Speaker 1: Hey, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we're talking about
Speaker 2: your money.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: We're continuing a powerful series called Financial Fitness. Rick is
Speaker 2: opening God's Word and showing us how to manage what
Speaker 2: we've been given with wisdom, faith, and purpose. And I
Speaker 2: know if you apply these biblical principles, you'll start to
Speaker 2: experience true financial freedom and lasting peace. And now here's
Speaker 2: Rick to wrap up the final part of a message
Speaker 2: called The Habits of Financial Health.
Speaker 3: Look at this next verse. Ecclesiastes 11.2 is another advice
Speaker 3: about investing and savings. Invest what you have in several
Speaker 3: different places because you don't know what disasters might happen.
Speaker 3: Now this is the principle of diversification. It says you
Speaker 3: need to diversify. You don't put all your savings in
Speaker 3: one place. You've heard the old expression, you don't put
Speaker 3: all your eggs in one basket. You know where that
Speaker 3: phrase came from? This verse right here in the Bible.
Speaker 3: The Bible says you don't put all your eggs in
Speaker 3: one basket. You put a little bit of your savings here,
Speaker 3: a little bit here, a little bit here. You spread
Speaker 3: it out. Any money manager will tell you this is
Speaker 3: a balanced portfolio to minimize risk. That you don't want
Speaker 3: to have all your eggs in one basket. You don't
Speaker 3: want to have all your investments in one place. You
Speaker 3: want to spread it out to minimize the risk factor
Speaker 3: in your investing. That's what the Bible says. You need
Speaker 3: to diversify it. Now look at the next verse, Proverbs
Speaker 3: 13 verse 11. Money that comes easily disappears quickly. Now
Speaker 3: you might write out to the side of that verse, lotto.
Speaker 3: Money that comes easily disappears quickly, but money that is
Speaker 3: gathered little by little will grow.
Speaker 1: Circle little by little.
Speaker 3: This is the little by little principle of adding a
Speaker 3: little bit every day. You need to start saving.
Speaker 1: You say, well, I'm in debt.
Speaker 3: You still need to start putting money in the savings.
Speaker 1: You say, I don't have much to save. I don't
Speaker 1: care how much it is.
Speaker 3: It's that you start the habit, just like the habit
Speaker 3: of tithing, that you start the habit of saving and
Speaker 3: you do it every single week. And you put a little,
Speaker 3: it's not the amount that matters. I started saving for
Speaker 3: my retirement when I was 17 years old. I had
Speaker 3: just graduated from high school, and I started putting in
Speaker 3: 50 cents a week into a retirement account at age 17.
Speaker 1: Not many teenagers are doing that.
Speaker 3: And then I raised it to a dollar, and then $ 5,
Speaker 3: and then $ 10.
Speaker 1: And then on and on. And you know what?
Speaker 3: Over 40 years, 40 years later, that adds up. And
Speaker 3: that's why today, I don't have to take the salary.
Speaker 1: Because I... started saving.
Speaker 3: Years and years and years ago and that money has
Speaker 3: compounded and we live on the interest of my savings.
Speaker 1: I'm retired.
Speaker 3: Now, you're not starting that soon, but you need to
Speaker 3: start yesterday. And you need to start saving a little
Speaker 3: bit every time. Pay God first, pay yourself second. That's
Speaker 3: the way God blesses, okay? And you do that over time,
Speaker 3: it financially, it will show up. It's not the amount,
Speaker 3: it's the consistency. All right, number five. The fifth habit
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to develop is keep good records. This
Speaker 3: is the principle of accounting. You need to start writing
Speaker 3: down what you spend until you absolutely know where it's
Speaker 3: all going. You gotta keep track of your finances. If
Speaker 3: you don't keep track of it, money just kinda walks away.
Speaker 3: The Bible says plan carefully. Notice this verse, Proverbs 21 five.
Speaker 3: Plan carefully and you will have what?
Speaker 1: Plenty.
Speaker 3: Okay look, if you don't have plenty, you're not planning carefully.
Speaker 3: The Bible says plan carefully and you will have plenty.
Speaker 3: If you don't have plenty, you're not planning carefully. You
Speaker 3: don't have anybody to blame but yourself. You say, well,
Speaker 3: I had this emergency. Everybody has emergencies. I do, you do,
Speaker 3: everybody has emergencies. Everybody gets laid off or has difficulties.
