Hey there wine lovers! Elevate your holiday wine time with WineEnthusiast.com. Wine Enthusiast has everything you need to transform your entertaining space into the ultimate wine spectacle of the season. From wine storage, to glassware, personalized accessories, furniture, and more. Uncork a little joy this year with Wine Enthusiast. Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now, while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

Happy New Year to you! My name is Joshua Sheets and I am your host. I'll be walking with you all throughout this year on your path to financial freedom. I want to kick this year off with a series called 7 Rings of Freedom. These are 7 ideas, 7 specific decisions that you can make that I believe will substantially enhance your personal liberty, if you are interested in such a thing.

Now, you should know, for me, liberty is a very important topic. That's not a surprise to any listener who's listened to more than about 2 episodes of Radical Personal Finance. But over the years, as I've thought about liberty and considered the different things that enhance personal liberty, I've realized there are some things that enhance personal liberty that most people don't talk about.

And I believe there's real value in talking about it. Number 7, by the way, is going to be achieving financial independence. Using the definition that you can live on the income from your investments. That's what we're going to use as the definition for financial independence. That's the 7th thing in this particular series that we will talk about.

And financial independence is important. It's important to me. It's important to you. I want to help you get there. I'm working hard to get there myself. The problem is that financial independence is only one component of personal liberty. And I think there are a lot of people who start to pursue financial independence because they think that that's the fastest and most direct path to freedom, to liberty.

Each person might have their own reasons as to why they care about financial independence. But I think that if you were to put together a poll and poll a couple thousand people that are working towards financial independence, I think that what would eventually, what would come out of that poll is that most people are pursuing financial independence so that they can have a greater freedom of choice in their life.

When I read people who write about why they want to pursue financial independence, that's usually what I see. Often people want the freedom to do what they want with any random Tuesday. They want the ability to live where they want, live how they want. Have control over their time, control over their schedule.

Sometimes this is so that they can pursue an artistic endeavor or work out more, be healthier, spend more time with their children. There are many reasons and they're all different. But the unifying theme that they all seem to have is that people want choice. They want control over their time.

They want freedom. But I don't think you have to wait until financial independence to enjoy that freedom. I think there are a number of decisions along the way that you can make that will help you to enjoy that freedom now or to enjoy that freedom very, very soon, very quickly.

That way, while you're working your way towards financial independence, you can enjoy a lifestyle of freedom. So I want you to think about these seven things. I've already told you what number seven is, but we've got six more between today and the seventh in this series. I want you to think about these rings of freedom.

Now, I've chosen that word rings on purpose because I believe that these are decisions that you can make that will lead to a lifestyle of freedom. And I believe that they're in a sensible order. Now, you don't have to do all of these. You can just pick or choose whatever you particularly find affinity with.

That's fine. But I'll go through them in the order that they make sense to me. The order is largely the order that I have done these things in. And along the way, I have experienced a lifestyle of more and more freedom. On this particular topic, I know what I'm talking about.

I'm speaking from experience. I have used these decisions to build massive levels of personal freedom into my life. And I want that for you. Having personal freedom, it's awesome. It's really, really cool. And I believe it's achievable for anybody who wants it. I used to believe that most people wanted it.

And I've since come to believe that most people don't care about freedom. But for those people who do care about freedom, consider these ideas and consider if some of them are things that you might wish to practice for yourself. We begin with ring number one, which is this. Achieve spiritual freedom.

Achieve spiritual liberty. Here's my argument. If you have personal spiritual liberty, you can thrive in almost any situation, no matter how bad or how difficult the outward circumstances are. No matter what comes at you, if you are a free person in your inner spirit, in your soul, you can thrive in almost any situation.

Not just survive, but thrive. On the other hand, if you don't have personal spiritual liberty, you can be in bondage in almost any situation, no matter how good the external circumstances may appear to be. Now, this word spiritual liberty and spiritual freedom is a fairly loose word that would bear some definitions.

And I'm not going to tighten it too much. I'm going to intentionally leave it fairly broad and open for your interpretation and your thinking. Because I believe this has broad application. But let me give you some examples to demonstrate what I'm trying to say and to prove the point that personal spiritual liberty is the place to start.

Have you ever known somebody who, from outward perspective, would seem not to have a lot going for them? Perhaps this person was maybe an old widow who's living on a fixed income, just a meager social security payment. Lived in a very small and basic home. And yet that elderly widow just exuded a sense of warmth and peace and love, no matter how difficult their situation.

Have you ever known somebody who was caring for perhaps a disabled son or a disabled spouse? And they couldn't go anywhere, they couldn't do anything, and yet they seemed content and at peace in the middle of that circumstance? Have you ever encountered somebody who worked at a very menial job?

Perhaps it wasn't intellectually stimulating or even all that fulfilling. Perhaps it was difficult or smelly or backbreaking. And yet, they put their shoulder into it, they worked, and they just exuded genuine happiness and contentment? Have you ever known somebody who had experienced some debilitating injury? They became paralyzed, they lost the use of their eyes or their ears.

