We're starting a brand new series tonight, and you probably got one of the handouts. Did everybody get one, or did we come up short on those? Everybody got one that wants one? Got a little fill in the blank places for you. Brand new series. I don't know how long we'll be here, but I think it will be very helpful. Your future, your finances. Talking about getting out of bondage, biblically, and being able to dedicate ourselves to not only just serving the Lord better, but enjoying living. I said Luke 4, I meant 14, Luke 14. I have a sin to confess. See, everybody's heads go up immediately. We're going to get this. I don't have to confess to you. I'm going to do it anyway though. I have a tool shed and there's actually tools in it. Some of them are decent tools. But when I get ready to do a job, I spend more time looking for the tool to use than it would require to do the job. My tool shed is, can I say disorganized? Now I have another sin to confess. My financial status in times past, at times has been disorganized and in a mess. And while I had to spend a lot of time and effort looking for tools in my tool shed, there's been times in my history where I had to kind of gather things together and look for things, ways to fix my financial disorganization too. It's kind of a stressful thing. Have you ever had any money problems? It's kind of a stressful thing to owe bills and not be able to see where it's going to come from to pay it. And so I'm telling you this, I'm confessing my sins, so you don't think that what I'm going to present to you tonight is coming from one who is perfect. I have had my times too. And I hate being depressed, discouraged, uneasy, and even pained from not having finances in order. Do you know what I'm talking about? I've had some over the years, at least some, progress in the financial area. Not because I've made more money, but because I learned some principles, and many of them coming from the Bible itself, on how to live within my means. usually felt like what I need is a bigger income. But that's not what I needed. I mean, I'm always welcoming a bigger income, aren't you? But that's not exactly what I needed. What I needed was to control what I was spending. And while we could always use a little extra, we can learn to live with what we've got. Not that we ought not have some ambition, some goals, some plans for the future. We certainly should. But we first, before it's going to help us to get an increase in pay, first we've got to learn to live on the means that we already have. Because if we get an increase in pay and we're used to spending everything that comes in, guess what? The pay increase is not gonna help any, because it's all still gonna go out, and we'll still feel that pain. What if I said tonight, man, our church has a desperate need. There's a family that just really, man, this is life and death. And I need some families that'll give $500 a piece. Relax, I'm not asking you to do that. I'm just saying, what if? If I said, we've got a desperate need and I'd like to have a few people that could give 500 a piece, would your first thought be, man, I can't give $500, that's close to a week's wages and I've got bills due and that would wreck me. I mean, I would be wrecked if I did that. But what if, let's back up now and say another what if. What if, on the other hand, you had all of your bills paid off. You weren't in debt for anything. Everything is paid off. Your utilities are paid up. You don't owe anything. And you're still going to make that $500 or $600 this week. And you knew there was a desperate need. I'm not saying you'd have to do it. I'm just saying, what if the Lord led you to give $500? Would you be able to? and do it joyfully. The Lord loves a joyful giver. Could you do it joyfully without thinking, man, I'll go bankrupt. They'll come and get me. They'll sell my kids into slavery. Some of you are saying, how do we do this? What if your water heater died? Would you have the money? without having to go out and borrow it or put it on a credit card or rob Lowe's and take a water heater for nothing. What if your water heater, mine went out yesterday? You ever have a transmission to go out? You ever have a motor to fail? Front end had to be worked on on your car? Your washing machine went out? Isn't it painful to say, man, I need to replace this thing that's failed on me, but I don't have the money. And you put it on a credit card and it just adds up and adds up and everything. I mean, your only means is put it on a credit card or borrow from a friend until you run out of friends. And that's an awful feeling. That's being in bondage. And that's what we're going to be talking about tonight in particular. We'll give this message the title symptoms of spiritual bondage spirit not just spiritual but financial bondage and we call the series finances and your future and we'll have several messages and we'll get real practical on some of them and before you turn me off I believe I can help you if you'll just listen making change. We could have called the series Making Change, get the play on words, Making Change, or Dollars and Cents, S-E-N-S-E. You know what I'd really like is for people who are in financial bondage to say, you know, I'm just tired of dealing with this. I'm tired of being in financial bondage and therefore I'm gonna take the principles I learned and I'm gonna commit to the Lord to be out of financial bondage. That way I can feel free to serve the Lord without so much pressure. I can help people that need help. I can save for the future. I can do things on the spur of the moment without having to count the coins to see if they're there. Financial bondage. Jesus said in John 8, 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now we're going to read our text. I said Luke 14, 28 is where we're going to be. We'll read this one verse for our text verse tonight on financial bondage. Luke 14, 28, For which of you Intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost. Underline that phrase. Counteth the cost. Whether he have sufficient to finish it. Counting your cost. Counting