Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel and today is Friday. So we're going to be talking once again about financial matters from a Christian perspective. And I wanted to look at it a little bit differently than I typically do. Usually we look at the math of our finances. That's kind of my background. Not, not only did I preach for quite a number of years, but before that I ran a business, an appraisal business, and, Also, my education is in business and in finance, and so that's kind of the background from which I come but one of the things I've really noticed about people's lives is that they're made a whole lot easier when we handle our finances well, and specifically, they're made a whole lot easier when we When we handle our finances in a Christian manner. And so we want to look at it from that perspective. And again, we're not going to be looking at the math today. We're going to be looking more at the responsibility side of our finances. And to do so, I wanted to talk about my first car. I don't know if you remember your first car, but if, if you do, You probably have very fond memories of it and for a lot of different reasons, but maybe more than anything, that was the first time in your life that you had real freedom. You weren't driving your parents car. You didn't have to have mommy or daddy drive you around somewhere. And you just, you just had your own wheels. where you wanted to and, and do what you wanted to within all bounds of reason, of course. And so, our first car is usually something very special. And for me it truly was. I remember my dad came home one evening and, and was talking to me about the repo lot they had at the bank. He was a banker at that time. And he asked, me if I was interested in maybe buying a car of my own instead of driving theirs around all the time. And because if I was, there was a car that I might be interested in down there if I wanted to go look at it. And so I sure enough did. And so we went down there. And this car was great. It was a Plymouth Aero, 1976. It was red orange in color, and it was kind of a sleek, sporty design. As a matter of fact, the back windows had kind of a a wing window in the back. It kind of reminded me of the 57 Thunderbird that had those porthole windows in the back except for these were a little bit more triangular in shape and I thought looked really neat and so anyway, the car was about two years old and they were asking 2, 000 for it. Of course, I didn't have 200 probably at that time, but my dad made me a deal. If I would be responsible, if I would be very careful to keep up with the payments, he would co sign the note for me. And so I leapt at that offer and, and so we went came home that day Now, it was a standard. I was only used to driving an automatic, so he had to teach me how to drive a stick shift, and that cost him a lot in the way of his patience, I'm sure but finally, I mastered it enough to where I could drive on my own, and once that happened, I, I can tell you, I had him. I'd take that car everywhere. I had a job at Kentucky fried chicken. I believe this was the spring of 1978 when I got this car and had a job, a very regular job at Kentucky fried chicken. I was, it was my senior year in high school and only had to go to school until lunchtime. And then I was off for the rest of the day. So I worked. Most the rest of the time and so I worked real hard to make sure that I could make my payments and then that summer I worked as many hours as they would give me and was able to actually pay that car completely off By the end of the summer and so it was a really big deal for me I knew I didn't want to let my mom and my dad down they had co signed the note for me or my dad had and I also wanted to show them that I could be responsible. I, I've thought about this a lot. When, when my older brother got a car, they bought him the car. And when my younger sister got a car, her first car, they bought her the car. But when I got my first car, that was something that I paid for myself. And I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I had had a an accident or two in in their vehicles prior to getting this one. And so it was my turn to pay for it. But I was really glad it worked out that way. And I think back on that time is it being a time that really gave me. responsibility, financial responsibility for the first time. You know, when you're a kid and you're living in your parents home really all the money that you're making just goes to doing whatever you want to do. And so to get a car a car that you liked and, and have a goal to get it paid off really has a way of giving you that responsibility that I believe all young men and young ladies. And so, and it wasn't just that. There was responsibility in the way you drove. I can remember I like to drive fast when I first got my car. And since it was a sporty little red colored car it, it drew people's attention. And in fact, I had at least. Three police officers or law enforcement agents stopped me at one point or another in the first few months and, and visit with me about how fast I was going and they would leave me a citation along with that. And so within a very short period of time, I had like three tickets. And in Wyoming where we lived, you could only have four in a year. If you got four in a year, they'd suspend your license. So I had to learn the responsibility of driving by the law during that time. And I did pretty good through the end of that year. And then when I, I, I knew to the day when, when I was past that time and, and sure enough, I started driving again for a year. speed by that time, I thought, and, and immediately got a ticket. And so that was where I started learning that there was something behind obeying the traffic laws. And so I learned responsibility that way. Had a lot of help in it, but I learned that responsibility. And then there was the responsibility of the upkeep and the maintenance. Besides having the money to, to pay off my car. And then to, to do the typical running around that teens like to do, I didn't have a lot of money left over. And so I learned to change my own oil learned very quickly how to change a flat tire. And I had several of those even learned to set the points on the car and do just different minor items of, of upkeep and maintenance. And so that taught me some responsibility to make sure that I was checking the oil. Changing it when it needed it and, and keeping a, a lookout on my tires. For a longest time when I was driving, I would just drive until one of the tires went flat. And that usually would alert me that it didn't have any more tread left on it and I'd go buy a new tire at that point. And so after a while I started getting the responsibility of looking at the overall physical condition of the car. And so that entered into it. I can also remember since I worked so many hours looking forward to a day off, and when I did get a day off, I would often come home the night before, and I would, I would load up my sleeping bag and, and our, the family dog, and, and we'd just head out outside of Casper, Wyoming to a canyon, That was between two lakes out there and, and I could go camping out there for a day and nobody could get ahold of me. That was way before cell phones came along. And I could be out in an area, in an area where I wouldn't see any people for, for as long as I was out there, which I really enjoyed. That peace and that tranquility and I also like the canyon road. I have to admit it was a two lane. It was, it was good