And yet, even in the midst of those circumstances, they lived a peaceful and productive life. We've all known people like that. Or read about people like that. Now let's go to the other extreme. Have you ever known somebody who, from all external experience, perspectives, all external observations, would seem to have it all?

Lots of money, perfect physical health, a beautiful body, surrounded by friends. And yet in the midst of it, they just seemed to be a miserable person? Have you ever known somebody who did truly interesting work, that they were well suited for, and yet in the midst of it seemed utterly discontented?

Have you ever known somebody who earned massive amounts of money, and yet never seemed content with their wages? Have you ever known or heard about somebody who, from an outside perspective, would seem to have it all? And yet, ended their life hanging from a makeshift noose in the ceiling?

Or sucking on the barrel of a gun? Those stories haunt me, personally. I don't know how you would have a more extreme depiction of what I'm talking about. Two of the widely publicized suicides of the last decade have haunted me, as I've thought about this particular example. I always think of Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain.

Robin Williams had this unique ability to make people feel good about themselves, to make people laugh, was loved by tens of millions of people. And yet in the midst of what would seem to be a very positive thing, that massive love and approval and appreciation of so many people, was in such a place of personal spiritual darkness that he felt he had to end his own life.

Now of course, you and I don't know anything about the particular details of his situation, just an example of how from an outside perspective, it would seem like a dream life. But perhaps more important than that for me was Anthony Bourdain. If you were going to tell Joshua that he could trade places with anybody in the world work-wise, Anthony Bourdain would have been pretty high on my list.

If you were going to lay out a dream job for Joshua and you told him that, hey listen, why am I talking in the third person? If you told me, Joshua listen, you have one job. Your job is to travel the world, to go to interesting, weird places, and meet with interesting, weird people.

And eat interesting, sometimes delicious and sometimes gross, but guaranteed to be weird foods. And then do that on camera and produce something that would entertain people who have a similar interest to you. Put me up, sign me up. That sounds pretty great to me. Sounds really good. And Anthony Bourdain was the kind of guy who had just such interesting work.

It always appealed to me. Such interesting work. Seemed to do well financially, seemed to have broken through in his career. And yet, for whatever reason, is at the place of such total misery that sees no way out. Except suicide. Now again, obviously I don't know the details of a situation.

But I think these examples demonstrate the point I'm trying to make. And you can think of other examples from your own life. I like to use public examples, that way I'm not disturbing anybody's privacy. That outward circumstances certainly have some influence on somebody's professed personal happiness, personal contentment, sense of peace.

But they don't have ultimate influence. It's too obvious that they don't. So if you're looking for a way out, if you're looking for a way to be able to come through and to find a sense of freedom in life, it's not going to be guaranteed by your external circumstances.

Will it be helped? Maybe. Maybe. I appreciate the fact that I'm at a point in my financial life that I don't worry about how much it costs to fill up the gas tank. I remember when I did. I remember when filling up the gas tank was a big financial event.

Now, I don't even look at the price, I just fill up the gas tank. That's a real blessing. And is it, am I a little happier, do I feel a little bit freer today when I don't have to worry about the price of gas versus the past? Yeah, maybe a little bit.

But honestly not that much. Because there's just a new worry and a new concern, a new financial pressure that replaces the gas tank. And I was doing well back when filling up the gas tank was hard, and I'm doing well now. So the point is that things like money, will they enhance your freedom?

Yeah, I think they will, but not nearly as much as many people believe. And you can enjoy that sense of freedom and liberty now by achieving personal spiritual freedom and spiritual liberty. Now, under this umbrella of personal spiritual liberty, we could bring in all kinds of personal behaviors and addictions.

If you have all the money in the world, and yet you're hopelessly addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography or coffee or adrenaline or something else, lying, you're in bondage. No matter what the external circumstances are in your life, you're still in bondage. You have this compulsion, this addiction, perhaps this demon.

And as long as you're under the influence or the control of that thing, you can't get free. I remember when I was addicted to pornography when I was younger, and it just felt like this thing that utterly controlled me. I could live this publicly in control life, but at the end of the day, I was a victim of my own lust.

I was a slave to my own lust. Some people experience that with substances. You're a slave to a substance. You have to have this thing. Anything like that in your life is a sign that you don't have personal spiritual liberty. And no matter how great your outward circumstances are, you're always going to be a slave of that thing.

But if you can achieve freedom from that addiction, freedom from that bondage, from that slavery, if you can achieve that freedom, you can enjoy that freedom and have a greater sense of meaning, a greater sense of purpose in your life, even though you're not financially independent. But if you are financially independent and you're still a slave to those things, that financial independence will feel hollow.

