Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Outgo: Fix The Leaks | Roadmap To Kingdom Wealth 2 | Jay & Selena Greiner
This practical session focuses on financial stewardship and godly wisdom in managing money. Listeners are invited to examine where they might be “leaking” finances through waste, poor habits, or lack of alignment with biblical principles. The message reinforces that everything belongs to God, and we are simply stewards of His resources. By seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance and applying wisdom, believers can close financial gaps, eliminate waste, and position themselves for increase—turning everyday management into worship.
But we're here tonight in uh in one accord, right, to learn more about our finances and to help identify the leaks. And uh and where are we wasting money? Where are we throwing money away, and why does that matter? It's my money, Jay. I can waste it, I can spend it on whatever I want to. No, it's God's money, right? If you're if you really live that way, then it's 100% belongs to God, and you're just a steward of it. Amen. So let's go before the Lord in prayer tonight. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for this opportunity to be on live stream and be in one accord with each other tonight in your presence. And Father, learning and gleaning from you the Holy Spirit that's in us both to will and to do for your good pleasure. And so, Lord, that our spiritual ears are open and our hearts are open for change. And Lord, we just thank you for illuminating to us ways that we can make a difference in our uh daily lives and where we spend money in order to uh make the most of what you've given us. And Lord, it's it's supernatural revelation tonight that comes off the pages of the Bible, Lord, that changes our lives. And we're grateful and thankful for all the things you're doing and all the ways that you're blessing us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you know, James and Claire actually uh dad did a great job kicking it off with Orl Roberts the video from back in 2005. That was awesome last week. Uh and and so what uh you know, James and Claire pointed out about getting out of debt in or in order to obey God, you know, uh not being weighed down by debt. You know, my dad was talking this week in our in our staff meeting about uh that kite surfer again in Galveston and how quickly he was able to change direction and how the Holy Spirit's like, that's what we need to be as a church, be able to just boom, change direction whenever the Holy Spirit tells us to, and we need to do that in our personal lives. If we're weighted down with with so much debt and so much, so many of the circumstances that come by by being weighed down by debt, you can't make a turn when and you can't go when he says go, and you can't do when the Holy Spirit says do, and you're being held back by doing God's will. And so uh let's get out of debt and let's learn how to do that together. Tonight, we're gonna be focusing on those things and identifying the leaks. But I just wanted to point out in Malachi chapter 3, verse 11, in the Amplified Classic, it says, And I will rebuke the devourer or plagues for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts. And so it really does start with our tithing, it starts with our giving, it starts with our generosity, because tithing stops the devourer. And so right away we see if you're not a tither, then you're allowing your money to be wasted. It's dying on the vine. It's not Murphy's law, it's not a lack of knowledge, it's not, it's just a lack of you putting God first, and it's a lack of you obeying his word. And so all of us can come in agreement, come into alignment with the word of God when it where it uh affects our tithing and our and our giving to the Lord. And so uh, you know, being in debt is really similar to being out of shape, right? But except that you can't see, you know, somebody might be on the front row right here, not y'all, and be in$100,000 worth of debt, and we would never know it. But man, if you're if you're overweight and out of shape, you can see that, right? They're sweating all the time, they they can't catch their breath. You know, you can kind of feel sorry for somebody that's in that state. Hey, anyways, and so to lose weight, every single weight book and every single diet, right? You're you're reducing the amount of calories that you're taking in, and you're exerting, you know, in exercise and you're burning more calories than you're taking in, right? And so it's kind of the opposite. When we're developing financial discipline, we are uh spending less than we're taking in, right? So let's talk about the spending side. You know, it doesn't happen by accident. There has to be a plan, there has to be a goal, and there has to be vision. So if I asked you right