Alex Giannetti - alexgiannetti.com
With over a decade of Real Estate experience, Alex began as an investor and at the market's peak in 2006 owned 11 properties including his personal residence. The bubble burst and hit his family hard, but they regrouped and carried on with a No Debt Philosophy thanks to discovering the teachings of Dave Ramsey. Alex and his wife, Stacie, began teaching Dave's course, Financial Peace University and to date have helped hundreds of people to pay off over a million dollars in debt. Alex and Stacie are members of Harvest Bible Chapel with their two teen boys, Christian and Samuel
Intro:
Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.
- There is no such thing as Good Debt. (Prov 22:7)
- Protect your Four Walls. (Prov 21:20, 13:22, 22:6)
- Align your finances with True North. (Romans 12:2, Phil 4:6)
- Keep it Real. (Prov 6:1-5)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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00:21-00:23
Is that the most awkward introduction you've ever heard?
00:24-00:25
(audience laughing)
00:26-00:26
Pretty much, right?
00:27-00:29
No one ran out of here, so that's good.
00:29-00:35
I wanna thank Pastor Jeff and the elders here at Harvest for, I see some open mouths still, it's okay, it's okay.
00:35-00:36
We made it, we made it.
00:38-00:39
For allowing me to come and speak today.
00:40-00:42
Clearly, I'm not a pastor, I'm just a regular guy.
00:44-00:54
You know, I think what gives me the credibility, what's earned me the ability to come up here and speak is that basically I have my PhD in DUMB.
00:56-00:57
You know, you heard all that today.
00:59-01:03
But that's okay, there's a way around this and we're gonna be talking about that a lot this morning.
01:03-01:06
You know, there are over 800 scripture verses about money.
01:07-01:10
And Jesus spoke more about money than he did on any other subject.
01:11-01:16
He talked more about money than he did about hell, about heaven, about salvation, about sin, about some temptation, about love.
01:18-01:18
It's interesting.
01:19-01:31
Why would there be so much discussion about money when you add in other areas like our possessions, our wealth, contentment, then that number leaps to over 2,000 verses.
01:33-01:36
You know, what I'm talking about today, I've entitled it Worth Repeating.
01:38-01:42
When something is repeated in the scripture, It's important.
01:43-01:50
And clearly money is something that is heavily repeated, the topic of money and wealth and possession, something heavily reported in the scripture.
01:50-01:52
And the reason for that is pretty simple.
01:53-01:54
Things are repeated for two reasons.
01:54-01:55
Number one, for emphasis.
01:56-01:58
God is saying, "Hey, listen, this is important.
01:58-02:03
"I need you to pay attention." So all throughout scripture, there are things that are repeated.
02:04-02:13
And then the other one is that, especially back in ancient times and biblical times, In order to give something credibility, it needed to be sustained by two or more witnesses.
02:15-02:32
So when you really think about the things that we kind of take for granted as we read the scripture on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, when we hear a message on Sunday morning, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, four in a row, back to back to back to back, repetition, the life and times of Jesus Christ.
02:33-02:35
It's important, we need to hear it.
02:37-02:42
The Ten Commandments are repeated, not only in Exodus 20, but again in Deuteronomy 5.
02:43-02:44
It's important.
02:45-02:46
It's worth repeating.
02:47-02:48
So money is no different.
02:50-02:54
It interferes with our relationship with God, and that's what I hope to drive home today.
02:56-02:59
And so right off the bat, Matthew writes about this, but Jesus said it.
02:59-03:01
He said you can't serve both God and money.
03:03-03:16
And the church overall, big church, big C, Christian Church, not just here at Harvest, does a pretty poor job actually of talking and approaching the subject of money.
03:18-03:22
How often do you hear a sermon on money, or better yet, a sermon series on money?
03:23-03:23
You don't.
03:24-03:31
You know, there are two things that really, really disrupt our relationship with God, and that's money and sex.
03:31-03:33
And the church doesn't talk about either.
03:35-03:37
that they'll talk about a lot of variety of other topics.
03:38-03:42
And so I think it's important that we don't just sidestep this and that we take it for what it is.
03:42-03:44
It's something that's really, really important.
03:44-03:48
Not just to go up and talk about it when there's a need for money.
03:48-03:50
We hear the word stewardship drive.
03:51-03:54
And Pastor Jeff talked about it a little bit at the offering this morning.
