Some people say, well, all I need to do is make more money. But if you're making more money with the wrong mindset, you're going to be in the same problem with more money. Dr. Tony Evans explains that God offers a way out of financial turmoil. God is a debt-canceling God, but only when you're doing it in alignment with His Word.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. No matter how hard you work on a jigsaw puzzle, the picture will never be quite right if there are pieces missing. Dr. Evans says the same is true with our financial picture, and today he'll offer some biblical principles that can help fill in the gaps for us.
Let's listen. Self-ownership has created a major problem in our culture, and that is the problem of. Debt. Far too many people, even Christians, are drowning in a sea of. Debt.
What do I mean by that? Let's define our terms. I do not mean that you have bills. That's not necessarily debt. That's a bill, but not a debt.
When the Bible talks about debt, it's talking about bills you are unable to pay. You are unable to pay them timely. where your liabilities exceed your assets. Or where you're out of alignment with your resources because. of your financial obligations.
God does not want that to be normal for your life. And so I'm going to give you now four. Letter P's for P's two God's way of getting out of illegitimate debt.
Now, the first P, if you are serious about God's plan for addressing debt, you must Plant. Plant. By plant, you must establish God as your source.
Now, we've already dealt with that, but just to review: if you've not established God as your source, Then everything else is a waste of time because you're out of sync with him. And God says, you must demonstrate that I am your source. Deuteronomy 14, 23 makes it clear. You are to fear the Lord your God, take him seriously. And he says you are to do that first and foremost.
He calls it first fruits. With giving, that is the tithe. It was to demonstrate that you take God seriously. Anybody who invests, you invest in something that you think will pay dividends.
So the question is: do you think God is worth the investment?
So that that becomes the spiritual Question.
So, the first thing you must do if you're serious. If you believe the word of God. First fruits, you must establish God as your source. Secondly. You must establish a plan.
Proverbs 27, verse 23 says, Know the condition of your flocks and your herds. Stop guessing financially. Know how many sheep you have, know how cows you have, you know, know how many chickens you have. Don't be guessing, oh, I just got animals out there. He says, No, know specifically, know specifically what you are working with.
Here's what you need to know. God believes in planning. God is a planner. He even plans things before the foundation of the world. God believes in planning.
We go and we ask God to do things for us without a plan.
So we ask him to bless nothingness. We give vague prayers to vague needs, and we give vague answers. Because we do not believe in the specificity of how God works. God works in concert with a plan. You regularly see Him in scripture responding to a plan, or changing a plan, or tweaking a plan, or creating a plan, but it's all tied to a plan.
So, you must have a plan.
Now, we call a plan in our economy a budget. A budget is a financial plan. They're financial planners. In other words, give God something specific to work with. Stop trying to luck yourself or lottery yourself into debt reduction.
You got people standing in long lines. Buying lottery tickets, trying to win a billion dollars, waiting for that ship to come in. When if you would go and start with God's plan, you wouldn't be wasting all that money. On luck. when you got somebody who operates with a plan.
So, first of all, you must plan. Secondly, of all, you must plan. Thirdly of all, you must prioritize. You must prioritize. Philippians 4.19.
My God will meet all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Needs. Let me define a need. Food, clothes, and shelter.
Okay? roof over your head, clothes on your back, and food in your stomach. That's a need. The Bible says if God is taking care of that. With that, be content.
Now. God is not against you wanting more. He's against you complaining until you get more. Content means being grateful and at ease with where you are until God gives you more. It's okay to have desires.
The Bible says God gives us the desires of our heart.
So God is not against desires, but he is against desires that skip wants, complains about needs. and getting in debt to fix a desire when you haven't been grateful for the needs he's already met.
So things have to be prioritized.
So, the process for beginning to get out of debt is to take your smallest bill. I ask God, God, these are my bills. This is my smallest bill.
So, God, I want you to help me to pay this bill.
So, you pay out the smaller bill, then you take what you were paying on the smaller bill and you roll that over to the next bill, and you roll it up, and you watch God roll with you. You watch God begin to do things in your circumstance to begin to get you out of debt. Why? Because you have now prioritized. I remember Jonathan, my son, when he was just starting to play sports, and he told me.
