We Need Margin | FreedUp Week 4

Worried about money? You’re not alone. No matter how much or little we make, most of us are consumed with worry about money—how we’re going to make ends meet, how we’re going to achieve our goals, and so on. The reality is that relieving our money stress has very little to do with how much we make, and everything to do with how much margin we have. Join us today as Brian talks about why margin matters and how to get more of it.

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    Hi, mom. Happy Mother's Day
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    and happy Mother's Day to all moms out there.
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    We are so thankful for the way that you lead us,
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    care for us and love us.
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    Well, today, you're joining us
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    for a week 4 of Freed Up, a series
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    all about how to grow spiritually
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    and thrive financially.
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    Today, Brian's going to talk to us
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    about being a wise saver and a cautious debtor.
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    And for some reason,
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    he's going to do it from an airplane seat.
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    – I'm in the worst seat on a plane.
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    I hate this seat, and you do, too,
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    and yet most of us
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    are in this seat right now financially.
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    I'm going to talk about that today.
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    We're looking at what it means to be financially free,
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    how to have zero stress and margin in our lives.
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    This is what we've been looking at
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    throughout this whole program,
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    trying to get freed up that God--
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    And by the way, this whole
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    financial program we're going through,
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    this is God's ideas.
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    It's not my ideas. It's a man's ideas.
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    It's God's ideas that
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    everything we have is His stuff.
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    We're just stewarding and managing what is His.
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    Last week Kyle looked at
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    being a generous giver first.
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    And today I'm not talking about
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    being a wise saver and a cautious debtor.
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    You might think like debt and savings,
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    how in the world do those two things
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    relate to one another?
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    They relate really, really significant
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    to one another, especially when we consider
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    the place that we sit when we're on a plane.
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    This is what I'm doing on a plane.
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    And I'm looking to see
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    who's getting on to the plane
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    and coming down the aisle towards me.
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    Some people are coming I'm going, "No, no,
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    no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
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    no, no, no, no, no, no."
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    And they walk by, I go, "Whew."
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    Other people, "Yes, yes, yes. Sit beside me."
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    And, you know, kind of people I'm talking about,
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    you know, the ones I'm talking about.
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    I'm talking about the 80 year old
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    90 pound senior citizen women.
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    That's who I'm talking about,
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    because that's who I want sitting beside me.
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    Virtually none of us like flying,
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    and this is why right here,
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    because we have no margin.
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    That's why finances freak us out
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    to talk about it, because
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    we don't have any financial margin.
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    We don't have any elbow room.
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    This is why business class is so amazing.
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    When I get upgraded to business class
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    because of my mileage, it's wonderful
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    because you got margin,
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    your legs can go out. It's wonderful.
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    You've got room, the seat's wider.
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    That's the bigger deal, it's awesome.
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    We've got to have financial margin.
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    Margin helps us sleep at night.
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    Margin helps us sleep when we're on a plane.
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    Margin helps us smile during the day.
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    When we have margin on a flight,
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    we can sleep,
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    we end up smiling more the next day.
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    When you have an unexpected expense,
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    stress comes to your life
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    if you don't have any financial elbowroom,
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    if you don't have any margin.
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    Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans
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    have enough savings to pay
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    an unexpected $1000 expense in cash,
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    fewer than 4 in 10.
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    That means if there's a bill that comes
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    for your car, you can't pay it.
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    You're just freaked out.
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    That means if your kids have
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    a extracurricular activity you can't pay for
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    and the permission slip comes home,
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    you freak out about it.
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    This was me for most of my life.
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    Most of my life, I've had no margin.
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    Here is the way that you get financial margin
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    because it's wonderful when you --
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    Here it is, this is big, I'm telling you.
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    This will change your life.
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    To get financial margin, breathing room,
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    to be able to accommodate
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    the unexpected things in life.
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    Here is the secret:
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    Spend less and save more.
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    All you've got to do, spend less and save more.
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    Now, I know that sounds insulting
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    and I'm sorry, I'm trying not to insult you.
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    There's a lot of financial programs
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    out there that are very demeaning
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    and very insulting.
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    I'm not doing that today.
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    I want to encourage you today.
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    And the first bit of encouragement
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    is this is a simple process.
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    It can be done.
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    It's not easy, but it is simple.