now, how much money do you have in the bank? Don't raise your hand and tell us. I'm just, you know, think think of that figure. How much money do you have in the bank? How much money is in your savings account? If you can't tell me, then you don't know the state of your flocks. We'll read that scripture later on, but but uh you don't know what you have, what you've been given. And that's a really like an eye-opener thing. If you have no idea where you are, and you're like, you know, or maybe you do, and it's ten dollars, then that's a problem. Both are a problem, right? And so um also uh, you know, we're talking about a journey tonight. We're talking about a roadmap, but that destination looks different. What is that destination? That was your homework last week. What does your destination look like? What does that plan look like? We're all using spiritual principles to get there, but your destination and where God has you is is, I think, of Micah and Amber. And I'm using them as an example because Micah and I graduated high school the same year in the same district, not the same high school, but um, but it but what God has called them to do looks different than what God calls us to do, and we can both be blessed. We could even have the same amount of money in the bank, but it's but the destination is still gonna look different because they're called to do different things than we're called to do. And so you need to define wealth. What does wealth look like in your household? What does it look like for your family? And so it's it's again, it's gonna look different, you know. So uh ours looks more like we're working in order to uh grow God's family tree for people we may not ever meet. We're gonna get to heaven. Selena and I are gonna get to heaven, and we're gonna have people in heaven that come up to us and thank us because we sowed, or because we served, or because we preached, or because we taught, and we're not gonna get to meet all the people that we're influencing. And you're you're, you know, so so in in order to have enough to meet the needs of the harvest and to make heaven crowded, right? You know, that um it's it's just it's that simple, but yours might look a little bit different. Whatever, whatever God has in store for you, whatever God has, you know, on your heart to accomplish. And so Matthew 6.21 in the new New Living Translation says, wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also. So where are you spending your money? Uh where are you spending your time? And something has to account for the difference in the gap between that destination and that uh definition of wealth that I just asked in your life and in your family's life, there's a there might be a gap where you're spending your money and where you want to go. And so um sometimes, you know, it's it's our dream to move at some point and buy a different house. Doesn't have to be a bigger house, just to just, you know, we have a dream, we have a desire. So every now and then when we're when we're spending money, Selena will remind me, hey, are we saving? Are we, you know, absolutely we are. And so maybe not in that one moment. And so um we're we get on the same page about once a week with our finances, and we talk about our goals, we talk about our dreams, we talk about our desires, we make sure that we're heading in the right direction. There's prayer involved, there's planning involved, and so it doesn't happen by accident. Um, we tried it that way and it didn't work. And so I'll tell that story in a little bit, a few stories. But um, in in Deuteronomy 28, 12 and the NIV, it says, the Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty. How many of you want to go shopping at the storehouse of his bounty? I wouldn't mind that, right? To send rain on your land and season and to bless all 100% of the work of your hands. What if you could go to work and not have any wasted effort? I Celine and I hate wasted effort. Our staff, we're always talking about efficiencies, and Pastor Joseph's coming on board and making sure that that we're working with efficiency, that there's no wasted effort. But wasted effort frustrates me sometimes just when you when you identify that you're working in the wrong direction for a long time. But I'm telling you, God blesses us and he pulls us out of that waste and allows us to be efficient in all things. And it says you will lend to many nations and will uh but but will borrow from none. Everybody say none. None. Amen. That's what wealth looks like, and so steps to fixing the leaks and shedding debt. And so number one is to track every dollar. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:My turn. And this is not a downer message, ladies. Um we like shopping, don't we? So, so do the men. I mean, you know, it seems like it's a oh, it's a ladies thing, but not at the same place.
