Latest / The Immutable Word / EP065 15 Principles of Stewardship That Will Change Your Finances - Part 2

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EP065 15 Principles of Stewardship That Will Change Your Finances - Part 2 · The Immutable Word

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Welcome back to The Immutable Word. We're back for part two of the conversation
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that Robert and I have been having over the 15 principles of financial stewardship.
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This is based off of R.B. Ouellette's book where he covers a lot of these key
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principles. And we're just having a conversation discussing some of our own experiences.
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And would actually be interested in maybe hearing yours as well if you'd like
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to comment or maybe reach out to us for more information.
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If you haven't listened to part one yet, I do encourage you to go back and listen
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to that as we flow into part two of our conversation.
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So we hope you enjoy it. And again, if you have any questions,
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feel free to reach out. All right, let's roll into it.
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And God does give us principles. These principles we get, you know,
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are a perfect example. He gives us principles, and there are practical steps
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you can start taking, and they're going to be little baby steps.
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That's why I like how Dave Ramsey started it, right? He says his six baby steps.
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And the first one, number one, is save $1,000, right?
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That's huge. Because you know what? Most people don't have $1,000 in their savings account. Right.
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There's a huge statistic I was reading about it, just randomly.
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Of course, I like reading about statistics was that...
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Was that 40% of Americans can't afford a $400 emergency without having to use
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a credit card or take out some money.
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I think it was 40% or so. Or worse, borrowing money from a family member.
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Yeah, that's where things can get, you know, the tension. Man,
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I'm telling you. That's the worst. It only gets worse. I borrowed money from you. Yeah.
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I've borrowed money from our mom. Yeah. There's plenty of things.
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So I look back at this and think, man,
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if you don't get these principles kind of nailed in your head, and it has to start.
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The principle is the base foundational thing. Then you start to figure out the
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right steps. So people like, for example, Crown Financial is a great ministry.
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And I highly recommend people, either Dave Ramsey, Crown Financial.
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And there's other people out there too, money guys. guys, but I would say from
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a Christian point of view, Crown Financial was started by Larry Burkett.
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And Larry Burkett was this financial, he was a Christian financial expert in
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like the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I think he passed away late 90s,
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early 2000s. I can't remember.
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But Larry Burkett established Crown Financial Ministries. And he,
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actually, it was Larry Burkett that influenced Dave Ramsey.
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And Dave Ramsey started Ramsey Solutions and so forth and so on and grew from there.
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And there's a lot of other, I mean, we can name, you know, a half a dozen really
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good financial, you know, experts.
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And some of them, and I would just say there's no one clear particular answer,
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but I would say this for our listeners is number one, first acknowledge that
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it belongs to God. That means God must dictate how you manage that money.
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And you have to manage that money as if you're managing God's money.
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And so, and then when you start there, then the first step, then the next steps,
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as you kind of work through the practical steps to try to, you know,
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reconcile the issue, resolve your debt, start a good financial budgeting plan.
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Those are going to be small baby steps. And you're going to,
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once you start showing temperance and self-control, that's going to be huge, right?
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And most people, number seven is God's against get rich quick schemes.
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And the Bible talks about that, you know, be not hasty to be rich.
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And, you know, the idea is that you can make a lot of money,
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but if you try to make a lot of money quick, that also means,
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number one, the risk is super high, but it also means you can lose a lot of money very fast.
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And it's not a good stable position. And not only that, getting rich quick underlies
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the loving riches and trusting riches thing.
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Because that's what people want. They just want to get money fast.
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But if it takes you time to earn money and to make money and to build wealth slowly but surely,
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that to me is you exhibit a lot of patience, a lot of wisdom, a lot of good choices.
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But here's the thing. if you try to track your money day by day every day and
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try to stay on top of your savings, it's going to drive you nuts.
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What you need to do is just get these principles down and come up with a good,
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simple plan and just touch base with that plan, you know, at least once or twice
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a month and go about your life.
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And if you can establish principles like, you know, live on less than what you
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make, like what was it he said? Where was it? Oh yeah. Number 11,
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the more you spend when young, the less you're going to have when you're old.
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Most people's earning power is in the middle of their life, right?
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Once they hit their late 20s, early 30s.
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That's what they say. Most people are usually making, or they're the most productive,
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or they have the best job output in their 30s, and then eventually your 40s.
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By the time you get your 50s and your 60s, you no longer have that earning power.
