BREAKING OUT OF THE DEBT TRAP

Figuring Out Your Finances - Part 2

Selected
January 30-31, 1999, #A105-2
Rick Warren
DANGER SIGNS: ENTERING THE DEBT TRAP!
1. LIVING ON ____________________ INSTEAD OF ____________________
"Don't withhold repayment of your debts. Don't say `some other time,' i
f you can pay now." Pr. 3:27-28 (LB)
* shows a lack of contentment (Lk. 3:14)
* presumes on the future (Pr. 27:1)
2. DELAYING ____________________ OR PAYING ____________________
"Let no debt remain outstanding." Rom. 13:8 (NIV)
3. UNABLE TO ____________________ OR ____________________
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, `How do we rob You?' In tit
hes and offerings." Mal. 3:8 (NIV)
"The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever
he gets."
Pr. 21:20 (LB)
4. UNABLE TO ________________________________________
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Matt. 22:2
1 (NIV)
5. EXTRAVAGANT ________________________________________
"Indulging in luxuries, wine, and food will never make you wealthy." Pr
. 21:17 (GN)
6. LOOKING FOR ________________________________________ IDEAS.
"Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty." Pr. 21:
5 (LB)
"Dreaming instead of doing is foolishness." Eccl. 5:7 (LB)
NINE STEPS OUT OF THE DEBT TRAP
1. ____________________ TO BECOMING DEBT FREE NOW!
"The wicked borrow and do not repay..." Psalm 37:21 (NIV)
2. START PAYING ____________________ & ____________________ FIRST.
10/10/80 PLAN
Mal. 3:8-11; Pr. 3:9-10; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; Pr. 21:5,20 - Tithing & Saving
"The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your
lives."
Deut. 14:23 (LB)
3. LIST ALL I ____________________ & ALL I ____________________ .
"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established
." Pr. 24:3 (NIV)
4. HAVE A ____________________ !
"Get rid of every idol..." Ezek. 20:7 (LB)
5. SET UP A ________________________________________
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity..." Pr. 21:5 (NLT)
"Get advice if you want your plans to work." Pr. 20:18 (NCV)
6. DECIDE TO DO IT IN ________________________________________ !
"What is impossible with men is possible with God." Lk. 18:27 (NIV)
7. ADD NO ________________________________________ !
"Be content with what you have..." Heb. 13:5 (NIV)
8. SHARE MY PLAN WITH ________________________________________.
"When your ways please the Lord, He will make your enemies into friends." Pr.
16:7 (GN)
9. ________________________________________ !
"Let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a h
arvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up." Gal. 6:9 (LB)
"We owed a debt because we broke God's laws. That debt listed all the rules we
failed to follow. But God forgave us and took away that debt and nailed it to t
he cross." Col. 2:14 (IBC)
BREAKING OUT OF THE DEBT TRAP
Figuring Out Your Finances - Part 2
Selected
January 30-31, 1999, #A105-2
Rick Warren
We live in a culture based on instant gratification. Buy now - pay later. Of c
ourse, this causes enormous problems not only in culture but also in our individ
ual families and lives. Consumer debt in America now stands at 1.4 trillion dol
lars. That's not what the government owes. That's what you and I owe.
Today we're concluding the series "Figuring Out Your Finances". I want us to lo
ok at Breaking Out of the Debt Trap.
You say, "Why is debt a trap?" It's a trap because it enslaves you. When you g
o in debt, you loose your freedom. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:7 "The bor
rower is the servant to the lender." Any time you take a loan, any time you go
in debt to someone or some company, you are, in a sense, becoming a servant to t
hem because you're obligated to those people. It becomes a very major trap that
many people can never get out of.
We all get these things every week. It's an offer for a new credit card. I sta
rted reading it and it hooked me. It started out, "Dear Richard..." I knew this
was a problem because only my mom called me Richard! "... Congratulations! Y
ou are among the preferred select few pre-approved for our most prestigious cred
it card." I'm preferred! I'm prestigious! I'm in the select few! I read on,
"This is customized to meet all your needs. Enjoy spending all you want. You
have set the standard higher and there's only one Visa Platinum that meets your
needs. You deserve it!" They want to give me a credit line of a hundred grand!
They obviously have the wrong Rick Warren!
Whenever you read one of these ads, there's one word you'll never find in any cr
edit application or credit advertisement. It a word that we don't like in credi
t ads. It's the word "debt".
You'll never find that word in their application. But that's exactly what they'
re selling. They're selling you debt. That is an uncomfortable word. It's an
unpleasant word. So they don't want to put it in there. They'd want to tell yo
u, "We'll sell you love, joy, peace - the fruit of the spirit." But what they're
selling is debt.