SPEAKER_00:Um not in the same 10 square mile area sometimes either.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Um, but yeah, we just have a couple of points to uh uh to help us along the way of our journey. Um, number one is to track every dollar. Uh, I'm gonna give you a quote. Terry Savell uh said, When you don't track, you can't improve. Whether it's your spending, your workouts, your screen time, or your habits, what gets measured gets managed. So if it's if you're not tracking it, whatever it may be, you're not improving in that area, right? Whether it's how many calories, workouts, screen time, habits. Um, so tracking your progress shows that you are moving forward even if it feels slow, right? And so it's a daily habits, what we do. Um, and so tracking every dollar, you know, that does kind of sound like penny pinching, but we do, we need to know where our money is going. It's it's it's leaking, right? That's the that's the title of our uh message is figuring out fixing, hey, the I don't, I don't I make this amount of money now, you know, and at the end of the month, I should have this much, but where is it all going? What what's happening here? And so um we have to make sure that that we're faithful over um tracking it, yeah, faithful over the little. And so that's our next script next scripture is Luke 16, 10. The ESV says, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. And so um God is watching uh what we may think is insignificant, but He He He watches what we uh you know what how we handle our money, how we handle certain situations. Um, and so when when we're faithful over the little, he'll make us ruler over much. And so we have to make sure to have that mentality of being faithful. And a lot of times we can have these mentalities, whether they've creeped in, um, however it may be, like I deserve that. I've had a hard week.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, the excuses.
SPEAKER_01:I need that, right? So and so did this to me. Well, I'm just gonna go spend a little bit more money and push that emotion down, right? And so I can go into all that, but I won't. So I'm just saying, you just have to um know uh why you do what you do, and so just always go to scripture and go to God, and God can help us. You know, He sees, um, and we don't have to maybe we've made some mistakes in the past, you don't have to get beat down by that. But today, you know, we choose today, like we're hearing the word today, and so we can make progress going forward. Um, and then Jay has a couple of practical things that we use for our banking.
SPEAKER_00:If you want to go over some of those, so we use uh uh, you know, you it's it's important to leverage not just knowledge but technology, and so there's a min there's an app for that, right? There's many apps for that. We use an app called Banktivity because we're Mac people, and so the the finance world is kind of smaller on the Mac side. Um so if you are PC people, then you have a whole lot more choices of of all kinds of different things, but that helps us track every dollar, it helps us, it it connects to our bank accounts and and you know, so so on and so forth, and and puts it all into one place. It allows you to to uh create a budget and follow a budget, and then you can track your expenses and track your income as well. And so uh, but you need something like that. And so it but the the point maybe that's over your head, maybe you don't know anything about computers, but you know, get a piece of paper and start somewhere. Open up an Excel sheet and start somewhere. But the main idea is just to start. And so I was gonna tell this story way back in about 2003. You know, Allison was you know one or two years old at the time, and and and so she was a newborn, and we went out and should we purchased some furniture. We just kind of got ahead of ourselves financially, and we found ourselves in some credit card debt. And then um our youth pastor came to us and and uh we ended up purchasing his boat, which was not a bad idea. It was just the timing of it and the fact that I wrote him a credit card check. Do you remember credit card checks? Like no interest for six months, and so uh it was not a bad investment. It it was the$9,000 boat. We had it for 11 years and sold it for$5,000. It's not terrible to own a boat, you know. I'm just being uh open and honest, and uh, and so uh, anyways, just they say things with motors go down in value, but I'm telling you, that was great for our kids growing up. It was great for the church. I used to take a bunch of guys fishing. I don't know, I don't seeing anybody the way back in the day. Oh, there's brother. Tom Aishue is in here and Larry Orr, all kind of people, but anyways, um, but yeah, thank you, Stan, for for reminding me. If Larry was here, he'd be like, that's why I'm getting a knee replacement. But uh climbing up that old rickety ladder on the back of that thing. Um, but yeah, uh so so what there we were in debt, and so we came across a book by Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover, and we did that debt snowball that he talks about in that book, and it and it worked for us. Are there better methods? I don't know, because that's the one that we use. But he teaches, and uh, this is also