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And if you didn't make smart decisions when you were in your 20s and 30s and
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40s, you're going to pay for it when you're in your 50s and 60s and 70s.
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And most people, I don't know if you've heard, Alan, I mean,
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how many times have you heard when people start talking about,
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are you ready to retire? And they're always talking about when they're ready to get full Medicaid.
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Or Social Security or something like that. Or Social Security.
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Yeah. I hear that all the time.
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Yeah. And people don't realize, I've heard the terms like, I'm going to get
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Social Security anyway, isn't going to be taken care of.
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I'm just going to, it's, what is that term? You only live once, YOLO.
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So they don't care. We're going to spend it now. It's all about the experience today.
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The economy is terrible. They're fatalists, but they're going to enjoy time now.
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It's, again, that lust and that immediate need of satisfaction by blowing everything
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they have and they won't worry about the future.
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And then a lot of those people will then begin to realize that they weren't
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wise and that that was a very unwise thing to do now they're paying for it,
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and social security by itself is i think if you get like 100 is it's just really
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50 grand a year today can you live off of that i mean,
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with some cat food and stuff like that maybe you can make do but it's it's there
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to supplement It's not there to,
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I mean, especially in your older.
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In the age that you're in, when you're old, right?
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When you're getting older, you're going to have more medical issues.
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Is that the way you want to live? And so if you don't save, and the other thing
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about depending on the government and things like that, you know,
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I don't depend on having Social Security or anything.
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I believe it's following these principles of saving and being a good steward
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and having something there for when you're in your 60s, 70s,
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and beyond. And then you can give to your kids.
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There's a passage in Proverbs, in Proverbs 6, verses 6-8.
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It says, go to the aunt thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise,
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which having no guide or overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
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and gathereth her food in the harvest.
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So she works during the summer when there's food available so that whenever
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the winter comes, when there's no more gathering food, she can live off the
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food that she gathered in the summer.
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We see that with joseph remember joseph he had seven years of famine,
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and what did he do he saved save save and if you look at it it was one-fifth
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one-fifth of their earnings 20 20 yeah,
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which means a good practical step is to live on 80 or less of your income at
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a minimum at a minimum it's recommended to save around 20 if you're able to
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do that that's a biblical principle yeah 20 is a good number to saved.
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Right. And the Bible also says in Proverbs 30, verse 25, it says,
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the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.
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Remember the messages we heard at the blowout talking about.
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Looking at the animals, right? And looking at the ants and the conies and so forth. There's wisdom.
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And the Bible says, you know, the Bible says in Romans chapter one,
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it says the invisible things of God are clearly seen through the things which
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are seen, the invisible things are clearly seen and and what's that that's creation,
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When you look at creation in the amount of providence, the amount of wisdom,
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the amount of prudence and productivity in nature, that's what God expects us to learn from.
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And so what does the ant do? The ant works in the early years,
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in the summer of its life, to collect so that it can live in the harvest time.
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What people do, what the problem is, is most people at their young age,
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the more you spend And when you're young, the less you have when you're old,
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they'll spend all their money and live off of what they should be living off
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in the harvest time instead of saving.
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And so, you know, I think about when I was in my in the early or mid 90s,
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late 90s, you know, I worked for an original equipment manufacturer for telecom equipment.
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And I was introduced to this concept of 401k. I didn't understand it,
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you know, but I didn't have as much expenses as I do today.
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And there was a lot of that. I could have easily put 20% of my income into the 401k.
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If I did that, and here's what, I just don't want people to get this.
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If I had put 20% of my income at the time in my 401k in the late 90s and we're
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2026, I'd probably be able to retire. I could probably could have retired 10, 15 years ago.
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I could have paid off my house in cash. I could have paid off everything.
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I would have had a chunk of money in savings and I could have lived off of the
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interest of my investments. All right, now I got to do the math.
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So if you started putting, let's say 500.
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Okay, that's like maybe fairly reasonable if you're making a middle-class income.
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And you started, when did you start Nortel?
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Like 90 96 so if you which is 30 years ago,
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a long time ago okay so 30 years and you know actually that's not 40 years oh
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no wait wait wait 96 i don't know math hold on do we want to know six to 2006 is 10 years 20,
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is that 20 years yeah i guess it's 96 to 2006 is 10 years 16 is 20 I don't know math I don't know math,
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don't you have a calculator hold on it's gonna make me math is hard so.