I looked up the word "debt" in Roget's Thesaurus. Here are the synonyms for deb
t: to owe, to be obligated, liable, in deficit, in default, insolvent, encumbere
d, in over one's head, tied up, out of pocket, in arrears, indigent, p
aupered, destitute, penniless, needy, lacking, distressed, in difficulty, a dead
beat, having a wolf at your door, living hand to mouth, beggarly, emptied, havin
g seen better days, gone to the dogs, racked and ruined, impoverished, bad off,
hard up, beaten down, reduced to ruin, fleeced, stripped, bereft, bereaved, redu
ced, unable to make ends meet, embarrassed, broke, busted.
If they told you that this is what they were selling, would you think twice befo
re applying for it? They are selling debt. And they're saying, "We want you to
be in debt to us."
Every Monday night, the Warren family has family night. We take turns deciding
who gets to choose what we're going to do on that particular Monday night. A fe
w weeks ago we decided we'd stay home and watch a video. There aren't that many
PG and PG-13 movies out there so we ended up watching the movie from this last
year, "Lost in Space". It's a pretty cheesy movie! A total waste of special ef
fects. Cisco and Ebert rated "Lost in Space" one of the ten worst movies of 199
8. If you didn't see the movie you probably saw the TV show. One of the main c
haracters is this dorky robot who walks around - his goal in life - saying, "Dan
ger! Will Robinson! Danger!"
Today, I want to be the dorky robot. I want to give you six danger signs that y
ou are in over your head. Six danger signs that you need to take drastic measur
es in your finances that you're either headed into the debt trap, or you're alre
ady entrapped in debt.
What does the Bible say? Signs of the debt trap:
1. LIVING ON CREDIT INSTEAD OF PAYING CASH.
If you depend on credit to maintain your lifestyle you're spending too much. If
you have to use credit cards to maintain your lifestyle, you're spending too mu
ch. Proverbs 3:27-28 "Don't withhold repayment of your debts. Don't say `some
other time,' if you can pay it now." In other words, if you have cash to pay it
now, pay it now. Don't put it off until the future, don't put it on some credi
t account.
How do you know if you're living on credit? Simple: the balance is going up.
If on your credit cards, that balance keeps going up and up, all kinds of red fl
ags should be going off, warning signs exploding in your mind.
There are a couple of problems with living on credit:
It shows a lack of contentment in your life. You can't wait. You can't
be patient. You can't save. You have to have it now. It shows a lack of cont
entment.
It is a presumption on the future. You say, "I can always pay it off to
morrow." How do you think so? You might be disabled tomorrow. You might have
a major accident next week. Every time you buy something on unsecured credit (l
ike a credit card, a revolving account) you are buying something that you're pre
suming on the future that you'll be able to pay it back. Proverbs 27:1 "Boast n
ot of tomorrow, for you don't know what tomorrow will bring." Debt always presu
mes upon the future.
Studies have shown that if you use a credit card, you'll spend 23% more money in
a store than if you use cash. It makes it a whole lot easier to buy things you
don't need with money you don't have. So it's very easy. It doesn't seem like
it's real money. It makes it easy to buy nonessentials.
Let's admit it right up front: It's fun to spend money. To spend money you don'
t have is absolutely exhilarating. There's a rush! Like mainlining some drug!
I'm spending money I don't have! But you're headed into the debt trap.
2. DELAYING PAYMENTS OR PAYING THE MINIMUM DUE.
That's a telltale sign that you're in the debt trap. If you're missing payments
. If you're making late payments. If you're paying the minimum due on that cre
dit card instead of paying it off every month. If you find yourself constantly
under tension over money. If you find yourself bouncing checks because of insuf
ficient funds. If you find yourself withdrawing money out of your reserve accou
nt in order to pay today's bills. All kinds of signs should be exploding in you
r mind saying, "Something has to stop right now! I'm spending too much money!
I'm spending more than I make!"
The Bible says in Romans 13:8 "Let no debt remain outstanding." You need to pay
it off. Don't bounce it over to next month and next month. "Let no debt remai
n outstanding."
3. UNABLE TO TITHE OR SAVE
If you're not saving any money, if you're not tithing, you're spending too much
money. We talked about these principles last week. God takes this very serious
ly. Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, `How do we
rob You?' In tithes and offerings." If I'm not tithing, I'm robbing God. I'm
using God's money to pay my bills. And God takes that very seriously. How do y
ou expect Him to bless your finances if you're robbing Him?
Then the Bible tells us "The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man
spends whatever he gets." If you're not saving any money, if you're not tithing
, you're spending too much. You need a radical overhaul of your lifestyle. You
need a radical overhaul of how your budget is being built. It's a warning sign
that you're in the debt trap if you can't do those things.
Along with that....
4. UNABLE TO PAY TAXES
You get to April 15 and you don't have the money to pay your taxes, the Bible sa
ys in Matthew 22:21 "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."