I hope I've made my point sufficiently clear. If you can have personal spiritual liberty, you can thrive in almost any situation, no matter how difficult the external circumstances. If you don't have personal spiritual liberty, you can be in personal bondage and slavery in almost any situation, no matter how seemingly good the external circumstances.

So the most important thing you can do to achieve personal freedom will be to achieve spiritual freedom, spiritual liberty. Now, thus far in this particular show, I've not given a definition of how. And in this series of shows, I'm going to try to sell an idea to you in the first part of the show, sell an idea to you, try to get you motivated and try to get you to say, "Hey, yes, that sounds, that makes sense." And then I want to give you some practical advice and suggestions from my experience as to how.

Because it's one thing to say, "Here's what you should do. You should have personal spiritual liberty." It's another thing to say, "Here's how you achieve it." Now, this particular ring is going to be more difficult than almost any of the other rings in terms of how, because we're going to deal, we are dealing with, and how do I get through it in 30 minutes is tough.

But we're dealing with one of the most important themes throughout human history involving religion, philosophy, practice, because achieving spiritual freedom is a common theme of almost any religion or philosophy or ideology or worldview. I find this theme expressed in so many different worldviews, philosophies, etc. For example, right now, one of the biggest growing philosophies that I observe among my peers is the philosophy of stoicism.

Well, should we pursue stoicism as a way to achieve personal freedom, the ability to be stoic in the face of outward circumstances? I think there's some ideas there that are helpful. I'm inspired by people in certain components of stoic philosophy. I don't personally think it's a sufficient, all-encompassing worldview, but I think there are ideas that are helpful.

Should we go into an Eastern religion and say, "You'll find freedom in yourself, so let's meditate on nothingness in the hope of finding spiritual nirvana and looking forward to when your soul can be released from your body and your funeral pyre at the end of life"? Maybe. There's millions and hundreds of millions of people around the world who believe that that's an appropriate philosophy.

I come at the world from a Christian perspective, from an Orthodox, Trinitarian, conservative Christian perspective, and I believe that, as I've analyzed it, bar none, the Christian worldview and philosophy is without a doubt the most freedom-oriented philosophy because the best on every single level leads to the best chances of success.

But I've also had friends that completely disagree with that. Many friends who say, "The best thing that ever happens when I laid aside Christianity and I had the freedom to do what I want, to live how I want, to finally break free of the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus and just live how I want to live." You'll have to judge for yourself.

I'll tell you just very shortly in my personal story, we'll talk a little bit about the Christian religion and how it impacts, how it intersects with this idea of freedom and liberty, that for me, when I became a disciple of Jesus and when I was born again, I had experienced far more freedom and liberty than I had previously imagined.

One of the most important themes in Christianity is the theme of slavery and to what you are a slave. In the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul talks about this and talks about it in the context of slavery to sin. It's one of the most important themes. The basic, what Christians believe and teach is that all people are born as sinners, controlled by sin.

This is due to the original sin, this is the doctrine of what's called original sin. This is due to the original sin of Adam and Eve, the parents of the human race. And because of Adam and Eve's decision to sin and to disobey God, they experienced death. That was spiritual death and also physical death.

And so because of that death, all people are born into death. In the Bible, you'll often see the two themes. One is slavery to sin and slavery to Christ or freedom in Christ. And the other is born into death or born into life, living in death or living in life.

And so in the Book of Romans, Paul talks a lot about slavery to sin. It says things like that for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. For to set the mind on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Things like that. But then it talks about the massive difference between those who are condemned in the flesh versus free. And in Romans 8, Paul says, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." When I think about freedom, it's one of the most important verses in the Bible that I always think about.

"For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." Earlier in that passage, the Apostle Paul talks about being a slave to sin. He says, "The things that I want to do, I can't do. And the things that I don't want to do, I do.

Who can deliver me from the body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ that basically that I can be delivered from this body of death." And I remember back to when I was younger, and one of the biggest challenges for me was just simply being a slave of sin.

Now, I avoided a lot of the sin that a lot of people find themselves entangled in. I was very fortunate and blessed to be raised in a household, in a Christian household, with high moral standards. And that helped me to avoid many of the personal problems. But there was still a lot of slavery to sin.

I experienced major slavery to sexual lust and major slavery to a lust for money and a lust for possessions, covetousness, the desire for stuff. But when I experienced new birth and I became a disciple of Jesus, all of those things melted away and the power of sin was broken.

I remember it so clearly how previously I had had this undying lust for stuff. For me, believe it or not, a lot of it was cars. I was, it sounds so juvenile, like the 16-year-old, but it was real to me at the time. That I just loved cars and wanted to have the fancy cars and the beautiful cars, etc.

I remember when I was born again, the desire just evaporated. The other big one for me was sexual lust. I was addicted to pornography prior, and then when I was born again, the chains were broken. I still had to follow it out and learn to be disciplined, learn to control my eyes, control my actions, etc.

