Money Matters, Part 2 (cont'd)

Determined to get out of debt. Do what you have to do. Sell what you have to sell.

Unload what you have to unload. And you keep doing that and let it snowball until eventually you are out of consumer debt. It's not all that hard to get ourselves into money trouble. And the most popular brand of trouble comes when we buy things with money we don't have.

It's called consumer debt and it's a recipe for financial disaster. But be encouraged today. God wants to help you avoid financial slavery.

If it's too late for that, he wants to help you get out. Today's message is coming right up. But first, Pastor Paul Shepherd joins me now from his studio in California. Well, Pastor, sensitive topic today. Why is it, though, that money is such a touchy subject for us? What are you hoping people will take away from the series called Money Matters?

Well, my hope is that they will understand a critical piece of information that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6. He said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And since he said it quite matter of factly, we need to say, okay, the Lord knows that there is a direct connection between our priorities, our values, and our money.

And my job in this particular time of preaching is to share principles that will help us know here's the way God wants us to view and use the resource of money. Very often we call it our money. But the more I look at the Bible, I say, no, the Bible never calls it mine.

He calls it my master's. And I'm the servant that has to take care of something that belongs to my master. And so as I get my check every other week, I remind myself that this isn't mine. It is a resource God has entrusted to me, and he's going to hold me to account for how I use it. I don't mind telling you, Wayne, that, and, you know, people can do it the way it works for them. For me, I have a separate checking account where my tithes and my offering above my tithes go in automatically.

That's a good idea. I never see it because the way my direct deposits are set up, my tithes and my offerings go into an account, I never even look at. Because if I started looking at it, I might think, oh, man, I got some money in here.

And so I can't do that. That's God's money, and every time I got to give to the kingdom of God, whether it's our local church, I'm a legacy builder for Destined for Victory, and I give to other ministries as well, and I do it right out of that account because that's not mine. That's God's money, and I think we've got to learn how to use the resource in a way that he is pleased with. Yeah, so many times we fantasize what would happen if we had all the money we needed instead of putting that effort into stewarding what God has given to us. I mean, that's what he wants us to have, so let's make the most of it. The thing I love about God is he just asked me to be generous.

He doesn't say I want it all. He says I want you to be generous as you support the kingdom of God. We are giving what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose. When we give to the kingdom, we're giving to something that has eternal value, and God is pleased because of that. Of course, there are many ways in which we can be generous and support the kingdom of God. Just one of those ways is through your generous gift to Destined for Victory. As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, we know there are many that are facing challenging circumstances and many more that need to be reached with a hope that can only be found in Jesus. Your gifts help us do just that. Keep in mind that as you're able to be generous today with your gift, we'd love to send you Pastor Paul Shepherd's booklet, Built on a Solid Foundation. Again, that's Built on a Solid Foundation, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Please call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Now, with this message, Money Matters, here's Pastor Paul. Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Verse 5, free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. In other words, you got to work very, very hard. Determine to get out of debt. Do what you have to do. Sell what you have to sell.

Unload what you have to unload. You can't be a cute slave. Slavery and cute, they don't go together. You're a slave.

What you're doing trying to be cute? Sell whatever you have to sell. Get on eBay, get on Craigslist, call your friends, have a yard sale, do whatever you have to do. You need money. And you take that money and you put it toward that lowest balance until you get that paid off. Then you put everything you've been putting toward that and add some more.

And then you go after your next lowest balance and you keep doing that and let it snowball until eventually you are out of consumer debt. That's God's plan for you. You are a slave.

Quit trying to be cute. You are a slave. Quit going to the restaurant. What slave you know can go to a restaurant? What slave you know can go up to the master and say, yo, man, I need about an hour and a half lunch. Some of us going over to Chili's, some of us going to Cheesecake Factory, so I'll catch you later on. Slave can't do that.

Slave will get whipped. What you need to do for lunch is make you a nice little salad at the house, go to the grocery store, get one of them big bags of salad, put you something in there, get you some grilled chicken or something, put it in there, get you a little dressing, put it in a brown bag, go to lunch. When all your little cute broke friends are going to Cheesecake Factory and the Chili's with their broke self have no business going themselves, when they stop by your office or your cubicle and say, we're going home, we're celebrating Sally's birthday. You look at Sally and say, happy birthday, girl.

Trying to help somebody. You look at Sally with Sally a happy birthday and you sit right there and eat your salad and grilled chicken and free yourself like a bird from the hand of the faller. Most of us would be out of debt within months or certainly a couple of years if we would stop going to restaurants, stop going to Starbucks. All you got to do is take your restaurant's Starbucks money and put it toward that lowest debt, that lowest balance. All your little pleasure things, you're a slave, you can't have pleasure until you get free.