If you can't pay your taxes that means you're spending too much money. You are
in the debt trap.
5. EXTRAVAGANT SPENDING
Proverbs 21:17 "Indulging in luxuries, wine, and food will never make you wealth
y." If you want to get wealthy, you don't indulge in luxuries, wine and food.
Today we have an entire luxury market that targets Orange County with catalogue
s. Catalogues you get at Christmas and other times of the year are filled with
things that are ridiculously unnecessary, unneeded. But it's for the person who
has everything. You've got to spend. So what do you do when you've got everyt
hing? You've got to find something they need and then make up stuff. I read th
is Christmas about a $200 nose-hair remover! Folks! I could show you a much ch
eaper way to do that but Kay's here so I'm not going to. I could show you how t
o do that. Who needs a $200 bugger-picker!!
Here's the point. When you buy things just because you've got the money, that's
stupid. When you buy things just because you can afford it, watch out. You ar
e headed square into the debt trap! When you buy things you don't need with mon
ey you really don't have, or even if you do have it - the Bible says that's not
how you get wealthy, by wasting it on superfluous items.
6. LOOKING FOR GET RICH QUICK IDEAS
If you're always looking for get rich quick ideas it means you're either in debt
right now and so you're trying to get out, you're headed into debt and those ge
t rich quick ideas will put you in debt. The Bible says run from get rich quick
schemes. It says it over and over again. Proverbs 21:5 "Steady plodding bring
s prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty." When you're in debt, you're ri
pe for a rip off. Some con artist, some business scam - someone is going to com
e along and get you to plop down hard earned, good money on a get rich quick sch
eme that promises to double or triple your money and you're going to be fooled i
nto doing it.
People often get in debt because they live in a fantasy world. They're always f
anaticizing and dreaming of some big strike tomorrow that's going to make their
future, rather that just getting a serious job and plodding toward wealth, plodd
ing toward prosperity - little by little. They don't want to do it the hard way
. In our entrepreneurial county, I can't tell you how many people I've talked to
who are always waiting for the Big Deal to come along. In the meantime, they'r
e barely making it, waiting for the Big Deal. They're always waiting for their
ship to come in. I want to say, "Swim out to it! It's coming in awful slow, so
start paddling out in that direction. Do something. Get a normal job."
Some people are always waiting to win the Lotto. There's a word for people who
play the lottery - loser! You are more likely to be hit by a meteor than to win
the lottery. The odds are more likely that you will go to the moon than you wi
ll win the lottery. Don't get me started on the stupidity of gambling! I canno
t comprehend how semi-intelligent people will take hard-earned money and just th
row it away gambling. What a waste! The Bible says it's foolish. It's like yo
u've taken your brain out and set in on a shelf to take hard-earned good money a
nd use it on gambling. Dumb! Dumb! And the Bible says Don't do it! Don't go
to Lost Wages for your vacation.
Ecclesiastes 5:7 "Dreaming instead of doing is foolishness." I've talked with m
any people, as a pastor, who's financial situation - couples and individuals - w
hen you looked at it laid out on a piece of paper, it did look humanly impossibl
e. You'd think, "There's no way they're going to get out of debt," from a human
standpoint. Some of you feel that way. As we've gone down this list I'm hitti
ng you right between the eyes! Your financial situation is really impossible fr
om a human standpoint.
But there is a way out. I'm here to tell you - There is a way out! If you will
follow God's financial plan and the steps to getting out of debt, you can do th
is. I can give you many, many examples. If I didn't believe there was any hope
of getting out of debt, I wouldn't waste your time this morning looking at the
principles in God's word. But they are there and they do work.
NINE STEPS OUT OF THE DEBT TRAP
(Some of you have already figured out this is a 15-point sermon and you think we
're never going to get out of here today. I promise you, because we have 15 poi
nts this week, next week's sermon will be pointless.)
1. COMMIT TO BECOMING DEBT FREE NOW!
Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month - commit to being debt now. Always
start with a commitment. Psalm 37:21 "The wicked borrow and do not repay." God
says if I don't pay my debts, it's wicked. Not just wrong, or ok, or socially
acceptable - it's wicked. God says when you make a promise you're expected to k
eep it. When you make a financial vow, a financial promise and you debt yoursel
f, you're expected to keep it. God takes it very seriously if I don't pay my bi
lls. "The wicked borrow and do not repay."
I know you're thinking, "But I'm in so much debt, why don't I just file for bank
ruptcy and start over. It's legal." Yes it is legal but it's not moral. Bankr
uptcy is legal in America but it is not moral. It is wrong. It is wrong to sti
ff other people for bad decisions you make. It is wrong to make other people pa
y for your excess. It is wrong to debt yourself and then just walk away from it
expecting other people to pick up the pieces and hurt them. It is legal but it
is wrong. If you decide that you're going to base your morality on the laws of
the land, your morality as a person is not going to be high. There are a lot o
f things in America that are legal, but are wrong. There are many things in Ame
rica that are legal but a Christian, a believer, a follower of Christ, someone w
ho's seriously trying to live with integrity, shouldn't do. Don't do it.