But the chains, the slavery was gone. And since that time, I've not been a slave of anything. And it's been awesome. Because when you are personally free, you can look the world in the face, raise your chin, and not have anything to be ashamed of, not have anything to hide.

When you know that you're forgiven for your sin, you no longer have to go back and spend time wallowing in it. I'll talk about that in just a moment, but I always think of, when I think about freedom, Jesus preached very clearly. In the book of John, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed." If the son, that's understood to be Jesus, if the son, Jesus, sets you free, you will be free indeed. And that particular verse to me has always been a cornerstone of spiritual freedom.

That if Jesus sets you free, you are free indeed. And nobody can ever imprison you again. No one can ever make you a slave again. And though your life circumstances become an outward prison, you can experience true freedom in the midst of that prison. The probably most important of the early disciples of Jesus, the Apostle Paul, spent much of his latter life as a physical prisoner, and yet wrote again and again and again about the freedom that he experienced and how joyful he was in the midst of his chains.

The Christian tradition is filled with testimonies time after time after time of people being imprisoned, people being martyred, people being enslaved, and yet in the midst of that prison, in the midst of that slavery, experiencing joy and peace and freedom. Now the reason for that ability to experience joy and peace and freedom in the midst of difficult circumstances has to do with an understanding and an experience of Christ's goodness towards you and towards me.

But it means, it puts you in a place where you can put your hand to the work ahead of you without grumbling. When you feel like and understand that you're part of God's family, that your sins have been forgiven, that you have been pardoned, and that you are loved, it puts within you this ability to obey in things like what the Bible says, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing." Even in the most difficult of circumstances, I often think about financial independence, and I think about, "Well, what about those for whom financial independence is simply not an option?" What if you're a slave, a physical slave, bound in captivity?

Well, even in that circumstance, in the Christian tradition, there are legions of testimonies of men and women who have been able to serve faithfully and be at liberty in their hearts, though they are not at liberty in their lives. Book of Colossians, Paul commands, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do.

Try to please them all the time, not just when they're watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the master you are serving is Christ.

But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done, for God has no favorites." And this basic idea has often been helpful to me when I'm doing something that's difficult. If I'm doing work that I don't particularly like or I'm in the midst of some difficult circumstance, I think, "I've got it a lot better than a slave." And yet, in the fullness of time, one of the most incredible things is that you see that the world has been turned upside down over the last 2,000 years, as you see increasingly slavery banished from the earth in favor of freedom.

You see societies that are oppressive and controlling banished in favor of freedom. My most, my favorite Christmas hymn is, has the verse in it, "Truly He taught us to love one another," talking about Jesus, "Truly Jesus taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy and grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise His holy name. Fall on your knees." And you can see, if you look back over history, you can see how the basic doctrine of the fact that the slave is our brother changes the world.

Systematically changing the world. It's incredible. You know, Christianity is not a philosophy, it's not just a philosophy. It's not just a kind of a psychological thing. But there are a number of components of the Christian religion and Christian doctrine that I've observed lead to this sense of personal, spiritual liberty.

One of the most foundational of those is simply love. The Bible very clearly teaches that while you and I were still sinners, thus enemies of God, God loved us. Christ laid down His life for us. That was how He showed His love for us. And He invited us in.

That concept of love, to know that you are loved by the very God of the universe, is one of the most powerful emotions you can experience. If you look at children and you observe how children grow and flourish when they're loved and then how they grow and die when they're unloved, you can see the measurable impact of love that it has.

And you will see, you'll see all the time, lives transformed. People who, they were raised with parents who didn't love them. They were raised in a community that didn't love them. And yet when they understand God's love for them, it completely revolutionizes them. It completely changes them. It transforms their life.

This wasn't important to me when I was younger, just because I was raised in a household where my parents loved me. Never doubted it, never doubted it for an instant. Knew it left, right, and center. But as I've gotten older, it's become so much more important to me. When you experience the freedom that comes from knowing that you are simply loved, it's a powerful, powerful experience.

One of the other most important things that you can experience if you become a disciple of Jesus is forgiveness. Forgiveness from sin in a conscience that's cleared. Everybody knows that they've done wrong. Everybody knows that they have sinned. People put different words on it, but everybody knows. We all have a list of, or could make a list of things that we've done that were wrong, that were evil, that were unkind, that were selfish, that were immoral.

And one of the most amazing promises of Christianity is that God promises to forget those things when you repent of them. The Bible says that he forgets them, throws them away as far as the east is from the west, which is infinite, and remembers them no more. That when we repent of our sins and we confess them, they're forgiven.

They're gone. Which means that instead of laboring under this lifetime of guilt and shame, you can just experience freedom and be totally forgiven and gone. Everything of the past cleared. All of it gone. Just like that. It's incredible. One of the better promises even is still the fact that going forward from that place, you can have personal freedom from being controlled by sin, controlled by anything outside.

