Skip to content Reversing Financial Consequences Oct 14 · 56 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 56 min · Reversals
...more Show the full description Show less Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
666K followers
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
666K followers
0:01 My challenge today is to tell all who will listen to what God has to say how to get out of debt. Is there0:13 anybody here need to get out of debt? God has, like in every other area, an answer to your financial dilemma.0:27 The problem is that God can't get people, including his people, to pay attention. And as a result, the0:39 addiction to debt has become the newest form of slavery. It has been stated there are 3 types of people, the haves, the have nots, and the have not paid for what they have.0:55 They have inherited a lifestyle of debt. Their song when they get up in the morning is, I owe, I owe, so1:07 off to work I go. Debt has become the newest form of slavery. Proverbs 221:18 7 says, the borrower is a slave to the lender. And many people know what it is to be enslaved1:30 to bills, to be owned by them. In our story, in verse 1 of second Kings,1:42 we have a single parent who can't pay her bills. Her husband has died. The provider for the home is not there.1:55 She cannot make ends meet and finds herself subjected to the creditors. Being subjected to the2:06 creditors has placed her whole family in disarray. For she says, they've come to take my 2 sons, that is to work off the debt.2:21 Many families know what it is to be disturbed by bills. There's many a couple who fight over finances that2:32 has become a major dividing arm in the relationship often leading to divorce. Instead of2:47 planning for the future, we live our lives paying for the past. You could call Visa v I s a.2:59 You could call that voluntary institutional slavery always. Because if you owe 8000 dollars and you pay minimum payments,3:12 you're gonna be paying for 21 years and have paid 21000 dollars to liquidate that expense. It will own you. There are many who3:24 knows what it is to be owned by debt. It has become a crisis not only for individuals and families, but for a whole nation3:36 that owes 20000000000000 dollars. Let me be inextricably clear here. Illegitimate debt, which I'll explain in a3:48 moment, illegitimate debt is to be abnormal, not normal in the life of the believer. Say that3:59 again. Illegitimate debt should be abnormal. Therefore, if you are living in debt, if you4:11 have more month than money, on an ongoing basis, that is your lifestyle, it is because you are living4:22 outside of the will of God. God makes it clear in Psalm 37 verse 21, the wicked borrow and do not4:34 pay. So he he describes it as wickedness to have bills that you are not able to pay.4:48 Debt does not mean the absence of bills. Debt is having bills you do not or cannot pay. If you are5:00 regularly, as a lifestyle past due, for illegitimate debt, then something needs to5:12 be corrected, and I'm going to tell you God's way to fix it. Now this lady goes to the prophet.5:25 Why didn't she go to the bank or the credit union or payday loan. Because5:37 she at some point made the connection between her bills and her bible. Between5:49 God and gold, between her need for a prophet and the prophet. In other words, she made6:01 a spiritual connection, which is why she went to the prophet. She needed God to intervene in her circumstances. Now I know today that my speech6:13 or sermon or talk will run into mental roadblocks. Because we have been so culturally6:24 duped, deceived, tricked, that we have bought into the lie that this is how6:36 we're supposed to live. Yeah. Because everybody we know lives this way. But if you will hear me today and at least give God's word a6:48 hearing, then illegitimate debt should not be how you live your life. Now what do I mean by6:59 illegitimate debt as opposed to legitimate debt? Illegitimate debt is debt that comes over which you had no control. That is7:11 the company downsizes and you had no control over that. You were doing your job, but they were downsizing, so you lost your job for a period of time.7:24 Or you hit with a sickness that you didn't plan on and that 20 percent of your insurance or whatever you have does not cover the expense7:35 or there is a major breakdown in the home over which you had no control and there's a flood and the insurance doesn't cover it and you7:47 it was outside of your control, yet it created a debt. I'm calling that legitimate.7:59 Illegitimate debt is debt that you choose. Bills that you create by choice. This lady,8:11 her husband has died, and she finds herself in a economic situation. We have our share of single parents as does our culture, who often find8:23 themselves with children and therefore the burden of how to make ends meet. It is unfortunate today that believers8:34 separate God from the subjects of economics and finance. If your liabilities exceed your8:46 assets as a way of life, if you live past due, if there's regularly more month than