your cost. We have to, in other words, do a personal survey of our own situation personal analysis of where we stand to see if we're in spiritual, I keep saying spiritual, it is a spiritual bondage but I'm talking primarily about financial bondage. Let's pray together and then we'll get started on it. Father, I pray that you bless us. Lord, we've probably all in this room tonight and those watching online, we've probably all had our struggles at least from time to time with finances. Lord, there's been times when we have been at our wits end not knowing how we're going to meet the financial demands that have been sprung upon us and Lord tonight we have to confess and realize there's been times we would like to have done something in your work Lord for your people, for your church, for you Lord and we just didn't have the financial means to do anything and how sad and guilty we felt about it. Lord, we don't want to feel that way. We don't want to be in bondage where we can't do some things that we ought to do simply because we're in bondage. We pray that you'd help us to begin to break those shackles tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to do a personal analysis. I went to the barber shop a while back and got me a good haircut and got up, reached in my back pocket, and guess what? I didn't have the money to pay for the haircut. I could afford it, but I didn't have the money with me. And I told the barber, This is embarrassing as all get out. You've already cut my hair and I got to tell them I can't pay you. What are they going to do, glue my hair back on? I said, I can't pay you. Now, I'll come back and pay you if you let me leave or you can call the police right now, whichever you choose. the barber, being a gracious man. Joe's East End Barber Shop. This was back when Joe was still cutting hair. It's been a while back. And he was elderly. He said, ah, he said, don't worry about it. I said, no, I'm going to come back and pay you. He said, ah, don't worry. Well, he was willing to give me the hair. He probably thought he'd never see me again. You know, Baptist preachers got this guilty look anyway. And so I said, no, I'm going to bring you the money. And so he said, just don't worry about it. So I went home and got the money and brought it back to him. Well, actually he was gone. His granddaughter, she's also a barber with him or was at the time. And I said, Joe's not here. I've got to pay you. Will you make sure he knows that I brought it? Tell him that Baptist preacher that skinned him is back with the money. And I said, make sure he gets it. And she said, I'll make sure I tell him. Next time I saw him, I asked him, he said, yeah, she gave me the money. You know what, that's embarrassing. But sometimes you have something to go wrong in your life or maybe you need something and you just don't have the money because you're in bondage. I mean, you're stretched to the limit. You don't have the money and you just, you can't do it. You want to do it, but you just can't do it because it's just not possible because you ain't got the money. Well, there's some situations we get into that's a lot worse than having an unpaid haircut. We've got to count up before we make the obligation. Would you remember that phrase? Count the cost is in the scripture we're talking about tonight. Jesus is talking about somebody building a tower. Wouldn't it be terrible if somebody built this big tower, they get it halfway constructed, and they run out of money. And they say, well, I didn't know it was going to take this much money. Well, that's why you count the cost before you get obligated and the reason so many people are in bondage is because they spend it and spend it and spend it and then suddenly they're out and they're half finished with whatever they need to do and they don't have the wherewithal to finish the job. And so we're talking about counting the cost before making the obligation and in particular We're going to be talking about symptoms of financial bondage. Symptoms. How do you know? Well, I'm getting by. But how do you know? Well, let's look at some things and see if we can figure it out. I kind of liken this to, you know, counting the cost is what we're doing tonight before we get to actually finding the answers to all of our financial problems. First, we've got to realize we need some answers. It's like somebody that's not saved. If you can't explain to them why the Bible teaches that everybody has been born lost and they need a Savior. Somebody might say, why do I need to get saved? I'm not interested in religion. Well, you've got to understand the cost. And if we don't explain to them the cost, they're lost and headed for hell without a Savior. Now once you explain that to them, they're more likely to listen then about why they need a Savior. if you let them see the condition they're in, the symptoms of their condition. So if you be honest with yourself and consider these questions we'll raise tonight and fill in the blanks and keep this, it might be something you and your spouse, your family can do devotions over, discuss together, because you want to be on the same page of the book with your family. And everybody said? Symptom number one, we're talking about symptoms of financial bondage. Number one, discontentment with financial status. When you are discouraged about your status or when you have to long for more than what you've had, then you might be in financial bondage. Remember we've been doing on Sunday mornings from Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse number 10, it says, he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. So what's he saying? He's saying if somebody is in love with this thing of having money and increasing abundance and buying stuff, if that's their desire, that's their love, then it might be an indication that they're in financial bondage because they love stuff. Well, the Bible says somewhere, I believe it's in the Psalms, it's funny, when we chase money, it somehow has a way of sprouting wings and flying away. Many of you have experienced that. You end up with more month