There's much more, especially in the context of money. We can talk about some of the things that relate to money. Jesus said, "Don't worry about your life." Reading to you from the book of Luke. "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat, or about your body, what you will wear.

For life is more than food and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds. Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith?

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. A treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The ability to give up worrying because there's a God who's in control of the world is one of the most profound points of freedom that you can ever experience.

One of the most crushing realities of some philosophies is the purported aimlessness and pointlessness of the world. I have a friend who is an atheist, and as an atheist he's a philosophical materialist, and we talk about this. About the fact that if you become, if you don't believe that there is a God, and you don't believe that there is a God who's in control, maybe you're a deist, okay, there is a God who's not in control, the great clockmaker concept, or if you say there's no God, then you're inexorably drawn to the reality that life itself is an accident.

And what's worse is you don't have much of any will in the process. You are an accident, and all of the things that happen in your life are an accident. A mere outcome of a biological computer over which you have no control. You are the victim and the slave of biology.

You were raised in an accidental set of circumstances, and you are the victim of a biological computer that's forming you and forming your life for you without your ability to influence it. Whatever your culture is that you were raised in, however you were nurtured, and whatever your nature is, that will determine the outcome of your life.

And you don't have any say in it, because free will is nothing but an illusion. That's a desperately depressing philosophy. When you compare that philosophy to, "There is a sovereign and omnipotent God who knows all things, who understands all things, and who controls all things." That sovereign and omnipotent God knows the very hairs on my head.

Simply a metaphor to say, "He knows me better than I know myself." And what's more, He loves me. And He wants to enjoy a relationship with me both now in this earth and in eternity. And He has sovereignly ordained all of the circumstances of my life. Some of those things I can see and appreciate, some of them I can't see and understand now.

But He's sovereignly ordained all the circumstances of my life, and that very God tells me, "Don't worry. Don't worry about what you'll eat. Don't worry about your food. Don't worry about your IRA balance." Take some liberties to modernize the speech of Jesus a little bit. "Don't worry about your weight.

Don't worry about these things. Your Father knows what you need." And if He provides for the very birds of the air and the grass of the field, He'll provide for you. It's one of the most profoundly peacemaking realizations to bring tremendous peace to your life and liberty. Another hugely impactful and helpful component of Christianity is simply being able to be part of the Christian community.

To be part of a community with people from every walk of life, whether rich, whether poor, from every background, every color of skin, every position of advantage and privilege and disadvantage and difficulty, all come together equal before God. It's one of the most incredible things to just simply be a part of that community and to have that community at your back.

One of the things that I observe as a financial planner, people talk a lot about the advantages that rich people have, the advantages that the children of rich people have coming from a safety net, having a safety net behind them. And I think that's really true. I think there really is a major benefit of knowing that you're supported, that you're going to be cared for by your parents.

To me, that really strikes as true. But one of the cool things is, though, that it's not only available just for the children of rich parents. I didn't come from rich parents. My parents always provided for me. I always felt the confidence knowing that there was a safety net there.

But even as I just read, I've always felt the confidence of a safety net that God knows what He's doing. God knows what I'm doing. And I can work together with Him. And though I lose it all, God still loves me and He'll still provide for me. That I'll never be in need.

I'll never be in want. I'll be cared for, no matter what. Then when you bring in the Christian community, which stands up and backs up people, it's a tremendously empowering thing to know that you're cared for, that you're provided for. To know that there are people who would take you in.

I've never worried about going and sleeping under a bridge. I could go to almost any place in the world and say, "I'm in need." And the Christian community there would welcome me in, help me, get me back on my feet, love me, pray for me, care for me, feed me, while I get back on my feet.

It's an incredible thing. And due to the strength and the power of just simply the Christian philosophy, which gives dignity to suffering, gives dignity to work. One of the things that Jesus talks a lot about is suffering. I'll talk about that in a moment. But gives dignity to suffering, gives dignity to menial work.

Work is always praised in the Christian tradition. And a special work, a special dignity is given to even difficult work, menial work, physical work. A special dignity is given to the poor. The poor are always held in higher regard by Jesus than the rich are. And so, even in the most difficult of circumstances, poor doing difficult work, there's value brought to it.

There's worth that's brought to it. And that's incredibly transformative. You can go all over the world right now, and if you go into poor communities and go and find a Christian church, you'll find lives being transformed day after day after day after day. Wife will bring her husband into church.

He's an alcoholic who won't work. He gets set free, is born again, gives up drinking, gives up partying, and goes and starts working. And that in and of itself starts to transform families, starts to transform communities, and in time, I wish God's time scale were shorter, but it seems that he's got a very long time scale, and in time that will continue to transform the world step by step by step, day by day by day, as that ripple effect spreads out in communities all over the world.