money, then you need to take a reassessment.9:00 Luke 16 verses 10 and 11 says that if God can't talk to you in this area, he will not talk to you9:12 in other areas. He says, if I can't trust you here, then I can't trust you elsewhere because this is an indicator light9:24 of whether you take God seriously. Now I can tell simply by looking out, I've lost a third of the crowd.9:37 Because this is not a topic that people gravitate to. It is a topic that has been abused and misused, and I understand that. But that's the9:48 risk we have to take because my goal and our goal is to see things reversed. It is to see that this is no longer10:01 your lifestyle. Now illegitimate debt exists for a number of reasons. Number 1,10:14 there is ignorance of God's method of handling your resources. People just don't know. If they10:26 knew, they would do it, but they they've never been told about it for 1 reason or another. I was told about it in my mid twenties.10:39 And it was in my mid twenties making 350 dollars a month that I learned these biblical principles and began the process10:50 of applying what I'm getting ready to share with you. And it was totally a life transforming reality and has been so ever since.11:04 So some people just don't know it. Some people know it and don't like it. They know it, but they don't they're not going for it. Like a11:16 lot of things in scripture, they reject it. And so they have to bear the consequences of their rejection. So they got they have the information, but not the obedience. 1 of the main11:28 reasons that this problem does not go away is greed. Wanting to live a lifestyle of indulgence. Buying things you don't11:40 need with money you don't have to impress people you don't know. And so they keep themselves spinning with all the commercials and all the advertisements, and you can't do11:51 without this. And this is now new and improved, and they gravitate and greed takes over. And then there's another reason, and that is12:04 poor planning. And I will show you what the scripture says about that. So now I am going to walk you through 3 words.12:18 And if I can get you to believe God's word because I'm going to give you the 3 words from the Bible. If I can get you to buy into these 3 words12:31 apart from trials that God may send your way or allow you to experience, you will begin to see a reversal12:43 of financial consequences where you're living your life in debt. And this thing,12:56 this evil got people by the throat and strangling them to death. And the problem is, before we get into our 3 words, is most people, even13:08 babies, Most people think when they're in this situation, I just need13:19 more money. I I need to make more money. I need a better job. So what they will do is jump outside of God's will to get more money thinking that13:31 more money solves the problem. But if you get more money with the same mind And that's why you have rich people who go bankrupt. And if if you got the same13:43 mind, then all you're going to do given time is revert to the same situation. When these 3 words will13:55 begin a process of rolling back the consequences of debt. Word number 1. I'll give14:07 you the 3 words in order and then deal with each 1. Give, save, spend. Those are the 3 3 simple words. Give, save, spend. Honor God, honor14:18 yourself, and then spin what you have. Let me try to explain word number 1 that you don't wanna hear.14:33 But the only reason you don't wanna hear it is you don't understand it. See, that's the only that's the only reason you would because if you understood it, and I'm gonna try14:45 to explain it to you, it will change how you feel about it. If you're going to reverse the consequences of14:56 debt, then you must establish God as your source. You must15:07 establish God as your source if you want God to help you reverse your issue. You see, for most15:19 people, even Christians, they may use the word, but God is not their source. Their job is their source. Their bank is their source. The stock market is their source.15:31 Therefore, o 1 is their source. Once you make the flip and you make any of those things your source, you have now15:42 created an idol. Because an idol is anything you look to to get your needs met independently of God. And if your job,15:54 your bank, your your stock market, whatever it is, all that's legitimate. But if you make it your source rather than merely a resource, then that means you're depending16:06 on that to fix your problem, and that is idolatry. And thou shalt have no other god before me, even your job. You must16:18 establish God as your source. In Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 23, God said to his people, you16:30 are to bring the tithe to me to demonstrate that you take me seriously. He says, I wanna see whether16:42 you recognize me as your source. And the way you do it is not by just saying you do it. The way you do it is by honoring me with the16:54 first fruits, which was the tithe. The first fruits of what I give you, I want you to give it back to me as proof that you are