than you do money. We call this the when and then syndrome. Somebody thinks, when I get a raise, then I'll be happy. Or when I get a promotion at work, then I'll be happy. When I get that big nice house, then I'll be happy when and then so it's always just out of reach always having to reach a little further I don't have what I want but if I can get over there then I'll be happy and that could be a symptom of being in financial bondage Hebrews 13 5 says something about the subject of contentment listen to this let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. What's he saying? The Bible's saying be content with what you've got. Now that's not saying don't make plans for the future. That's not saying if the boss offers you a raise, turn it down. It's not saying that we ought not to have a savings account. It's not saying that we ought not to plan how some goals to move up the ladder. What it is saying is that if you can't be happy right here, you're probably not gonna be happy over here either. Happy where you are. Contentment. Contentment. It's a choice. And this certainly doesn't It certainly doesn't mean that we're supposed to be, well, I'm poor and I'm proud of it and I don't want anything more. Now, if you want to be poor, I knew a guy, we called him the world's first homeless guy, Rich Grimes. He's dead now, but he was older than me. He died a few years ago. He never owned a house. He never owned land. He never had vehicles. He didn't have anything. He didn't have possessions. He didn't have money. He would work just a little bit, help fix some fences in the country there where we lived in Isard County. He'd work just enough to buy a few groceries and that's all he wanted. He'd sleep in somebody's smokehouse or barn or shed. He didn't have anything. But now, here's what I admired about him. He didn't have anything, but he didn't ask anybody for anything. He didn't get on welfare, he didn't draw Social Security or what's the other one? He didn't have any income. I think he was afraid of the government. He didn't want them to have his name. He didn't want them to have his numbers and things like that. So he was just a poor fella, but he was content being that way. Now if somebody's content without anything, fine. That's fine. but he didn't ask anybody to make up his loss. But if you have a desire to have more, you still have to learn to be happy where you are until you get there where you plan on going. Symptom number two. Symptom number two of being in financial bondage is having overdue bills. I hate that, don't you? Having overdue bills. You say, man, I'm never coming back to this church again, talking about bills and money and stuff. Well, I'm trying to help. I'm trying to help. I hate, and look, I've said earlier in my confession at the beginning, I've been there and done that, so don't think I'm speaking from a position of superiority. I've learned some things the hard way and didn't know what the Bible taught about a lot of things, but I do know that we're supposed to pay our bills. And having overdue bills is a symptom of being in spiritual bondage. It doesn't mean you're a wicked sinner that ought to be hung by the neck until dead, but it does mean that you're probably in financial bondage. Having overdue bills, you couldn't meet the budget. Having bills that are not paid on time is a sure symptom of being in financial bondage. And that's usually caused by buying more requiring more than we can afford. Just because they're willing to finance you doesn't mean you ought to buy it. And just because it sounds like a bargain doesn't mean you need it. Every once in a while I see on Facebook Marketplace, I'll see something for sale. I'm like, man, that's a bargain. And then the Holy Spirit taps me on the shoulder and said, Brooks, you don't need that. It doesn't matter if it's 10% of its value. You don't need it. I'm kind of a pack rat, my wife would tell you. I like to accumulate stuff, but there's certain stuff that's just not worth buying no matter how cheap it is. And if it wrecks your budget and puts you into spiritual or financial bondage, then it is a problem. And Proverbs 27, 12 says, A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. It's kind of like this. If we had a storm shelter in the backyard here of our church, and this happened in one January, we had record-breaking tornadoes in January one year. is when we first started the church back in 97, 98, along in there somewhere. There were just tornadoes everywhere. Every 15 minutes another tornado was reported popping up somewhere. Let's say we got a storm shelter in the backyard. And let's say we're all standing there looking out at the clouds and the thunder and the lightning and we see this funnel cloud coming at us. And there's a storm shelter. Would you stand there and say, I think I'll just see how tough this tornado is? Or would you take the admonition, a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. I'd hide in that cellar, man. I'm not going to stand out there and get worked over by a tornado. And the same thing applies financially. When we look ahead, before we buy something, before we go into debt, before we go into bondage, financial bondage, maybe we need to stop and say, let me think this through. I'm already up to my neck in debt, and although I might be able to make that payment, what if I got sick for a week or two? What if something happened? What if I broke an ankle and couldn't go to work for a while? A prudent man foreseeth evil and hideth himself. He sees that blow coming and he ducks. And that financial blow will knock you out. It doesn't mean hide from the bill collector. When it says a prudent man hideth himself, it doesn't mean that you see the bill collector coming hit the back room and tell your wife to lie to him. We tend to get overloaded on debt when they offer us easy terms. Do you get those credit card offers in the mail pretty much every day? And you put stuff on the credit card and it's 0% interest for six months or a year and then it goes to a gazillion interest. They know what they're doing, friend. They