03:54-03:58
You know, that word stewardship has become a church word that has lost its meaning.
03:59-04:03
The meaning of that word is to be a manager for God, for what he's entrusted us with.
04:04-04:09
And all of a sudden you go to church and you hear stewardship, grab your wallet, 'cause someone's gonna build something and they're asking you for money.
04:09-04:11
And that's what it's turned into.
04:11-04:12
But the church did that.
04:14-04:15
And so that's definitely something that we can improve.
04:17-04:25
You see a lot of times sermon series on important subjects, marriage, relationships, family, raising children.
04:27-04:32
But the number one cause of divorce is money problems and money fights.
04:33-04:38
And money weaves its way into every aspect of our lives.
04:38-04:41
And we've got to talk about it. We have to address it.
04:41-04:44
We have to understand what God is trying to tell us about money.
04:45-04:55
So my goal today is to try to help you to understand the importance of creating a God-centered plan for your finances.
04:57-04:59
It's really, really important that we do this.
04:59-05:04
And I think that we can all agree that it's simple to understand that that's an important part of what we need to do.
05:05-05:07
You know, it's a simple concept.
05:08-05:10
Changing our behavior is the hard part.
05:12-05:16
And an example of this that we could probably all relate to in here is weight loss.
05:17-05:21
There's a very simple formula to lose weight.
05:21-05:25
All you have to do is burn more calories than you take in.
05:27-05:28
#math, right? I mean, it's pretty simple.
05:30-05:36
Yet the health and beauty industry, if you will, the fitness industry is a multibillion-dollar industry.
05:37-05:45
Why? There's infomercials on, I guarantee, right now, that are trying to get us to get a new gadget, to get off the sofa.
05:46-05:51
Right? So what keeps us all from doing the simple thing that we know we have to do?
05:52-06:00
But when I want to binge-watch Netflix and Kimmy Schmidt at 10 o'clock at night and eating ice cream, it's not a good combination.
06:00-06:01
It doesn't fit.
06:01-06:03
It's not going to help me with weight loss.
06:03-06:04
Right?
06:05-06:07
And so it's our behavior.
06:07-06:08
We know what we need to do.
06:08-06:10
We have a hard time doing it.
06:11-06:12
Finance is the same way.
06:13-06:14
You want to win with money?
06:15-06:15
Simple solution.
06:16-06:18
Spend less than you make.
06:19-06:20
Problem solved, right?
06:21-06:27
but we can't do it because we love stuff and stuff gets in the way.
06:29-06:34
First scripture verse I'm going to read this morning is Genesis 1 26.
06:36-06:48
Because I think it's important to understand who it is that we really are when it comes to our money. And the first thing we need to understand is that we are made in his image.
06:49-06:55
And so, let us make man in our image, in our likeness.
06:57-06:58
We talked about repetition.
06:58-07:02
There's repetition within a verse, back to back.
07:02-07:07
And I have one of these kind of fancy study Bibles that gives you all the cheater notes at the bottom.
07:07-07:13
It says, "Make no distinction between those two." In our image, in our likeness, it's one and the same.
07:14-07:16
Repetition right there.
07:17-07:18
Who are we made to be?
07:19-07:22
Pastor Jeff talked about it again this morning in the offering.
07:22-07:23
He stole some of my thunder this morning.
07:23-07:24
It's okay, I forgive you.
07:24-07:25
It's all good.
07:25-07:30
But God is the ultimate giver, the creator of heaven and earth.
07:30-07:37
Everything that we see, hear, smell, touch, it's all given to us, created for us.
07:38-07:41
And then we, created by Him.
07:43-07:48
Scripture says that He owns a cattle on a thousand hills, and Larry Bukett used to say, and he owns the hills too.
07:49-07:51
So everything is his.
07:53-08:02
Romans says in 3.23, Paul writes that, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We know that, we're all sinners.
08:02-08:10
Again in 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." There is a cost for our sin that we are unable to pay.
08:12-08:20
And so Jesus is that gift again to us who gave his life on the cross for us.
08:20-08:21
He took our place.
08:23-08:25
That's a debt that we are unable to pay.
08:27-08:28
You and I can't pay that debt.
08:31-08:37
And so we are all now spiritually debt-free as a result of Jesus and his giving.
08:39-08:42
This is the image that we are made in.