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    You have more ability to influence
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    your financial future than you have any idea of.
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    You are not a victim.
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    You actually can change where you're going.
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    And we have been duped into believing things
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    that are eliminating our margin.
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    I'll give you one example of my financial story.
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    I'm in my early 20s.
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    I've got my first real deal, genuine job,
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    and they send in the financial planner
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    to come in and help you understand
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    where your benefits are
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    and how much money you want to give to retirement,
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    all that kind of stuff.
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    And he says to me, he says, "OK,
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    when would you like to retire?"
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    And I said, "Um,"
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    I just repeated what I heard other people say.
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    I said, "Um, 55."
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    "Oh, 55. OK, OK.
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    Well, how much you want to make when you're 55?
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    Like what you have right now
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    in inflation adjusted dollars?'
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    "Eh, probably a little more right now,"
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    because I was a bit stressed financially.
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    He said, "OK," he did some quick calculations.
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    "So basically for you to attain
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    your financial goal,
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    you need to save this much money."
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    Turned the tablet of paper around to me.
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    I looked at that and I went,
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    "OK, maybe not 55, maybe 95.
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    Maybe 95 I want to retire."
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    Oh my goodness, I looked at that number
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    and that didn't even have to do
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    with saving for kids education,
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    which I didn't have any kids at the time.
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    That wasn't saving for daughters' weddings
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    and all that stuff.
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    And I look back on that
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    and if you had told me then what I know now,
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    that at 55, and for years and years previous to this,
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    I've had financial margin
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    and I haven't had financial stress.
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    If you had told me that,
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    I'd have said you were crazy.
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    And the way I got there is
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    because it was God's idea.
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    The way I got there is because
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    I just did what God said.
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    This is not a financial program.
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    This is a God program,
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    and if you do what God tells you to do,
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    what's clearly in the scriptures,
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    if you d it, I'm telling you, you will get margin.
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    And He tells us, "Spend less and save more."
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    It is His.
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    You can have immediate comfort
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    and you can have immediate trinkets
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    and immediate technological upgrades
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    and you can get all the stress that goes with that.
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    Or you can have a disciplined approach
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    to your money and you can have margin
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    and you can breathe.
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    There's cultural lies about saving
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    that cause as many of us to not start saving.
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    Stuff like: you don't make enough money to save.
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    You always make enough money to save,
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    you want to just start,
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    but culture says, no, you don't have enough money.
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    You do.
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    Or other lies on the other extreme,
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    like savings is my security.
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    And we have many of us who just
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    endlessly throw more into accounts,
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    more into the account.
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    We don't know we're ever going to do with it,
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    but we have it there because it's actually our security.
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    It's not our security.
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    You know what savings are?
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    Savings are just delayed spending.
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    It's all it is.
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    It's not our identity. It's not our security.
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    It is delayed spending, because
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    you're going to need that money.
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    You're going to that money when your car breaks.
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    You're going that money when you retire.
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    You're going to need that money to start a business.
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    You're going to need something
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    for something you have even thought of,
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    but it's delayed, deferred spending.
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    That's all savings is.
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    And if you think it's anything more than that,
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    it's your scorecard for how you're successful
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    or if it's your security,
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    you've got a spiritual problem.
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    There are spiritual lies about saving.
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    Here's one of them,
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    that saving money is for faithless, fearful people.
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    I was actually somebody who believed that.
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    Back in my 20s I did that.
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    I believed that to justify
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    my bad discipline and my poor margin.
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    No, savings is not for fearful people.
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    It's for people who want margin.
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    Or savings is selfish
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    and God doesn't want you to do it.
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    I actually believe that at one point
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    and talked to that, how all of dying people
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    all over the planet, starving.
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    How can you justify having savings?
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    I'll tell you how I justify, how I justify it,
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    it's called the Bible.
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    It's called financial good sense.
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    It's called financial freedom.
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    Here's how it good sense.
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    Here's how we define this:
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    The wise saver is one who builds,
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    preserves, and invests with discernment.
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    There's a difference between saving and hoarding.
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    Saving is putting money aside
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    for appropriate goals and vision.
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    It's deferred spending.
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    Hoarding is stockpiling beyond our needs
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    and using money to just make
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    ourselves feel better about ourselves,
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    or as Jesus says, "Building bigger barns."