It's not going to be easy, the steps I'm going to give you. It's always easier
to get in than to get out. It's easier to get in debt than to get out of debt.
It's going to take commitment to get out of debt. It's going to take courage t
o get out of debt. It's going to take discipline. It's going to take delayed g
ratification. You can't have it all right now to get out of debt. It's going t
o take endurance, persistence, integrity. But most of all, to get out of debt,
it takes character. Any fool can go in debt. It's very easy to go in debt. It
takes character to get out of debt. So how much character are you going to sho
w? Are you just going to walk away from it "I'm not responsible." Or are you g
oing to show some character and say, "Ok, God, I got myself into this. Help me
get out." It's not easy but it can be done. Nobody just drifts into debt. You
didn't just drift into it. There were choices that you made. And you're not g
oing to wake up one morning and all your debt is going to be gone. The only way
you're going to get out of debt is if you plan to get out of debt. Intentional
ly plan to get out of debt. You take the hard, tough steps of character. It st
arts with a commitment.
2. START PAYING GOD AND MYSELF FIRST
That means right off the bat. I get that paycheck and the first ten- percent go
es back to God and the second ten- percent goes to me (my savings account). I c
an't understand how people spend their lives, working hard to make money and the
y never pay themselves or they never pay God - the two entities most responsible
for your ability to make wealth. Where did your ability to make wealth come fr
om? God and yourself. Yet these are the last two entities we often pay. Right
off the bat, if you want to get out of debt.
You say, "I can't afford to tithe, I can't afford to save." You can't afford no
t to. If you want God's blessing on your finances, you have to do it God's way.
The Bible says that the purpose of tithing is to teach us to put Him first pla
ce in our lives. The Bible says that the wise man saves for the future. So whe
n you get that check, before anyone else gets paid, the first ten- percent goes
back to God. The second ten- percent goes into your savings. God Himself gets
paid first.
We talked about this last week what we called the 10-10-80 principle. Tithe 10%
, Save 10%, Live on 80%. It's tough, but it works.
Examples: Let's say you're 25 years old and let's say you make $15,000 a year.
You don't have any extra tips, any extra raises. For the next 20 years all you
made was $15,000 a year. If you stuck to the 10-10-80 plan, by age 45 - in 20
years - you will have given $30,000 to the Lord's work and any Christian would b
e proud of that. And, at the same time, you put it in an investment at 10% whic
h is easily available today, that money with interest that had grown - you would
have paid yourself $85,913.00 So in 20 years you would have given $30,000 to t
he Lord's work and saved $85,000 in your investment.
Another: Let's say you're 35 years old. Let's say you adopt the 10-10-80 princ
iple. Let's say you make $30,000 a year for the next 20 years. By age 55, you
would have given $60,000 to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission and t
he Lord's work in the world. What an eternal investment, storing up treasure in
heaven! Your investment fund would have grown to $171,000 just by following th
e 10-10-80 principle. That's $171,000 you don't have right now but you'd have i
f you'd start following this.
Let's say you're 40 and you decided you're going to switch to the 10-10-80 princ
iple. Let's say your family income is $60,000 - husband and wife. In the next 2
0 years, by the time you're 60, you would have given $120,000 to the kingdom of
God, helping win people to Christ all around the world and still have $343,000 s
et aside in an investment fund.
Folks, this works. You've just got to work it. It takes discipline saying, "I'
m not going to buy today. I'm reducing my expenditures now so I can tithe and I
can save." Great payoff.
3. LIST ALL I OWN AND ALL I OWE
You've made the commitment to becoming debt free. You start paying God and your
self first. Then you start doing the inventory. We talked a little about this
last week. Proverbs 24:3 "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding
it is established." Ignorance of your financial condition is a sure guarantee
or recipe for financial disaster. You need to know where your money is coming i
n from and how much it is and you need to know where it's all going. We talked
about it last week - keeping good records. What you own and what you owe. Prov
erbs 18:13 (Living Bible) "It's stupid to decide before knowing the facts." You
've got to get the facts on your financial setup. If you're in debt and you nee
d to get out.
4. HAVE A SALE.
If you are stuck in the debt trap, you have some things in your home that you ne
ed to get rid of. You say, "But it's already paid off." Even if it's paid
off, it still costs you money to insure it, it costs you money to maintain it.
And if you sell it, it's probably got some equity in it and you could use that e
quity to lower the payments and lower the debt that you already have. You've go
t to decide what's more important - holding on to that gizmo or having the tensi
on of being in financial debt. If you can lower the tension you'll be a whole l
ot happier than you are holding on to these things.