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96 to 2006 is 10 years 10 years,
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Is it? You tell me. These people are probably laughing at us.
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It's like, you guys know Bible, but you don't know math.
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It is 30 years. 30 years. 96 30 okay all right so this is say 500 bucks,
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you never increased it you just put 500 bucks in your 401k month for 30 years for.
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A very meager 77 average return that's what you typically get when people,
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put stuff in their 401k and and all a 401k is is just a vehicle that is sponsored by an employer that,
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that is basically a tax shelter it's tax deferred and so it's a great benefit
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because you could put so much per year in there and get that benefit and so
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that money just grows tax-free until you have to take it out later on but,
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typically it's around seven percent return do you want to know what that number is $566,000,
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yeah I mean I could have paid my house off twice,
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But the point is, if I had $566,000 in the bank today or in an investment account today,
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even if it was, like you said, 7%, I mean, I've seen 12% returns on 401k.
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Well, that's considering 4% inflation, so real return would have been, dude, $986,000. Yeah.
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Yeah. So that's, that's, I think people, if you don't realize that,
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and they always say that every day outside of the stock market,
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I know we're talking about stock market now, but every day outside of the stock
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market is a loss potential,
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every single day because the stock market shifts so much.
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And people like, I don't think most people, everybody knows about,
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or a lot of people have heard about, you know, the great depression and most
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people lost 80, 90% of their savings overnight.
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Okay. And of course, you know, we knew people, you know, we,
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we heard about people jumping out of buildings, ending their life because their entire life savings.
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What most people don't realize is
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that within seven years after the great depression some people had almost,
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triple to court i mean almost four to five times the return of their because
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the money dropped the stock market dropped significantly,
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and then it almost tripled and quadrupled over the next seven to ten years,
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I mean, if people just didn't do anything, if they would have just left it alone
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and waited seven to 10 years, those people could have retired.
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And so that's what people don't understand is that every time you're outside
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of, and again, I'm not trying to say about getting rich. This is about number
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three, money can be invested forever, but spent only once.
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Or number four, it's sinful to spend more than you have.
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And it's foolish to spend all you have, right?
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If you were to set aside that 20% of your income, if you get to the point where
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you reduce your income and your expenditure and you can live on 20% less than
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what you make, then invest it. That 20% can make a huge difference.
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And when you're in your 20s to 30, I mean, you're talking about, I'm 54.
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So if I started working when I was 18, 19, if I had stopped by the time I was 45, almost 50.
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If I had done the right thing financially, if I had paid off a house,
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which I probably could have easily by now, if I could have done all that stuff,
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I wouldn't be working now.
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I wouldn't have to work right now. All my bills would be paid.
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And people will think, oh, well, that's not the goal of it. Well,
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here's the thing. We're trying to do this ministry thing, right?
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We're trying to invest and try to put money into this. We're having to invest our time and effort.
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Man, if I didn't have to work 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and I can focus on putting
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biblical material together and enhancing this ministry and growing it the proper way—.
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I can invest a whole lot more into God's kingdom than I can now because I've
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limited myself financially.
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Right. And so some people don't look at it that way, but that is,
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you know, one of the things we talk about is if you can't invest money,
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invest in yourself, grow your knowledge, grow your understanding of finances.
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Like one of the things I did was, there's a book, I can't, I can't remember
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the name of the book, but the challenge was to learn, to grow by 1% every year.
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So do something 1% better, right?
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And I remember one of the challenges to myself was I'm going to spend 15 minutes
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a week listening to a podcast about finances.
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And I remember I just started doing that. And what that did was it changed my
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worldview. It changed my perspective about how to respect what God had given
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me financially and how to manage it correctly.
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And I'll, I'll tell people that I'll say this, you know, in this episode, I'll say this.
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That when we moved, you know, from Dallas to Austin, we were,
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you know, if you were to count my house, we were at least, I want to say at
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least over $250,000 in debt.
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Okay. And I took almost as almost a 40% cut in pay when I went from Dallas to Austin.
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And I would say within three years, we were able to pay off all that debt.
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And this is because I started implementing these types of principles.
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I started learning very practical ways.
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We became extremely disciplined.
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And of course, year after year, the Lord kept increasing my salary.
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You know, I would get bonuses at work. Just things started working out and I
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was able to, and I would just kill the debt as fast as I possibly could.
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And I remember I wasn't until...
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I want to say 2012, 2013, where we made our last car payment, basically.