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    He tells a story about that one time.
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    He says, "Why do you keep building bigger
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    and bigger barns?"
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    Some of us have a lot, a lot of financial margin
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    and you keep trying to figure out
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    what new savings vehicle, what new account,
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    what new whatever, what new investment vehicle it is.
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    At some point it shows that we're
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    not viewing our money as God's money.
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    It's our money and we keep building bigger barns.
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    And Jesus cautions against building bigger barns.
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    Managing money is about managing our heart.
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    It's about our spiritual growth
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    more than it is about our financial growth.
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    That's why the Bible doesn't give
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    hard and fast guidelines
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    for how much we should be saving.
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    I wish it did.
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    It's about the heart, the condition of the heart.
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    I wish the Bible said give 15% to yourself
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    in savings or 5 or 10 or 30 or whatever.
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    I wish it did, but it doesn't.
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    Because savings is a matter of the heart.
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    And there aren't specific schematics
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    that we're to apply to every situation,
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    but there are specific examples we're to hear.
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    The book of Proverbs 6:6-8 says:
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    The ant takes a little bit of food,
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    a little bit of crumbs and stores it away,
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    a little bit, a little bit.
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    And they're self disciplined.
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    They do it every day.
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    They take some, they set it aside.
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    They take some and they set aside.
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    So for the person, for the person who thinks
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    that you have to have a lot of money to save.
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    No, no. You just have to have a little
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    and you just have to start.
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    Just start where you are and do little by little.
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    On the other extreme, I already mentioned it,
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    it's the parable of the barn. Jesus says:
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    This is a guy who owns all of his money
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    and doesn't believe God owns all of it,
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    and he's thinking about his savings vehicles.
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    He's not thinking about
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    what he's going to do with the money,
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    which is God's money.
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    He's thinking about the savings vehicles.
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    It is a major, major problem
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    when we are spending energy
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    and hiring people to manage our money
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    and we don't have any plan for it
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    other than having more.
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    That is called hoarding.
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    We confuse hoarding and saving because
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    culture has given us a bad example
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    of how to prioritize the uses of money.
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    Here's what culture tells us to do.
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    The number one thing you do
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    is you figure out your lifestyle.
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    That is, you spend.
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    Then if you having that okay, then you save.
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    That's number two.
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    And then number three, you give.
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    This is out of order with what God wants.
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    This is a God-orientated program.
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    This is not a financial program.
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    That's the way the world tells us
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    to operate financially.
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    The God honoring order is number one to give.
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    It signals to my heart that
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    this is God's money and not my money,
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    which is why I release it.
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    Number two, to save, to pay myself,
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    to give myself margin to take off the stress.
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    And then number three, to deal with my lifestyle.
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    A big enemy to living a God honoring life
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    is our obsession with immediate pleasure,
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    instead of an obsession with an eternal God.
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    You've got to be obsessed
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    with God's will for your life,
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    instead of obsessed with
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    having everything on this world you can have.
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    The weird thing is
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    the more you want what is on the world,
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    the less you're going to have financial margin.
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    Ecclesiastes 5:10 says that:
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    You will never have enough savings.
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    You will never have enough new shiny things.
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    If you love money, you'll never have enough.
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    We have to love God.
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    Tara Carr in motivating the pain pleasure principle,
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    she says this:
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    I know that it is painful
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    to deal with our financial stress.
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    I know that it is painful to figure out
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    what changes to make when we have no financial margin,
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    when we feel crammed and jammed around us.
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    But I'm telling you, the pain
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    of enacting a plan is going to be far less
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    than the pain of living with no financial margin.
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    The biggest symptom, the biggest symptom
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    of how dominant the immediate pleasure
  • 00:14:58
    of our lifestyle cult is telling us
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    to enjoy all you can right now
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    and ignore the consequences long term
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    is the signs of consumer debt.
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    Consumer debt is massive.
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    Now we have a bunch of cultural myths around debt.
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    One is that we believe that debt
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    is expected and unavoidable.
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    It's, in fact, some people would say
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    debt is the only way to move forward financially.
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    Maybe that's why
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    we're not moving forward financially.
