank, and that's just a tragedy.

They don't understand what contentment is and you know, go through something like I

said this to my younger son the other day.

He was bellyaching, he's 23 years old, he's got everything going for him.

And he goes, dad, I, I just feel so depressed and an anxious all the time.

And I said, son, I said, you don't realize how good you have it.

And it's easy for me to say that right.

But, but, but, but he, but I, I said, son, you don't have to struggle

to get outta bed in the morning.

You have, you have arms and legs at work.

And I said, you know, I think that's one of our problems as

human beings is we don't realize what other people go through.

And, and we, you know, it's the woe is me mentality of like, oh, things are so bad.

But how many times do we get up in the morning and just have contentment?

One of the things I talk about on my show all the time is

keep a contentment journal.

You know, journal what the things you should be, connect God has given us.

Look, if you live in the United States of America, for the most

part, you're in pretty good shape.

Yeah.

When you go to the sink to turn the water on in most places, and I'm

not speaking for everybody because there are tough places in the United

States, I'm not saying the water works.

You know, the electric, you turn a light switch on the electric works,

you go to third world countries.

My aunt was a missionary in, in some of the third world countries

and like clean drinking water.

That's

a premium.

Well, a, a place to sleep.

I, I spent a month in India.

Oh wow.

And, uh, you know, that's poverty.

Uh, I remember I left my flight out of, uh, Mumbai left very early in the

morning, and so we were driving to the airport at probably three in the morning.

Whole families sleeping in doorways if they were lucky, you know, at least

they weren't sleeping on the sidewalk.

And so, yeah, if you, if you're watching this or listening to

this, you're at the upper end of, of the wealth curve globally.

So yeah, we, we should not forget that.

Can I quote Cheryl Crow here?

Go right for it, man.

So it's, uh, she's got a line in one of her songs that says

it's not having what you want.

It's wanting what you've got.

And I think that's a good way to look at it, is just be, be

content with what you have.

Um.

Because you're probably a lot better off than the vast majority of the

people on the face of the Earth.

I I have a question for you though, Ralph.

Yeah, go ahead.

So that verse, uh, uses the word fear.

Mm-hmm.

I, I don't think that means exactly.

I. What we normally mean by fear, does it?

No, I don't think so.

I, I think, and that gets back to that whole Calvinistic discussion, right?

And, and I think, and, and look, I, I am not a Bible scholar by

any stretch, but my, my belief in that fear means, you know, I.

Have some understanding, have some appreciation.

I think that's better.

The, the word to use, you know, I, I, you know, it is funny we talked about,

you know, when our parents, when we were young, they gave us a little rope, right?

A little bit of rope, you know, and, and for me, like my dad was one of

these domineering guys, and it was fear.

But when I looked at it as I got older.

It was a false fear.

It was just respect.

Yeah.

You know, and it was, and I think that's probably the word you were going for.

I don't wanna speak for you, but

No.

That, that's, you know, that's exactly where I was going.

A, a combination of love and respect Yeah.

Is the way I read that word.

So I just wanted to see what you thought about that.

'cause I, I think that confuses a lot of people because that fear concept

pops up again and again and again.

And I remember when I was reading it as a little kid, it was like.

I'm supposed to be afraid of God, which just didn't make sense in

my little brain, so I just wanted to make sure we brought that up.

And Craig, listen, I'm gonna take a sidetrack here because I think that,

and I'm going through this metaphors, metamorphosis in my own life.

I think your view of God has a lot to do with your relationship

with your father here on earth.

I just really believe it does because I think as a young, I'll speak

for myself As a young boy, I think your first relationship with a man

is your father for the most part.

If you're fortunate to have mom and dad at home, and I think that you are

going to view that relationship, I. With your dad, you're, you're gonna, you're

gonna put that onto God, I think, you know, and, and so I gotta be honest

with you, when, when I was young, my dad was this like, domineering dude.

Like, you know, that pointing the finger down at you.

And, and to be honest with you, Craig, I did think God was like that.