Speaker 3: The difference between people who make it through and those
Speaker 3: who don't are some people actually plan to expect emergencies.
Speaker 3: If you don't expect them, of course you're gonna be
Speaker 3: devastated by them. Plan carefully and you will have plenty.
Speaker 3: If you act too quickly, that's called impulse buying, you
Speaker 3: will never, never have enough. So you gotta keep good records.
Speaker 3: Plan carefully, you gotta know where your money's going. You
Speaker 3: ever get to the end of the month and go, man,
Speaker 3: where did it all go? If you ever say that,
Speaker 3: you're already in deep doo-doo. Because ignorance of your financial
Speaker 3: condition plus easy credit equals disaster. You know, you've heard
Speaker 3: that phrase, money talks, it does not. Money does not talk.
Speaker 3: It just walks away quietly. And it doesn't tell you
Speaker 3: where it's going. And so you have to keep a
Speaker 3: good record in knowing where it's going. Proverbs 27, verse
Speaker 3: 23 and 24 is another verse about keeping good records.
Speaker 3: Riches can disappear fast.
Speaker 1: Now let me stop.
Speaker 3: How many of you agree with that part of the verse? Yeah,
Speaker 3: anybody wanna give a testimony? Yeah, how riches can disappear fast.
Speaker 3: Riches can disappear fast, so watch your business interest closely.
Speaker 3: Know the state of your flocks and herds. Now why
Speaker 3: does it say that, know the state of your flocks
Speaker 3: and herds? Because obviously in those days they didn't have banks.
Speaker 1: Shoot, they didn't even have money in these days.
Speaker 3: In those days, all a person's wealth was tied up
Speaker 3: in their livestock. And you could tell how rich a
Speaker 3: person was by just looking at how many animals they have.
Speaker 3: If you had a lot of sheep, a lot of goats,
Speaker 3: and a lot of cattle, you were rich. If you
Speaker 3: had a few sheep, a few goats, and a few cattle,
Speaker 3: you were middle class. If you had no sheep, no goats, no.
Speaker 1: Cattle, you were poor.
Speaker 3: Now he's saying here, know the condition, the state of
Speaker 3: your flocks. Today he'd say, know the state of your stocks.
Speaker 3: He'd say, know your assets. Know your investments. Know how
Speaker 3: much you've got. Know where it's going. Know how much
Speaker 3: you're earning on it. He said, you need to keep
Speaker 3: good records. Know the states of your flocks and your herds. Say,
Speaker 3: I don't know where it all goes. Then that's a
Speaker 3: warning light to you. Now you need to know four things.
Speaker 3: Write these down. Here are the four things you need
Speaker 3: to keep good records of.
Speaker 1: What I own. What I owe.
Speaker 3: What I own, what I owe, what I earn, you
Speaker 3: need to know that, and where it's going. What I own,
Speaker 3: what I owe, what I earn, and where it's going.
Speaker 3: If you don't know those four things, you are already
Speaker 3: in deep trouble and don't know it. You must keep
Speaker 3: good records. This is the principle of accounting. Because if
Speaker 3: you don't know where it's going, it's going to leave
Speaker 3: without telling you. Proverbs 23 verse five says this. Your
Speaker 3: money can be gone in a flash as if it
Speaker 3: had grown wings and flown.
Speaker 1: Away like an eagle. That's a pretty descriptive picture.
Speaker 3: Your money, if you don't know where it's going, it's
Speaker 3: just gonna fly away like an eagle. Now fortunately, the
Speaker 3: United States government is kind enough to remind us by
Speaker 3: putting an eagle on every dollar bill.
Speaker 1: So when you look.
Speaker 3: At that dollar bill, it goes, this one's gonna fly
Speaker 3: away unless I tell it where to go, all right?
Speaker 3: Now that brings us to habit number six. Habit number
Speaker 3: six is I must plan my spending. These are one
Speaker 3: of the eight habits you must do to get out
Speaker 3: of debt and to get financially free. I must start
Speaker 3: planning my spending. Most of you do not plan your spending.
Speaker 3: You don't have a plan for spending. You just spend
Speaker 3: whatever you want to spend, whenever you want to spend it,
Speaker 3: however you want to spend it. And you do it impulsively.