in uh Dr. Gee and Ilka's marriage book. There's a whole chapter that talks about the debt snowball as well and getting out of debt. But uh, you know, the first thing you do is you stop using your credit cards, and so he tells you to cut them up. I would just put them in a file folder and lock them in a cabinet somewhere, and um, and then start saving for your emergency fund. And in this day and time, maybe$2,500 would work, and then you list your debts out from smallest to largest, you pay minimums on everything, and you attack the smallest debt with everything that you have, with every fiber in your being. And you live on beans and rice and rice and beans, and we did that. We stopped eating out, we curbed all of our expenses, and we went after this debt, and that's what we used. And uh, I'm telling you, never underestimate the power of the supernatural. When you start doing your part in the natural, God steps in in the supernatural, and you're sitting there calculating, man, it's gonna take us three years to get out of debt. But no, I'm telling you, God steps in and and and you know, because you you never stop being generous and you never change your attitude. It's not it's you're not becoming more inward, but you're just attacking this debt again. You can't be free, have financial freedom to do the things that God's calling you to do if you're weighed down by all of all of these things. And so um so then you let's see, where would I in the in the debt snowball? Uh you focus on the smallest one until it's gone, and then you focus on the next biggest one. And then when you're when you're out of debt, then you focus on getting uh your emergency fund back up to three to six months worth of expenses, and then you can begin to begin investing and so on and so forth. And so number two in this process to is to identify some of the leaks.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So small leaks add up and matter. If you, you know, just in the natural, um, I think about oh, I just thought about a leak that sometimes we have in upstairs. Um you know, we have to fix it. I don't know where it comes through, but it goes in a sink in one of our rooms upstairs.
SPEAKER_00:It's the it's the AC um, it's our second AC unit, drains into an upstairs sink and it stops up the sink. It that gel stuff that that causes the condensation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so and so we have to attend to that. We have to, you know, just let your homeowner and you look at your house on the outside and on the inside. You um, but you don't want to ignore uh the leaks, and so those matter. Proverbs 21.20 says, the wise store up uh choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. And then the amplified of that uh scripture, Proverbs 21.20, says, There are precious treasures and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a self-confident and foolish man swallows it up and waste it. And so that's who you are.
SPEAKER_00:You're self-confident and a foolish man if you're swallowing it up, if you're wasting it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And so when it says the wise store up, um, it's not talking about hoarding, it's talking about, you know, planning ahead, being intentional over our finances. Um, and so we want to be wise over our finances. We don't be like the foolish man, uh, which really, when I read this scripture, I think of lack of self-control. Which really, if you look at the fruit of the spirit, all of the fruits would all be done if self-control was the main one, right? If you were um had self-control um over every arena of your life. And so we don't live for the moment, we live um with the vision ahead of us. And so we want to make sure, you know, because if we if we if we're fools, you know, and we lack self-control, that's gonna lead to waste, that's gonna lead to um lack, and that'll eventually lead to regret. And so we want, you know, we don't want to look back over our life and say, man, I really regretted that. Really? You know, like it I shouldn't have done that, or you know, keeping up with the Joneses, not even knowing that the Joneses were broke. And so it's all by appearances nowadays. And now with social media, um, you look at something or you look at, you know, all the travel that people take, and the, you know, oh look, they're going there and they're wearing that, and they're but not knowing the situation. And so we have to make sure that we're wise, that we're prudent, and that we're stewarding what God has given us. Um, and then one, so identifying the leaks, one would be um like subscriptions, apps, gym memberships for a while. So we've been a member of the why forever since the kids were little. And not too long ago, I cut Jay off because I'm like, you haven't been to the gym in a while. Sorry, Jay. But no, we talked about it. I didn't just cut him off. We had talked about it. I was like, hey, our membership has gone off. You know, like back in the day it was cheap for four people. It was like, you know, not very much money. And so it's real money. Now it's real money, but we do a workout at the at home. We have he does work out. But I'm just saying, like, you know, looking at what we're, you know, our subscriptions and what like are we using that?
