Transcription
Clemson had a pretty good day too, didn't they? And South Carolina didn't lose as bad as they were supposed to, so it was a pretty good day all the way around. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you. Father, as a group, we now do what your word says. We come boldly before your throne with our petitions. Father, you know I can do these talks by myself, but they sure are better when you do them. So we just ask you, invade this time, and you own this time, and you redeem this time with your spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen.
How many of you grew up like I did: not rich? I grew up in Antioch, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, and it was not the poor end of town, but it sure wasn't the rich end of town. Just workin' folk, you know what I'm talking about. My dad thought work was a verb; he didn't think it was management theory. So when we went off to college, while I was going through four years of school, we worked 40 to 60 hours a week. Some of y'all worked when you were in college. How many of y'all worked when you were in college? You know what I'm talking about. And none of you died from it. The ones that died aren't here, so... These days, they call that child abuse. You ask your kid to work in college, you know. Little Jimmy, Little Jimmy needs to study. Little Jimmy's playing beer pong; he needs a job. So that's how I grew up. And so, Sharon and I, my wife and I, we meet, we get married, we start off with nothing. How many of y'all started off with nothing? You remember, "We ain't got money, honey, but we got love." Good thing, too, because we ain't got any money. We were eating off a card table, driving a 1902 Pinto. For you young people, that's a car, not a bean. And we got married, set up our first little apartment with two nickels to rub together, and we'd been married about a month. And my wife remembers that she's a Baptist. She neglected to tell me this when we were dating. Never came up. But apparently, there's a doctrinal thing: once you're a Baptist, you're always a Baptist or something. I don't know what the deal is, but so she gets up on Sunday morning and says, "We're going to church." And I said, "We aren't doing anything. I'll be here drinking beer and watching football." And, um, of course, she cried. And I'm like, "I don't understand. We never talked about this before." And all of a sudden, you just, you know, you're a super Baptist. What's the deal? But, um, so she takes off to church. And and then every Sunday she'd cry, "Go to church." And these little heathen, or she'd go to these little Baptist churches, and they would pray for her heathen husband. And, um, so then I got into this multi-level thing that I was in for about 10 years, one 3-month period. And, uh, you know, one of those deals where you make your friends mad, you know that deal. And so, um, anyway, so I was gonna get rich. Me and one of my beer-drinking buddies. There's a lot of beer in the story, but, um, and so we, me and this little redneck guy that I was friends with, me, two little rednecks trying to figure out how to be, how to get rich in this business. And so, you know, we were out there trying to do sales calls, and we couldn't get anything to work. And we had five questions, and we just knew if we can get these five questions answered, we could, you know, be one of those rich people in an MLM, and we'd be having a yacht and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, how they do that stuff. And so we went to one of their pep rally things, you know, the big thing in the convention center. And they have all the guys that are successful, gals are successful, get up on the stage and tell you how much money they're making. And I'm making $800,000 a minute or whatever, you know, that stuff, right. And they've all got big checks. I never got a big check like that. I wonder if you can get that at the bank or not, but, you know, they've all got this stuff. And so we finally, at the end of the day, the last guy to come up, I kid you not, his name was Rich. You can't make this up, okay? And so he was the guy we wanted to see, 'cause he was the big dog, right? And then when he got up there, he was even cooler than we thought. And so he owned us, you know, I mean, like, credibility city. And on top of that, his talk, it was like he had our five questions as his outline. He went right down them, man. We're like, "This guy, he knows everything. This is the smartest guy on the planet." And then he goes, he gets to the end of his talking, he goes, "And there's one more thing." And we went, "No, there's not. We got them. It's five." You know. And he goes, "No, there's one more thing. If you don't know God, you're going to struggle in business." And my buddy and I went, "Say what?!" And he said, "When you put on the character of Christ, it changes your character. It causes you to want to serve rather than to take. And you're more worthy of trust, you're more trustworthy. And servants have a tendency to win in business more than..." And so, "If you don't know God, you're going to struggle in business." He does this whole talk about God. And my buddy and I are going, "I never heard anything like that before in my life."