Speaker 3: Now what is planned spending? A plan for spending is
Speaker 3: a budget. That's all a budget is. A budget is
Speaker 3: planned spending. Everybody needs a budget. It's a plan for
Speaker 3: how I want to spend it. A budget is telling
Speaker 3: your money where you want it to go rather than
Speaker 3: wondering where it went. And you need a budget for
Speaker 3: your spending. Telling your money where you want it to go.
Speaker 3: I want this month, I want this much to go here,
Speaker 3: this much to go here, this much.
Speaker 1: Rather than wondering where it went. How do you spell relief? B-U-D-G-E-T.
Speaker 1: That's how you spell it. Budget. Budget.
Speaker 3: Now, if you want to get out of debt, you're
Speaker 3: going to have to nip it in the budget.
Speaker 1: Nip it, nip it, nip it, as they used to
Speaker 1: say on Andy Griffith. Nip it, nip it, nip it.
Speaker 1: Nip it in the budget.
Speaker 3: Now, Proverbs 21, verse 20 says this.
Speaker 1: Stupid people, and that's none of.
Speaker 3: You, stupid people spend their money as fast as they
Speaker 3: get it.
Speaker 1: Now, this is called impulse buying.
Speaker 3: When you see something, if you don't have a plan,
Speaker 3: you go into a grocery store. If I don't know
Speaker 3: what I'm going to get in that grocery store, I'm
Speaker 3: going to come out with eight things I.
Speaker 1: Didn't plan to get. Oh, that looks good. And especially
Speaker 1: if you're hungry, let's pull a few of those in there.
Speaker 1: That looks good.
Speaker 3: And then there's one word that makes impulse buying impossible.
Speaker 1: To resist.
Speaker 3: It is the word, yes, sale. You know, you're a
Speaker 3: PhD in impulse buying.
Speaker 1: Say you knew that. Okay. And Everything in.
Speaker 3: Our society is designed to get you to do impulse buying.
Speaker 3: To not think about it, to spend emotionally, to not
Speaker 3: have a plan, to not have a budget. Now when
Speaker 3: it comes to impulse buying, hell is Costco.
Speaker 1: At least for me.
Speaker 3: Okay, because I go in there, well I know I
Speaker 3: don't need 100 pounds of rice, but look at the price.
Speaker 3: I mean, what a deal. I mean, really, what a deal. Okay,
Speaker 3: I don't really need five gallons of shampoo, but look
Speaker 3: at the price on it. Do you really need a
Speaker 3: five-gallon barrel of jalapenos? Two years later, it's still taking
Speaker 3: up space.
Speaker 1: In your refrigerator.
Speaker 3: The jalapenos have turned purple, but you saved a lot
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Now, when somebody comes over, look what I saved.
Speaker 1: No, you didn't save anything. You spent. You didn't save anything.
Speaker 3: That money could have gone in the bank, in the savings,
Speaker 3: could have been making you money, but now it's sitting
Speaker 3: in a jalapeno jar in your refrigerator. You didn't really
Speaker 3: need that many jalapenos. But you bought it because of
Speaker 3: impulse buying and sales. Have you ever bought anything you
Speaker 3: later regretted?
Speaker 1: Yes, of course you have. And you do it without thinking.
Speaker 3: The Bible says plan your spending. That's having a budget. Again,
Speaker 3: look at Proverbs 21, five. Plan carefully, plan carefully, and
Speaker 3: you'll have plenty. If you act too quickly, you'll never
Speaker 3: have enough. And look at this next verse on your outline.
Speaker 3: Proverbs 21, verse five says, good planning and hard work
Speaker 3: lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts, that means looking for
Speaker 3: the quick deal, the sale, the fast, hasty shortcuts lead
Speaker 3: to poverty.
Speaker 1: All right? Number seven.
Speaker 3: The seventh habit I have to develop is set up
Speaker 3: a repayment plan. If you're in debt, you're not going
Speaker 3: to get out of debt automatically. You're not going to
Speaker 3: get out of debt by accident. You're going to have
Speaker 3: to plan.
Speaker 1: To get out of debt.