It's one of the most incredible things to see. It's very different. Most of my audience in the US American context, very different in the US American context and the backgrounds that many US Americans come from. I encourage you, get out of your bubble and go and see what God is doing all over the world.

It's incredible. When you know that your life counts, when you know that you're provided for, and when you know that worth is brought to even the most menial tasks, to your slavery, worth is brought. I could preach for hours, Philemon and Onesimus, and do the stories of the slaves in the Bible again and again and again.

And when you recognize that even if you don't understand your circumstances, go back to the children of Israel being slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, they didn't understand why. God says, "You're my chosen people," makes all these promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then sends them into slavery for 400 years.

I'm so grateful those accounts are saved because what can happen is that even if you're in the midst of slavery, be it physical slavery or something akin to slavery, you're in the midst of stuck circumstances, you can be confident, you can know purpose in that. You can say, "I may not see how God is working right now, but right now I'm in slavery, but I can know God in the midst of this, in prison." That's why one of the reasons the Bible has always been such a source of comfort, the stories in the Bible of Joseph sold into slavery, sent into prison, and then raised right out of prison to the very top of power, number two ruler in this land, again and again and again.

I've got to stop preaching. The point is just simply this stuff is powerful. These philosophies, these ideas are powerful. There is a reality to it that sets people free, free from demonic oppression, free from demonic possession, free from sin. That sets them free and that transforms lives. You've known in your life lives that have been transformed by Jesus Christ.

If you haven't experienced that, you can. I need to warn you. If you decide to pursue Christ, his demand of allegiance is absolute. Jesus famously told the rich young ruler when he was coming, says, "What do I do?" Let me read you the passage. I'll read it from Mark 10.

"Jesus was setting out on a journey and a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.

Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.' And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, 'You lack one thing.

Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.' Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.' And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again, 'Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.' And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, 'Then who can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.'" Now, when you work in what we're talking about here every day, money, wealth, that's the kind of thing you better pay careful attention to.

Do know this, if you look to your money and think that you're going to get freedom from your money, it'll never deliver you. Now, I could cite all kinds of stories, but you're smart, you can come up with them on your own. And that's the point that Jesus is making here.

Do you want to follow him or do you want to follow your money? And it's especially difficult for those who have worked hard and who have built wealth. It's one of the reasons why I think the poor have it easier. As you look at Christianity, Christianity has always spread fastest among the poor and the downtrodden, among the marginalized and the oppressed.

Much faster than among the wealthy elite. Because the wealthy elite can often say, "I've got my money, it's all I need. I can hire the best therapist in the land to help deliver me from my psychological problems. I can hire the best detox center in the world to try to help me get off of this substance." The poor don't have those options.

They know they need to be forgiven. They know they need help. I don't know what God's requirement is for you. I don't think that, in my personal opinion, is that it's not that you have to give away all your money as a condition for entering into the kingdom of God.

But I do know you better be ready to. But the return on that investment is pretty stinking good. In the book of Mark, Jesus says, in Mark chapter 10, when this particular… I should have read this one to you. I'll read it again here. "As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down and asked, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good?'" Sorry, I switched to a different translation. I got confused for a moment. "So Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. This amazed them.' But Jesus said again, 'Dear children, it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God.

In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.' The disciples were astounded. 'Then who in the world can be saved?' they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, 'Humanly speaking, it's impossible, but not with God.

Everything is possible with God.' Then Peter began to speak up. 'We've given up everything to follow you,' he said. 'Yes,' Jesus replied, 'and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property for my sake and for the good news will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and property, along with persecution.

And in the world to come, that person will have eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.'" And I've often thought about that. I don't know that I have full insight into what Jesus meant, but I do know this.

I think he was foreshadowing and talking about just the community of believers. And I've often thought that I could travel the world for years not having a dime to my name, and I could be fed, I could be housed, and I could be loved. I could be transported by people all around the world in the Christian community.

And I've often wondered if that was what Jesus meant. I don't know. I don't know exactly what he meant. I think the focus is on eternal life. You may give up everything in this world, but to have eternal life in the next for eternity is well worth it. There is a return now, and I think that just simply knowing you're at peace—back to the basic outline that I'm trying to drive to—having that sense of spiritual liberty is worth it.

Let me give you just an example. Pretend you have two men. One man is an absolute crook. Bernie Madoff, maybe. All right? A crook. Makes his life and his living by stealing. He's a thief. No question. An absolute thief. And yet lives in the opulence of great wealth, all gotten with ill-gotten gains, by theft.

Now, on the other side of town, there's a man who's very poor, but he's an honest man. Goes to work every day. Earns an honest paycheck for an honest day's work. Doesn't steal from other people. Doesn't abuse other people. Just works honestly. Cares for himself, cares for his wife, cares for his children.

Pays his bills. Doesn't have any money left at the end of the month, but he satisfies his obligations. Which of those men, if you had to choose, would you rather be? Would you want to be the one who goes to sleep every night in the palace, and yet who doesn't sleep, because your conscience is so tormented by the evil man that you are?