seriously believing that I17:06 am your source. In the most hated scripture in this realm, Malachi 3, He17:19 says, shall a man rob God? He says, you are praying to me, but I am not answering because who would bless a17:30 thief? If you have somebody if your kids are stealing from you, your relatives are stealing for you, and then come and say, give17:42 me a loan. Bless me. Loan me. You're not gonna do that because you don't trust them. Nobody blesses a17:54 thief. He says, yet you have robbed me with your tithes and your offerings, and therefore you have to contend, watch this, with the18:05 devour, he calls it. The devour back in that day, they were farmers, So they would plant all the grain and the corn and stuff. They'd be working hard, you18:17 know, working hard for the money. You know, they're working hard to try to to try to plant stuff and get stuff to grow, and they're working hard. And they didn't work all summer for this stuff to grow, and then the18:29 locust show up and wipe out their stuff. The devour. You ever did that, think everything is fine, and now everything start breaking down, and you're right18:40 back where you started? That's called the devour. He says, because you robbed me, I will not interfere with that which is going to eat up what you18:52 thought you kept. The issue is do you believe or not that God is your source? See, once once I got that19:04 straight see, once once I got straight, it's not just about the 10 percent, it is about a source issue. God, I want to tell you you're my source.19:16 In Psalm chapter 50 verses 14, 15, and 23, He says, pay your vow to the Lord, then call upon my name. See,19:28 we got folk calling on God while they rob him. And God says, you can't pray to me to give you a better job, give you a raise, help you with your finances while you steal19:40 from me, because the first half of what I give you is not your money. That's not yours. That is holy unto the Lord. And God has19:52 always operated this way. In the Garden of Eden, he said, every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but the tree in the middle don't mess with that. That is holy to the Lord.20:04 And once they mess with that, they lost everything else because they didn't fear the Lord or20:15 acknowledge him as owner. So until you get that straight, you will not get the divine help you're asking for20:28 to roll back the deficits that you're living with. Many are living under what the bible calls in Malachi 3 8 to 12, a20:39 closed heaven. Says the windows of heaven are shut and locked so there's nothing coming out of heaven. You're on your own. The average Christian gives less than 320:51 percent to God. That's 7 percent theft, not counting any offering above that. And and then they come they come to God. They'd be asking21:03 for big stuff too. Bless me with a new house, a new car, know. And then they go get it outside of God getting in debt, and God says, if I bless you, I give no21:15 sorrow with it. So you see, you can go and throw a credit card out and get a bank load independently of God, but when you get the thing, you get the sorrow with it.21:28 A house you'd rather not live in anymore. Bills you can't pay. And so so he says, you must establish my ownership. You must establish me as21:40 the source. A man went to a church with his friend. He said, I have nothing but praise for your church. I have nothing but praise for21:52 your church. His friend said, yeah. I see you have nothing for praise for my church. I saw that when the plate came by. You have nothing but praise. Focal praise in a minute. It reminds me of the22:03 humorous story of God was sick and was dying. He was praying for God to heal him, praying for God to heal him, praying for God to heal him. God, please heal me. God, please heal me. He told the pastor, pastor, if God22:13 heals me, I'm gonna give 100000 dollars to the church. He got well. He didn't get to give the hundred thousand dollars. The preacher said, well, what about the hundred thousand dollars? He says, well, that just shows you22:24 how sick I was. See, we'll talk a good game when we're desperate. God says, you have22:36 robbed me. Wow. You wanting me to bless your productivity, your work, your corn, your harvesting, or in our case, your job, your career,22:49 your promotion. Why you're stealing from me? See, some of us here wearing stolen clothes. Some of us are driving stolen cars and living in stolen23:01 houses because we've taken God's tithe to do it and to keep it going. So you're living in theft, which means you don't believe he's your source.23:14 Don't worry. I'm a get off of this in a second. I see you get I see you get nervous. Don't take it easy. Proverbs 323:26 9 and 10 says, give to the Lord the first fruits and then your bonds will be filled. It doesn't come. You don't call on God23:38 while you're robbing him. That's a contradiction. So you must establish that. If if God is not your source, I'm sorry. These other 2 won't help you. See, what23:50 you have to understand is who you dealing with. See see, because if you have