SPEAKER_00:Are we those automatic things you sign up for and then you forget about, check those. Don't just let those go on and on. If they're apps that you've purchased on your phone, you can look under your iCloud account. If you have an iPhone, it'll show you your subscriptions, what you're paying for.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, all of those are the apps you bought that you forgot about.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. They're small leaks, but they matter over time. They matter. And so we have to identify, we have to take time, right? Because it's not gonna happen just, oh, I heard this message on Wednesday night. No, you have to take time throughout your week and identify where is my money going. You have to get serious about it, right? Because we, you know, I'm all about leadership and I'm all about going to different places and learning, but we have to apply it. If I hear all of these things and don't apply it, then the Bible says I'm a fool. And so we have to make sure that that we're applying, you know, and we're we're like, hey, where is that leak? Yeah, you know, identifying it.
SPEAKER_00:God honors discipline, he really does. Another thing to think about is your TV services, that those channels that you bought that you never watch or whatever, just re-evaluating, do you really need all the TV stuff that you buy? Like, like now I feel like it's more complicated to get, you know, used to have this huge cable bill, and now the you know it's it's somewhat cheaper, but then by the time you add all the channels that you want, it's all nickel and diamond you to death, right? And so cut it all. There's free options that are decent enough that that you know you really don't need that. Oh, but my kids like to watch, no, they don't. You can just shut that off. That's not a priority. If you're really hurting, seriously, that's that's not love. Oh, well, I'm doing it out of love. No, you can't afford that. It's m it's better to love by sacrificing, right? And so debt keeps you you're sacrificing your future and it's not worth it. All right. So number three is to gat categorize needs versus wants. And so Proverbs 27 in the Passion Translation verses 23 through 27 says a shepherd should pay close attention to the face of the faces of his flock and hold close to his heart. You think this is about pastoring, and it is, but keep reading. Uh the condition of those he cares for. A man's strength, power, and riches will one day fade away, not even not even nations endure forever. So take care of your responsibilities and be diligent in your business, and you will have more than enough. Everybody say more than enough. An abundance of food, clothing, and plenty uh for your household. Amen. And so uh this allows you uh so categorizing your needs versus your wants allows you to make cuts or changes without hurting the essentials, right? So what are your needs? I your very first need is food. And obviously, there's a million different ways you can like Claire covered this last week, just talked about expensive food. Sometimes eating healthier is more expensive, but there are, you know, if you do meal planning, if you brown paper bag it, you know, you can you can say with eating leftovers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Warm it up. Leftovers are good.
SPEAKER_00:I'm above leftovers.
SPEAKER_01:Hey.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, food number one, shelter is number two, utilities are number three, and transportation is number four. And uh maybe in the city of Houston, transportation might be uh higher, but you still have to have uh a roof over your head. So once, once are entertainment, you can you there's free entertainment available. Go dig out that board game that you hadn't played in 10 years that's in the back of that closet. Yeah, there you go. And uh dining out, that's optional. That's once. All kind of shopping, right? It's you know, you you really you'd be surprised at how long you can go without buying new clothes. You just you find that, you know, sweater in the back of the closet or whatever. Yeah, I'm being I'm being serious. When you when you really have when you're really desperate, you there's it's it's there, it's available. Yes, goodwill. Amen. Goodwill, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's not kind of expensive. Carol and I were talking.