Some of you bought a car for the wrong reason. You picked the car out and you b
ought it for status. Cars are not meant for status. Cars are meant for transpo
rtation. You may need to go and sell that car and buy a more reasonable, second
hand car, something that will get you to the same place on time and those payme
nts will come down dramatically. Then you've got money for tithing and saving a
nd paying off debts.
If God told you to give something away or to sell something and you say, "I coul
d never do that. I'd never sell that, even if God told me, I could never sell t
hat," there's a word for that item. It's called an idol. The Bible says in Eze
kiel 20:7 "Get rid of every idol." Some of you have idolized your house. You
've idolized your car. You've idolized a vacation home or a boat or whatever.
The Bible says get rid of idols. Have a sale.
5. SET UP A REPAYMENT PLAN
You will never get out of debt accidentally. It must be intentional and you mus
t have a plan. Proverbs 21:5 "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity."
If you want to be prosperous, you have to have a good plan. To do it right, yo
u probably ought to get a financial counselor because you say, "I don't know how
to plan it right." The Bible says in Proverbs 28:18 "Get advice if you want yo
ur plans to work." If you ad a major illness like a cancer, you wouldn't try t
o cure yourself. You'd go to a specialist. You'd go to an oncologist. You'd g
et a doctor to help you get over your illness.
If you are deeply in debt, you need a financial expert. I'm not talking about a
salesman who wants to sell you some product. I'm talking about somebody who, f
rom an objective viewpoint, can set down, look at your finances and help you get
them in order, work out a repayment plan, without having to sell you 15 product
s at the same time. There are financial counselors in this church. We have fin
ancial counselors that work with our staff. There are many places you could do
this but you need to get a counselor.
You should never make a major financial purchase without getting some good finan
cial advice. Why? Because when you got that big deal, or that big purchase, yo
ur emotions get involved. When your emotions get involved you don't think strai
ght. You need the clear voice of reason, an objective voice that would say, You
really can't afford this. "But I love this house." You can't afford it. "May
be if we just stretch a little!" You can't afford it.
I've told many people over the years that they need to get a financial counselor
. I've suggested people for many people in this church. They hardly ever follo
w my advice. Why? Why do we resist financial counseling?
Because I want what I want when I want it and I don't want anybody telling me I
can't have it! That's the real reason. I don't want anybody saying, "You can't
afford that. Sell it. You can't afford that move. You can't afford that. Fo
rget it! Don't even think about it." You need oftentimes somebody to say no in
your life. Let them help you set up a repayment plan.
6. DECIDE TO DO IT IN HALF THE TIME!
Once you've decided the plan you're going to do, just double time it and say, "L
et's pay this thing off quick!" Think of the interest that you'll save by payin
g it off early. The whole time you're making payments that interest is compound
ing.
But some of you are thinking, "But you don't know my finances. I am so in debt
it's impossible to pay it in half the time." Luke 18:27 "What is impossible wit
h men is possible with God." You would be amazed at what you could do if you wa
nt to do it and you ask for God's help and you're willing to do it His way. It'
s not easy. But it is possible. So don't tell me it's impossible. With God al
l things are possible.
But to get out of debt you have to do what I call a triple financial reverse. T
oday in the Super Bowl you may see a couple double reverse plays but I doubt you
'll see any triple reverses unless it's in the last minute of the game and it's
kind of a Hail Mary pass.
To get out of debt you have to do three things:
1. You have to stop overspending. And that's a hard habit to break if you've b
een doing it for years and years.
2. You have to repay the principle and the interest and that interest clock is
ticking all along.
3. You have to learn to operate on a financial margin. That means you spend le
ss than you make every month. That's difficult but with God's help it is possib
le.
7. ADD NO NEW DEBT!
Most of you got into debt for one reason. You spent more than you made. You've
got to stop that right now. Not tomorrow. Right now. You will never get out
of debt if you keep putting things on the credit card while you're trying to pay
them off. It's not going to happen. So you have to be ruthless in this area.

If you got into debt by using credit, here's my project for you this week. Go h
ome, take out all your credit cards and put them on a cookie sheet. Heat your o
ven to 450 degrees. Open the door. Stick it in and watch them melt down. Afte
r it's over, pull them out, let them cool. Cut them up again and mail them back
to the company that sent them to you and say, "Please, never send me one of the
se things again!" A group came to me after the service last night and said, "We
're going to go home and have a melting party."
One of our financial counselors, Bert Keller, has a mayonnaise jar on his desk.
When he counsels people and they have major debt, he has a mayonnaise jar ritua
l where they hand over all their credit cards to him. He takes a pair of scisso
rs, cuts them in half and puts them in the mayonnaise jar.