Or would you rather be the one who goes to sleep in a very spare and spartan room, content with your moral life, and with the simple pleasures of your family? I guess you can choose. I know for me which one I'd rather be. I don't think either of those men is doomed to be where they are forever.

The man who is poor and living in a basic existence can probably improve and grow to be wealthier. And the rich thief can repent of his sin, can go and repay the people that he stole, can confess his sins, and live an honest life. God can forgive him. But I hope that little comparison together demonstrates how it's far better to be able to go to sleep at night, lay your head upon the pillow, knowing that you've lived a righteous life, than to be surrounded by ill-gotten gains from sin.

Now back to the basic theme of this show and we'll start to wrap up. Talking about liberty, spiritual liberty, is it possible to have true spiritual liberty? Well, it depends on your definition of liberty and of freedom. A lot of people, when they think of these words of liberty and freedom, they think of, in essence, almost an anarchistic, complete lack of rules.

Total, I don't know a better word than anarchy, but kind of this philosophical anarchy, the sense that nobody can tell me what to do and I'm the master of everything. I don't believe that that kind of liberty is possible, nor do I think that's even a good definition of liberty.

Now many people pursue it, and later in this series, and I think the sixth episode in this series, I'll talk about how you can actually get the closest to that in this world. But nobody actually believes that a total anarchistic, complete lack of rules, complete lack of instruction, complete lack of any kind of imposition is possible or even desirable.

You don't believe, no matter how anarchistic you are, you don't believe that you have the right to simply go to your neighbor's house and murder him just simply because you felt like it for no other reason. Nobody believes that. So everybody affirms that there's some kind of rules, some kind of objective moral values and duties under which everybody is subject.

But to the greater extent that you personally can be under self-control, you can have increasing levels of freedom. One of the things you see about a society is that if a society is upright, if the people in a society are moral and upright, there can be almost no external controls imposed on them.

I don't need, I'm a man who lives under self-control, I don't need a lot of external rules imposed on me by a government agent or a government authority to try to say that you have to do this and you can't do that. I'm going to live a morally upright life because I'm submitted to Christ and to His law.

But if I weren't, if I were not under self-control, I would need that controlling, restraining influence of the community, the society to bring me under control for my own good. So true anarchistic self-liberty is not possible, nor is it even desirable. So then you have the question, well, there's going to be some degree of duty that I'm going to have, some degree of restriction and restraint on my passions.

Where is that going to come from? Well, ideally it comes from within you. But if what comes from within you is fundamentally broken, if you're a slave to sin, not enough. So you need something a little bit more. And the lightest, the very best solution to this problem of personal liberty is found in Christianity.

Because in what I've expressed, the fullness of the gospel, that God promised that you would be set free from sin. You would no longer be a slave to sin. But rather now you become a slave to Christ, a disciple of Christ, to submit to Him. But what does Jesus say?

Jesus said, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Jesus said, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." That's what I have found.

Jesus says you're going to have a yoke and a burden. That yoke and burden is inescapable. But Christ's burden is easy and light. If you compare God's rules, what He expects of you and of me, to the rules that our society expects of you and of me, it's astonishing how simple and how light God's requirements are.

God says, "Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal." There's a few more, right? Some simple things. Our society expects--political rant, put your earmuffs on if you need it. Our society expects me to labor under this guilt of murder of millions of people around the world that I had nothing to do with.

And I'm supposed to live my life under this guilt of some kind into perpetuity with no clear date. And the only way I'm to be absolved of that guilt is to pay half my income into some kind of fund that someone else is going to use to spend so that my guilt can be absolved.

It's the craziest thing ever. Jesus said, "Don't murder." I haven't murdered. Thus I have no guilt. Society expects me to labor under this guilt of--I don't know-- that somehow because of the color of my skin is the wrong color, that I've got this guilt that I'm to labor under for all of my life.

Jesus says, "Love your neighbor. Go love your neighbor. Love him as yourself." No guilt. Just a command. Go love your neighbor. It's the most profoundly obvious freedom that comes from it. And then when you're under control, when you're under control of God, when you're submitted to God's law, which is very light, all the good things come from it.

God says, "Love your wife. Be faithful to her." Very simple. In the context of that relationship, we can have total sexual fulfillment. Our society says, "Here's all these weird rules about sexual reality, and you can have sex with anyone you want in any way that you want, but you have to follow all these detailed rules and you have to get a signed consent form and you got to make sure that it's the right person and you're not taking advantage of this and that and it's got to have these circumstances, etc.

And then if you do this, you got to have all these other things imposed on you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." It goes on and on. It's the biggest bondage ever. Very simple. So you're going to be under some kind of burden. Is anarchistic liberty possible? No. It's not even desirable.