08:43-08:53
God made us in his image with that giving that is need to give, made to give, woven deep inside of us.
08:54-09:01
Somewhere in our DNA is woven this amazing thing that we are just called to.
09:02-09:17
And if there's anyone in here today who maybe you don't fully believe, maybe you don't really consider yourself a Christian or a believer and you kind of think some of this, you know, Jesus God stuff is hokey, I tell you what, you're made in his image too.
09:19-09:28
And we never feel it more than when the offering plate goes by or when you pretend to be fidgeting with your radio when there's a homeless person on the street at the light right next to you.
09:29-09:31
Why then do we feel so called to give?
09:31-09:33
Why do we feel that compassion?
09:34-09:37
That's just a spiritual truth right there.
09:38-09:40
There are some things that are just plain true.
09:42-09:56
And we know that. Everything in this book right here, the inerrancy of Scripture, there's nothing new under the sun. It is true. These aren't stories about people, they are accounts of actual things. The greatest history book ever written.
09:58-10:21
There's just a spiritual truth in that verse. And you know what? When you and I do a horrible job with our finances, when we spend all of our money, we can't give, can we? And when we can't give, then you and I are not able to be who God created us to be. And that's an unsettling feeling.
10:23-10:27
As Christians, we make the mistake of thinking that the church needs our money.
10:29-10:40
You might want to plug your ears, but the church doesn't need our money. Church established everything as his.
10:42-10:45
What the church needs is sold out believers in Christ Jesus.
10:47-10:50
And when you have that, the natural byproduct of that is giving.
10:51-10:55
You can't be a Christian, you can't be Christ-like without being a giver.
10:56-11:07
And so, our job, the church's job, is to help us to align our behaviors and our actions and our finances with God.
11:07-11:12
bring them together so that we can be the blessing that we are supposed to be.
11:14-11:15
That's the job of the church.
11:15-11:16
That's where that comes in.
11:17-11:18
And that's the reason for that offering plate.
11:19-11:19
It's for us.
11:22-11:25
This is all really easy to understand, but it's hard to do.
11:25-11:31
Everything that you heard in that very awkward introduction, 100% true.
11:32-11:33
100% true.
11:33-11:35
It's crazy, isn't it?
11:36-11:38
It's absolutely insane, and I did, I did.
11:38-11:42
I saw some mouths that were still open after I got up here, and it's okay.
11:42-11:43
It all worked out okay.
11:45-11:46
But as scary as that is, it's all true.
11:47-12:00
You know, at the time that that was happening, I mean, I included God in every aspect of my life, in my prayer life, in my walk, in my marriage, but when I was making money decisions, I was making those money decisions over here.
12:01-12:02
God, I got this part.
12:03-12:04
I don't need you for that.
12:05-12:11
You know, yeah, I'll bring you into my marriage, I'll bring you into my family, I'll bring you into my house, I'll pray to you every single day.
12:12-12:20
I will, you know, go and, you know, at the time I was an elder in my church, I mean, there was a lot of stuff that was going on, but the money part I got.
12:20-12:22
I don't need you for this, I got this.
12:23-12:24
That's a bad place to be.
12:24-12:25
That's a bad place to be.
12:26-12:31
Number one point for this morning is there is no such thing as good debt.
12:33-12:34
No such thing as good debt.
12:34-12:36
We're gonna be cruising through Proverbs this morning.
12:37-12:44
If you wanna turn to Proverbs 22.7, Proverbs is a great book of the Bible if you wanna get wisdom on life and money.
12:44-12:46
There are 31 chapters in Proverbs.
12:46-12:50
It's a great one-a-day read if you wanted to get some wisdom for the month.
12:52-12:55
Dave Ramsey says you could get a master's degree in finance if you read Proverbs.
12:56-12:57
There's a lot of wisdom in there.
12:59-13:05
Proverbs 22.7 reads, "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.
13:07-13:23
See, people today, in our culture today, many of us in this room, we're making payments based on what we did yesterday and in the past, instead of investing in the future and tomorrow.
13:26-13:27
It's backwards, isn't it?
13:28-13:30
I don't know who you're enslaved to.
13:30-13:34
For me, it was B of A, it was MasterCard, and it was Visa.
13:35-13:37
Maybe for you, it's someone a little more local, right?