So, you know, we go back, two little redneck guys, we go back to, like, the Hampton Inn or whatever wherever we were staying. And we get out the Gideon's Bible, and it's Old King James. So it's like Shakespeare and Jesus, right? These and thous and thou and this. And I'm like, "There's no possible way these two guys are gonna figure this out, right?" So we sit there and look at it for a few minutes, and like, "I have no idea." We closed it. But I did go home. I told my wife, I said, "We're going to church." And she said, "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" And so we visited a couple churches, and one guy's asleep in one of them. And I'm like, "Well, if there's a Jesus, you shouldn't be asleep about it." So, um, you ought to be like excited. I like going to churches like this where we're having fun, y'all know what I'm talking about? I mean, sometimes you're going these places, and they look like they're weaned on a pickle, you know what I mean? It's life is bad, you know. And so, anyway, this place, they, you know, want people raising their hands like they knew the answer to a question or something. And, you know, and one woman's up there swaying. And I'm like, I told Sharon, we were sitting on the back, "Tell us if they get out snakes, we're leaving." And, uh, so pretty soon, you know, we're walking through the backdoor of the place and meet the pastor. And his wife was one of those sweet, sweet ladies, and she just give everybody a hug that was there. And, you know, week after week, month after month, we kept going. And that woman literally hugged us into the kingdom. And we met Jesus there, and it changed the trajectory of my life. It changed everything. And I started, we, of course, left that whole multi-level thing I told you, just for three months. And so we started buying and selling real estate. Um, I grew up in the real estate business. Momma and Daddy were in the real estate business. So I knew the real estate business. And I'm start doing "Flip This House" before there's cable TV to tell you how, right? And so, you know, we're buying and selling houses, and we got rich. By the time I was 26 years old, I had four million dollars worth of real estate, little over a million dollar net worth. And 25 was my best year in that business. I made $250,000 cash taxable income that year. That's twenty thousand dollars a month. I don't know what neighborhood you grew up in. The neighborhood I grew up in, we call that rich. And it was fun, too. I had that car I always wanted. You got that car you always wanted, "Some day when I make it, I'll get that car." You know that one? For me, it was a Jaguar. I needed a Jaguar because nobody in the neighborhood I grew up in could spell Jaguar, right? And so I got me a Jaguar, man. You know, I'm riding along, and within 90 days, baby, I was a Jaguar, right? You know, right, right. Oh, man, I was having fun. And Sharon and I, we went to Hawaii, and we liked it, so we went back. She likes little sparkly things. We got her some. They weren't big enough, so we got her some more. It was fun.
Sometimes I hear these people say, "All those rich people are miserable." Uh-huh. Now, I'm not theologically or philosophically shallow enough to tell you money will make you happy. Money will not make you happy. You get more money, it will, it will make you more of what you are right now. If you are miserable and you get money, you will be lots of miserable. If you're a jerk and you get money, big jerk. And and it will mess with your family, too, to the extent there's crazy in your family, and we all got crazy in our family, right? You know, if you don't think you got crazy in your family, it's you. Okay. So everybody's got something, right? And you put a little money on the crazy, woohoo, crazy gets crazy! Y'all know what I'm talking about? Is this real? So your money is not gonna solve your problems; it's gonna make them bigger. It's also gonna make your opportunities bigger. If you're a generous person, your generosity will go into overdrive. You'll be outrageously generous. To the, and you get a lot of money, we'll call you a philanthropist. Cool word. That means you give a lot of it away, and you have a blast doing it. You found the most fun you'll ever have with money is when you find that. So, you know, it was, it was fun. You guys, but I did stupid stuff. How many of y'all ever done something stupid? How many of you didn't raise your hand and have a problem with lying? What do you think? This is a rhetorical question? I mean, seriously? I borrowed too much money, and our bank got sold to another bank out-of-state. I know that never happens around here. And a guy looked down, sitting in another state, and said, "There's a 26-year-old kid in Nashville owes us a million two hundred thousand, and he's flipping houses. We need to limit this relationship." Which is banker talk for, "Ruin his life." And they called our notes. We weren't late, but they were 90-day notes, so they had the option of doing that. They just said, "We don't want to play anymore." And I went, "What?!" That started a crash that took, took two and a half years to unfold, and we lost everything we owned. We were sued, we were, we were sued so many times. And they were all right. I mean, I made $250,000 one year. The next year, my taxable income was $6,000. I spent the whole year selling stuff, trying to pay my bills and trying to honor those things that I signed, and I couldn't do it. 'Cause stupid will catch you and tackle you, and I had signed up for stupid on steroids. I've done, I mean, I got a PhD in D.U.M.B., y'all. I mean. We were sued so much that the little guy with the Sheriff's Department that brings those little pink lawsuit papers, we're like on a first-name basis with the old boy. Sharon's making him cookies, you know, "Come on, Harold." I mean, it's not his fault, bless his heart, what a job, you know. Oh, man, and-and-and. We had a brand-new baby and a toddler, and our marriage is hanging on by a thread. Y'all, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do. I remember standing in the shower with it so hot in my face, I could just barely stand there, and I would just stand there and cry. I was so scared. 28 years old, I got babies, my poor wife. She thought she married Sir Galahad; turns out it was Goober. I mean, I had missed it up, y'all. I drove NASCAR into the wall, engines up in the stands. I mean, it's, it was a blow-up. I mean, we didn't get a divorce. I mean, number one cause of divorce in North America today, money fights. And money problems, y'all know you have a good money fight, but if you're a hillbilly and you have a good money fight, it's a real fight. I mean, we didn't get a divorce, shall we held on to each other, but sometimes it's to get a better grip, you know what I'm saying? And I mean, she's from the hills of East Tennessee, frying pan throwing there is an Olympic event. You know, it's like, man. And finally, we hit bottom, and we were bankrupt.