Jesus said, "If your right hand offends you, cut it off." Is he talking about m
utilation? No. He's saying. Be ruthless. Deal seriously with the things that
mess up your lives. You can go home and say, "Pastor Rick is encouraging plast
ic surgery," because I am. I am urging you to go home and do plastic surgery.
If you got in debt with credit, you need to go home and destroy those things and
never use them again. Credit cards are not bad as long as you do three things:
One, you pay it off every month. Two, you don't ever use them to buy things t
hat aren't in your budget. Three, you and your spouse make a vow that if you ev
er go one month without paying it off you immediately destroy the card and never
use it again. If you do that, you'll never have a problem with credit cards.
But some of you need to go cold turkey. And you need to destroy them right now
in whatever creative way you think of.
The key to adding no new debt is Heb. 13:5 "Be content with what you have." Con
tentment is the single greatest key to staying out of debt. Discontent is what
gets you into debt. Jesus gave the secret for staying out of debt in Luke 3:14.
He told a bunch of guys, "Be content with your pay." When you're charging thi
ngs with money you don't have, you are not content with your pay. And that's ho
w you got into debt. The minute you spend more than you make, you head right in
to the debt trap.
8. SHARE MY PLAN WITH MY CREDITORS
First, I'd take the smallest debt you owe and pay that one off. Then take the n
ext one, pay that one off. Start whittling them down, one at a time. Write a l
etter to your creditors and say, "I am a Christian and I don't want to file for
bankruptcy. I don't want to stiff you on what I owe you but I can't pay it all
off right now. But I will pay it all off. Here's my plan." And you tell them.
Maybe your payment is supposed to be $25 a month and you say, "I can't pay you
$25 a month. I'll pay you $5 a month. But if you'll be patient with me, I will
pay it off." You might even beg for mercy and say "If you keep compounding int
erest on this note I'm never going to get out of debt and you're never going to
get repaid. Please. Stop the interest from this point on and let me just pay i
t down." Ask them. Many might do that. If you'll be honest with your creditor
s instead of ignoring the bills and letting them keep piling up - people hate it
when you ignore them - but if you write them a note and say, "I can't pay this
but here's what I can pay and I intend to pay it off. I'll be good on my loan."
Look what God says. Proverbs 16:7 "When your ways please the Lord, He will make
your enemies into friends."
9. STICK WITH IT!
Stick with the plan. Galatians 6:9 "Let us not get tired of doing what is right
, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discourag
ed and give up." Getting out of debt takes discipline, effort, sacrifice and ti
me. These principles work but you must work them.
I want you to hear an example of a woman who had massive, major debt and applied
these principles and was able to overcome it. Mary Hunt:
Mary:
For me, it started with a childhood promise. As a kid, I grew up in a h
ome where I had to wear clothes from a thrift store. My parents shopped there.
I was embarrassed. As a youngster I made a promise to myself that when I grew
up, I was never going to be poor. I was going to be rich. My children would ne
ver wear clothes from a thrift store.
So as I left home and to come California to go to college I'd thought I'd died a
nd gone to heaven. The beautiful weather, the palm trees, the fabulous city, th
e lights. It was wonderful. And that was when my dream ceased being a fantasy
and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I had work to do. I had things that
I need to buy. I wasted no time getting a checking account. It was about as in
sane an idea as I'd ever had as I stood there in the mall and thought to myself,
"What would it matter if I wrote a check, even though I don't have money in the
bank? Would anyone know?" Somehow I could magically get the money later and s
neak it into the account and it would probably be ok. I pushed that thought out
of my mind because it really was a dishonest thing. But it kept coming back.
And finally I decided to give into it, thinking the clerk won't know. No one is
really going to know for sure. I'll only do it this once. I'll never do it ag
ain.
Unfortunately my crazy idea worked very well. It started a pattern in m
y life. Shop on Wednesday, get my paycheck on Friday, deposit it on Monday and
it would have time to cover all the things I'd been writing all week long. Occa
sionally, it didn't work out so well and I bounced a check here or there. But I
was pretty easy on myself. I concluded that I wasn't really overdrawn. Just u
nder deposited. For me it was always more money was the answer. I didn't have
enough so I had to find a way to always get more and more money. My checking ac
count escapade allowed me to have this destructive attitude build up inside of m
e. I said this, "As long as I could get away with it, it was ok to have things
today and pay for them later at some more convenient time."
When I married after graduation, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. For
two reasons: A man is supposed to take care of his wife and supply for her fina
ncially. Secondly, I married a banker. I had it covered. I knew I would never
have to worry any more about having enough money.