Speaker 3: And the only way you're going to get out of
Speaker 3: debt is by setting up a scheduled repayment plan. You
Speaker 3: didn't get into debt overnight. It took a long time
Speaker 3: to get in the mess you're in. But you can,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna get out of debt overnight either. It's
Speaker 3: gonna take probably some years. I want you to get
Speaker 3: out of debt. That will not happen without some discipline,
Speaker 3: without making some tough choices. But I don't want you
Speaker 3: under the tension, as your pastor, I don't want you
Speaker 3: under the tension of financial bondage for the rest of
Speaker 3: your life. It'll take five years off your life, it'll
Speaker 3: ruin a lot of your days, it'll cause more arguments
Speaker 3: at home than you need to have, and so many
Speaker 3: other things. If you could take that pressure off your
Speaker 3: back and you were financially debt-free, then God could do
Speaker 3: all kinds of things in your life that he can't
Speaker 3: do because you're in bondage right now. So you've got
Speaker 3: to set up a debt repayment plan. Now look at
Speaker 3: these verses. The Bible says in Proverbs 3.27, don't withhold repayment.
Speaker 1: Of your debts. In other words, if you're in debt,
Speaker 1: you need to be paying it down. And then the.
Speaker 3: Bible says in Romans 13 verse eight, let no debt
Speaker 3: remain outstanding.
Speaker 1: Do you know what an outstanding debt is?
Speaker 3: It's when you're paying interest payments only. If you have
Speaker 3: an amount on your credit card and you're not paying
Speaker 3: that credit card off every month, but you're just paying
Speaker 3: the minimum, you have an outstanding debt. And God says,
Speaker 3: no good. Because you're paying interest on interest on interest,
Speaker 3: which is dumb. And the thing you bought, you're paying
Speaker 3: for two, three, and four, five times over because you're
Speaker 3: paying interest on interest on interest. So an outstanding debt
Speaker 3: is when you're not paying down the principle or you're
Speaker 3: behind in your payments and things like that. You gotta
Speaker 3: set up a repayment plan. Okay, number eight. The eighth habit,
Speaker 3: and this is the bookend, is committed.
Speaker 1: All to God. I must commit everything. it all to God.
Speaker 3: Now remember the first habit is I must realize it
Speaker 3: all comes from God and the eighth habit is I
Speaker 3: must commit it all back to God. I say God,
Speaker 3: my life, my time, my relationships, my money, my future,
Speaker 3: my job, it's all yours and I'll do it your
Speaker 3: way from now on. Not my way, I'm gonna do
Speaker 3: it your way. Proverbs 16 verse three.
Speaker 1: Here's a promise.
Speaker 3: Commit your work to the Lord and then Your plans
Speaker 3: will succeed. Circle the word succeed. I want you to
Speaker 3: succeed in life. I don't want you to be a
Speaker 3: failure in life. I want you to succeed spiritually and
Speaker 3: emotionally and relationally, and I want you to succeed financially.
Speaker 3: Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans
Speaker 3: will succeed. You see, the problem, your biggest problem is
Speaker 3: not debt.
Speaker 1: No. Debt is a symptom of a deeper problem. It
Speaker 1: is a symptom.
Speaker 3: of dissatisfaction and a lack of contentment. I have to
Speaker 3: have more to be more happy. I have to have
Speaker 3: more to be more secure. I have to have more
Speaker 3: to be more liked. I have to have more to
Speaker 3: be more valuable. None of that is true.
Speaker 1: None of that is true.
Speaker 3: You know the older I get, the more mature I get,
Speaker 3: the wiser I get, the more I realize how little
Speaker 3: it takes to make you happy.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take a lot.
Speaker 3:
Speaker 3: And if I can get all that, then
Speaker 3: I'll be happy. No, you're as happy as you choose
Speaker 3: to be. Happiness is a choice. And if you're not
Speaker 3: happy now, you're not gonna be happy in 10 years.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna be happy in 15 years. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna be happy in 20. Happiness is a choice. And
Speaker 3: I can show you people in places like Sudan who
Speaker 3: have nothing at all and are happy.
Speaker 1: Happiness is a choice. So you don't need it all.
Speaker 3: I would suggest you go home and make a list
Speaker 3: of all the things that make you happy that cost nothing.
Speaker 1: Like watching the sunrise.
Speaker 3: And enjoy those things, playing with your children or grandchildren
Speaker 3: or whatever. You know, the problem is not debt. The
Speaker 3: problem is an unmanaged finances. And unmanaged finances are symptoms
Speaker 3: of an unmanaged life. Your life is out of control.
Speaker 3: Your life lacks discipline. And as a result, you are
Speaker 3: drifting and you're being driven by forces, including economic forces.