I'm gonna be very candid with you.

I thought God was this guy.

Man, if you step outta line, he's gonna reign down.

Hell fire on you.

That, that was my belief.

I'm just being honest with you.

And it, and it took me a long time as I got older to really understand.

What was wrong with that?

Because you have this preconceived notion of what, you know, what

God looks like based on that father relationship here on earth.

And, and I think you're right.

It's like, I think we have to be careful of that because we don't

wanna put out the, the belief structure that it's nothing more.

Because like Mark said in the chat, and he's absolutely right, it's respect.

Right.

It's love and respect and, and it's, it is like, kind of like the respect you have

for your wife if you're married, right?

The Bible says that as men, we should love our wives as Christ loved the church.

Well, that's a respect thing.

And and it's not, it's not the fear of like, the fear of like, he's gonna

take you out because listen, if God wanted to take us out, he could.

Right.

Let's just be honest.

You know, like, I think most people believe that, right.

But it's that respect.

So I don't wanna dwell on it too much, but, but I think

it, we are, we really have to.

So if you're struggling with this right now, if you're listening to

this, you're watching this right now and you're thinking, yeah,

but I've never thought about God.

Anything but fear.

I'm gonna challenge you to think about that.

I'm gonna challenge you to pray about that, because that was, that was something

I had to go through and, and it was hard for me 'cause like, when I was

raising my two boys and, and I gotta give my wife a lot of credit because I

was not the greatest father when it came to that because I was a tape player.

I, I had this prerecorded of what I had learned, right?

As a, as a child, right?

Mm-hmm.

So when my kids were young, I didn't understand grace.

I didn't understand those things that.

Truly the definition of God is.

So if you're in that right now, that's one of the things I, I counsel young

people, I wanna say young people who are just having kids right now.

I'm like, think about this.

Like your sons or your daughters are gonna look to you with like,

what does God look like to me?

And I think there's such, we have such, you know, there's so much value in

that, but there's also, we need to be aware of that because we are going to

put that on that child or that teenage kid for the rest of their lives.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Well, let's move on to point number nine, and this one's gonna get controversial

again, and that is wealth can't save you.

And I'm just gonna repeat that.

Ultimately, wealth can't save you.

The book of Proverbs 11, four says this, wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,

but righteousness delivers from death.

And I think we need to realize that, you know, I, I, I remember growing up,

you know, you always thought, oh, you know, send all your money to this church.

You know, money can't buy eternal life.

It just doesn't, um, you know what, what, what has eternal value?

Well, ultimately it's our relationship with Jesus.

I mean, that's what it comes down to.

I. You know, if you think you're going to as, uh, to get this layer of wealth and

it's going to, you know, you know, I I pictured almost like you get to the Pearl

League gate, you know, kind of a silly thing to talk about, but like, you know,

you got suitcases full of money and, and you, you, you get to the Pearl League

gates and you're like, oh, let me in.

I got cash.

Guess what?

You're gonna be outta luck.

'cause they don't take that currency there.

They do, they take Apple Pay?

Well, you know what?

They might, I don't know.

I, I think gap, I gotta be careful what I say here.

Apple might think they're God, but anyway, we'll, we'll leave

that one for where it is.

But, but no, I think it's important to understand that because I think

there's so many people out there to think, you know, they're going

to get wealth and they're going to find this salvation because of it.

And let me just tell you, and I've said this on the show before, some of

the most wealthy people I know are the most miserable people I've ever met.

And some of the most, some of the lowest, lowest is the wrong word to use, but

some of the people who struggle the most are some of the most kind, some

of the most compassionate, some of the most beautiful people I've ever met.

And they don't have two nickels to rub together.

But like, guess what, Craig?

They respect everything they have, they respect the provision

that God has given them.

And I just think we need to be careful of that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Although I, I will, will say that having a certain amount of wealth, I.

Can protect you from certain things.

I know, uh, you know, you and Mark talked about that on his podcast,

and so, you know, having a little bit of wealth can cushion you.