I was doing one of these new shows the other day. I do these Fox and Friends and Good Morning America stuff. And one of those news anchors is like, "You know, this is a cool story. You start with nothing, you become a millionaire, you lost everything, know you're multi-millionaire. How did you bounce back?" I went, "Dude, when you fall that far, you really don't bounce. It was more of a splat." I said, "I'd like to tell you bounce back, but I didn't. I sat around, whined, and blamed everybody else." You ever do something stupid and blame everybody else? Yeah. Turns out McDonald's does serve hot coffee, you know. It's like, man. We live in a, we live in a culture of victims, don't we? It's unbelievable. And so, victims of our own stupidity, all of us. It's unbelievable. And so, man, I sat around, whined. But, I tell you this: you know, I met God, as I told you, on the way up, but I got to know him on the way down. And you, I mean, we were ground into powder, there was nothing left. We had a, "I surrender all" moment. And it wasn't about this Baptist altar call, baby. I mean, we surrendered. White flag. You're in charge. What do you want us to do? Because I didn't know how to be a husband. I didn't know how to be a dad. I didn't know how to handle money, obviously. I had a degree in finance, but I got to thinking about it, who was it taught me to borrow money? This was my finance professor in college, who was broke. Know what's wrong with that picture? It's like a shop teacher with missing fingers. So, you know, I mean, so we get this thing out. And it turns out my Heavenly Father, even in spite of my stupidity, is crazy about me. Even in spite of my black heart, he's crazy about me. Even in spite of my darkness and the worst Dave that there is, he knows him, he still loves him. He's crazy about me. And he's got a plan, and it's not to bring me harm, but to bring me hope. And so I dove in here hard. And I'm like, "Okay, how do you be married?" "Submit yourselves one to another." Oh, no, I gotta dry dishes. Now, "Don't spare the rod." My kid's like, "What's that, Dad?" "Come here, baby, I'll show you." 2,500 scriptures on how to handle money and possessions. And I started reading people like Ron Blue and Larry Burkett and Howard Dayton, who were the first guys in the Christian space in the modern era to talk about what the Bible says about money. And I was amazed. And I started living, Sharon and I started living by those principles, and they started working. Now, I won't tell you it was instant. It was not instant. If you're looking for instant, if you want get-rich-quick, God is not in the microwave business; he's a crockpot guy. It's gonna take t-i-m-e, time, time. But man, when you start living your life this way, this is a compass. It shows you which way is North, and you're not lost anymore. I don't always like what it says, but it's usually because I'm wrong. Hello. I don't know if I agree with what, with God? [laughing] Yeah, right. I had a spiritual moment when I realized God was smarter than me, you know. Okay, I'm probably going to do it this way because it's working. All these years later, it does work. And not only did Sharon and I get back on our feet gradually and slowly and start building wealth again, because, you know, we live in a cause-and-effect world. What you plant, you will harvest. You will reap what you sow, right? So if you plant stupid, you will get a crop of desperate. I've done it. And, you know, if you plant corn, don't be looking for beans to come up. Don't be shocked by, 'cause what you put into your life is what you're going to get out. God is real clear, it's all through Scripture, it's a cause-effect, the whole thing. You know, the cause-effect theorem of cause and effect was, you know, a Christian physicist that discovered the Christian worldview. And so you start to understand that that's how the universe works, and our lives are the same way. And yet we live them randomly. And we go, "I wonder how that happened?" Well, you know, you planted it six months ago, and it grew up and smacked you in the back of the head. And that's what happens in our lives, isn't it? This is real.