know how to get you in bondage, and once you start making those monthly payments to a credit card trying to catch up, it'll outrun you. Brother Lloyd, wisdom's been chasing you, but you've been faster so far. We have to grow up and be mature enough to say no to our emotions. And when something looks like, boy, I would really like to have that, we might not be able to afford it. And we can't be like a... Did you ever see a screaming child maybe in Walmart or a grocery store? A spoiled child is screaming to get a toy or something in the grocery store and they just scream and yell until they try to get their parents embarrassed enough that they'll buy it for them so they'll hush. We can't be that way. As adults, we've got to grow up and be mature enough. And when the inside of us is crying out for us to buy something because we just love it, man, got to have it. Then we got to say to ourselves, self, you're not getting it. Now shut up. Yeah. Our kids, the older kids, when they were just real little. My wife will remember this. She had sent them to the grocery store. This was up in Izzard County and they had a little country grocery store just a couple blocks away and the girls were just little. I mean you wouldn't dare let your little girls out like this now. I mean they were tiny things but but she let them go to the store and gave them, was it a five dollar bill? No, whatever it was, she gave them paper money and she told them what to get. Well those little girls walked in that store and they picked up their items and got up there and put them on the checkout counter and everybody's looking at them thinking they're so cute and so they let them pay for it and they got a little change back. Well the girls thought, That change is not worth anything much like paper money. So when they crossed the bridge going back to the house, they just threw the change in the creek. It wasn't worth anything. Well, I think my wife had a talk with them and I don't think they threw money away anymore after that. People, adults, throw money away, buying stuff they don't need. Those little girls had an excuse. They were little and didn't know any better. But adults shouldn't be throwing money away, buying stuff that they can't afford. One time, there was something that got a little bigger. And one of them, I don't remember which one it was now, but one of them was saying, Daddy, we'd really like to have this. Can you buy it for us? I said, sweetheart, we don't have the money to buy that. She said, well, Couldn't you just write a check? I said, well, we could, but you have to have money in the bank to cover that check. Now, I don't know if they grasped that principle or not, but writing a check is not a good thing if you don't have the money in there to cover it. But I thought, well, they've seen us write checks before, and I figured, well, if you can write a check, you can have anything you want. Well, a lot of adults think that, too. Symptom one is discontent with where you are. Symptom 2 is overdue bills. Symptom 3 of financial bondage is inability to save money. Inability to save any money. The Bible teaches that we have a responsibility to lay aside a portion of our money. You're supposed to have oil in your dwelling. Now in Bible days having oil in your dwelling meant you had some oil that you could light your lamp and have light at night. and you have a little cornmeal, or well, they didn't have cornmeal there like we have here, but they called it meal. It might have been ground barley or ground wheat, and they didn't use it all up at once, and they'd save some, and that was valuable like money. But if we don't set aside a little bit, then an emergency happens. That transmission goes out. Where's the money gonna come from? I'll write a check. You have to have money in the bank to cover it. Life happens. Appliances go out. You have insurance bills come due that you wasn't thinking about. Maybe your car breaks down. Financial emergencies come up. And if you don't have an emergency fund, you're going to be struggling and stressed. What am I gonna do? Now see, it's easy not to think about those things when it's not happening. My water heater's fixed right now, so I'm not worried about it. Man, I'm happy-go-lucky, I'm fine. But what if it goes out tomorrow? Well, we need to have an emergency fund built up to take care of those emergencies. Proverbs 21.20 says, There is a treasure to be desired, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. Let me tell you, here's what the majority of Americans do. We're at that time of year where people are filing their taxes and they're getting tax returns back, and that's like free money, man. No, it's not free money. The government held your money for a whole year, interest-free. They used your money, now they're giving you back what they kept from you to start with and no interest. Now if you hold back something from them, they're going to want interest. But they're not going to give you interest. And so people get their tax refund and they say, man, free money. No, you already earned that money. They just held it out of your weekly check and they sat on it. That's why I don't think it's wise to claim all these deductions or claim no deductions I should say and where they hold out a bunch so you can get a whole bunch of money back the next year. You need that money to live on. And I say, don't let the government have it for the whole year interest-free. You use it. Now, don't get yourself in a hole where you have to pay a bunch in, but don't let them hold all your money. Because when you get that big lump sum back in January or February, whenever it is, you get that refund back, and you say, boy, we got a bunch of money now. We can go buy this and that and have a swimming pool and another car. We can get all those games and we can get everything. It's just like Santa Claus has already come. And you blow that money instead of saving it. You know what would have been a lot wiser? To take that and sock it back in a savings account so when that transmission goes out, and it will, that new set of tires that you weren't