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And the entire time me and Yvonne were married, we were pretty much in a car
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payment, sometimes two payments.
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I remember our payments were upwards around $1,200 a month and just car payments, multiple cars.
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And there's been at least several times where I've driven a car I could not
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pay for anymore onto the lot of the park of the car lot and walked away from it.
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And I just took a loss on the car. I couldn't pay for it anymore.
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We had a Suburban one time and it was a $700 a month payment.
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And man, I'm telling you what, that's a lot of money. A lot.
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If I could make extra $700 a month right now and I was smart about it,
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I mean, I can, I can do some, I can do a lot of good things with that money.
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You know, anyway, you know, I, we, you know, the point is, is I think,
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you know, what we're trying to say is these principles are important,
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and not only does it enhance your life your marriage and your mentality and
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your health that's why you know dave ramsey's whole curriculum is called financial
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peace because it gives you peace once you get control of your finances,
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that these principles can change the way you think and the way you approach
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money because you and this is why,
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rb let says these are 15 principles of stewardship,
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like like number 14 money is not what life is about When you get to the point
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where you can actually just enjoy living and enjoy the things that you have
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without having to constantly spend money to make yourself happy.
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Man, you start to enjoy the things of life that God's given us.
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The Bible says that, you know, he's given us freely all things to enjoy.
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You can't enjoy your home. You can't enjoy spending time with your family,
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your kids, because you're always constantly worried about money and the bills and things like that.
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And that, I mean, that's, it's horrible to live that way. So anyway.
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Yeah, it's pretty deep. I mean, all these things are really good.
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I know we're probably up on time, and we can probably spend a little bit more time in each of these.
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You were talking about the one thing that you were talking about,
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and that was fleeting, so maybe that will be another episode.
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So never mind. And I was going to say, if there's one piece of advice for anybody,
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if we were to take all of our learnings and give somebody one piece of advice,
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what advice would you give?
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I'll do one after you do one, but I'm curious what you would give.
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If there's just one thing.
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Well, I mean, to me, it's one of these principles. And looking at it,
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I'm just trying to see...
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No, I'm putting you on the spot. I can go. No, no. I mean, you know,
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honestly, number 12, I mean, even though we didn't, you know,
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all the other ones I think are equally as important. Yeah.
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But number 12 where it says spending should be deferred, giving should not.
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I think when we adopt a mentality that we want to be able to help and bless
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others and that instead of spending money and we hold on to that money for something
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that we could do for good, not only would that bring satisfaction, but it also honors God.
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And I believe that God will bless that. I think because, you know,
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when I start, one of the things that I hear about is like when you start to
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control your spending habits and you start to budget and you start to make these
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right behavioral changes, right?
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The way you spend, the way you budget, the way you control your money,
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the way you plan for vacations.
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Like we would, you know, save before the vacation. So if we knew it was going
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to be $1,200, you know, a year from now, we'd put $100 aside until we have $1,200,
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you know, so that way we're not in debt. we're not putting on a credit card.
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But here's what I noticed. And I know you probably noticed this too,
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Alan, is that all of a sudden your income starts to grow.
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Your job opportunities start to get better. I mean, I started out,
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you know, seven, six, seven bucks an hour in telecom, you know,
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and I've, I've gone way beyond that, obviously.
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But the point is, is like, as I've grown in my career, the, the more that I
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practice these types of principles, the more I see that increase. So that.
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That spending should be deferred, but giving should not. I just think that's
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a very important dichotomy in our behavior and our mentality.
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I should control my money, my outcome.
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But when I have the ability, the Bible says, let him that steals,
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steal no more, so that he may give to him that needeth.
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That when God starts to increase your ability, and I remember over the past
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12 years, 13, 14, 15 years being here in Austin in our church,
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you know, we've been able to increase our missions giving.
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We've been able to help people pay their bills. I mean, we've,
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there's several people in our church that we've been able to help them pay their
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rent. We put groceries on their table.
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And just to be able to do that, right, is a huge blessing. I think that's where
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true happiness and peace come from.
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You know, I think about Epaphroditus in the book of Philippians,
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Paul said that he was giving of his own money, his own effort,
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his own health. He was even sick to the point of almost dying, helping Paul.
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And Paul said that, you know, this Epaphroditus was a huge blessing to him.