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    Maybe that's why our credit cards,
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    credit cards there, named like MasterCard,
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    end up mastering us,
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    or Discover, we end up discovering debt
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    and stress and pressure, not discovering freedom.
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    A good sense, we say:
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    avoid debt is an awful and inherently evil.
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    It can be used. It can be a good thing.
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    But boy, boy, you've got to be real cautious around it.
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    Some medications can be really good thing,
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    but if you take too much
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    or give you the wrong person at the wrong time
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    it can be incredibly painful.
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    There's dangers around debt that
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    before you enter into debt,
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    you need to be aware of these dangers.
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    One is debt presumes on the future.
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    Debt makes me believe that I am in control
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    of the future because I'm going to have this
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    and I'm I keep earning the same amount of money
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    I have right now and interest rates
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    are going to stay this way
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    and it's all going to be good.
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    James 4:14 says
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    you don't even know what'll happen tomorrow.
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    It says our life is but a mist. [sound effect]
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    So we get into debt thinking our salary
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    will keep increasing or stay the way it is
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    and all of a sudden something changes
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    because we can't understand the future
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    and we have massive stress.
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    No one who has credit card debt
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    ever thinks it was worth it. We don't.
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    I know when I was in massive credit card debt
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    from eating out and buying trinkets,
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    I never thought, "Yeah, but it was worth it."
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    "Yeah. I'm so glad I bought food for my stomach
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    by going to Pizza Hut," which is what I did.
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    I could have gone and bought ramen noodles,
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    but no, I wanted to pay Pizza Hut
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    and I wanted to give a generous tip for it.
  • 00:17:22
    I never said, "Yeah, I'm so glad that I did that."
  • 00:17:25
    No, no, because that debt was in a sewage pipe
  • 00:17:30
    12 hours later, going down underneath the road.
  • 00:17:34
    Not good. Oh, my gosh.
  • 00:17:37
    That's what happens, all my credit card debt,
  • 00:17:39
    it all turned to poop.
  • 00:17:40
    It all was, it was all stuff
  • 00:17:42
    that went out of fashion, it was all stuff
  • 00:17:44
    that just went down a sewage pipe,
  • 00:17:45
    and there I am paying it.
  • 00:17:48
    And it actually denied God the opportunity
  • 00:17:51
    to show me His love and bless me.
  • 00:17:52
    It's one of the things that debt does,
  • 00:17:54
    it denies God the ability to move.
  • 00:17:57
    I got my first job, I thought that means
  • 00:17:59
    I've got to get my first real deal, brand new car.
  • 00:18:01
    And I got a brand new car payment.
  • 00:18:03
    And it was a bad, bad decision.
  • 00:18:05
    Got done with that one, said I'm never doing that again.
  • 00:18:08
    I didn't have the money
  • 00:18:10
    to buy a car with cash at that point.
  • 00:18:13
    But, you know, I was committed to not go into debt.
  • 00:18:16
    And I think my next two or three cars
  • 00:18:18
    were cars that people gave to me.
  • 00:18:20
    There weren't nice cars.
  • 00:18:21
    They were cars that people didn't want.
  • 00:18:23
    They were beaters, but they worked and they ran
  • 00:18:26
    and they gave me the ability to get in the margin.
  • 00:18:29
    And every time that happened,
  • 00:18:31
    I saw that God was caring for me,
  • 00:18:34
    that God was looking out for me.
  • 00:18:36
    In Luke 12:30-31 it says:
  • 00:18:55
    I would have people give me a car
  • 00:18:57
    or give me groceries or all sorts of things
  • 00:19:01
    that you don't see the hand of your God
  • 00:19:03
    because He owns it.
  • 00:19:04
    By the way, the Bible says
  • 00:19:05
    God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
  • 00:19:08
    That doesn't mean He owns the cattle
  • 00:19:09
    on a thousand hills, not a thousand one.
  • 00:19:12
    That verse is there to say he owns all the cattle,
  • 00:19:14
    all of it, all of it.
  • 00:19:15
    All of the cattle, all of it everywhere,
  • 00:19:17
    all of the everything in your life, He owns it all.
  • 00:19:19
    All the everything in my life, He owns it all.
  • 00:19:21
    All the resources everywhere, He owns it all.
  • 00:19:23
    He's dispersed it to different people,
  • 00:19:24
    but He owns it all.