SPEAKER_00:Think about all of the premium upgrades. So then let's go, let's talk about the needs that need a go negotiating, right? So your electricity. If you just pay whatever rate your power bill is and you don't go negotiate that rate down or sign a contract, then you're wasting large amounts of money a year, hundreds of dollars, maybe even thousands of dollars a year, depending on how big your house is. But there's powerto choose.org will help you. That's a website, powertochoose.org will help you find electricity rates in your area for your county and get the right, you know, uh the right get on the right plan that saves you money. And so another thing is is all your insurances. Insurance isn't optional. I pulled a quote out of Gee and Ilka's book. Uh the act of buying insurance in itself doesn't show a lack of trust in God, instead, it demonstrates proper planning. So again, you're being a steward of God's word, of what God gives you. And so insurance is part of that. I I uh once knew a person who had had a car loan and then didn't he had full coverage for a while, but allowed that to lapse and just had liability insurance, got in an accident that was his fault and totaled his car, that's gonna leave a mark for a long time. Paying on a car that's totaled. What do you do? You know? And so uh you got to handle your business, you gotta do it right. And so um get a broker. I encourage you to get a broker for your auto and your home insurance. And renter's insurance is really cheap, but if you're a renter, you really need renter's insurance as well. But I encourage you to find a broker. Obviously, you can go out on your own and you can, you know, once you have a broker, you can kind of test them to make sure they're good, you know, the rate's good by by going back and testing that rate. But it's really hard to know all your coverages. So if you five minutes will save you$500, whatever the gimmick is, um, you're usually getting you're usually buying less insurance and being underinsured. And that's the way they're saving you money, and then they're just gonna jack your rate up the very next time that you go to renew. So health insurance that's another area that's not optional. And so you need health insurance. And so if you can't afford health insurance, um it's just another thing that you can believe God for. Don't think like, oh, I can make it without it, or you know, my dad has all kinds of stories and so all kinds of uh, you know, we went all those years without dental insurance and all kinds of teeth problems that he had. And so uh yeah, right. Yeah, we didn't have. So uh life insurance, term life insurance, not whole life or annuities, uh, but uh give pay quote, uh life insurance is love insurance. And so a lot of Christians just think, hey, you know, they we're living by faith, baby, but no, faith faith, you know, prudence also buys life insurance. At least you have something to pay for your funeral. Um, identity theft protection, that's another big one. Um and then an umbrella policy, once you have a net worth that's maybe over$300 or$500,000, you want to protect that net worth. And so um, especially nowadays with auto accidents, you can uh reach the end of your auto coverage very easily, and the umbrella policy helps you with the liability above certain amounts. Okay, that was a mouthful. Um, and then we're gonna have breakout sessions here in a little bit if you want to talk about more examples of things that you can negotiate up for your needs, right? Number four, avoid impulse and unplanned spending.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Uh Psalm 24, 1 says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. So uh you are a manager, not the owner. So we have to make sure to, you know, this is it can be easy to do, you know, but we need to avoid impulse and unplanned spending. Um, you know, if I go shopping and I see something that I like, of course, we want to buy it. But, you know, just like Jay said, pull out pull out that old sweater from the back. But we're not in sweater weather. Maybe not today. It's kind of hot. Um, John Maxwell says, intentional living is the bridge that will lead you to a life that matters. And so we want to make sure when you're buying, when you're impulsive and you're, you know, unplanned things, um, spending things that on things that you really don't matter. Um, it, you know, we want a life that matters. We want to, because you at the end, again, at the end of your life, you know, did that thing really matter? Did you really need it then? And it's keeping you from God's best in your life. And so we have to spend according to God's priorities, not personal impulses. Um, you know, I wrote down Starbucks and I added it up. If you just did one person five dollars a day at Starbucks, that's eighteen hundred dollars a year. Um, and Starbucks. Mind you, now if you have lots of people in the house and everybody wants Starbucks, you know, you can just multiply that at$3,600 and it it goes up. Um, and I'm not knocking all the, hey, I love a good coffee. Okay. I we make our coffee at home, but I'm not knocking anybody who buys coffee. I'm just saying, um, if you plan for that, and if you know your money is going, then that's great. If you have money to to spend on coffee and that that's fine, but um you just want to make sure that uh you know where that you budgeted it for it. Yeah, you budget it for that, yeah. Uh just like the word says in Habakkuk, write the vision, make it plain, you know, and so we had to make sure that is that part of the vision, is that coffee keeping me from God's best and and maybe investing that money in something else that matters, and um than just a quick fix and like I want that, I need that, and so there are many um examples, uh nails like I went two years without getting my nails done. My cuticle's looking bad. Come on, but like getting your nails done, that's pricey, and just things like that um that that really matter in the long haul of uh just being a good steward of what God has given us, um, and avoiding impulses and unplanned spending. So, number five, live within your means.