13:38-13:45
PNC, Sally Mae, some kind of motor company, car payment maybe that you're making.
13:46-13:47
Those are the most common ones.
13:49-13:51
This is another spiritual truth.
13:51-13:57
See, when your money has someone else's name on it before it gets to you, that's a bad place to be.
13:57-13:58
God doesn't want that.
14:00-14:01
God doesn't want that for you.
14:03-14:10
Who wants to be in a situation where you have the stress before your check doesn't even get to you yet and it's already spent, most of it's already spent.
14:10-14:11
We don't wanna be in that place.
14:12-14:27
And the spiritual truth here also applies because when, at the time that this was written, in biblical times, if I owed you money, I would have to work it off.
14:28-14:30
I literally would become your slave.
14:31-14:34
I'd have to either work or I'd have to send my kids to work for you.
14:34-14:35
I want them as a broken foot.
14:35-14:36
It's not gonna be much use to you.
14:37-14:42
But when this was written, right, you literally had, you were slave to the lender.
14:43-14:44
I'm indebted to you.
14:44-14:46
And that became for a lot of things.
14:46-14:47
It wasn't just necessarily financial.
14:47-14:51
Sometimes it was a promise you made, the striking of hands with somebody, et cetera.
14:52-14:56
You had to go and pay that debt off with your life, with your sweat, with your back.
14:57-15:02
So today we have a hard time with reading this verse maybe and figuring out how it applies.
15:03-15:12
But there's a modern day master and servant that we've all probably experienced, whether it be personally or maybe through a friend or a family member.
15:12-15:13
And let me explain this to you a little.
15:14-15:24
If you've ever lent money to a friend, a family member, or a coworker, or if you've ever borrowed money from a friend, a family member, or a coworker, then you understand what I'm about to tell you.
15:25-15:33
See, let's say that you loan me $500 to help end me, to get me through the next paycheck or the next pay period because you knew that I was hurting.
15:35-15:40
Couple days later, we run into each other, wherever, grocery store, small group, church.
15:40-15:44
As we go up to meet each other, I see you look down and you notice my shoes and you look back up.
15:45-15:46
I happen to be wearing a new pair of shoes.
15:48-15:49
In my head, what am I thinking?
15:50-15:54
Oh man, this guy thinks that I took his money and went and got a new pair of shoes.
15:55-15:56
What are you thinking?
15:57-16:00
Did this clown really borrow $500 from me to go buy new shoes?
16:01-16:03
He said he needed to pay his rent.
16:05-16:08
Now, this is where this gets interesting.
16:08-16:11
See, we'll never say those words to each other.
16:12-16:14
And I'm going to avoid contact with you.
16:15-16:17
I'm going to get out of that conversation as quickly as possible.
16:17-16:21
And I'm going to avoid all contact with you until I get you paid off.
16:21-16:26
And even after you're paid off, our relationship will never be the same.
16:28-16:28
Isn't that interesting?
16:29-16:31
Because Satan will drive a wedge right there.
16:33-16:47
Because what is intended was good, what was well-intended, an act of giving, not really giving, loaning, was a difference, was used by the enemy to create a wedge in our relationship.
16:50-17:03
And when you're doing that with family, you have grandkids who don't talk to their grandparents for years, you're sitting at Thanksgiving and eating turkey with your master, it doesn't taste very good.
17:04-17:05
It's not a good place to be.
17:08-17:11
So part number two today, step two today is protect your four walls.
17:14-19:30
Proverbs 21 20 reads, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice, food and oil, but foolish man devours all he has." You know, some Christians like to wear their lack of money as a badge of honor, right? "Blessed are the poor," and you know, they see rich as being evil. You know, Jesus said it was harder to, you know, the eye of the needle and, you know, rich people are bad and that's not necessarily true, you know. Money doesn't have morals. Money is paper, right? It's a piece of paper. I like the analogy that Dave Ramsey uses. It's like this rock. If I have a ton of these rocks it doesn't make me evil. If I don't have any rocks doesn't make me good. I could take this rock and I could throw it through that window or I could take this rock and I could build a home, a shelter for battered women. Put something in the hands of someone who wants to do something good with it. Someone who wants to do the will of God and we can do powerful things with it. It's not about how much money you have or how much money you don't have. It's about aligning ourselves with the will of God and when you can get a bunch of Christians who've aligned their finances with God and they have a lot of money and a lot of resources that can be a very powerful tool. USA Today back in 2008 published a report said that 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That's crazy. 70%. Now that was a decade ago. But earlier this spring the US Department of Statistics published a statistic. That's what they do. And they said that we have more consumer debt today than we did during the downturn 10 years ago. That's crazy. But in the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil. God wants us to have good stuff. The best stuff it says, doesn't it?