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And I think about that, man, that, you know, at the end of the day,
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when that man stands at the judgment seat of Christ,
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you know, there's going to, I believe there's going to be some things that he's
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going to gain, some rewards he's going to gain because he put the right philosophy,
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the right mentality about what God had given him financially.
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So anyway, so number 12, I think spending should be deferred, giving should not.
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Yeah, that's a really good one. I don't think I could top that one,
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so I think we'll just leave it at that.
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Giving is such a blessing, like seriously, if, and this is where they get stewardship
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that when you are making good decisions and doing the right thing,
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saving for the future, budgeting, living below your means.
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And that strengthens your ability to be able to give to the ministry or to give to others.
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And that's such a huge blessing to be able to do that.
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So I'd say that's a good one to end on right there. And I think we covered it.
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Let me ask you this before we do end.
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So I know that there's going to be some folks out there and,
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you know, we've, I've been around some Christians that think it's a sin to save.
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Or it's a sin to invest.
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Putting money into a 401k, putting money into an investment and things like
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that. They think, they interpret that as number seven, get rich quick schemes.
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So if you if you put your if you put if listen if you control your your budget
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you free up 20 or plus percent of your income,
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and you decide to invest that 20 plus percent they think that's a get rich quick
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scheme but that's not how 401ks work that's not how index funds
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you know in the traditional you know stock market type funds especially index
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funds type funds they're not meant to be they're not individual stocks,
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they have a very slow growth they have a very steady balanced growth over time consistently,
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but that's not a get-rich-quick scheme.
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But what are your thoughts about that, Alan? I know you've heard some of that before too.
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Yeah, I've heard the 401k being something as the 401k being tied to loving riches.
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That's typically how it's positioned when I hear about it.
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But then when you ask somebody, well, what's a 401k, they probably can't really
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articulate what that is. And that's why earlier today I was describing what
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a 401k is, just a vehicle that.
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For that's sponsored by your employer to put money in there for the future and
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is tax deferred for the future, not tomorrow for the future.
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That future is a very, very long time.
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This isn't putting $10 and investing in it. Cause I'm going to make $10,000 the next week.
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This is 20 or 30 year timeframe. This isn't a tomorrow thing.
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This is about exhibiting patients, having good money habits and self-control,
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self-control, all of those things, right?
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That's what that is. I mean, think about this. Would any Christian actually
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argue against those types of characteristics? If they understand that, then no.
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Like, well, actually, that's in alignment with biblical principles and being
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a good testimony as a Christian or being a steward.
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But, you know, they'll throw out verses like where your heart is.
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That's where your treasure is, right? Like, if you store, you know,
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down here, it's a moth and it's going to eat up your riches and so forth and so on.
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And so that's what they assume. They go, okay, but here's my question.
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What if you grow to be 85 and you have no money whatsoever,
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or let's just say you're 50 and you die, and now your wife and three kids have
25:50
no finances, you didn't put any savings together for them, and now they're struggling.
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I mean, you ran into kind of not the same exact issue, but you ran into a situation
26:00
where your father-in-law died unexpectedly.
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And, you know, and our dad is the same thing, right?
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Our dad died with debt and he was, you know, he was hospitalized and there was
26:13
almost half a million dollars in hospital bills on top of debts that he owed
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that we had to help our mom through for several years.
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And it was very painful. The last thing you want a grieving widow to have to
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go through is worrying about money on top of losing a loved one, you know.
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And so I think it's a great disservice to your family, not just to God,
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but to your family. But here, I do want to say this.
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Because I know we've been, I don't even know how long we've been talking.
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It's about an hour. It's actually pretty short. Oh, wow. Okay.
26:48
But in Matthew, if people remember the parable of the talents,
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okay, because they always say, oh, you know, they think in their mind,
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they assume that Jesus Christ, the Lord, would be against,
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any kind of savings, right? Any kind of savings.
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But in Matthew chapter 25, verse 27, you know, he had given talents to each one of his servants.
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And of course, you know, one servant was able to double it.
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Another servant was able to make increase on it. But then there was one servant
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that took the talent and hit it in the earth.
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And Jesus Christ comes back and he rebukes him. And he says this in Matthew
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chapter 25, verse 27, he says, Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers.
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Now, just so everybody's clear, you know what exchangers are?
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That's the stock market.
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Okay. That's the stock exchange.
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He says, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming,
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watch, I should have received mine own with usury, which is interest.
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So Jesus Christ was teaching a financial principle for teaching that as a spiritual truth.