SPEAKER_00:I want to back up real quick. Avoid impulse. So, like going to the grocery store hungry, you know, waking up, waking up without a plan and just living life and just buying whatever food.
SPEAKER_01:Or texting your wife, hey, can you get me Oreos? Like, wait, oh, that was on the list.
SPEAKER_00:That is really important. And not breaking the bank and the bluebell. Anyways, um, your hobbies and your toys. I like to use golf as an example because I don't play golf. And uh I don't drink alcohol, so I save a lot of money between those two things. And so uh it makes the Harley look look like nothing. Hallelujah. I was doing pretty good. I bought my first motorcycle for five, sold it for seven, bought the next motorcycle for seven, sold it for nine, and put that down on the Harley. And then God supernaturally paid that off. So sometimes, you know, seriously, I was gonna use that example if we have time, but we're running out of time. Um, we have a little bit of further to go, but um you know, like never underestimate the power of supernatural, like we haven't done everything perfect, like we're not the best examples, but God comes in. I think I think in 2022, I was thinking about this. Uh we went on a family vacation, and at that time we hadn't been on one, and we hadn't been on one since. But we budgeted a certain amount and we spent double. Have you ever done that? Are we the only ones? Like, we didn't we got back home. We're like, oh my goodness, that was that much? Really? Are you serious? And and and uh a check came in the mail for$7,500. Hey grinders, we just wanted to bless you. Da-da-da-da-da. Thank you so much, blah, blah, blah. Boom, God just covered it. So I'm telling you, never underestimate, you know, we we're planners normally, but God's mercy kicks in. But how much greater is it when you when you're not living on God's mercy, when you're doing things on purpose? I wish I would have stuck to a budget. I wish I, you know, but uh, but God's mercy kicked in. So we're grateful and thankful when that happens, right? And I know we're not the only ones. I know God does the same thing for you because he protects our assets, amen. And he gives us supernatural favor. And like I said on Sundays, favor is not fair, right? All right, so number five, live within your means. And so uh Romans 13, 8 says, Let no debt remain outstanding. And so uh when you spend without discipline, you're stealing from your future and your kids' future. You really are, and so there's so many different pitfalls that we see as ministers because we get to handle, we get to minister to the the fallout that happens when families make mistakes, like loaning other family members uh money. Or um, you know, the the the cousin or something has lost their job and it oh well that's my cousin. And but if you can't, if you have consumer debt of any kind, you don't have it to give. And you sure don't have it to loan. Because that like like Dave Ramsey says, that Thanksgiving turkey tastes different when you owe your family member money, and it does. That is not a situation where you it never ends up good in your family when some and then and then you're like, hey, are you ever gonna pay me back? Hey, when are you gonna pay me? And three years goes by and and you're and you don't realize it, but you can be start feeling bitterness towards that person, towards that relative because they hadn't paid you back, or all the times that you help your adult kids or grandparents, you know, hey, I'm doing it for the grandkids. But if you have consumer debt, again, you don't have it to give, you don't have it to sew. That's not that's not what sewing is. It's not sewing to your grandkids, you know. Uh and also, there's so many different ways that we've seen where you're enabling somebody to do the wrong thing. You're giving somebody money, uh, and you're allowing them to keep living a lifestyle that's that's drawing them away from God instead of drawing you know, drawing them to God. And so loaning your your family members money is uh is always use you know, is always bad, really. And so um, but giving them if if it's something that's really on your heart and you can afford to give them money, I encourage you to do it that way. Hey, you don't owe me anything. Here's five hundred dollars. Uh no, I don't have five thousand dollars, but I have five hundred dollars. I hope this helps you. God bless you, you know. And so uh another thing is student loans. You you think, hey, you know, you you're unprepared for college, you didn't do any of the prep work, all of a sudden your your kid's a senior, you're scrambling, they don't know what to do. They get into Texas AM, and it's$35,000 a year, and you sign on the dotted line. I I knew uh one gentleman, one family that uh did that for both kids out of state school, over$100,000 each. He literally is still paying those off, and it's affected his entire future. And it's just something I was like, what's wrong with your kids paying it back? What's no, that was my deal to them. I just did it out of love. I love my kids. No, that's not love.