  • 00:19:27
    And when we force things
  • 00:19:29
    in our consumeristic lifestyle through debt,
  • 00:19:32
    we don't get to see God move
  • 00:19:34
    and it fosters envy and greed
  • 00:19:37
    because we want it immediately.
  • 00:19:38
    We want it right now.
  • 00:19:40
    Luke 12:15 says:
  • 00:19:48
    There is such a thing a okay debt,
  • 00:19:49
    and we're going to get into that with the app
  • 00:19:51
    and the rest of the parts of our program,
  • 00:19:54
    but debt has two characteristics.
  • 00:19:56
    Okay debt has to characteristics.
  • 00:19:58
    One, it's incurred on something
  • 00:20:00
    that has the strong potential to increase in value.
  • 00:20:03
    That might be a home that could increase in value.
  • 00:20:06
    That might be a college education
  • 00:20:08
    that could increase in value because
  • 00:20:10
    you actually could get paid more.
  • 00:20:12
    It's okay to take on some student debt
  • 00:20:14
    because it's going to qualify you
  • 00:20:16
    to have a job that's going to pay you more.
  • 00:20:18
    However, we've got to be careful.
  • 00:20:21
    I mean, having high, high levels of student debt
  • 00:20:23
    for incredible occupations like teachers
  • 00:20:27
    or social workers that are unfortunately low paying,
  • 00:20:30
    having a high, high threshold on that
  • 00:20:32
    is not going to work.
  • 00:20:34
    You've got to find out a way to have
  • 00:20:35
    that debt as small as possible.
  • 00:20:37
    But debt that gets you to a better place is okay debt.
  • 00:20:41
    Another one is debt that can be repaid
  • 00:20:43
    under today's circumstances, today's circumstances.
  • 00:20:49
    Buying a house and getting a mortgage,
  • 00:20:51
    assuming I'm going to get a raise
  • 00:20:54
    over the next two or three years, is not good.
  • 00:20:57
    I've got to be able to afford the mortgage today
  • 00:21:00
    under what I'm getting paid today.
  • 00:21:02
    See, debt isn't the problem.
  • 00:21:04
    Debt is a symptom of the problem.
  • 00:21:06
    The problem is that too many of us
  • 00:21:08
    are more interested in keeping up with our neighbors
  • 00:21:10
    and having the latest stuff
  • 00:21:12
    and feeling good about our consumptive lifestyles
  • 00:21:14
    that we are actually living free.
  • 00:21:17
    To live free you're going to have to live differently.
  • 00:21:20
    We going to have to limit our exposure to temptation.
  • 00:21:22
    We're going to have to decrease our debt levels
  • 00:21:25
    and specifically frivolous debt.
  • 00:21:27
    And we're going to have to increase
  • 00:21:29
    our exposure to financial resources,
  • 00:21:31
    which is the money that we save.
  • 00:21:33
    The way to become rich is to save.
  • 00:21:37
    Yes, it's great to find a great investment opportunity,
  • 00:21:39
    but that still is a saving vehicle.
  • 00:21:41
    To get margin, to get to new place we have to save.
  • 00:21:46
    Now there's biblical guidelines
  • 00:21:48
    for good stewards and debt.
  • 00:21:50
    First is it's cautious debtor.
  • 00:21:52
    Debt is not evil.
  • 00:21:54
    If debt was evil, then God would not have had
  • 00:21:57
    the nation of Israel become people who were lenders
  • 00:22:00
    because that would have been them participating
  • 00:22:02
    in some evil institution, like pornography.
  • 00:22:06
    But there are people who make interest
  • 00:22:09
    and there are people who pay interest.
  • 00:22:11
    And good stewards try to avoid debt.
  • 00:22:15
    Proverbs 22:7 says:
  • 00:22:16
    a borrower is servant to the lender.
  • 00:22:20
    That was me way back in my 20s.
  • 00:22:23
    I was a servant to Citibank.
  • 00:22:24
    I was a servant to all those folks.
  • 00:22:26
    They were ruling over me.
  • 00:22:29
    Good stewards should also repay their debts.
  • 00:22:33
    Proverbs 37:21 says: the wicked borrow and do not repay.
  • 00:22:37
    So once you do borrow, under whatever auspices,
  • 00:22:39
    man, you've got to repay it.
