Financial Freedom - Overcoming Debt

0:20 Overcoming debt. Thank both of y'all for that shout of amen. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised because debt has become a thing, a normal behavior. We've accepted it. We love it. We embrace it. We practice it. We plan it. But debt is not God's plan for your life. What is defeating most families is debt. what is keeping most families from moving ahead is debt look at your neighbor say i think he's talking about me go ahead tell him We embrace, we talk about debt, we practice debt, we're proud about it, we make plans to do it, but it kills you.

1:12 We think that as long as I can make the monthly payments, everything is fine. And the credit card companies will encourage you to do that because they know you'll be paying until Jesus comes back. some of you don't understand that when you have debt and you make those minimum payments on debt most of that money you're paying is going toward the interest and not toward the principal How many of y'all can agree with that? Do y'all understand that? So we want to get out of debt. And so I want to challenge you today. I want to press you. I want to push you to get out of debt. Tell your neighbor you need to get out of debt. Just tell them. Look at them eyeball to eyeball. Stay, get out of debt. Now, what I believe, here's what I believe.

2:13 Don't hear me say that all debt is bad. Most debt is bad. The majority of debt is bad. Because we are borrowing for depreciating items, like the car that you're still making payments on that didn't start when you tried to get up and go to church today.

2:37 Depreciating items, we're charging for food that we ate that we're still paying on food that we borrowed for that has long since been disposed of. but you're still paying on it. I can't comprehend it. Are y'all with me? So what I want to do today is I want to take you through. Here's what I want you to know. God will help you get out of debt if you make a commitment to get out of debt. Now, I'm going to tell you two stories. I got two stories, two biblical stories that shows people who had debt and how God supernaturally helped them get out of debt. But I need to make sure, first of all, that you have a mentality to reject debt as a lifestyle. I need to get to drive you toward debt to get out of lifestyle.

3:34 And here's what I discovered. When I talk to people and God brings resources into their domain, into their control, and they have the opportunity to get out of debt, here's what happens 99% of the time when I'm coaching, mentoring, teaching, trying to help somebody. Here's what they do. They want to take a portion of the money that they got and apply it to the debt and then take the rest of the money and do something else with it. When God will give you the money to help you get completely out of debt. 3 What if I take this $10,000? I remember, I've told this story a thousand times. I remember when my wife and I first, early in our marriage, we accumulated $34,000 worth of debt. I remember like it was yesterday. And I came across this teaching of getting out of debt. And I made a commitment to get out of debt.

4:29 and then I got down to $15,000. That's all. I had paid half of that $34,000. I was down to $15,000. And then all of a sudden in the mail came an unexpected check and guess how much it was for? $15,000. And then that devil started talking to me. why don't you just take a portion of it and pay off that and then you can do this and that with the rest of it why y'all looking at me like y'all ain't had that same temptation y'all get on my nerves acting like y'all don't know what I'm talking about the truth of the matter is if it hasn't happened it will happen but here's what's going to happen in here today I'm telling you right now some of you are going to take this teaching this challenge that I'm giving you today and God's going to make supernatural provisions come your way. God's going to bring the resources. But he wants you to be committed to using whatever resources he brings down your pike into your way and utilize it to help get yourself out of debt.

5:36 Now, I'm grateful other than the homes that God has blessed me to own. Amen. I'm completely out of debt. Don't play a hate. Learn the game that the player is playing. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and say, don't play hate on the pastor.

6:08 Learn the game that the player is playing. Do the things that the pastor's telling you to do. Go ahead, tell that person next to you. Tell them, if God can do it for a pastor, he can do it for me, tell them. Tell your neighbor, I'm in this house, I'm a member of this church, and whatever falls on this church falls on me. Somebody say drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. God opens up doors. God makes provisions. God gives you favor. God will cause miracles to happen to you. And I'm debt free. Our church is debt free. We don't owe nobody nothing. Hallelujah. Right about it. Hey. And we paid off this building. We paid the Family Life Center building off before we moved in it the first day.

7:03 It was paid for. We got one more building. I got one more building to pay. Then I'm out of here. Somebody say, I got a children's building and we're going to do that with cash. Somebody say amen. We're going to do that with cash. And go ahead, tell your neighbor and I'm going to help. Some of y'all are choked by death. You've been smothered by death. You've been killed by debt. Debt is taking you out. Debt is frustrating you. Debt is keeping you from having the capacity to do anything and to dream big. and to do great things. Debt is killing you. And so the first thing you got to do is kill the spirit and the attitude of using debt. I know the world says use other people's money, but I'd rather use God's money that God makes available to me. That's what I'd rather use.