SPEAKER_01:And a lot of times they don't even know what they want to do. So you're investing in their first year where they don't a lot, I don't know what the percentage is, but they drop out or move, you know, um change. Yeah, like so yeah, you be having wisdom.
SPEAKER_00:If the Bunt Rocks will get to speak into this Ben's year, he just started ORU, um, pressure, pressure, pressure, but they didn't do that um unprepared. You know, our kids did not go to college unprepared.
SPEAKER_01:Ethan was was um I went to, I mean, I didn't finish, but I went to nursing school. It was community college. Um, I saved my money. My parents did help me, but I was not gonna put them in debt. I was like, no, you know, we're gonna I remember paying cash for my books back in the day. And so um, so yeah, I didn't want to do that as a daughter to like just seeing how um my hard my parents worked um and getting them into debt. So um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it really is um, you know, I just this particular person I was talking about was out of work a couple of different times for periods of a long period of time, and so the interest and the penalties started stacking up, and they're trying to call on the phone to pause the loan, and and they won't listen. And so that's just student loans are really hard to get out of. So uh also avoiding get rich quick schemes, and you think it's faith, you think if you just invest this$30, you're gonna have a three million dollar return, and it just doesn't happen. And what for whatever reason, all that kind of stuff, it sneaks into the church first. I've never really been able to describe that. I really haven't. But um, you know, whether what I I would name some specific ones. I might get some people, you know, but but uh, you know, I own some we own some Iraqi dinar, but it's not gonna, you know, make me a multi-billionaire tomorrow or anything, you know. So like that was that like what that was a big like won't call it a scam because it could have been a real thing. There was some some realities to it, but so many people like banked their whole entire future on it, and that's all they talked about, and they they get all stirred up, and it's you know, um, that was just one of a billion that we see. And so um, so there's a million different scriptures in the Bible uh about if you don't work, you don't eat, and so that's what and God's gonna anoint your hands. We already read that scripture earlier, and so um let's get busy, let's put our hand on the plow. But here's one Proverbs 13, 11. Dishonest money uh dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. So be cautious with investments and scams. There's so many different scams. There's total like fit, they're called phishing scams in your email. It looks like PayPal, it looks like Citibank or whatever bank that you use. I we don't use Citibank. I get a whole lot of Citibanks. So that lets you know all the big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo. It looks like Wells Fargo, but it's not. It's not your bank, and you know, it's not the IRS. All the different scams that are out there, it's not, you know, Robert Redford's in heaven or hell. I don't know. I'd pick one, but uh, I'm not his judge, but but it's not Robert Redford reaching out to you. It's not, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't believe everything you see online and people who reach out. That person usually is not that person, it's somebody trying to scam you or phone calls.
SPEAKER_00:It's not Elon Musk, I promise. It's not.
SPEAKER_01:No, so you we have to be use wisdom. Um, and we do that by staying close to the word of God, knowing what the word says, and then also applying it. Um, because it's not good just to read uh the Bible, but then no application. We have to do our part and apply it. And so if God's telling us, hey, there's these leaks, hey, use wisdom, hey, there's caution up, you know, it's a roadmap, you know, there's caution up ahead, there's a detour. There, like, what are we doing? We have to make sure to uh follow the Holy Spirit, pray much in tongues, and stick close to the word of God. Um, and then number six, the last one, because we have to wrap it up never leave out the supernatural.
SPEAKER_00:Never leave out the supernatural. I've said it two or three times already. But when we do our part in the natural, God always is faithful to do his part in the supernatural, and then the supernatural comes in and becomes natural. Amen. So let's do our part.
unknown:Amen.