He told me, Dad, Dad, I need you to get me something. I need you to get me. I really need it. I said, What do you need? He said, I need some Jordans.
I need some Jordan. Jordan tennis shoes, Michael, Jordan tennis shoes.
Now I bought him some tennis shoes. But they weren't Jordans. He said, but I need Jordan. I don't know if that he thought that was going to enable him to leap out the building or something, but he said, I need. Jordan, no, he needed tennis shoes.
He wanted Jordans. He wanted a higher level of tennis shoes. My problem was not that he wanted Jordans. My problem was I wasn't hearing appreciation for the money I spent for the tennis shoes I just bought. He's telling me that was a need when that was really a want because he had what he needed.
So get your terms straight. If God has met the need, the Bible says be grateful and be content with need being met while you pursue want and then even trust him for desire. And when you prioritize, you've given God something to work with.
So When you begin this process, When you begin to take care of the essentials. Proverbs 12 verse 9. I love this verse. Better is he who is lightly esteemed and have a servant. Than he who honors himself and lacks bread.
Better is the person Who's not trying to be like the Joneses? Live like the Joneses. Drive like the Joneses, move in with the Joneses. Better is the person. who is lightly esteemed but has a servant because they've handled their resources well.
Than one who honors himself and lacks bread. He wants to be a high roller. He wants to be a shot caller. And he lacks bread. People driving cars don't have a place to live.
People looking good, but But on the last check, because they have not prioritized properly.
Now, to help you with your prioritization, some of us have to do plastic surgery. You got to cut up those credit cards and do plastic surgery because you can't control yourself. That's an addiction. An addiction is a stronghold. A stronghold is a spiritual issue.
So if you buy by impulse and are getting yourself in debt because you buy by impulse, that is a sin. Because that is an addiction. You're operating on impulse. That's what a drug addict does. I gotta have it.
I gotta have it. I gotta have it. That's what an alcoholic does. Gotta drink it, gotta drink it, gotta drink it.
So I'm just going after impulse, impulse, impulse, impulse. And I'm getting, I'm engorged now because I'm responding to impulse. That is idolatry.
So some of us are walking around with idols called credit cards in our pocket. Because we worship it because it tells us what to do. We don't tell it what to do. And we are accumulating illegitimate debt because of it.
So I don't care how much you pray, as long as you worship in an idol, God's not going to respond. But we don't tend to look at credit cards as items. If it's controlling you, nothing wrong with credit cards, but if it's controlling you and you don't control it. Then it is an idol, and God can't help you because there's no room in God's kingdom for two gods. Dr.
Evans will return in a moment to continue today's lesson. But first, if you'd like to learn more about managing God's resources God's way, Get in touch with us for details on his book called Kingdom Stewardship. Kingdom Stewardship takes an in-depth look at how God wants us to manage everything He's entrusted to us. and the freedom and confidence that come from doing that. When you make a contribution to support the alternative ministry, we'll send you this book, along with our comprehensive Kingdom Stewardship Resource Bundle.
It includes all 12 full-length messages from the current two-volume teaching series, plus a study guide and a leader's kit, with access to video Bible study sessions from Dr. Evans. Perfect for personal growth or for leading a small group through the stewardship principles together. You can get all the details at tonyevans.org. or call our resource center anytime at 1-800-800-32-22.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 to take advantage of the Special Kingdom Stewardship Package offer. I'll repeat our contact information for you after the second part of today's lesson and this. Many of the stories of the Word of God were depicted in artistic forms, and some of the most magnificent pieces are still available to us today. On the Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans and his guests explore how we encounter the spirit in everyday life, including art.
I love that you are looking at the art and the architecture and really tracing that line. It must be true above all else, right? Why not make it beautiful, like I added? Listen to the Unbound Podcast. The brand new Unbound podcast with Tony Evans debuts tomorrow.
Be looking for it on Tony's YouTube channel or wherever you get your favorite podcast. Right now, let's get back to today's lesson. Here's Dr. Evans. First of all, you plant, you plan, you prioritize.