this mamby pamby view of God, you don't know who you're dealing with. That's right. Right.24:02 Reminds me of Danny Simpson. Danny Simpson robbed the bank. True story. Robbed the bank in Ottawa, Canada. He robbed the bank and he stole 6000 dollars. The gun he used to rob the bank24:14 with was a 19 18 semiautomatic Colt worth 100000 dollars.24:26 He did a 6000 dollar robbery using 100000 dollar gun. The problem is he didn't know what he had in his hand. Because if he would've24:37 known what he had in his hand, it wouldn't be worth going to jail for 6000 dollars. If you knew who you had in your hand. Once24:50 God becomes your source I've said it before. I I just get because I I get so worked up about this because because now once God becomes25:01 your source Yeah. Right. You're no longer owned by your resource. See that? That resource doesn't own you anymore because God can use25:13 any source he wants. Any resource he wants, once he's your source. It changes everything. Okay. So moving along.25:29 You establish God's ownership first. Secondly, you save25:41 before you spend. You do not save if you have it left over. Just like you do not give if you have it left over. You honor God, then25:52 you honor yourself. The Bible says it is a wicked man who does not leave an inheritance for his children's children.26:05 You supposed to be taking helping to take care of your grandkids. We're not leaving our kids an inheritance. We're leaving them dead. In26:17 fact, we're leaving a whole country of kids dead. No. No. No. No. No. You save first. The scripture says26:29 in Proverbs 21 20 and chapter 30 verse 25, save before you spend. You honor God, then you honor you.26:42 You do not live your life and work your life for everybody else and you lose. You must26:53 develop a mindset that having honored God, you honor you through saving. Joseph told Pharaoh, you gotta save up front for27:05 when the bad days come. It is denying expenditures today so you have something tomorrow. For who knows what27:17 another day will bring. But if you spin, spin, spin, you can't save, save, save. And you have nothing to show27:30 for your work, your labor. Now to save means there must be a shift. It means you must become future oriented.27:42 See, if you're not future oriented see, our kids, kids tend not to be future oriented. They want now. They everything they want, they want it right now.27:54 Because they're not thinking about the future. They're just thinking about now. But their mamas and daddies are supposed to know better. Even when it comes to28:06 eternity, God says, set your treasure in heaven. He says, be future oriented. Don't put all your balls and marbles in this28:18 life. Pass some on in the life to come. He says, you must be future oriented. So once you honor God28:30 and you honor yourself, you'll now become future oriented. Now you may not be able to save what you want to save at at this moment, but you begin the process28:42 of honoring God's order. A farmer who eats everything he or she plants will28:54 starve. Let me say that again. A farmer who eats everything that he or she plants will starve. They've gotta leave some for29:05 replanting because they are future oriented. God has built the agricultural arena to be29:16 future oriented. The Bible says, look at the ant. Even ants know better than God's people,29:28 he says. Because they are future oriented. So you make a decision. God, you are my source.29:41 The job is not my source. The bank is not my source. You are my source. So you can choose any resource you wanna29:53 use to take care of me. And if I lose this job because they downsize, well, that was never my source. I ain't gonna start take popping pills. I don't have to do that because that was never my30:05 source. So because I've already established you as my source. Now, after you've established30:16 God as your source, after you've become future oriented, because what stops being future oriented is spending it all now,30:29 then you spend. You spend. But you spend according to scripture with a plan. Proverbs 16 3.30:41 Proverbs 21 5. God honors the plans, it says, of the diligent. We don't even give God something to bless.30:53 Oh, just bless me. Oh, bless me. And the proof that we don't give God something to bless in31:05 order to get our needs met is folk play the lottery.31:19 Oh. Convict anybody up in here, Anthony Ellis? People play the lottery for 1 overwhelming reason to get rich quick.31:32 They see those numbers go up and up and up and up and up. You got a better chance of finding oil in your backyard or getting hit by lightning than to win somebody's31:44 lottery, and the bible condemns trying to luck your way into financial freedom. When if you would operate by God's31:55 orchestrated plan, you can begin to see God at work. And and the thing is, folk playing the lottery and praying to God that they win.32:13 No. You give God a plan with what you have left, Proverbs 16 3 21 5, and you do it in this order. So here32:25 it is. Let me give you the order for spending, the biblical order. I'm