  • 00:22:42
    Romans 13:7 tells us that
  • 00:22:44
    we should pay to all what is owed to them.
  • 00:22:47
    Taxes to whom taxes are owed,
  • 00:22:50
    revenue to whom revenue was owed,
  • 00:22:52
    respect to whom respect is owed,
  • 00:22:54
    honor to whom honor is owed.
  • 00:22:58
    When we owe, we need to pay it.
  • 00:23:01
    We grow our financial margin by avoiding debt
  • 00:23:05
    and having a vision for what we want.
  • 00:23:08
    That's what we want.
  • 00:23:10
    So to get started, to spend less and save more,
  • 00:23:13
    here's the way it works: give something, just something.
  • 00:23:17
    Give something to cuese you and God
  • 00:23:19
    that this is Your money.
  • 00:23:20
    Save something, it may not be 10%, 15%,
  • 00:23:25
    whatever it is right now, 30%, whatever it is,
  • 00:23:28
    but something, get in the habit of paying yourself
  • 00:23:32
    and building financial margin.
  • 00:23:33
    Not saving so you can pay off your credit card
  • 00:23:36
    at the end of the month, which is wonderful if you do.
  • 00:23:38
    But I mean savings that's lasting longer than a month.
  • 00:23:41
    Debt, make the maximum amount of repayment
  • 00:23:45
    that you can on those consumer credit card debts.
  • 00:23:49
    Max, and try to get out from under that bondage.
  • 00:23:52
    And then lifestyle, live a spartan lifestyle.
  • 00:23:56
    You can live on less. You can.
  • 00:23:58
    You can eat less expensively.
  • 00:24:00
    There are people all over the world,
  • 00:24:01
    I don't care what you're eating right now.
  • 00:24:03
    I promise you there's somebody in the world
  • 00:24:05
    who's eating on less money than you are right now.
  • 00:24:07
    I don't care how small you think your place is,
  • 00:24:09
    I promise you, there's somebody in America
  • 00:24:12
    and the rest of the world
  • 00:24:13
    who's living in a smaller place than you right now.
  • 00:24:15
    I don't care how out of fashion
  • 00:24:16
    you think your wardrobe is, I promise you,
  • 00:24:19
    there is somebody who has worse clothes than you.
  • 00:24:23
    You could freeze your spending right now
  • 00:24:25
    and find margin quicker than you think you could.
  • 00:24:29
    Margin is the result of being a wise saver
  • 00:24:32
    and a cautious debtor.
  • 00:24:35
    Stephen Covey says this, he says:
  • 00:24:55
    God owns it all, and if He owns you,
  • 00:25:00
    He gives you the capacity
  • 00:25:02
    to do more than you're doing right now.
  • 00:25:05
    You do, you have it in you to get to a new place.
  • 00:25:09
    The spirit of God moves on and in His children
  • 00:25:13
    to get them to a new place.
  • 00:25:15
    The same obviously keeps us out of this conversation.
  • 00:25:18
    We don't want to talk about it.
  • 00:25:19
    We don't want to talk about it,
  • 00:25:21
    because I don't want the stress.
  • 00:25:22
    I don't want to feel it.
  • 00:25:23
    I understand We don't want to talk about it.
  • 00:25:25
    But if you're still in this right now,
  • 00:25:27
    you're closer to being free
  • 00:25:29
    than you ever thought you were.
  • 00:25:30
    That's what God wants for us. Galatians 5:1 says:
  • 00:25:43
    God wants you to be free financially.
  • 00:25:46
    He wants to be free.
  • 00:25:47
    He doesn't want financially you to be moralistic,
  • 00:25:49
    like, here's the way you have to organize your finances.
  • 00:25:53
    There's programs that do that, that say
  • 00:25:54
    this is absolutely the way you do it.
  • 00:25:56
    Here's the percentage this and that
  • 00:25:57
    and they put a couple of Bible verses on it.
  • 00:25:59
    That's fine if those are helpful for you.
  • 00:26:02
    This is about a different thing.
  • 00:26:04
    This is about helping you be free,
  • 00:26:06
    helping you to encounter God.
  • 00:26:08
    And many people are not just listening to these teachings,
  • 00:26:11
    but they're actually doing a whole program.