7:55 Now, I want to give you two stories in the scriptures. I hope I'm going to have time to go through these two stories. Let's go to 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4. And I want to read these first seven verses of 2 Kings chapter 4. Here is a situation with a mother, a widow, who's in debt. A certain woman, verse 1, a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying, your servant, my husband, is dead. and you know that your servant feared the Lord and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. So Elijah said to her, what shall I do for you? Let me back up for a second, verse one. Your servant, my husband is dead.

8:47 So he, I'm sure he was a good servant but he didn't make any provisions for his family when he died. My wife's gonna cry when I die for about five minutes. Okay, maybe six. She might cry for six minutes. I bet I say that too loud. Somebody might come up with some plans to do something to me. So Elisha said to her, verse 2, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels do not gather just a few and when you have come in you shall shut the door behind you and your sons then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the four ones so she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured it out now it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son bring me another vessel And he said to her, there is not another vessel.

10:07 So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest. Wow. Here's a woman who's been left without help, without assistance, and she's in debt. She is in a place of debt. and there's some keys here. I want to just teach you all today that I've talked this before but I'm going to teach it again today. Verse number two, Elisha said to her, here it is, what do you have in the house?

10:45 The first thing I want you to learn to do is to identify an asset and some of y'all got assets in your house. Thank both of y'all very much for that arousing amen. Yeah, you got stuff that you ain't using, stuck in the closet, in the garage, in the attic, that somebody will pay you money to have. Ooh, Lord, that's worth the whole sermon right there. If y'all would just go through your stuff.

11:20 Now, here's why people have trouble doing what I'm trying to suggest that you do. Here's where the stress is and the trouble is and the frustration is, is y'all like that. You enjoy that. And I'm just trying to help you get out of that. is that's not God's best way for your life. And so you don't want to sell stuff that you consider valuable, but you got to love getting out of debt more than you love the stuff that you have. What do you have that you can sell? what do you have that's an asset she he said what's in your house and by the way it's in your house it's in your house it's in your realm of authority to deal with, to manage it's in your house God, stop praying and ask God what do I have here that somebody would pay to buy to have y'all got a whole bunch of stuff that you ain't used, ain't touched, ain't seen.

12:33 You forgot you even had it. But somebody might pay you for it. And if you gather enough of those things and sell those things and gather the income from those things, you're making steps toward getting out of debt. So here's what she did. Verse 2, he asked her, verse 2, what do you have in the house? I'm asking you, what's in your house? In verse three, he says, here's what it says. Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons. Then pour it all and pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full one. Stop for a second. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I forgot to say something. Say it, Pastor. when he asked her what's in your house, she said, all I got is this oil.

13:31 She underestimated the value of the stuff that she had. She said, I ain't got nothing but this oil. And some of y'all got some stuff in your house that you say, that ain't worth much or nothing. You don't know what somebody might pay you. Lord, I see yard sales happening all over Prince George's County Because some people got some stuff that they say, I don't know, maybe somebody might want this table. Maybe somebody might want this collection of stuff that I have. Maybe somebody might want it. And if you love getting out of debt more than you love the stuff, God will help you get out of debt. So the prophet said to her, I want you to gather jars, and I call that developing the asset. Somebody say develop the asset. Get some jars and pour the oil into the jars.

14:26 It got packaged. It was created to be attractive. Yeah, clean it up. It's been in the attic for 15 years. Clean it up. It's an outfit that you have, but you didn't wear it because the buttons are all falling off of it. So the button's on. Y'all ain't hear what I'm saying to you. Dress it up. Fix it up. Develop it. And then, here's number three, verse seven, sell it. He said, go and sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest. Go sell the oil and pay your debt. sell the oil and pay the debt sell your stuff and pay the debt sell your stuff and pay the debt

15:14 I want that to ring in your mind. I want it to ring in your mind. I want you to walk through your house. I want you to look and say, what do I have that I can get rid of? What's some stuff I have that I don't need? What do I have that can help me be positioned in a better position? As a matter of fact, if you get out of some of that debt, because some of y'all are overwhelmed by debt, you are smothered by debt, you're being killed by debt, and if you are able to get out of debt, God can empower you to be able to buy what it is you used to have and pay cash for without using that. So she sold the asset. And here's what I love about this story. The oil, God took the oil that she had and the oil continued to flow as she poured it into jars for as long as she had jars.

16:10 Y'all missed a great spot to say amen. As long as she, the oil only ceased when she ran out of jars. Amen. I'm going to come back to that moment, to that point in just a few moments because I want to say something about that. But I'm going to wait for a few minutes. But I want you to understand that God wants to supernaturally bring provisions for you and to anoint what you have and get you out of debt. God wants you out of debt. Matter of fact, when I first started talking about debt, here's the first thing I told you about debt is that the borrower becomes a servant to the lender. Some of y'all are slaves to your debt. You're slaves to Master Charge or MasterCard or whatever it is, American Express and Visa and Discovery and Capital One.