counting on having to buy, they start blowing out, You gotta buy a set of tires, and that's what, nearly a thousand dollars now for a set of tires. If you've got an emergency fund and you didn't blow that tax refund on nonsensical, non-necessary things, then you've got it. When we spend all we make, we're never gonna have what we need in the moment of emergency. If somebody only put back, say you put back only $30 a week, instead of going to the restaurant and buying extra stuff at Walmart and those $6 fake coffees at Starbucks, they call those things, that's not coffee, it's milkshakes. If you give six bucks for coffee, I want to have a meeting with you after we dismiss here. I will give you some of my home ground coffee and you can make some real stuff. And if you save some of that money that's just blown on unnecessary things, it doesn't cost a fortune to eat in a restaurant anymore. I'm not saying you can't ever do it, I'm just saying it's not wise to blow it. Now if you saved up a bunch of money and you've got nothing to worry about and you want to go and give 40, 50 bucks for a meal, fine, that's wonderful. But if you save $30 a week, $30 a week out of your check, are you listening? $30 a week, how much money would you have at the end of the year? $1,560. Who's the quick calculator over there? Are you a banker? Some people, man, their wheels are turning. They can calculate that faster than I can do it with a calculator. In 10 years, we're just talking about $30. That's one restaurant bill if you eat cheap. Barton McDonald's. at the end of 10 years, and this is even without any interest on it, you save $30 a week, at the end of 10 years, how much is it? $15,600 at the end of 10 years. Hey, could you put in a new transmission with that? Could you buy a new water heater or washing machine or a set of tires with that? Yeah, and have some left over, couldn't you? You see how good it would feel not to be in financial bondage so that when something happens and you've got to fork over the money, you just reach over there and say, I've got that laid back. I just saved it up for emergency. Okay, pull it out of the emergency fund and pay for the emergency. It doesn't go on the credit card and you don't have to borrow it from a friend and make them think you're crazy. And we'll get into this in some later messages, but if you took that money and put it into a different investment vehicle instead of just laying it back and not drawing any interest at all, there is a miraculous thing called compound interest. And that's where you start getting paid interest on your interest. And man, it starts getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And instead of being $15,600, you're talking about a few thousand more. And do you know that if you invested in something, well, I'm getting ahead of myself. This is for a later message. I'm just talking about laying money back. If you can't save money, you're probably in financial bondage. But if you could save money and let that compound interest go to work for you, you could buy something like mutual funds or some other investment method, and there's probably nobody in this room that couldn't be a millionaire in 20 or 30 years. I mean, after paying your bills. And I'm talking about not a big amount of savings weekly, monthly, because compound interest really builds up. And you could be what we would think would be, well, I'd like to have a million dollars right now, wouldn't you? And it's not hard to do. It's kind of like insurance. And we're not into that yet either, but you can buy life insurance policy. And every young man and every young woman who has a family, you've got children, you ought to have a life insurance policy. Because with a stroke of a pen, you can buy something for $10 a month that would Sir, if you die early, and sometimes men do, if you die early, you could have a million-dollar policy for your wife and kids so they could go ahead and be cared for in your passing. Really, really smart to have a life insurance policy. Everybody in their younger years ought to have one. Now when you get to be a geezer like me, it don't matter. Nobody cares. They're just wanting you to go on. One little girl told her daddy, or told her grandpa, said, Grandpa, can I hear you croak? He said, what do you mean croak? She said, Mama said you could croak. And he said, I don't know what you mean. When you croak, we're going to get a lot of money. Symptom number four, obsession with appearance can also be a symptom of financial bondage. Appearance. Not just clothing, that's one thing. Some people got to have name brand clothes and things that look really, really nice. And I'm not against dressing nicely. You can dress nicely out of Goodwill store, by the way. I'd rather have a good name brand article out of Goodwill, a good name brand quality article out of Goodwill than to have a brand new Walmart shirt made in China. but some people are overly obsessed, not just appearance of clothes, but appearance of prosperity in general. They got to have a nice car, a nice house, and they're up to here, and they can't take a day off from work, and they can't go on vacation, they can't have a day without worrying, because if they miss one day, man, something's going to happen bad, because they're trying to keep up with the Joneses. And can I just tell you that If you try to keep up with the Joneses, just about the time you get there, they're going to refinance anyway and you're still not going to catch them. But appearances. Many people buy things they cannot afford with money they don't have to impress people they don't like. The average person in America drives a vehicle that they can't afford. You ought to drive one like Paul's. He's got one with over a million miles. It hasn't got that many yet. Most people drive one that they can't really afford. You know what car payments are? Well, you probably do. You buy a new car, There are a lot of people running around with $700, $800, $900, $1,000 a month payments to drive a car. Why? If you can have a cheaper car that gets you from point A to point B and you have to have one to impress other people, you might be in financial bondage. 