That's what you got to tell yourself. I can't get started without my Starbucks. You all who are decent age, you grew up in a day, we didn't know what a Starbucks was. Your mama had in her kitchen, Maxwell House. Come on up in here, Maxwell House. If it wasn't Maxwell House, it was the best part of waking up is Folger in your cup. What are you talking about?

Taster's choice. You're a slave, slave can't have cable. What slave you know?

Got HBO, Showtime, Encore, premium channels. You're a slave. You got to work tirelessly folks.

You got to take it seriously. It's slavery and you got to get serious about getting out and I promise you, you could get out much quicker than you think you can if you just discipline yourself and stop spending money indiscriminately. You're spoiled and you think, I need this. No, you don't. You need to get free and once you're free, then you can go to a restaurant and what have you because you can pay for it and not on a credit card or you put it on the card just for convenience at the end of every cycle.

You're paying it off and you have a zero balance. I'm not telling you what I think. I'm telling you what I've lived. I've been on both sides of this. I've been a slave and I've been free and free is better. Promise you free is better. You're slave better free. You roll over in the middle of the night, I ain't got no debt.

Thank you Jesus. That's shrinking debt systematically. Third step in financial stewardship, sowing generously, shrinking debt systematically. Number three, save regularly.

Save regularly. Now the slave mindset can't even conceive of this because the slave has lived with not enough. Israel and Egypt couldn't conceive of anything in the way of storing up and being blessed because their whole mindset is about slavery. But you got to go from out of Egypt and then if you don't save regularly, you'll be like Israel when they got out of bondage. But when they got into the wilderness, they didn't develop a plan for prosperity. They're now free but their freedom is misguided and they spent 40 years being free but not knowing what to do with it. And if you finally get out of debt and you don't start saving, you're like Israel in the wilderness.

Wandering around, don't have anybody to answer to but don't know where you're going either. God's plan after we get out of debt is to save regularly. Couple of points. Not everything you receive now should be consumed now. Teach yourself that.

Teach yourself that. Not everything you receive now should be consumed or spent now. Proverbs 21, 20. In the house of the wise are stores of choice, food, and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Solomon said, go to a wise person's house and they have choice food, they have oil, they have whatever you want.

They can offer you choices. But a foolish person has nothing to offer you because as soon as they get paid, get the check, they devour it. Meaning they allocate 100% of what they receive now for something now. And that is not God's plan. Proverbs 6, 6 through 8 under the same point. Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise.

It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Solomon said, if you broke as a joke, learn from the ant. He is saying, you know, like some of those folk that raised us who would just say, you don't have the sense of an ant. That's what Solomon's saying.

He's just not trying to say it like that. Some of the old folk would just say, you don't have ant sense. That's what Solomon's pretty much saying. He's saying if you are sluggard, if you're all in debt, got your finances all messed up because you're spending everything, consuming it immediately, have a welfare mentality.

As soon as you grab it, it's gone. He says, learn from the ant that not everything you have now is for now. He says, look at what the ant does.

Just lay there on the ground and watch it. He says it doesn't have commander, doesn't have overseer, doesn't have ruler, but God put it in him to know that in the summer, it needs to not only eat, it needs to store. It needs to store up. Why?

Because winter is coming and you need to know in your life winter is coming. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Remember, you can always listen to the program on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

There you'll find a host of great resources as well in our online store. Now for more practical advice about how to get out of debt and stay out, here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Money Matters. You got a job now, you got to realize you may not always have it.

Come on, somebody. And not everything God's given you now is supposed to be consumed now. I can't make ends meet now. That means something's wrong on your spending side of your ledger. That's all that means. That's not justification for not sowing generously or shrinking debt systematically or saving regularly. All that means is you're living above your means.

That's all it means. Some of you live in a house in an apartment you can't afford and you need to just own the fact I can't afford it. But Pastor, you should come see my place. I'm saying comparatively. Even if it's modest, it's still too much for you. You got to go to modester.

I realize that's not a word, but it makes my point. You do. You got to downsize. Some of you have to move in with somebody, with a relative, with a friend and attack your inability to save because you need to have something set aside. Next point under saving regularly. Constantly adding to one storehouse can be the difference between survival and ruination in the future.

Constantly adding to a storehouse, that means saving, can be the difference between survival and ruination. You remember the wisdom God gave Joseph to give to Pharaoh in Genesis 41? You remember that story. Joseph's in jail and the Pharaoh has a dream and nobody can interpret it and the cup bearer remembers that he left Joseph in there and didn't say anything about him. And he said, oh, oh, oh, there's a man who can interpret your dream.

Called him up. Joseph comes up now in the throne room. King says, here was my dream.

Can you tell me what it means? Joseph said, absolutely. And tells Pharaoh that he dreamed that there are going to be seven years of extreme prosperity followed by seven years of extreme famine.