road, but it was windy and it was up and down and it was just kind of neat to drive in that little sporty car that I, that I had and I really enjoyed that. And, and so. Just looking back on that looking back on that moment in my life where I was not as cautious going into it with the way I drove. I think I got some of the tickets before I actually got my car in my parents cars. And, and I know that I got in a wreck or two in my parents car as well. And so I was needing the responsibility. I was needing to have something that would alert me to the fact that my actions had consequences. And also, if I wanted to have something nice, that I had to work hard and be diligent to pay for that something nice. But again, all of that went into the responsibility. Now, let's make the bridge to our Christian lives because there certainly is an application here. You'll recall What's probably one of the most famous of Jesus's parables, if not the most famous, and that's the parable of the talents. It's found in Matthew chapter 25. And it begins in verse 14 where, where Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven. And he says this again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property. to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two, to another one talent, each according to his ability. Well, I thought about that a lot. It's interesting the way God entrusts us with what we can handle. I figure that it was the ladies that had the five talents because ladies can usually multitask and do a little bit more with what they have, whereas the men probably are limited to one or two talents because they have to work. to kind of focus on, on one thing at a time. I'm always amazed and was always amazed when my wife and I were, we're raising our family at all the different things she could do. I could be off doing one job while she was at home, taking care of three kids and preparing meals and, and keeping them in clean clothes and keeping track of them as well. You know when, when we dads watch our kids, we typically call it babysitting, although that always made my wife a little bit irritated. She said, it's not babysitting, it's parenting. But, but when I babysat, you know, she might come back and, and I might be watching a television program and, and she might be kind of curious as to what the kids had been doing all that time. And quite frankly, Now that the subject was brought up, I might be kind of curious about it as well. But you know us dads, you could have, you could have five kids and the wife goes somewhere shopping for an hour or something and come back and the, the dad may just have track of two of those kids and not have any idea what's going on. Where the other three were and, and we dads, we would think that was good. You know, babe Ruth never hit 400 in his entire career, and two outta five kids is 400, so four or 40%. And so that seems like it's doing pretty good, but not to moms. And so again, you can kind of see why we have different abilities and, and different responsibilities to go along with those. I think men make much better soldiers. You never have a a man in the middle of war in a foxhole wondering why his buddy next to him wasn't talking to him earlier that day. They just, they focus on what's right in front of them. And so maybe one talent for us guys is a lot easier to handle than it is for, for many of our, our, our of you ladies. who are so much more able to handle more than one thing at one time. But again, these talents that God gives to us that Jesus was talking about are just representative of the responsibilities that he gives to each one of us. And, and when you think about it the wisdom of God is, is so. vast that he knows what responsibilities we can handle. And he only gives us those responsibilities that we can handle. And, and so he gives different talents to different people. each according to their ability. But it's, it's these responsibilities as we do well with them that, that we begin to show God how, how much we desire to serve him in his way. It's also these responsibilities when we don't handle them well, that we're essentially showing God that we don't particularly care much about serving him in the right way, because that's. Pretty much what the talents are for in this parable there to be used in God's service. Certainly we have the right to enjoy the blessings that God gives to us and the abilities that God gives to us, and I hope you do, but we also first and foremost need to be focused on our responsibility of handling The abilities and the resources God gives us along with those abilities in his service. And so just like your first car and, and how that may have been the first thing you had real responsibility with, it reminds us, or it reminds me of the fact that we all are given responsibility from God as well. And, and so the question is, are we thinking about that? Are you thinking about the talents that God has given to you? We use the word talent equivalent to the word ability, but, but the way Jesus used it, the talent was the resource that complimented the ability. If you have somebody that's good at investing the talent or the ability, maybe I should put it, is the the way he handles finances. The resource would be the money that he uses along with that ability. And so we see the two being combined and, and as we combine the things that God has given to us, the resources with the abilities that we have, that's Our part of handling our responsibility that it gives to us. And of course, the greatest responsibility that we have is to serve him in his way. One of the reasons why we talk so much about looking at the scriptures in these videos is because we need to find out for ourselves what God wants us to do, not what somebody else's opinion is of what they have read about what God wants us to do. And part of our responsibility, in fact, is not only to to find out for ourselves, but it's also to compare it to what other people's understandings are so that we can make sure that we're taking our responsibility seriously. And then once we've taken that personal relationship with God, that responsibility seriously, now we can move out to our responsibility of helping others. come to Christ and, and come into contact with the saving grace and of God and the saving blood of Christ, and then to teach them what their part is as well. And so that's a responsibility we have in addition to all the physical things that we're charged with while we're here on earth. This life is a test and part of that test is the physical responsibilities we have And so we consider them in relationship to our spiritual duties before God. Well, again, I really like looking at finances. They've always impressed me. They've always interested me. But one of the areas of finance I think is so important is not necessarily the mathematical, part of it, the coming up to a bottom line but it is the responsibility part to make sure that we're using the things that God has given to us to the best of our ability. Well, that's the lesson for today. I hope it's given you something to think about maybe in ways that and directions that you haven't thought about at least for a while. And it's always fun to go back in time, I believe, and think about those good times such as Our first car and I love looking at things like that in relationship to our responsibility to God. That's it for today. Thank you so much for, for listening. I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to serve him to the best of your abilities.