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, it said, But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. So whether it's with clothing, or cars, or houses, or just the general appearance of being prosperous, we're not wise to try to stay up with the Joneses just to make the appearance of prosperity. Be who you are. We just enjoy looking prosperous too much. Adults throw away a lot of money just trying to impress others. Symptom number five. I'm going to get to the end of this. Hang on, I ain't got too far to go. Symptom number five of being in financial bondage is risky investing. Risky investing. This is putting money in a place where it's very, very risky because you think, man, I'm really going to get rich. Brother Chad, he's advising everybody just to play the lottery. Look, I'm going to preach against lotteries until you win it, and then you better tithe off of it. Two guys were shipwrecked on a desert island, and one of them, he's just going hysterical. He said, man, we're out here in the middle of the Pacific. We're never going to be found. We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die. And the other one said, relax, man. We're going to be found. He said, how do you know? Nobody will find us out here. Land in sight, no ships in sight, we're going to die. He said, I said, we'll be okay, we'll be found. He said, just what makes you think that? He said, because I make about $30,000 a month and I tithe to my church, my pastor will find us. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. Hasteth to be rich. When I left Denver, coming back here, well it was just before I left Denver to come back here to plant this church 27 years ago. There was a guy in our church out there, a fine young man, preacher, and in fact he even came back here to help us get started in this church. and he had gotten involved in a multi-level marketing thing of selling, now this was before cell phone, hardly anybody had a cell phone back then, and you had prepaid phone cards and if you wanted to invest in this new multi-level marketing thing, get in on the ground floor, people were getting rich. And I thought, I'm going back there to plant a church and I think the Lord would probably want me to have plenty of money to start that church with. And boy, everything he told me just sounded so good. And I've never been a sucker for stuff like that. I always say, if it looks too good to be true, it's probably not true. but this time I fell for it. I hadn't ever before, but this time I fell for it. I forked over $800 for a bunch of prepaid phone cards. By the time I got to Arkansas, I'm planning on, man, we're just going to be able to build a new church building right away, and we don't have to ask anybody to give. We'll just hire contractors to do everything. We'll be setting pretty, because this is paying off big time. My $800 was gone, and when I got here, the phone cards were gone. The company went out of business. And you know what made it even sadder? I talked to some people that I really loved and even some family members of getting in with me and they spent their money like I did and now I'm responsible for their losing their money too. And since then, I've really got it ingrained into me. If it's too good, if it looks too good to be true, it more than likely is and people have always tried to get rich quick and it just doesn't work. It's like playing the lottery. You know, it's kind of like your chances of winning the lottery is about as good as getting hit on the head by a meteorite. I don't know if anybody's been hit on the head by a meteorite. So, if you're trying to get rich quick by getting into this thing and that thing and that thing and risking money when you need to be using it for yourself and your family, that might be a sign of spiritual bondage or financial bondage. And then number six, accumulating debt is a symptom of financial bondage. Accumulating debt. We live in a day of immediate gratification. Isn't that true? We live in a day of immediate gratification. Man, I ain't got time to cook this. Just stick it in that microwave and heat it up. I mean, let's get this thing hot. I ain't got time to pour some milk and flour into a bowl and stir it. I'm gonna buy canned biscuits instead. You know, we gotta have it right now, just immediately, as fast as possible. And I don't have time to earn money, so I'll just buy it on the credit. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Buying it on the credit is not a very good thing to do. You got a blank here to fill in. We must remember we cannot borrow our way into prosperity. We cannot borrow our way into prosperity or our way out of debt. You can't borrow your way out of debt. You just can't do it. Credit is dangerous like a loaded gun is dangerous. You start waving around a loaded gun and bad things happen. Was that a Hollywood movie star? You know who I'm talking about? Huh? Alec Baldwin, yeah. Waving a firearm around, when you don't know what you're doing, it can be a dangerous thing. And he may not have known the bullet was in there, but I don't think you ever wave a firearm around even if you're pretty well certain that it's empty. Bad things can happen. And the same thing is when you start building up debt, you think you're going to get out of debt by borrowing. There's people, and I've done this a long time ago. I may not be smart, but I'm not quite as dumb as I was back then. But there was a time when I got myself into a pickle, and I was trying to pay off one debt with this credit card, and pay off this debt over here, and it's building up over here. And then you begin to try to pay that off, and you see that new credit card, no interest for six months. Okay, that's the way out. I get that money, and I'll pay that credit card off. And so you start paying them all off, and they're mounting up somewhere. There ain't no free lunch. And you can't borrow your way out of debt. A man called the police station and reported that his wife's credit cards had been stolen. And then he