But I, I can speak from experience.

If someone that you love has terminal cancer, it doesn't

matter how much money you've got, you can fly all over the world.

You know, if it's time, it's time.

That's just the way it is.

And so all that wealth that I'm talking about, you know, physical life here, sure.

But it's just more so with eternal life.

Absolutely true.

Yeah.

And you know, I hear that from clients all the time.

I've got a client she was in yesterday, she's, she's battling,

this is her second round of cancer.

She had breast cancer 15 years ago and now she has ovarian cancer.

And, um, but you talk about somebody who is just happy to be alive, Craig,

she came in, she had no hair left.

She looks like a stiff breeze, a blow over.

And she had a smile from ear to ear.

And I said to her, I said, you know, what's going on?

She goes, Ralph, I got diagnosed with cancer again.

She goes, but guess what?

The Lord's gonna see me through in this.

And I'm thinking she has every reason to be upset.

She has every reason to be angry.

She has every reason to be sad, but she knows the truth that most people

don't get, and that is that she's gonna get through this one way or another.

You know, it might not be the way that everybody thinks.

Oh, well, she's gonna be cured.

Well, maybe that, maybe that's, she even said that to me.

I remember, I just remembered that she said this.

She goes, Ralph, she said, when I, when I got diagnosed this time,

the doctor said something to me.

She said, he said that, he said this.

He said, uh.

I can't cure you of this cancer.

He says, but I can put you in remission and that might live you 10 years,

15 years, whatever that looks like.

And I remember her saying, she said, Ralph, she says, that was

the best thing I ever heard.

And I'm thinking to myself, Craig, I'm examining my own and saying, if a doctor

told me I had cancer, he couldn't cure me.

I don't think I'd be feeling very happy about that.

No, but, but it spoke to something deeper.

Well, that's right.

And if you're a Christian, you know the, the.

Grief should be for the ones you've left behind, not for where you're going,

but that's easy to say in the abstract.

Not so easy to live in the moment, but absolutely.

Which leads me right to point number 10, and that is God cares

more about your heart than your wallet, and that's just the truth.

Look at First Samuel chapter 16, verse seven.

It reminds us this, the Lord does not look at.

The things people look at, people look at the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart.

And for God, our net worth doesn't define our worth in his eyes.

And I think so many times people get hung up on that as well.

I've heard stories about, you know, you go to one of these old backwood,

uh, C Christian churches and you know, everybody's all dressed

up to the nines on a Sunday and.

In walks this guy that looks like he just fell off the, the bum bus.

You know what I mean?

He's disheveled and he comes walking in and everybody turns

their head and they kind of look like, where's this guy coming from?

And you know, it's so easy for us to get judgmental about that, but

we gotta remember, God doesn't care what it's look like on the outside.

It, it's what's on the inside that matters.

Right.

Right.

They, they need, those people need to come to the Cowboy Church, you know, the.

We'll set 'em straight on how to dress for church.

Oh, you

gotta tell me about the Cowboy Church now.

You dropped that one.

So let's talk about it.

It's

a literally, this, I'm not making this up.

It's the, the Cowboy church at the OK Corral.

So it literally has a, um, rodeo arena, the whole nine yards in the middle of

the woods, middle of nowhere, dogs in the sanctuary, but nobody's worried

about how you're dressed there.

That's very cool.

You know, I used to ride motorcycles.

Craig, I'll tell you a funny story about, you talk about the type of church,

and I had a big old Harley, right?

And, and, and this one day we were out doing one of these charity rides, and this

guy, this pastor comes up to me, he goes, Hey man, you gotta come to our church.

I'm like, well tell you about, tell me about your church.

He goes, Ralph, it's the biker church.

And I'm thinking, oh, I gotta see this.

Right?

So you talk about a fun loving bunch of Christian people, man, they were decked

out with tattoos and, and you know, they had the Harley stuff on, but you to love

the Lord, man, I'm telling you what.

I mean, you couldn't touch that.