But as I look back I wonder if I really trusted my husband that much to
be able to take care of his duties because I suggested very early on that we nee
ded a credit card. Clearly, he need my intervention. So with the arrival of th
e first set of credit cards, it was as if society had put a stamp of approval on
what had been my own secret money management philosophy. Now that's the way yo
u were supposed to do it. You were supposed to have gasoline today and pay for
it later. And of course if you have a husband, you never have to worry about pa
ying for it because that's his job. My attitude kept growing inside of me that
I was entitled to have free gas whenever I wanted it. Signing my name was signi
ficant. I felt dignified. I felt wonderful. I felt rich in some silly way. A
nd I loved repeating that feeling as often as I could.
With one set of credit cards we needed another set and another set. And
at the time I started collecting them, almost as if they were baseball cards.
I never really expected to use them. They were just to be there in case of emer
gencies. To me, credit cards were like seat belts, a first aide kit, oat bran,
jumper cables all rolled into one neat little package. They would take care of
me, they would protect me, they would comfort and cure. That revolving balance,
that feature where you only paid part of the balance on some of the department
store credit cards, was wonderful. So a $200 purchase was no longer that at all
. It was a $10 or $15 payment. Some of you have thought that yourself! It's
easy to get sucked up into that kind of thinking. So this attitude that started
in my college years grew and grew. Entitlement. I felt so entitled. The cred
it lines on our credit cards were part of our income. This was all that I had t
o work with to work on this lifestyle that I so desperately wanted to have.
With the advent of the bankcard came an additional feature that wonderfu
l cash advance which made it even more delightful in my mind. I could buy stuff
plus I could get money too. How cool is that!?! Because our credit was pretty
clean, Harold and I were able to buy a home here in Orange County. After our c
hildren were born and during those early years I thought, "We've made it now!"
The value was appreciating and I knew that by the time we would retire our home
would be worth five, ten million dollars? And we would sell it. And we would go
off into retirement and never, ever have to worry again. So why save for the f
uture. That would be absolutely silly to save our present day money for the fut
ure because we were property owners in Orange County!
As things went on, it got a little sticky around our home. It would not
be unusual for my husband to go to pay the bills at the beginning of the month
and to learn that I had failed to record so many checks I had written that by th
e time he got it all straightened out there was nothing left in the account. So
it was this kind of living that pushed my spending into a dimension of secrecy.
I had accounts that he didn't know about. I was doing things he had no idea.
I got caught up in this whole thing always fantasizing that something would hap
pen and usually it did. We would refinance the house. This was always the last
ditch. When he would come to me: "We can't do this any more!" And I would pr
omise I was never going to do this again. So we would pull this precious equity
out of our home and use it to get caught up on the bills. But that only plunge
d us deeper and deeper into debt. Then we'd take a debt consolidation loan out
where a new loan would pay off all the old ones and then that would fix everythi
ng. What a huge mistake that was!
When we'd been married for about twelve years the minimum payment on all
of our debts was coming dangerously close to my husband's take home pay. I was
convinced that his banking career was never going to cut it. It was never goin
g to provide for us the level of income that we needed for this life that we had
now established for ourselves and that I wanted so much. It was through this d
iscontent that my eyes were open to the idea of self-employment. We were easily
sucked in to a self-employment opportunity. It was a multi-level marketing bus
iness that we knew nothing about. We went into it with our eyes closed and with
all borrowed funds. Harold said good bye to his career, to regular paychecks an
d we took this horrible financial plunge. Within just four months we lost every
thing... the business... We walked away from it. That day our business died I
think something inside us did as well. It was probably the most horrible, painf
ul time of my life as I realized we were at the end of the line. With all my pl
ans previously I was always able to come up with another plan - Plan B - an alte
rnative, some way that we were going to get out of this. But there was nothing
left. We had bills on top of bills. We had debts to the ceiling. Creditors w
ere hounding us. And most seriously, we were in danger of losing our home.
It was a Saturday afternoon in 1982 in September, I needed to get away t
o think things through. I headed off to my in-laws home. I think part of me wa
nted that comfort that parents can give, that assurance that everything's going
to be ok. But they weren't home. Now I know why. God needed to have a little
talk with me. I went into the house. It was as if God turned on the floodlight
s of heaven and shown the right into the dark caverns of my life. The first tim
e I was able to see what I had done to myself, to my husband, to my family - the
deceit, the manipulation, the lies, the cheating. Everything that I had done t
hat brought us to the point that we were. I was absolutely overcome by shame.
It's not that I had never had faith in God. I accepted Christ as my Savior as a
very child. I could quote Bible verses. But I had never allowed God's power t
o invade my life. He was convenient on Sundays but the rest of the time I had i
t figured out. As I fell on my face before God that day I was overcome by shame
. "How can You ever forgive me for what I've done? How can I go on? There's n
o way out." All of those verses that I had memorized as a child came flooding i
nto my mind that God will forgive us, that He delights in having His children co
me to Him and to trust Him.