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Why would he use a sinful habit like saving and investing to try to teach a
28:06
powerful doctrinal spiritual truth?
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Doesn't make sense. And of course, there's several places that mimic that. Luke 19, Proverbs 13.
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There's all kinds of places where the Bible encourages this principle of investment,
28:20
of savings, of good financial stewardship. Matter of fact, the Bible says that
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a man ought to be able to lay up for his children's children.
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That means that your financial habits should be set up in a way a strategy where
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you're not just providing for your children, but for your children's to your grandchildren.
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How many Christians can say that
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their financial habits today are going to benefit their grandchildren?
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Not a lot, according to the statistics. It's unfortunate.
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But they'll accuse you of sinning because you're wearing shorts.
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They'll accuse you of sinning because you don't come to church on Wednesday
29:00
night or you miss a church service.
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They'll accuse you of sinning. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
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But they won't accuse you of sinning for not putting enough money set aside
29:08
to take care of your grandchildren. Isn't that odd?
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There's an inconsistency in there somewhere. But yeah, that's one of the best
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passages when it comes to investing in general.
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And investing is this part of the misconception of 401ks, just going back to
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that and the stock market.
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Those are businesses. You're investing, you're putting money into this.
29:34
If you own a business and you're putting your money into that business,
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like a lot of Christians do, they have their own lawn mowing business and you're
29:41
putting your money into that business guess what you're doing you're investing,
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right and you're making a profit,
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it is no different when you're putting into a 401k because that's exactly what's
29:52
going on is that you're investing in people's businesses,
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and you're making a profit yeah that's it and here you know the people always
30:00
say well you know work is evil or you know and so forth and so on but or they'll
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say you know that work was part of the curse,
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but they don't realize that when Adam and Eve were in the garden,
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God ordained them and he'd given them a job to dress and keep the garden.
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That's work. That was before the fall.
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They were doing stuff. And what's the biblical work week for a Jew?
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12 hours a day, six days a week.
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The only day of rest was the Sabbath day. So what's 12 hours times six?
30:31
More math. 70. Yeah, that. I'll just tell you.
30:36
Oh, it's 72. I'm sorry. So 72 hours. That was a normal work week, 72 hours.
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If you were making $15 an hour at 72 hours a week, most people,
30:48
if you were working those kinds of hours, you would be able to pay off your bills.
30:51
And somebody said, well, Brother Robert, I'd be just too busy.
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I'd be too tired and worn out.
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You know that work, the Bible says, for thy sake, when he said it to Adam,
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he goes, you're going to gather and work with the sweat of thy brow for thy sake.
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What does that mean? It's good for a man to work?
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If a man was working 72 hours a week, you know what he'd not have time to do? Go sin.
31:15
He wouldn't have time to spend all of his money at the bar. He wouldn't have
31:19
time to spend money on a big old hunting trip, you know, or fishing every weekend.
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And people don't realize, and we're talking about a young man,
31:27
the Bible said that here's the thing.
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If you were to work the first 40, 50 years of your life, 40 years of your life
31:33
at 72 hours a week, you would have
31:36
enough money by the time you're in your fifties to comfortably retire.
31:39
So that's a long, that's 32 hours on top of the regular work week that we, that we normally work.
31:45
So anyway, you know, like I said, there's so many things. And whenever I teach
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class, I show one of the things I give my kids is a, it's a handout.
31:56
I think it's by Crown Financial.
31:59
And Crown Financial shows over 2,500 passages in the Bible that have to do with finances.
32:06
Money, that are money related. Let's put it that way.
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2,500 verses of scripture.
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If God didn't care about how we
32:15
manage money, why would he put so many references to money in the Bible?
32:20
That's more than all the references about heaven and hell combined and redemption and salvation.
32:27
If you were to take all those passages, the passages about money exceed those.
32:33
And yet that's probably the one thing most Christians are horrible at is their
32:37
money habits. Yeah, budgeting.
32:39
Bible says you got to count the cost. That's budgeting.
32:43
So these principles, again, I just emphasized, look, these are not practical steps.
32:48
You know, everyday, you know, strategies to follow, but it's a good foundation.
32:53
Get these 15 principles down and start looking up resources.
32:58
Go to Crown Financial, go to Dave Ramsey, start there, and then start increasing
33:04
your own knowledge and understanding of finances and budgeting and things like that.