So, we start teaching a little Sunday School class, had about 30 people in there. And then we looked up, there's about 500 in there. And we took a little book and printed it, and nobody would buy it. And I was selling it out of the trunk of my car in a video store. Bookstores wouldn't carry it. And finally, some bookstores started carrying it, and then publishers wanted to publish it, and then all these, you know, 12 million books later, here we are, you know. We start teaching a little class called Financial Peace University, with a bad suit and an overhead projector. And now all these years later, four-and-a-half million families have gone through it, and forty thousand churches. I mean, God really knows how to take lemons and make lemonade, doesn't He? He knows how to take something and turn it around. So if your life's in a mess, I'm here to tell you, I got mess down. I know what mess looks like. And we serve a God who cleans up messes and seals broken hearts and touches wounds and and turns things around. And if you're too cool for school, you're smart, oh, He'll get to you. He'll help you. He'll help you course-correct and knock the hair off your head, I'll tell you that, but He'll course-correct you. Because He loves you. He's crazy about you.
So we found that there's five things that if you do these five things with money over a period of time, like 10 or 15 years, you will build a level of wealth 100 percent of the time. And now, I said a level of wealth. I don't know what level, because I can't predict car wrecks and cancer, I can't predict tragedy, and I don't know what your income will be. But if you're working and you do these five things, you will build a level of wealth 100 percent of the time. And this is not some prosperity thing, and it's not mystical, magical. When I cover these five things, they're all common sense. But common sense is so rare now, it's like having a superpower. So when you plug God's common sense, it changes everything. So let's look at the five. The first one is, get on a budget. A written plan. Jesus said, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, lest to get halfway up and is unable to finish?" And all who see him begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was unable to finish." Another Christian, "They can't pay their bills." I added that last part. You have to do a budget. On paper. On purpose. Before the month begins, every month. If you work for a company called "You Incorporated," and you manage money for "You Incorporated" the way you manage money for you now, would you fire you? Don't answer that. And you know, we misbehave with money. The Bible says, "He who is impulsive exalts folly." Folly is the verb of a fool in action. He who is impulsive is a fool in action. Been there, done that. Arrow right here. And fools, you don't want to be a biblical fool. This is not a greeting like, "Hey, fool." No, this is like an idiot. You don't want to be that kind of fool. And so we're disorganized, we don't have a plan, nothing's written down, and we have the unmitigated gall to pray to our Heavenly Father, the maker of Heaven and Earth, and say, "Lord, I'm misbehaving, I'm horrible, and I'm incompetent, but send me more money." To which he looks at us and says, "No." It's in the Bible. Parable of the talents. Master gives three servants an amount of money to manage. Comes back later, two of them managed it well, one of them didn't. The one that didn't, he not only didn't give him more, he took the money away from him who managed poorly and gave it to the one that had the most. Who had managed it the best. And then there's that wealth inequality scripture. Hahaha. That says right after that, "Those who are faithful in the little things will be given more to manage." And so my son, who's 15 years old, many years ago, decides he wants a brand-new Corvette when he turns 16. To which I looked at him and I said, "I'm a loving Heavenly Father, except I'm not heavenly, I'm a loving father. No, you cannot have a new Corvette." Although that sounds like a blessing to you, my son, it's 465 horsepower, it has a fiberglass body, it will go from zero to 60 in 3.1 seconds. You are incompetent as a driver. I've seen you drive. You will kill yourself. And until you prove your competence, we're not even going to talk about something that ridiculous. So right now, what you will get is an old Chevette with a tired gerbil under the hood. Because I remember when I was 16, my first car, by the time I got rid of it, it had been hit on all eight sides. Be faithful in the little things. Decide. The interesting thing about each one of these principles is, you can just decide today to do them. Had a guy working for me, and he was not doing his process right. And I sat down and I said, "This is what you need to do." And he goes, "Well, I, it's not the way I do it." And I said, "Change." And he said, "Well, I'm not like you." And I said, "Change." You can decide today to be good at this, or leave. Change. Change. You can decide when you go home, you can decide to do a budget today. Get out a yellow pad or go free budget online, everydollar.com. You can decide today, "I'm gonna start managing money well today." Today. You can decide. Because you're going to keep getting what you've been getting if you keep doing what you've been doing, you know this, right? Sowing and reaping.