And then you pray. Proverbs 16, verse 3 says, Commit your work to the Lord. and your plans will be established. He tells the husband and wife, look, if your family is in debt as a married couple, Okay, you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 5. He says, instead of being physically intimate, sexually intimate, he says you ought to come together by agreement.
You bring those issues to God. And when God sees the unity in the marriage and you're being specific and you're on one accord, then he can respond to the debt in your family. Conversely, 1 Peter 3, verse 7, if you're in marital conflict, fighting and cussing and fussing over money and y'all in conflict like that, the Bible says, tell that man, don't even bother to pray. because God will not respond to the conflict. See, so God's got all of this, all this tied up in communication with Him and in prayer.
So if you are married, or even if you're single, but if you're married, He says, come together in agreement. And have spiritual intimacy and watch God intervene in your family in this area, but other areas as well, specifically to address the debt issue because you're now putting things in alignment. God is a debt-canceling God. And he says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5: if you are content, And if you have this right relationship with him. He will not forsake you.
He will stick with you if you're in alignment with him. He will not bail out on you.
So he wants to get you out of this if you're in it, or keep you from it if you're not in it, so that you are free. to be the kind of steward that he wants you to be. And so, what I'm trying to tell you is, he is a debt-canceling God. He sets people free. But I I love this story.
Here you have a widow. This widow Her husband has died. And she's in deep debt.
So much death that they get ready to take her kids. and put him in a debtor's prison. She goes to the preacher. And she says to Elijah, They're coming from my kids. I can't pay my bills.
I'm in trouble. What do I do? Elijah says to her, What do you have in your house? She says nothing. But A jar of oil.
That's it. I can't make it on that. It's a jar of oil. He says to her, Here's what I want you to do. Go to your neighbors.
And ask them for their empty vessels. And then he says in the story in 2 Kings, and don't ask for a few. I like that. Don't think too small. When you and your sons get these empty vessels from your neighbor and you bring it to the house.
Shut the door. Tell him shut the door Why I got to shut the door? Because God's going to do something in secret. Yeah. That he not do in public.
Then when you shut the door, You pour oil into The empty vessels.
So, wait a minute, watch this now. She went over to her neighbors and got their emptiness. When she started pouring the oil, the oil kept coming. Wait man, I thought you said you just had a jar of oil.
Well, that's till God got involved with the process. You did only have a jar of oil. But now that you are responding spiritually, that jar is not running out. It's just the oil kept coming, and the oil kept coming. And she's filling all these empty pots of her neighbors.
And when she fills all the pots, she says, Where's the next pot? And she said, They said, Well, there are no more pots. And then the Bible says, and they all stopped. Because when she ran out of opportunities. To be a blessing.
The oil stopped.
Now the preacher gives her a business plan. Sell the oil to your neighbors. Because your neighbors need oil to cook, to light their lamps. They need what you just came up with. that you didn't have enough of.
until you obey the word of God. When you obey the word of God, what you thought was a little was a lot more than what you started with. And you've now filled the emptiness of the neighbors. And now you have a business plan. Because let me tell all of you business people something up in here.
If you will apply biblical principles to your business, you will discover God is a good businessman. And he can give you ideas for a plan, ideas for a product, ideas for customers, ideas for economic development. He gave her a business plan. And what I like about this business plan is he says, you have now met the need of your neighbor because they need your oil. They have paid you for the oil you didn't know you had that now you show you have and then the last line says And you and your sons live on the rest.
Not only did she get a business plan, not only did she get a profit, but that was enough for her to retire on. I mean, God blew her mind. One minute she has nothing. The next minute, she got her retirement covered. Why?
Because God is a debt-canceling God, but only when you're doing it in alignment with His Word. If you are not, see, some people say, well, all I need to do is make more money. But if you're making more money with the wrong mindset, you're going to be in the same problem with more money. You need to shift a mindset. You need to plant.
You need to plan, you need to prioritize, you need to pray, and then you need to watch God do his thing, because watch. When God does his thing, And shows you he knows what he's doing. Oh, now you're not living on somebody else's testimony. You can tell for yourself. how God met you in that place.