  • 00:26:12
    I want to encourage you to do the whole program
  • 00:26:14
    so you can get free.
  • 00:26:16
    You can go to Crossroads.net/freedup
  • 00:26:19
    and you'll have resources and apps
  • 00:26:21
    and all kinds of things
  • 00:26:22
    to get you in your lane to get you free.
  • 00:26:25
    This is a $100 value that people are paying
  • 00:26:28
    all over the country, but here at Crossroads,
  • 00:26:30
    we're paying that for you
  • 00:26:32
    in this window of time that's about the close.
  • 00:26:35
    We want to pay for you to get financially free.
  • 00:26:38
    Take advantage of that.
  • 00:26:40
    Go to Crossroads.net/freedup
  • 00:26:41
    and do the program, do all the tools,
  • 00:26:44
    whatever lane you're in, wherever you are financially,
  • 00:26:46
    there's something there that's going
  • 00:26:47
    to get you a new place financially and spiritually.
  • 00:26:51
    We want you free. Your God wants you free.
  • 00:27:01
    – So my lifestyle growing up was a broken home situation.
  • 00:27:06
    My mom was single and she worked
  • 00:27:07
    two or three jobs to make ends meet.
  • 00:27:10
    And when she couldn't, you know,
  • 00:27:12
    I would have to go live with other family members.
  • 00:27:14
    How I looked at money was just money,
  • 00:27:17
    you know, it's getting by.
  • 00:27:19
    It was living paycheck to paycheck.
  • 00:27:21
    So I did eight years in the army.
  • 00:27:23
    I still carried that same lifestyle
  • 00:27:25
    of not managing money correctly, you know,
  • 00:27:28
    living paycheck to paycheck, even while in the military,
  • 00:27:30
    which is where I became addicted to opiates.
  • 00:27:34
    And it consume me for a number of years,
  • 00:27:38
    it definitely consumed my money situation.
  • 00:27:43
    I acquired so much medical debt because of my lifestyle.
  • 00:27:48
    Just to go get that next fix,
  • 00:27:50
    if I had something minor that that happened to me,
  • 00:27:54
    you know, go make an E.R. visit and doctor shop
  • 00:27:57
    and just rack these bills up.
  • 00:27:59
    You know, the way I was raised was
  • 00:28:01
    it's just medical stuff. It don't really affect you.
  • 00:28:05
    You can just pay it off.
  • 00:28:07
    You know, it's always like you have credit with medical.
  • 00:28:10
    All that debt that I thought didn't matter at the time
  • 00:28:14
    has come back to bite me in the butt, so to speak.
  • 00:28:17
    And my credit is, you know, kind of poor.
  • 00:28:21
    Over the course of, you know, eight years,
  • 00:28:24
    $25,000 or so in medical debt just from my addiction.
  • 00:28:31
    While I was an addict, you know, I was married twice.
  • 00:28:37
    And after my second divorce, I had hit rock bottom.
  • 00:28:43
    But something was talking to me on the other side
  • 00:28:46
    to go get help.
  • 00:28:47
    And looking back on it now, I know it was God.
  • 00:28:50
    He told me to go take a long walk.
  • 00:28:53
    And I got on the Appalachian Trail
  • 00:28:56
    and I completed the trail in 109 days.
  • 00:28:59
    It was a nice spiritual journey
  • 00:29:01
    and it brought me to truth.
  • 00:29:03
    And I'm recently engaged
  • 00:29:07
    and about to get married here soon.
  • 00:29:09
    So when I finally realized that, you know,
  • 00:29:12
    I needed this credit to to buy a house, to get a loan.
  • 00:29:16
    When I needed this credit to start a family
  • 00:29:20
    and have kids, that was kind of
  • 00:29:22
    a turning point for me just to tell me
  • 00:29:25
    that I needed to take care of
  • 00:29:26
    all these things that are from the past.
  • 00:29:29
    I didn't file taxes for eight or nine years.
  • 00:29:34
    And this past year I've taken care of that,
  • 00:29:37
    a huge burden off my shoulders.
  • 00:29:39
    I've recently bought my truck, paid off my truck.
  • 00:29:43
    You know, I'm getting all my medical bills in line
  • 00:29:45
    to make payments on those and just snowballing
  • 00:29:49
    all this debt that I've acquired.