added, as he talked to the police, he said, but don't look for them too hard. They're spending way less than my wife does when she uses it. That's awful, isn't it? If we can't pay off our credit cards in 30 days, we're in financial bondage. When I got in credit card debt back years ago, I thought I would never see the light of day again, but I cut up my credit cards, threw them away, consolidated everything into one place, made exorbitant payments to get that thing paid off. It took a few years. Got it paid off, and I went Years and years, my family and I went years and years with no credit card. And then the way things are now, if you don't have a cash card or a credit card, it's hard to rent a car or buy anything online and things like that. So I made myself a promise. I'm going to get one. One. And if it ever goes over 30 days, I'll cut that stinking thing up and burn it too. And since then, it's been probably three years ago or so, and I make sure it gets paid off at least two or three times every month. If it ever goes more than two to three weeks, I'm getting her out and getting her ready to burn. If you can't get it paid off in 30 days, you don't need that thing. The last symptom of being in financial bondage Symptom number seven is procrastinating on getting out of debt. You may have said, you know, I'm going to get out of debt one of these days. I'm going to pay off my bills one of these days. I'm going to do it. I'm going to establish a budget one of these days. One of these days. One of these days. But that was a long time ago when you said that. And it's still not done. If you're procrastinating, putting off, getting out of debt, you're probably in financial bondage. It's something that needs to be done now rather than later. Perhaps God is convicting you of the dangers of some of your financial habits. If so, What warning does God give us about procrastination in Hebrews 4-7? Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Boy, he's emphasizing today. Now. Make a decision now. Right now. So listen right here, and if you've got some extra space on your paper, you might want to jot down a couple of these. We're going to come back to them in some real practical messages in the future. But on your sheet, that handout, there's a couple of things that you can check off there to see if you're in financial bondage. But don't do that right now. Here's what I'd like to ask you to jot down right now is go home tonight. If you have to stay up a little past bedtime, it'd be well spent time. Take out a sheet of paper, draw a line right down the middle of it. On one side, put income. On the other side, put your bills, things you have to pay. That includes utilities, car payments, insurance payments, everything that you pay during the month. And if it's a monthly payment, divide it by 4.3 and that'll give you the amount you're gonna need to pay on that monthly bill each week. You say, but it's just due once a month. Aw, but you take it out of your income. If you get paid by the week, you take it out of your weekly income. That way you don't get to the end of the month and the money's already gone. Does that make sense? And so, you take a fourth of your monthly payment and pay yourself that payment every week into an envelope or someplace safe that you can keep that money. Dave Ramsey suggests, I guess he still does, years ago he suggested using an envelope system where you cash your check on payday and you figure out how much of that check goes for each bill on a weekly basis and you take it out of your pile of cash that you got paid that week and you put it in this one envelope that says electricity, you put in how much your light bill is going to be, put it in that envelope and tuck it away. Then in the one that says telephone, you know how much your telephone is going to be, you put that cash in that envelope and tuck it away with the other one. Your rent or your house payment, You take it out of that weekly income, put it in that envelope, and file it with the others. That way, when you get to the end of the month, the money will be there to pay those monthly bills. And, if there's any left over, you can have it. What do we mean? Well, once you've listed everything that you owe, none of that money is yours. You owe it. And so you put it in that envelope and you're pretending it's already spent because in reality, it is. And you file it away and say, that's gone, that's gone, I can't do anything with that. Now when you come to the end, if there's any of that cash left over out of that pile that you stacked up at the beginning that didn't go into those envelopes, then you can say, okay, I guess this $5 bill here is mine. I can have a fish sandwich. Well, I used to. Well, I think it's a good idea to have an envelope for recreation, clothing, vacation. if you can afford it. Now, if all your money is going into utilities and car payment and insurance and all that stuff, there may not be any left over to go into an envelope for vacation or fun stuff or McDonald's. But if anything's left over after you paid your obligations, then you take that amount and you put it in the envelope marked me. And then you can spend that on whatever you want. Don't spend it all because one of your envelopes is marked savings. Remember that $30 or whatever it is you intend to save every week? Don't borrow it out of those envelopes because that's not your money. In other words, you commit on paper at the beginning of the month, you commit on paper everything that's coming in and everything that's going out, you commit it on paper and then it's a done deal. It doesn't matter what day you have to mail it in or get a money order or write a check. You just go ahead and play like it's already spent because it is. And then it will feel so good when you don't have to try to scratch around and find the money to pay those bills at the end of the month. You've got it. It's in those envelopes. Now, be careful where you store your money. Don't tell anybody where you're hiding it. Well, you can tell me. Keep it safe. don't send money, cash money through the mail, that's