not making stuff up. The biblical order for you to spend. Number 1,32:37 you start with needs. The Bible says to be content with your32:48 needs being met, the essentials of life, food, clothes, and shelter. Those are the essentials of33:00 life. Philippians 4 19 is a great promise in scripture, and it promises to those who had their things in order. He says,33:12 my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He is a need meeting33:23 God. He loves to meet needs. Okay. Let's get this straight. He does not guarantee all33:35 wants nor does he guarantee all desires. Wants and desires aren't wrong, but what he promises is to meet needs.33:47 The only time God does not meet needs is when he's taking us through some kind of trial in order to develop it us. But David said, I've never seen the righteous33:58 forsaken or their seed begging bread. God is a need meeting God. However, however, you gotta know something.34:11 God is a need meeting God as long as you're content with needs being met. Let me let me let me because I just34:23 lost some of you. Stay with me here. Hebrews 13 5 makes a statement that many people separate, but it's not separated in the verse. He says,34:36 I want you to be free from loving money. Not having it, but loving it. He says, I want you to be free from that, and I want you to be content. For he has34:48 promised never to leave nor forsake you. Meaning, if you are content with35:00 needs being met, he won't leave you hanging. If you are discontent because35:11 I just have my needs, but not my wants and not my desires, then you may not experience him never35:23 leaving you nor forsaking you in this arena. Now in terms of his relationship with you, he'll never leave you nor forsake you, but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about in meeting your need.35:36 If you're grumbling and complaining and fussing and cussing because because my need is met, but I I want something else.35:50 Oh, no. God said, oh, no. Come on. Some of us have kids like that. You meet them need. You meet that those needs, And that's not good enough. They're never satisfied.36:02 God God God rained down cornflakes from above. Cornflakes from above called manna. They're going through the wilderness. It starts to rain cornflakes or Cheerios, whatever your whatever your favorite cereal is.36:13 K? It starts raining down from heaven every day for 6 days. On the sixth day, it rained enough for twice so that they didn't have to work on the seventh day. And they36:25 complained. They said, no. Come on. No. No. I want quail. For me, it's chicken. For them, it's quail. I I I want quail. I want some quail. I want this cornflakes from above36:37 stuff. I want quail. And the Bible says, and they grumbled and they complained. Now their need was met with manna, but their want was36:49 quail. The problem isn't that they wanted quail. The problem is that they grumbled about manna. See, it was the lack of gratitude that was the problem, not the37:00 desire for quail. And when God saw them cussing and fussing and complaining like our kids do when they don't get what they want, He said, okay. And the Bible says quail fell37:12 out of heaven. Quail just fell out of the sky. They had more meat than they knew what to do with. And it says, he sent them quail, and with it, he sent37:24 them leanness of soul. It began to stink. It began to become rotten because of the lack of not the desire for quail, but the lack of gratitude37:36 and appreciation for what they had. The Bible says when God gives you something and it's from him, he gives no sorrow with it.37:52 So you and I must start with needs being met with the spirit of contentment. Proverbs 12 9 says, don't spend38:04 money to impress people. It says, better to be a nobody and to have a servant than to pretend to38:16 be a somebody and have no food. Don't try to be a baller if you can't ball. Everybody wanna be a baller, shop shy38:27 caller. Operating outside of their divinely authorized means, which means outside of the will of God, which means38:39 outside of his blessing. You start with needs, Then you graduate to38:51 wants. A want is a higher level of need. For example, I need transportation. You need39:02 transportation in our commerce society today. That is a legitimate need because we have to work. You don't39:14 need a bins. You don't need a Phantom 5 Rolls Royce. You don't you you don't need you want that. What you39:26 need is dependable transportation. So if you have dependable transportation, because that's all you can afford,39:38 you drive that transportation with thanksgiving. You do not drive saying, oh, shucks. I wish that was a Mercedes. I wish it was a Lexus.39:49 I wish it was an Infiniti. Shucks. God, you can do better than this. I'm looking all around me in church. I see other folks driving better40:01 than this. Yes. Maybe they can afford it. Yeah.40:13 You living in a nice apartment, but you want a 5 bedroom, 4 car garage, 10 acre house. There is nothing wrong with wanting a 5Show more
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.