They all pulled up with their motorcycles.

I mean, it looked like a rally at Sturgis, but it was their, it was their church man.

So I totally get what you're going where you're saying.

And Craig, before we close out, I wanna leave us with this last one.

And I think this is my, I've said takeaway a couple times, but this

is my big takeaway for today.

If you don't hear anything else I talked about that Craig and I

talked about today, and that's this number one, number of point 11.

And that is you can't serve both God and money.

And this is a challenging truth.

You can't serve both God and money.

Matthew 6 24 is crystal clear about this.

We have to choose, you know, who are you or what are you

truly having your allegiance to?

And Craig, I think, you know, as, as humans, as a human beingness that I talked

about, this is a constant battle and it's something we need to be aware of because,

you know, and I've, I've learned this in my own life, you can't serve two masters.

You just can't.

And, and that's why, that's why one of the reasons I launched this show back

in November, 2023, I was just doing a business show and I said, you know what?

There's something bigger to this.

And I said, you know, what can I bring to?

And a lot of people are, they're still kind of confounded by it.

Like Ralph, when you talk about faith and you talk about finances,

but we were always taught to not bring the two together.

But guess what?

At their core, they are the same.

And it's a question of, you know, are you serving God?

Are you serving man?

Are you serving your money?

And that's why I do this show because I think there's so much value in that.

Greg, what are your thoughts?

Well, throughout this whole live stream, I keep thinking money is a means to an end.

It's not the end in and of itself.

And so if you can use your money, your financial wealth to make the world a

better place to better serve God, then you bring those two things together.

So it's, it's not money or God, it's how you think about and how you use money that

either honors God or does not honor God.

And that's kind of my view of

it.

And that you nailed it.

And that's the whole point.

And, and that's the whole point of the whole thing because, you know,

one of the things when I thought about, you know, how do I, how do I

get people to get to the next level?

You know, one, one, the things I've been embracing in my show lately is this

thought that a lot of us are stuck in this, I call it cycle of financial shame.

You know, we've made decisions, we made bad decisions.

Listen, I've made bad decisions, Craig, I don't wanna speak for you, but I bet

you've made bad financial decisions.

But you don't have to stay stuck in that cycle, that, that, that

cycle of just feeling trapped.

I call it the paycheck to paycheck cycle, whatever that is.

Because if you, if you get what we're talking about today, there

is a path forward and it's not the path that everybody expects.

You know?

It's not that path of well just go work more.

Yeah, you might have to do that.

Or just go save more.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're gonna do that, but it's why you're doing it.

And I think that's the key takeaway, you know?

So the key takeaways for today, stewardship.

We talked about that.

We talked about the dangers of the love of money.

We talked about the importance of generosity, the priority of

spiritual risk, of riches, and we talked about the sovereignty of God.

And listen, these principles, he have to guide our everyday financial decisions.

And remember, as I said at the beginning, I'm gonna close out with

this as we get ready to close out today.

God owns it all.

And our role, guess what?

We're managers.

We're managers.

We're managing what God has given us.

Some of us, he's given more to some of us.

He, he gives less.

So we ask the question, where do we go from here?

And that's really the question I answer on the show every day.

So I'm gonna encourage you to join our community.

You can do that by going to, let me put up this slide so I don't forget.

You can go to you go to ask ralph podcast.com/newsletter.

We've got a community there if you join us.

You will find I shared daily information about how to grow in your faith and

how to grow your finances at the same time, because that's really

where the rubber meets the road.

So Craig, again, thank you for joining me today.

I really appreciate you being here with me, Craig.

We had a great discussion today and you know, I, I really do appreciate

you taking time to join us.

All right.

Thanks Ralph.

I appreciate it.

And each of you, I want to thank you for joining me, and as I close

remember this, remember the truths we discussed today and put them into

practice, put them into practice in your everyday life, and you'll be amazed

at just how impactful they will be.

So as I always close the show, I always say this every day.

Craig, stay financially savvy out there.

And may God bless you abundantly.