19:32-19:42
Yet, when we're foolish and we spend everything we have, we become the wrong side of that verse.
19:44-19:46
The thing is, God wants us to have stuff.
19:46-19:49
He doesn't want our stuff to have us.
19:50-19:51
And that's where we get confused.
19:53-20:01
Proverbs 13, 22 says, "A godly man leaves an inheritance "to his children's children." How?
20:02-20:03
How is that possible?
20:03-20:10
We didn't we just establish that at least 70% of us, more like 75 maybe, are living paycheck to paycheck?
20:11-20:18
When I was researching this, I found a quote and something that I really had, I checked it three times 'cause I didn't believe it.
20:19-20:25
85% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for their retirement.
20:31-20:32
85%.
20:33-20:36
We have the greatest opportunities around us.
20:37-20:39
Are we really, are we that?
20:39-20:40
Are we that foolish?
20:41-20:42
Are we not prepared?
20:43-20:44
That's insane.
20:46-20:46
So how do we do this?
20:46-20:49
How do we leave an inheritance to our children's children?
20:50-20:51
How do we do that?
20:51-20:52
How do we accomplish that?
20:54-20:57
One thing I want to tell you is that there is so much about this verse.
20:59-21:01
You could probably do an entire talk on this.
21:01-21:06
But what I want to discuss at this particular moment is, let's forget about finances for a second.
21:08-21:17
What if we left an inheritance of integrity, an inheritance of character, so that we can stop right here and right now?
21:18-21:21
We are one generation away from being debt-free, aren't we?
21:23-21:30
What if you and I were the last ones to ever have debt in our family?
21:30-21:32
How powerful would that be?
21:34-21:40
What if this generation of Christians right now decided, "I'm done.
21:41-21:50
This is the last generation of believers that will ever have debt, that will ever be slave to the lender." Wouldn't that be powerful?
21:52-22:01
If you're a parent, you know the next verse, Proverbs 22.6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.
22:03-22:11
Ironically, this is the verse just preceding the first verse, which was the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
22:13-22:16
I wonder if we should be teaching our kids about how to handle money.
22:18-22:18
Interesting.
22:20-22:21
Who taught you how to handle money?
22:23-22:25
You know who taught me how to handle money? My broke parents.
22:26-22:27
That's who taught me how to handle money.
22:29-22:32
What's funny is they didn't have a formal discussion with me.
22:32-22:36
They didn't call a family meeting and say, "Alex, come here, sit down at the table.
22:37-22:41
We're going to teach you how to really make a mess of yourself financially and screw everything up.
22:42-22:43
Come on, this is important.
22:44-22:46
Put the iPhone away." We didn't have those back then.
22:47-22:48
But they didn't do that.
22:49-22:50
They didn't do that.
22:50-22:58
I did probably what you did and what your kids and my kids are doing right now.
22:59-23:04
I don't care how old you are, your kids are still doing it, and that is watching.
23:04-23:09
See, more is caught than taught when you parent, and children learn what they live.
23:11-23:17
So I didn't listen in on a formal meeting, but I watched and listened to everything that was said and done.
23:17-23:19
I watched how purchases were made.
23:19-23:24
I watched how money discussions, money fights were handled.
23:26-23:29
And then I would also watch my friends and their parents.
23:31-23:38
And so because there was no formal training, there was no formal discussion on the matter, then I had to figure my own way.
23:40-23:44
When it was time for me to be an adult, go out and start making purchases, I just did what felt right.
23:46-23:48
And that's no way to go about this.
23:50-23:52
Our feelings will mess with us.
23:53-23:56
Our feelings often lead us in the wrong direction.
23:58-24:00
We're going to prove a little exercise here for a second.
24:00-24:01
Everyone do me a favor.
24:01-24:03
Stand up to your feet here really quick.
24:04-24:12
I know it's a pain, I'm sorry, but I can see all of you, so please play along nicely and I won't mess with you, OK?
24:12-24:13
Here's what you're going to do.