And I know we got some folk in here who can testify. That God met them with one jar of oil, and they don't know how they made it. But God showed up and showed out and showed off. Let me close with the story that you know in John chapter 6, there's 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
So he got 15,000 people. who are hungry. Jesus asked Philip Philip, how are we going to feed all these people? Philip says, we don't have enough money to feed all these people. There are too many people.
Philip was being very economically practical. We got this much money. We got these many people. It doesn't work. That was true.
It didn't work economically. Jesus turned to Andrew. Andrew? How are we gonna feed all these people? Andrew had a great theological answer.
I don't know. Not enough McDonald's out here to take care of all these people. There's 5,000 men, I count women and children.
Now in the text it says Jesus already knew what he was gonna do Okay, so watch this now. All we got out here is sardines and crackers. This is this boy over here with a couple of fish and some barley loaves, okay? That was poor people's food. Fish and barley loaves.
So we got a kid with some lunch. That's all we got. Then Jesus said, Bring it to me. I know it don't look like enough, but bring it to me. Deliver it to me.
Now watch this. Jesus took sardines and crackers, fish and barley loaves. He made all the men sit down because the men were responsible for providing.
So he said, He made all the men sit down. Jesus lifts up his head to his father. And he gives thanks. Say what? How am I going to give thanks for sardines and crackers?
Well, I got 15,000 hungry folk. He gives thanks. for not enough. He gives thanks for insufficiency. Hi Jesus, how you gonna give thanks?
When there's this big a problem financially and this small a resource. How you gonna give thanks? Because he knew that his father was the source. And that if his father got involved with this mess, this limitation, with this problem, in this amount of resource. that it wasn't going to wind up where it started.
I want you to give thanks. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go home. And I want you to do like Hezekiah did. Hezekiah got threatened.
Sennacherib threatened Hezekiah. Say, we're going to get rid of you, Hezekiah. You know what Hezekiah did? He went and opened the letter and showed God. He said, I want you to read the letter, God.
Hear what the letter said.
So, God, now that you read the letter, I need you to handle this for me.
So, I want you to go out and lay out all your bills before the Lord. Say, God, I owe him, I owe him, I owe them, I owe him, I owe him, I owe him. And this is the only resource I have. This is the best plan I can come up with. And I don't nearly have enough.
But I remember in the word, Jesus gave thanks. for not enough. So even though I got all these bills, I'm going to thank you for what I have over here. Here's the plan over here. And I give you the right, since you my daddy, like you, Jesus' daddy, to intervene over here.
The Bible says when Jesus lifted up his hand, Not only did everyone eat, but they ate to their full. which means they went back for seconds and thirds from some sardines and crackers. But not only that, when it was all over, it says, and there were 12 baskets full left over. Why are there 12 baskets full left over? Because they're 12 disciples.
He wanted each disciple to get a doggy bag. He wanted each disciple to have a bag so that you remember this day.
So the next time you run up to a problem, you remember what I did this day.
So the next time you have a challenge, you remember what I did this day. Because I want to tell you, God is a death-canceling God. Dr. Tony Evans, with hope from God's Word for Those in Financial Trouble. part of the life-changing principles of kingdom stewardship.
Well, as we've been hearing today, kingdom stewardship isn't about what you own, it's about how you use what God's placed in your hands for His purposes. That's the focus of these lessons, as well as doctor Evans's book by the same name, Kingdom Stewardship. These resources will help you see how your time, talents, and treasures fit into God's greater kingdom agenda. We'd love to send you the book, along with the complete kingdom stewardship bundle. a package that contains all twelve full-length audio messages from the series, an in-depth study guide, and a leader's kit with downloadable video sessions designed to help you lead a small group through these life-changing principles.
This entire package is yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep these broadcasts coming your way. To take advantage of this limited-time offer, which ends in only a couple of days, Visit TonyEvans.org. or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. where one of our friendly team members is ready to help with your request. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222.
or online at tonyevans.org. And when you visit the website, look for the unique opportunity to journey through Israel with Tony Evans this fall. Check it out soon to register for all the details. Find out more at Tony Evans dot org. Maybe you've heard the saying, do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life.
Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will tell us why the key to experiencing satisfaction at work. has more to do with your motivation than your mood. I hope you'll join us for that.