It was on that day that I made a new promise, that I would do whatever it took t
o stop my outrageous spending, that I would trust in God, that I would pay every
single dime back. At the time it was a total mystery to me; I didn't know how
much it was. I got up that day and felt as miserable as when I'd fallen on my f
ace. Nothing changed. The debts were still there but God forgave me.
I spent the next decade working really hard. God marvelously provided a job for
me and a good thing. Harold and I switched rolls for a couple of years. He st
ayed home with the kids and I became the breadwinner. I didn't know how difficu
lt it was to earn a living. I could go on for the next couple of hours and tell
you all the things that happened to us. But I'll sum it up to say that we had
to adopt a new lifestyle. But as I was willing to change, God made those change
s possible. He brought the opportunities. Frugality and thrift were foreign te
rms to me. I didn't want to hear about that. But something happened that day w
hen I confessed my sin to God and I knew that He had forgiven me. I knew that I
no longer had to prove to anyone including myself that I wasn't poor. It didn'
t matter anymore.
So for the next 13 years, we completely changed our lifestyles. Funny thing is o
ur sons, the people around us, didn't even notice. That just goes to prove how
much our artificial lifestyles really don't impress people as much as we think t
hey should. Together Harold and I made a U-turn on that road to financial ruin.
One step at a time we came back together. And in almost 13 years we paid back
more than $100,000 in unsecured debts. We didn't win the lottery. We didn't g
et any inheritances. Nothing unusual happened that would have hit the headlines
. But using the principles that Pastor Rick has talked about little by little w
e cut our expenses down, increased our payment on our debts. We came up with a
plan and that is what happened.
If all of this sounds too easy let me assure you, you're getting the condensed v
ersion. Nothing happened overnight. It was a long way back but it's been a won
derful journey. And I've got to tell you: God has blessed us immensely. In th
ose years since 1982, both of our boys have grown up to become financially confi
dent adults. I guess they got a financial life along with me. Harold and I wil
l soon celebrate 29 years of marriage and He

has blessed us with a business that we have always
dreamed of owning. I want you to know that I'm learning every day the true way
of obedience to God. It really works. The peace of mind from a daily relations
hip with Jesus Christ is indescribable. And I am so thankful today because God
has forgiven me and He loves me.
Harold and Mary got out of a $100,000 debt pit. You can do this! With character
, you can do this! You can get out of debt. It's your choice. I want to help
you as your pastor. Come Wednesday night to a budget-planning workshop. We're
going to get into the details this week. You can sign up to be a part of a Crow
n ministry group, a study of financial principles. You can read Mary's book. S
he wrote a book called The Complete Cheapskate and it's a terrific book on getti
ng out of debt.
It starts to committing to God's financial principles. Thousands of you made t
hat commitment last week. Thousands. You don't have to make that again if you
made it last week and you're serious about following God's financial plan. Some
of you need to make that commitment this morning.
In closing, let me say one thing. There is a debt that you will never be able t
o repay. It is the debt of your sin. The Bible says that all of us have broken
God's laws. Not just financial laws, but others too. We've all blown it and t
he Bible says there is a penalty for sin. The penalty is death. That is a debt
you will never, ever be able to repay. So God assumed your debt and Jesus Chri
st came to earth, stretched out His arms on the cross and paid for your debt tha
t you will never, ever be able to pay. So you get to go scott free!
What a deal! What a God!
"We owed a debt because we broke God's laws. That debt listed all the rules tha
t we failed to follow. But God forgave us and took away that debt and nailed it
to the cross."" It's as if He took a piece of paper and wrote everything we've
ever done wrong and then He nailed it to the cross.
You say, "You mean I don't have to pay for my sin?" No. "I get to go scott fre
e?" Yes. "I'm completely forgiven for anything I've done wrong if I accept God
's grace?" Yes.
What a deal!
You need to get your financial plan in order but before you do that you need to
resolve this spiritual debt issue. If you've never accepted God's forgiveness a
nd grace and turned your life over to Christ, you need to do it before you leave
this room this morning.
Prayer:
Would you pray this: "Jesus Christ I accept Your free gift of forgivene
ss to pay for my sins. It's almost too good to be true that You would love me t
hat much, that You would die on the cross for me and wipe out a debt that I had
no hope of repaying. Thank You, Thank You!"
Now why don't you talk to God about your finances? Why don't you pray t
his prayer "Dear God, I'm discouraged about my finances. But I do believe that
"What is impossible with men is possible with God" Today, I want to give You my
financial mess. I want to do it Your way. I want to follow God's financial pl
an. I am willing to do, Father, whatever You and Godly counsel tell me to do to
get out of this debt trap. I ask for Your help. In Jesus' name. Amen."
BREAKING OUT OF THE DEBT TRAP
Figuring Out Your Finances - Part 2
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