And then he gave him a word of wisdom that you need to let God speak to you right now. Verse 34 of Genesis 41. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the years, the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve until there's a sale at the mall. That's not in your Bible?

What kind of translation you all have? This food should be held in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by the famine. You hold it in reserve because you don't know what's coming down the road. You don't save up to spend. You save up for the unknown. Then after you have an adequate storehouse for the unknown, then you can save towards some future major purchase.

But you're not ready to save for that until you have your storehouse prepared for the next famine. Spend wisely is the last point. Spend wisely.

We need to sow generously. We need to shrink debt systematically. We need to save regularly. And finally, we need to spend wisely.

Two points under spend wisely. Money must be your slave, not your master. You've got to decide from this point on, I will never again be mastered by money. Money will be my slave. That's God's purpose for money in my life is for me to tell it where to go. And you know as well as I do that if you've been a slave, you haven't told money where to go.

It has told you where it went. Luke 16, 13. No servant can serve two masters.

Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. That's what Jesus said. Pick who you're going to serve.

And the directive is clear. Do not serve money. Money is not meant to be a master. It is meant to be a slave with you being the master under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Second point under spend wisely.

It is wise to live on a budget, which means a predetermined spending plan. Luke 14, 28. Jesus said, suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

Just a simple question. Now, Jesus was talking the broader context as Jesus is talking about counting the cost to be a disciple. But look at the principle. The principle applies to your money as well as your discipleship.

You got to sit down first and figure out if you can do this. That's what a budget is. A budget is I predetermined. Here's what I'm being blessed to make right now. Here's the Lord's tithe and my offerings.

Boom, gone. Now, here is a group of living expenses. And if I have debt to shrink, I'm going to begin to snowball that. And if I can, I'm going to begin to save at the same time.

If I can't, I'm definitely going to go after the debt with a vengeance. And I am predetermining. How many know if you don't predetermine where your money goes, your money has a mind of its own? Mind of its own. And you know what I mean by that?

It's really not the money. It's that you are allowing it to control your decision making because it's in your pocket or that plastic is in your wallet. How many have ever been to a store to get one thing? You all know where I'm going. Beat me to my own point. Went to get one thing and as you got that thing and walked toward where you were to pay, you saw something and it began to speak to you.

I know you're not going to leave without me. Hey, see my big sale sign? They're smart. They know how to lay out the store. And then when you've fought off all the temptation of the major aisles, then you get to the checkout and they put up some other stuff right there at the checkout. All the way until you get outside. You got to predetermine.

So my concluding challenge. Pre-qualify to receive more by managing correctly what you already have. You know you talk a lot about pre-qualifying when it comes to mortgages and stuff like that. Here's what you ought to pre-qualify for. Pre-qualify for God to bless you more.

That's the pre-qualification I'm interested in. God, I want to be pre-qualified for you to give me millions. God, I want to be pre-qualified for you to give me millions because I'm handling my thousands right. And somebody say I'm handling my hundreds right. And somebody say I'm handling my tens right.

Come on somebody. You are where you are. Don't let anybody make you feel bad. Luke 16 10 Jesus said whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Whoever is dishonest with very little will be dishonest with much. I'm telling God, Lord whenever you're ready to bless me with the millions my heart says amen. Because you see I'm not robbing you of your tithes and offerings.

I'm giving to the poor as you put them on my heart. I'm sowing generously everywhere I can. My wife and I we got bread. You know there's one verse that says you cast your bread on the water after many days it'll return.

We got so much bread on the water. I'm saying God whenever you're ready to send it on back in with interest my heart says amen. So when y'all see me blessed do not hate and if you do oh well.

You will get over it. We are sowing. We are giving. We are doing what God wants us to do in the lives of people.

That ought to be your testimony not just mine. God I'm doing everything you want me to do with the little I have. So when you're ready to bless me I am ready. I'm pre-qualified. Pre-qualified to receive. And the Lord knows what I'll do when he does bless me.

Some of this stuff I want to do building buildings and all for the kids. I wouldn't even bother the church. If I had it bam I'd do it. I own the building. They said when Pastor Paul said that's his church that really is his church.

He bought it and then welcomed the congregation to come on in. The Lord knows that's where my heart is. Why would I buy 10 houses for me?

I can't live in but one of them. Kingdom first. Get your values right. Manage your money in a way that glorifies God. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message Money Matters. If you'd like more information about Destined for Victory or this month's special offer be sure to stop by our website pastorpaul.net.

Again that's pastorpaul.net. Time is the second most valuable resource you have. Of all the resources you have time is the second most valuable resource. The only resource more valuable than time is salvation. That's next time when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message Do You Have the Time? Until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are destined for victory. .