24:14-24:23
everyone for a second to close your eyes. Close your eyes. Then without cheating, without giving anyone an answer, don't do anything. I want you to think about where north is.
24:23-24:56
I want you to point north. Point north. Okay. Now, don't change your answer. Don't move your arm, but I want you to open your eyes and look around. Look around the room. We all over the place. All right, go ahead have a seat. North is actually right through here. According to my compass, North is right through there. Some of you are pointed over here, some of you are there, someone was pointing straight up.
24:57-25:09
Okay, we're all over the place. And see, our feelings will mess with us. Our feelings can lead us in the wrong direction.
25:11-25:14
You know, some people I can see some discussions going on, right?
25:14-25:16
Like I don't think that's North, North is really over here.
25:18-25:20
This is North, right?
25:21-25:26
So I don't care how strongly you feel that that's North, this is North.
25:27-25:32
You could have a doctoral degree from CMU on magnetic pull, this is still North, right?
25:33-25:34
The truth is the truth.
25:35-25:54
So for the rest of what I want to talk about today, we're going to talk about true North, ourselves with God and I'm just going to use this because I don't want to be turning my back to you all the time but I'm going to be using some arm motions probably as I'm as I'm flailing around up here. And that's step number three today is align your finances with true north, with God.
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Romans 12 to Paul writes, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. When I was doing all of that crazy stuff that you heard about in the beginning, when I was doing all that stuff, I really and truly felt and authentically believed with all my heart that I was making good decisions. I was adamant that this was north. 180 degrees in the wrong direction. But I was sure of it. This was it. This was the way. This is going to be the breakthrough. You know, if you're outside the will of God, if we're supposed to be here, anywhere else by definition is wrong. Isn't it? And so, If you're out here in your prayer life, if you're out here in your marriage, if you're out here with your walk with God, that's tough.
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That's hard.
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It causes stress and anxiety.
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But when you're out here with your finances, you don't sleep at night.
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We need to take all of these things, every aspect of our lives, and we need to align them with God, our prayers, our relationships, our marriage, our money, and that's going to be powerful. Because we don't want to be stressed. We don't want to be sleepless.
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Paul speaks to this in Philippians 4.6. He says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God, And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Because when you can align every aspect of your life with the will of God, you get this peace that comes upon you that you just can't explain.
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You heard how we lost some properties to foreclosure.
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Stacey and I came home from a trip to Costco one day.
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There's a notice on the door that says, "You don't live here anymore." And I'll never forget it.
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I can picture it like it happened yesterday.
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We were already at the time knee deep into fixing our problem and we had found Dave Ramsey and we were going through and for the first time in our life, first time in our marriage we had been talking, communicating about money and we actually had a plan.
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And it was working.
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We were negotiating hard with the bank to try to allow them to keep our home while we were trying to sell it and we were trying to just make things work and finally they they just said, "We're done with you." And they got rid of it.
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They sold it out from under us.
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And we're there and we're carrying our stuff in from Costco and there's a notice on the door and we just kind of went, "Huh, well, that sucks.
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Okay, plan B." And we just had a plan.
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We had a plan and that was okay.
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It was just stuff.
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And I don't know that I can explain it.
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It's literally the verse.
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It's a piece that I couldn't understand.
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I knew that we were going to be okay.
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And we were, we landed on our feet, everything is good.
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Point number four this morning is keep it real.
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See, here's one thing that I know.
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I know that in this room right now, there's a lot of people who are struggling.
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And part of that struggle is dealing with the lies of the enemy that you're playing in your head.
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Because some of you in this room think that maybe you're the only ones who are struggling financially that you haven't talked to anyone about.
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Some of you in this room maybe are the only ones who think that you're arguing with your spouse about finances.
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Maybe you're the only ones who are nervous about your job.
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Maybe you're nervous about being able to retire.
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Maybe that statistic I talked about retirement today applies to you.
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Maybe you're concerned because your son or daughter is gonna be going into college and accumulating, like unfortunately many do, tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt because you didn't do anything to prepare for their college.
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But what I want you to know is you can't listen to those lies.
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Satan is the father of lies, and what he wants to do, nothing more than anything else, to separate you from those who love you.
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So when we fail to talk about this stuff and you get separated from your small group, you get separated sometimes even from your spouse.
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See, Stacy and I didn't argue about money ever.