But the absolute maximum liberty is found when you experience personal forgiveness for your sins, you repent and you confess all of your sins, you make anything right that you can make right, and you follow Christ and you do good. Love God. Love your neighbor. Jesus said that's the encapsulation of the law.

Love God. Love your neighbor. Live a righteous life. And in that you can experience total personal freedom. Total spiritual freedom. You can be set free from every single vice, every controlling influence of sin, no matter what. You can be set free from evil desires, impure thoughts, impure desires. You can be set free from those things.

And you can be filled with the Holy Spirit, God Himself, who comes within to guide you, direct you, to lead you, to control you, and to give you power here and now in this life. I just want to close today's show with some last bits of practical instruction. If you have any interest in following Christ, if you have any interest in becoming a Christian, let me explain to you how you do it.

There are four things that you need. Number one, you need to repent of your sins. What that means is you need to make a list of the sins that you have committed, the things that you have done against God, and you need to confess those things. You need to confess them first to God, specifically identify them and confess them to God.

You also need to confess them to somebody else. And you need to go, if possible, and confess them to the person that you've sinned. If you've murdered somebody, you need to go and confess your murder and pay the consequence for it. If you've stolen from somebody, you need to go and confess your theft and repay the victim from whom you've stolen.

If you've wronged somebody, you need to go and confess your wrong and ask to be forgiven. Whatever is the appropriate way for you to make it right, you need to repent from your sins, confess them, and go and make them right. Number two, you need to believe in Jesus Christ.

There's a lot to that, but you need to believe in Jesus Christ. Pick up a Bible, read what the Bible has to say. Start in the book of Mark, my recommendation. Shortest book. It's a book written for unbelievers, not for believers already. Read the book of Mark. Read about Jesus and believe in Jesus' message.

Believe that Jesus is who he said he was and that he did what he said he would do. For some people, that's easy. For some people, that's incredibly hard. For some people, it's easy for them to say, "I was raised in a Christian culture. Of course I believe in Jesus." For other people, it's brutally difficult.

"I was raised in a skeptical culture. I'm not even sure that Jesus ever existed." Well, search it out. Start reading, start questioning, start digging into it. You're going to have to believe in Jesus Christ. Number three is you need to be baptized in water for the forgiveness of your sins.

That means you're going to have to find somebody who can baptize you. It doesn't have to be a guy with a collar around his neck and a fancy gold crucifix on his chest. Any believer can baptize you, but you're going to have to find a believer who can baptize you in water for the forgiveness of your sins.

Number four is you need to receive the Holy Spirit. That was God's promise. Christ died so that the wall of separation of sin between man and God could be set right. He told his disciples, "Go and wait until you receive power from on high, from God himself, which is the person of the Holy Spirit." Believe that the Holy Spirit is God himself in spirit who can come to live within you and within me.

And that gives you access to all of God's power here and now in this life. That's how you become a Christian. For some people that process is very quick. It's a one-day thing. Meet a believer, confess your sins, you already believe in Jesus, be baptized in water and receive the Holy Spirit.

That's ideal. For other people, other people, for other peoples, other persons, for other people, it's a very long process. There's a drawing period. Perhaps there's a lot of work that needs to be done in your life. I don't know who you are, I don't know where you're from. All I'm telling you is that simply that spiritual liberty is available for you.

Christ died to set you free. I want to close with one more passage of scripture from Romans 8. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

I want you to experience that liberty. I say this without any fear of error. There are a lot of things that lead to liberty, and liberty is very important to me. But the foundation is personal, spiritual liberty. And if you have that, you'll be able to labor for your entire lifetime in a job that you don't like and do it with a smile on your face and with joy in your heart.

If you have that personal spiritual liberty, you'll be able to live on a meager budget and be satisfied and content with your life and with your income. You don't have to have any of those other things if you have personal spiritual liberty. So doesn't it make logical sense that that should be your first focus?

To me it does. Thank you for listening to today's show. Tomorrow we'll be talking about family liberty. Oh, sorry, you know what? I may insert one bonus in between now and tomorrow, but the next episode in this series we'll be talking about family liberty. As I close today, just simply want to say I've been doing more consulting over the last few weeks, and over the next year I'm doing 10 hours a week of consulting, booked out through the end of January right now.

But if you would like to talk with me personally, if you would like to engage me for a personal conversation, a personal consulting call, send me an email, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com, and I'll reply with all the details of how you can do that. Send me an email, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com, and that is available to you again.

Again, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com. Have a great day. The holidays start here at Ralph's, with a variety of options to celebrate traditions old and new. You could do a classic herb roasted turkey, or spice it up and make turkey tacos. Serve up a go-to shrimp cocktail, or use Simple Truth wild-caught shrimp for your first Cajun risotto.

Make creamy mac and cheese, or a spinach artichoke fondue from our selection of Murray's cheese. No matter how you shop, Ralph's has all the freshest ingredients to embrace all your holiday traditions. Ralph's, fresh for everyone.