16:57 That's the first story I wanted to tell you. And the point I want you to see is that you have something in your house. Here's story number two. Go to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. and I'm going to read verses 24 through 27. Matthew 17, verses 24 through 27. And here's what it says. When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the temple tax? And he said, yes. And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him. saying, what do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes? From their sons or from strangers?

17:53 Peter said to him, from strangers. Jesus said to him, then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and you. Jesus, first of all, paid his taxes.

18:30 I feel tension in the room. Jesus paid. He said, pay your taxes, Peter, and pay mine. But what did he do? God gave him a supernatural provision. A person would not normally expect to find a piece of money in the mouth of a fish. And I believe the Lord God that we serve is going to cause you to find money in supernatural places that you would not normally expect. Who can believe God to make that happen for them?

19:08 Yeah, I believe it. I believe it. I've seen God do it. I've had checks show up in my mailbox that I didn't expect to be there. I've seen money show up in my account that I don't know how that money got there, where it came from. I'm just trying to tell y'all, we serve a God who can meet your needs supernaturally. And we are people of faith. We believe and we trust God. We know that if we do what he tells us to do, he will make it happen. So what's the key here? Here's the key here about this woman. Here's what it said about this situation. I'm sorry. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, verse 27, go to the sea, cast in a hook. Go to the sea, cast in a hook. This came from Peter's natural trained skill capabilities. He was a fisherman. And God said, go do your job well. That's what I believe he's saying.

20:01 Do your job well. Do your job well. I used to have a good government job. And when I first became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Glenard, when I became the pastor of the church, I worked the church full-time, and I worked this good government job full-time. And I had been on that job for 10 years, nine years. This was my 10th year that year. I worked there for 10 years. every job that I had when I worked for that particular government agency I always purposed to do more and perform higher than what they expected me to do see some of y'all will never get ahead on your job because you do just enough to get by you do it eight you show up at 757 and on the job you get 30 minutes for lunch, you take an hour, hour and a half, your desk is packed up and ready to leave at 4 o'clock.

21:06 You done already packed up everything, and you just barely, you're not excelling. Ooh. You're not excelling. You're not giving it your best. Every job I had, I did more than they expected of me. I did more than they thought I could do. I did above and beyond. And guess what?

21:34 See, some of y'all, if they have to reduce staff, there ain't no loss to let you go. because you are barely performing. You do just enough to get by. So my point here is that his deliverance, the deliverance in this situation was tied to his skills.

22:04 His deliverance was tied to his skills. Think about whatever you have to do in your job. What do I have to do to go above and beyond? What do I do to excel? What do I do to separate me from the routine person? And figure out what that is and do it. Now let me close. Here's the final thing I want to say. And here's a point that is key to both situations actually. Here's the thing. his deliverance was connected to his obedience. his deliverance was was required deliverance requires obedience that's how I say it, obedience some of you will never get to where you need to go because you're not obedient to what the Lord tells you to do obedience is the key to living a supernatural life In what part of your life are you not being obedient to God?

23:13 When a person's not obedient to God and you talk to them about it, they start thinking about all of the reasons why the scriptures don't apply to them. Look at you and they say, you ain't all that special that it don't apply to you. There's nothing unique about you that the scripture that applies to everybody else don't apply to you. I feel tension in the room. So I just want to say to you today, obedience is the key to living a supernatural life. Jesus modeled it for us because he was obedient to his father.

24:10 He did what the father told him to do. He was obedient even to the point of death. Did he accept it? It was tough. He didn't want to do it. He said, if there's any way possible, let this cup pass from me. He said, I wish there was some other way. But nonetheless, not my will, let your will be done. He died on the cross and he received the supernatural provision of being raised from the dead by almighty God, by his father. College kids, I just want y'all to know.

24:43 They're going to come many opportunities when you're in college for you not to live a Christian life. Partays, let me tell you what they are. Partays. Drugs. Sexual immorality. Cheating on papers. Don't get quiet. Look at me. It's just amen. but you're a child of God Yes, sir. Yeah. You are, he's raising you up to be the light of the world.

25:18 And the last thing you want them to say, oh, I remember Sarah. I remember Star. She cheated off my paper that time. I don't know why I picked y'all two, but I know neither one of y'all would be like that. It's best I can tell. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no you're going to be the light of the world. You're going to make a difference in the colleges that you go to. Jesus is the model for us. So here's the thing. Let me just conclude with this. They each received the word in both situations. In these two situations, they got a word from the man of God. They got a word from the man of God.

26:09 And they both, in both situations, obeyed the word. they were obedient to what the man of God