  • 00:29:51
    But we do tithe and also I'm in student ministry now,
  • 00:29:55
    volunteer for student ministry, me and my fiance both.
  • 00:29:58
    And we have such a great community through the church.
  • 00:30:01
    And it seems like all the giving that we do,
  • 00:30:05
    it's just -- it comes back tenfold.
  • 00:30:08
    It strengthens our community. It strengthens us.
  • 00:30:11
    And I'm not alone and it feels good not being alone.
  • 00:30:16
    And it's really encouraged me
  • 00:30:18
    to take care of all that from the past.
  • 00:30:26
    – As Brian said, this week requires action.
  • 00:30:29
    Maybe you've already got a plan together in your head
  • 00:30:32
    or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed.
  • 00:30:33
    Either way, the best starting spot
  • 00:30:36
    is to take that plan of action to God.
  • 00:30:40
    What does that mean? Well, in this case,
  • 00:30:42
    it means to talk to God, to sit with Him,
  • 00:30:45
    maybe even sing to Him.
  • 00:30:47
    At the end of each of our weekly teachings
  • 00:30:49
    we do this thing called worship.
  • 00:30:52
    Right now I want to introduce you to my friends,
  • 00:30:54
    Robbie and Amy, who are going to take it from here.
  • 00:31:52
    Choosing to follow God's plan for our finances
  • 00:31:55
    requires wrestling with our hearts.
  • 00:31:57
    Fortunately, God will meet us there.
  • 00:31:59
    Take time to clear your mind
  • 00:32:01
    and focus on the lyrics of these verses.
  • 00:32:03
    Ask God to speak to you and lead you.
  • 00:32:06
    Specifically, ask God what it means
  • 00:32:09
    to be faithfully disciplined with your finances.
  • 00:32:12
    What does it look like to have a plan?
  • 00:32:15
    What does that look like?
  • 00:32:16
    Well, it could be a simple prayer.
  • 00:32:19
    Say this with me: God, thank You for being faithful.
  • 00:32:23
    In this moment, I ask You to wrestle with my heart
  • 00:32:27
    and make me look more like you.
  • 00:35:08
    Choosing to worship God, no matter the circumstances,
  • 00:35:11
    is a step of faith.
  • 00:35:12
    This may be even more true when it comes to our finances.
  • 00:35:16
    Right now, sing this chorus that declares
  • 00:35:19
    the faithfulness of God out loud with us.
  • 00:35:23
    If you're around others, mumbling is just fine.
  • 00:35:26
    Together, we're going to tell God He is faithful.
  • 00:36:56
    – Interested by what you heard today?
  • 00:36:58
    Well a great next step for you is
  • 00:37:00
    to download the Freed Up App.
  • 00:37:02
    It's a personalized experience designed
  • 00:37:03
    to guide you to a new place of financial freedom.
  • 00:37:06
    Normally, it cost $100,
  • 00:37:08
    but from now until the end of May,
  • 00:37:10
    the Freed Up App is available to
  • 00:37:12
    the Crossroads community, that's you, for free.
  • 00:37:16
    Just head to Crossroads.net/freedup
  • 00:37:18
    to download it. We'll see you next week.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of May 8 & 9 2021.

  1. What is something you saved for over a long period of time, or the first thing you remember saving for? What makes that item so meaningful for you?

  2. We all have a natural tendency in one direction or another. Do you tend to spend more or save more? Why?

  3. To gain more margin both financially and spiritually is to be a wiser saver & cautious debtor. Brainstorm ways you can increase your financial margin. How might that help you increase margin in other areas of your life in addition to finances?

  4. Now let’s put it into action. What’s one step God might be asking you to take this week to create more financial margin? If you are unsure or need more time to discover then download the FreedUp app now and start the program while the offer lasts.

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Say your own or use this one: “God thank you for being faithful. At this moment we ask you to wrestle with our hearts so we can trust you in all ways, including our finances. We ask you to make us more like you. Amen.

More from the Weekend

Download the FreedUp app today. This is a personalized experience designed to guide you to a new place of financial freedom.

Use the coupon code to download the FreedUp app for free, a $99 value. Offer expires May 31st.

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May 8, 2021 37 mins 41 sec

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