Speaker 3: instead of being directed and purpose-driven and knowing where you're going. Now,
Speaker 3: one of the major problems we have today is that
Speaker 3: people go out and buy things they don't need with
Speaker 3: money they don't have, and then they spend all their
Speaker 3: time hustling, hustling, hustling to make the payments on stuff
Speaker 3: they didn't need with money they didn't have. And they
Speaker 3: spend so much time trying to pay their debts off,
Speaker 3: they don't enjoy what they've got. They don't enjoy it
Speaker 3: at all. Look at what this verse says here. The
Speaker 3: Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5 that God.
Speaker 1: Created it all for our enjoyment. If God gives us wealth.
Speaker 3: And property and he lets us enjoy them, we should
Speaker 3: be grateful and enjoy what we have. We should enjoy
Speaker 3: what we've got. We should enjoy what we've worked for.
Speaker 3: It is the gift from God.
Speaker 1: Now, look up here.
Speaker 3: Here's the way most people use their money. They do
Speaker 3: the same five things over and over. First thing they do,
Speaker 3: as soon as they get money, they get a check.
Speaker 3: First thing they do is they go out and spend it.
Speaker 3: Without even planning it, they go out and spend it.
Speaker 3: Then they worry about the fact that they don't have
Speaker 3: enough money. And then they try to pay their bills,
Speaker 3: do a repayment. And then if there was any left
Speaker 3: over and there isn't, they save it. And then after that,
Speaker 3: if there's any left over, they give some.
Speaker 1: That's not the plan God blesses.
Speaker 3: God says, no, no, first you recognize that I'm your
Speaker 3: source and I'm your security, and then you work honestly
Speaker 3: for a living, you give the first part back to
Speaker 3: me and you give the second part to yourself. You
Speaker 3: pay me first, you pay yourself second, and then you
Speaker 3: live on the rest. You say I can't live on
Speaker 3: the rest. Then you're living beyond your means. You're living
Speaker 3: beyond your means. And you need to make some tough choices.
Speaker 2: What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know, Daily
Speaker 2: Hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with
Speaker 2: a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: You know, friends, it always encourages me to hear how
Speaker 3: God is using Daily Hope to help you. And so
Speaker 3: thanks for your letters. And I want to read one
Speaker 3: to you today from a woman named Judith. She said,
Speaker 3: Dear Pastor Rick, After college, I met and married a
Speaker 3: man that God did not intend for me, but I
Speaker 3: became pregnant with triplets. And the marriage was tumultuous and
Speaker 3: I endured more pain and more loneliness and more sadness
Speaker 3: than I could have ever imagined. But God still showed
Speaker 3: me his grace and love. and he sustained and he
Speaker 3: comforted me. But as I was left to work and
Speaker 3: care for three babies, I clung on to God and
Speaker 3: I listened to your daily podcast every day. And sometimes
Speaker 3: it was as if God was speaking directly to me.
Speaker 3: I read your Daily Hope devotionals and I read the
Speaker 3: Bible and I prayed and it was tough. But I
Speaker 3: survived and I'm still surviving because of God. You know,
Speaker 3: after your series on tithing, I felt convicted and started tithing,
Speaker 3: even though mathematically it was literally impossible for me to tithe.
Speaker 3: But I trusted God with what I had and God
Speaker 3: has covered the tithing and blessed me with even more.
Speaker 3: And I'm now starting your series on prayer. And I
Speaker 3: can't wait to grow closer to God and walk in
Speaker 3: his purposes for my life instead of my own purposes.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Pastor Rick, for doing God's work. Well, Judith,
Speaker 3: I want to thank you. Thank you that you wrapped
Speaker 3: your arms tightly around God during such an incredibly hard
Speaker 3: season in your life.
Speaker 1: You've been through some.
Speaker 3: Really challenging times, and I'm blessed to see that Daily
Speaker 3: Hope has played a part in deepening your trust in God.
Speaker 3: You're seeing God's faithfulness. and you're seeing his provision, and
Speaker 3: that's increasing your trust, then that makes me smile. God
Speaker 3: bless you, Judith.
Speaker 2: You know, Pastor Rick would love to hear how this
Speaker 2: broadcast has blessed you. So please send him an email
Speaker 2: at rick at pastorrick.com. That's rick at pastorrick.com. It's a
Speaker 2: simple way to encourage and bless Pastor Rick and the
Speaker 2: whole Daily Hope team. We hope you'll join us next
Speaker 2: time as we look into God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 2: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 2: your generous financial support.