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We just never talked about money.
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So don't listen to those lies.
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There's nothing he wants more than to separate you from your small group, your church, and the people who love you.
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I used to be that person.
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When we were going through this mess, I was an elder at my church.
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We had been going to this church.
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It was a church plant for a decade.
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I knew every person who came every Sunday and loved every single one of them.
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And I would show up every Sunday morning and be greeted by many of my friends and people that I love deeply.
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And they would say, "Hey Alex, good morning.
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"How you doing?" And my response was, "Oh, I'm doing great.
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"How are you?" Right?
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Man hug, you know, we do that guys, a man hug we do.
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It was a lie, it was a lie.
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I wasn't doing good, I was terrified, absolutely terrified that I was gonna lose everything, my wife was gonna leave me, I'm a disaster.
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This is bad.
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Why couldn't I, why didn't I have the guts to tell the truth to the people I loved?
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Don't you think things might have been a little different if I was able to just come forward?
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Someone comes up to me and says, "Hey Alex, how you doing?" And I say, "Well, you know what, Varney, I'm not doing well this morning, man.
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I've done some really dumb stuff financially.
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I'm scared.
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I don't even know that Stacy knows the full brunt of everything that's going on, and I need help." Wow.
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It's powerful, isn't it?
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Anyone in this room going to laugh at someone who comes to you with that?
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Wouldn't your heart break for that person?
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Wouldn't you want to help them find help?
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Wouldn't you want to find a way to help that individual?
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No, but that's not what we do.
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We believe the lies and we believe the talk and we just keep it to ourselves.
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And that's a really bad place to be.
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Some of you in this room lied to someone that you love this morning.
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And some of you were lied to by someone that you love this morning.
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No matter where we are financially, no matter where we are, we can all do better.
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That statistic that I was telling you about earlier, the US Department of Statistics released the number and the quantity of consumer debt earlier this spring.
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12.3 trillion dollars in consumer debt.
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I saw that number and I went, "Huh, interesting." Then they released, "Well, here is the top items "that it's made of." 10.6% of it was student loan debt, 9.2% of it was auto, and 6% was credit cards.
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The rest of it, the other 75%, just imagine, death by a thousand cuts, just stuff.
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all kinds of stuff that we need.
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This is consumer debt, it's not mortgages, this is not people's homes.
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This is just stuff.
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It's insane.
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So the first question I thought is, and I have some, you know, a few brain cells that work.
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I'm a fairly intelligent guy.
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I can't wrap my head around what a trillion dollars is, much less 12.3 trillion.
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So I did what anyone would do today.
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I asked Google, right?
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Hey, what's a trillion bucks?
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And you see all kinds of images of like money on pallets piled over stadiums, but that doesn't help me.
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I still can't figure that out, right?
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Here's what a trillion dollars looks like.
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Just one trillion, not the 12.3.
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If I gave you a trillion dollars and asked you to spend a million dollars since the day Jesus was born, you would have $300 billion still in your pocket today.
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What if Christians were debt-free?
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Majority of these people, I'm gonna say, a good 50% of that consumer debt probably belongs to Christians.
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What if Christians were debt-free?
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What could the people of God do for the kingdom of God if our money didn't have someone else's name on it before it came to us?
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Would there be poverty in the world?
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I mean, think about this for a second.
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Would we have to be begging people to build wells in Africa?
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Would we have a problem stopping human trafficking or drugs?
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Couldn't we fix all that?
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It's crazy.
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We don't want to be burdened with debt.
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It doesn't allow us to be who we are supposed to be.
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So what do you do if you find yourself in a situation that you're less than pleased with.
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I'm not happy with my financial situation, what do I do?
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Proverbs 6, it's a crazy, crazy, crazy verse.
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It's probably the keystone verse for what Dave Ramsey teaches.
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Proverbs 6 reads, "My son, if you have put up security "for your neighbor, if you borrowed money, If you have struck hands in pledge for another, if you've made some kind of deal, if you've been trapped by what you said and snared by the words of your mouth, he's covering all the bases here, right?
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If you've done anything stupid here, then do this, my son, to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands, since you've become a slave, since you've enslaved yourself.
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"Go and humble yourself.
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"Press your plea with your neighbor." But see, here's the kicker.
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"Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.