not safe either. But when you write down what all you're gonna do with your money, your bills come first and you'll want to do it in a way that you're in control. You control the money, don't let the money control you. Now, you're aware now of the symptoms of financial bondage, so you need to complete that financial bondage checklist, maybe after you get home or something. I think you really should. I think it would be good for you to see. Now, if you happen to have, maybe one of those questions says, if you've just financed a car for more than 24 months, you have to give yourself a point of being in bondage for that. That doesn't mean, if you got a zero on all the others and that one thing, you financed a car, that doesn't mean that you're a wicked sinner and that you'll be bankrupt because you financed that car for more than 24 months. But it does tell you that this is something I need to work on and get out of it. That's the only thing that you couldn't pay cash for anymore. I mean, it's possible. Some people do it. You can pretty well pay cash including cars. You can pay cash for everything pretty much except for a house. You might have to mortgage it because it's hard to come up with two or three hundred thousand dollars out of your pocket to buy a house with. But everything else you could be on a cash basis. And by the way you can buy even a new or relatively new car for cash. You have one of those envelopes labeled car and you drive an old junker that just gets you to work and back and pay that $700 monthly payment to yourself in that car envelope. It'll build up. You're making payments to you and then when you get up, instead of paying it to the finance company that's going to charge you 6 or 8 percent or better on your car, then when that accumulates enough, you can pull that envelope out and go down to the dealership and say, here, I want a new car. Where do you want to finance it, sir? Nah, don't want to finance it. I'm just going to pay for it. I had a woman, I was selling cars back in the 80s. A woman came in one Saturday when I was in charge of the whole car lot by myself. The owner was gone. She came in, she wanted to drive a minivan out there and I said, it's time to close up. Man, I was wanting to go home. And she didn't look like she had any money anyway. You know how you prejudge somebody? She's the kind of woman, she couldn't have any money. But anyway, out of courtesy, I said, okay, let's go look at it. So I took her out and showed her the car. She said, could I drive it? And I said, sure, go ahead and drive it down the road. She drove it and came back and she said, I think I want it. I think it was $7,000. She said, I want the car. I said, well, it's Saturday and all the finance organizations and institutions are closed. We can take an application and I'll turn it in on Monday. She said, no, no, I didn't want to finance it. I said, really? I'm thinking, yeah, this is really going to pull my leg now. She said, I just want to pay for it. She said, can I just go ahead and pay for it today and take it home? I said, well, I can't take a check like that today. She said, no, I'm not talking about a check. She said, I'm talking about paying your greenbacks. I said, that much money? She said, yeah, I've got it. I said, if you've got the money, you can buy it. She went over in her old truck and pulled out a big old bundle of foil, aluminum foil. It was crinkled, looked like it had hamburger meat wrapped in it or something. And she started peeling off layers of that foil, and she counted me out $7,000 in cash. I don't know where she got it. I'm not asking questions. But I'm just saying you can have cash to buy a vehicle if you want one. If you pay it to yourself instead of the interest bearing institutions is going to rip you off over the long run. You can pay cash and then what you do as soon as you buy that one then you start paying yourself again that 700 or however much a month it is to buy the car you want. While you're driving that nice car, you're paying yourself again. Although you don't owe it to anybody, you're paying it to yourself. And when that one wears out, you've got money over there to go buy another one. That can be done. And we're going to have some car buying principles a little bit later on on how to buy a car and get the best deal. And so might be some enlightenment there for you too. But I'm just saying it's terrible to be in financial bondage. It's terrible to be in financial bondage. It causes stress. There's three things that cause, especially young families, more problems than about anything else. Over my years of being in the ministry, over 40 years, I can say I'm pretty sure that three arguments that men and women have in their couples at home, number one is sex, how to handle those unruly children, and number three is money. Not necessarily in that order. And so if you get those three taken care of, you'll be wise and have a happier home. And if you get the money in order with these principles, I think you'll have a better home. It's terrible to be in bondage and you can be out of it. It's terrible to be in bondage to sin. And I say this for the sake of anybody in this room, those who are watching on camera. If you've never been saved, you're in bondage to sin. Satan owns you. Jesus said to the lost Pharisees, he said, ye are of your father the devil, so you can belong to Christ or you can belong to the devil. You're born in the devil's family and the only way you can escape that bondage and get into the family of Christ is by being born again. If a man is going to be saved the Bible says he must be born again or he won't see the kingdom of God. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. If you're in bondage and if you've never been saved you are in bondage and the money don't mean nothing compared to your soul. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Everybody needs to be saved. Whether you ever have a penny to spend or not, you ought to be saved. Don't put it off. Get out of spiritual bondage. Be born again. And you can do that tonight. Let's bow our heads for prayer.