33:09
And I would encourage people, you know, if you're struggling with these things
33:13
and you want us to pray for you, if you want us to offer any kind of resources,
33:17
would be happy to. I'm not saying I can't fix it. I can't fix your financial problem.
33:23
And most of our financial problems are going to be a result of our bad choices and decisions.
33:29
So people have to acknowledge that. But unless you start making a disciplined
33:34
effort to take the first step,
33:37
You're not going to get out of the hole that you dug yourself.
33:40
There's a, man, we talk so much about finances, but in whenever I teach the finances class,
33:48
I teach there's three things when it comes down to how to make money.
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And those three things, it's very simple. And these are the only three ways
33:57
to make money is number one, to work.
34:00
Number two, pray for it. And number three is inherit the money.
34:03
That's what it boils down to. You either, you can either work for the money.
34:06
You can pray for and God blesses you and brings in money or number three you
34:10
inherit it the other ways like
34:12
robbing and stealing are obviously not encouraged for christians yeah so,
34:18
again the the point is is that when when you follow God's prescribed plan for
34:25
managing your you know the stewardship of what God's given you the the outcome is always better,
34:32
than not doing it so That's why the Bible says, in all labor, there's profit.
34:38
In all labor, even if you're making $2 a month extra, all labor, there's profit.
34:45
And so when you recognize that God prescribed man and put in man the ability
34:49
to work, you realize a man that doesn't work,
34:52
and is lazy and doesn't make some kind of effort to produce an income for his
34:59
family is living outside of his God-ordained role. and that man's going to be miserable.
35:05
There's something about it. I don't know what it is, but. We're designed to work.
35:08
We're designed to do things and to labor. That's just how we're built. That's how we're wired.
35:14
And there's a responsibility. Man has obligation. You know, Bible says in 2
35:18
Thessalonians 3, verses 7 through 10, it says, you know, if a man's not going
35:22
to work, neither should he eat.
35:23
But you're supposed to provide for your own. Otherwise, you're worse than an infidel.
35:28
You're supposed to help others, and it's supposed to prevent idleness.
35:31
Matter of fact, you go back to Ezekiel. I think it's Ezekiel 16.
35:35
It says, behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister, Sodom.
35:39
And this is Sodom and Gomorrah. This was the iniquity. Pride,
35:42
fullness of bread, that's overabundance, and abundance of idleness was in her.
35:50
Laziness was the sin of Sodom. That's the root sin of Sodom.
35:55
I want people to think about that.
35:58
Yeah, that's deep. Yeah.
36:00
All right, man. This is a good one. I'm interested to see if anybody,
36:05
I don't think we've done a finance-focused episode before, so this is a first one of its kind.
36:10
And these are things that you and I like talking about just casually.
36:15
So we thought we would do one here as an episode, but would be curious about people's thoughts.
36:20
And like you said, if anybody's looking for any resources and looking to increase
36:25
their knowledge about being a bit more responsible financially,
36:29
building budgets, Maybe they're just trying to get out of a difficult situation with debt.
36:34
I mean, it's always the first step, the first step. And there's so many resources out there.
36:39
And this is obviously a deeply practical study.
36:45
So it's not, you know, there are some very biblical and scriptural and doctrinal
36:51
principles that, I mean, some of them we've already talked about.
36:54
But, you know, we could, we could do a deeper dive on.
36:58
The principles of finances and how we're supposed to manage them better and
37:03
rules, how to obtain money, what to do, you know, what to do with their money,
37:08
danger zones, you know, three rules for solvency.
37:11
That means, you know, making everything balanced and living according to how God intended.
37:16
I mean, we can go through those things, you know, but we just wanted I just
37:19
wanted to touch on it today You know talk to you through it because I think
37:23
these principles are the first step If you can if you can nail down these principles
37:28
internally spiritually psychologically emotionally,
37:31
I really feel that if people and I believe it because i've gone through it.
37:35
You've gone through it I think it's the first step towards in the right direction,
37:39
And you could start to see light at the end of the tunnel.
37:43
Yeah, a hundred percent. All right, man. Well, that's another one we can wrap
37:47
up and hope this has been edifying and encouraging.
37:51
And remember, it takes just the first step. If you're in a situation where you
37:56
need to get out of debt, it's baby steps, small steps. Check out Dave Ramsey,
38:02
check out the resources that are out there.
38:04
But I hope this has been a blessing to all those listening and we appreciate
38:08
your support and hope that we will see you on the next one.