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"Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, "like a bird from the snare of the fowler." If you have messed up, if you've got debt, you gotta get rid of it.
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You gotta pay it off.
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You have to work.
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Sure, pray like it depends on God, but work like it depends on you.
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You have to own it.
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Our culture today, and I'm just gonna sound like an old man 'cause I just, you know, I read, I see the news and I just shake my head at some of the stuff that goes on politically, but our culture today has really just decided that nothing is our fault.
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It's always someone else to blame.
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We're a Teflon culture, aren't we?
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We always want someone else, well, you know, It's because of them, or it's because of that, or, you know.
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Here's a news flash for you.
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CNN, the North Koreans, the Russians, climate change-- I'm sorry, global warming, all that stuff-- none of that had anything to do with our debt.
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It's all us.
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We can't blame this on something else, on someone else.
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We have to fix this.
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We're the ones who have to own this.
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You've got to get fired up about making a change, or it's not going to happen.
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There's too much important things that we could and should be doing with our finances to be blessing to others, to be who we were created to be, to have a pity party for ourselves.
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And there's no pity party in scripture.
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Get off your butt and work, is what it says.
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There's a great place to go when you have debt, to work.
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Let's get it paid off.
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Now, if you're out here financially, and you're married, and you're not here where you're supposed to be, it's a really bad place to be.
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And, you know, I have an amazing marriage, I'm married to an amazing woman who definitely should have left my rear end when all this stuff was going on, but she didn't.
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And it's hard.
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And if you're the man, Your wife is terrified if you have that.
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She's not just nervous or scared, she's terrified.
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Because that's a huge, huge security need for women.
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Women, am I right?
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Absolutely.
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And women, if you've got financial struggles, your man isn't feeling very manly.
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John Eldredge wrote an amazing book called Wild at Heart.
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And in his book, he wrote that men need a beauty to rescue and a battle to fight.
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And when we suck at fighting our battle and we don't feel like we can rescue our beauty and take care of our household, that's a really bad place to be.
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And so you need to be aware of those feelings for each other and what each of you is going through, because that leads to even worse fights when the topic of money starts coming up. So what I really want us to do is to get on track and align with God. You need to get your marriage and your finances, your prayer life and your walk and everything important in your life all in tune. We're in the middle of or we just are about to start Financial Peace University here at Harvest. We had our first meeting last week but it was just an introduction.
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Week one really starts on Wednesday night.
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So if you don't have answers to some of the questions that you have, that's a great place to be.
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We've seen marriages saved as a result of couples coming to Financial Peace University.
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And there's no reason why we have to conform to what today's norms are.
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Because if you come through Financial Peace University, what you'll learn is that, yes, you can be a student without a student loan.
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You can own a car without a car payment.
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You can retire with dignity.
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It's perfectly possible to have a budget that actually works and a realistic plan to pay off your debt.
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Don't you think it's about time to start telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went?
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There shouldn't be any need to stress about finances any longer.
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What I want us all to be able to do experience the peace that Paul talked about in Philippians 4.6, the peace that transcends all understanding. God's peace. Let us pray. Isaiah 40 tells us that God measured the oceans of the earth with his hands. Let's just all take a second right here and think about the God that holds the universe in his hands. Contemplate the enormity of our God, our loving and giving God. I want you to picture Him right now in your mind.
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Father God, you know our hearts and the struggles we have. There is nothing in our lives that is bigger than you, not even close. Let us measure our worry against the size of the love that you have for us, Father. Help us today to align ourselves with your will to embrace the image in which we were created and to be the blessing that you intend us to be.
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We pray Lord that each of us here today would learn how to honor you with all that you have entrusted us.
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For those of us who need help that we would seek and that help would be found.
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And for those of us who have been blessed that we would continue to be that blessing to others.
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We pray this in Jesus name.
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Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Proverbs 6:1-5
Money and sex are probably the two areas of our lives that separate us most from God.
Why do churches then avoid these topics?Proverbs 22:7 reads, "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender."
Have you ever borrowed or lent money to or from a friend or family member? How did that work out? Is your relationship the same today?US consumer debt is at an all time high. What would you do if you were completely debt free?
- For your family
- For your church
- Would your giving look different? HowWho is teaching your children about money and do you know what they are learning
Money problems and money fights are the #1 cause of divorce.
How would you rate your communication about money?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for each individual and their relationship with money as God has design us to.