And the second one is, you need to get out of debt. Now, we know this one. You knew Dave Ramsey was going to talk about getting out of debt. Because you know the Bible says, "The borrower is slave to the lender." It's real. Now, the Bible does not say that debt is a salvation issue. You can have a MasterCard and go to heaven. The Bible does not say debt is a sin. I can't find that in there. But I have studied this for 30-plus years, and I cannot find a single scripture anywhere that God used debt to bless his people, or a single scripture anywhere that says anything positive about debt. It always says you're a fool, it's a curse, you're a slave. And then we continue to engage in it. And in our intellectual minds, we somehow figured out how we are smarter than God. While all through the Bible, it basically says debt is stupid. And those that engage in stupid things are, well, stupid. And I've been stupid, I told you that, so I'm not calling you names. Here's the deal: the borrower is slave to the lender. You don't think this is so? Think about this: your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income. Let me show you what slavery looks like. This week, they came out with new data that shows that the average car payment in America today, according to National Auto Dealers Association, is $499. That's dangerously close to $500. You take $500 bucks a month and invest it from age 30 to age 70 in a decent growth stock mutual fund, you'll have $5.6 million dollars. That's what a car payment costs you. So who'd you make rich? General Motors? Ford? Lexus? I don't know who it was. You made somebody rich. It wasn't you. And you driving along in something you can't afford, scratching your head, wondering why your kids' college fund isn't funded. Because we're giving it all to somebody else. And they have nicer furniture in their building, have you noticed? Something's going on here, guys. You know, and some people in here got student loans, been around so long you think it's a pet. You got MasterCard in your life. I mean, it's hard to be a slave if you don't have a master, so you might as well. We've discovered bondage. And American distress. And just keeps going and going. And have done it to y'all. I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just saying, here's the deal. Think about this: what if you had no payments? Can't even get my head around that. Well, you're always gonna have a car payment. You ever hear people say that? "Little man can't get ahead, you're always going to have a car payment, so drive something nice. YOLO." Right? Which, by the way, is addressed in Proverbs. Says "fool" right after that. See, this is how we talk when we're losing. You know, we can't get ahead. I sure hope we can elect a president who will fix my life. Not gonna happen. Neither one of them got the goods, I'll just tell you. You're in charge of your life, and you and Jesus, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," are the only shot you got. It's the only one that's gonna work. And that's what changes. Don't be listening to these people, "Little man can't get ahead." You talk to these people, you think their spirit animal is Eeyore. It's unbelievable. So how do you get out of debt? Well, you have to decide to not borrow any more. That's the first step, isn't it? I have, we had plastic surgery at our house. We had a plastectomy. Decided we're not borrowing money anymore. MasterCard, Capital One. "What's in your wallet?" Money. You're weird, Dave. You're right, and I'm not broke anymore either. I decided I'm not living like this. I haven't had a credit card in 30 years. "You don't have a credit card?!" I don't have a credit card. That's my wallet. Got green President's faces. And it's got four pieces of, [applause] thank you, it's got four pieces of plastic in here. Two debit cards, one on my business, one on my personal account, which will do everything your stupid credit card will do. I travel more than any two of you put together. Shut up. It works, okay? "Dave, you're not getting the airline miles." Yeah, I've met a lot of millionaires, and none of them said, "Dave, I made it all on my airline miles." I haven't heard that one, so. So I got four pieces of plastic in here. These two debit cards, my driver's license, and my handgun carry permit. I said that in California, about got arrested. It's good to be back in America. Um, they just don't speak Southern over there. It's not good for me.
And the third thing, once you're out of debt, then you need to be careful to foster high-quality relationships. What's that got to do with money? Everything. There's a huge correlation for those that build wealth and who they hang around with. Because you become who you hang around with, have you noticed that? You do! I mean, I was in Boston Thursday night doing an event. You know those people all have an accent? You become who you hang around with. You don't let your kids hang around with little juvenile delinquents, right? If little Johnny down the street's a weed head, you don't let your kid run with little Johnny because you know you're gonna have a weed head in your house, right? You know, we know this. So, you know, they come home with that mouth on them, and you're going, "Where'd you learn that?" "That'll get you knocked into next week in this house." I mean, what, or do you think you could do, you get away with that? "I'll take you out and make another one looks just like you." You know what I mean? You know. It's 'cause they're hanging out with little Johnny, right? You know what happens? We're the same way, y'all. We're the same way. You talk like the people you hang around with. You, you read the books they talk about. You know, if you don't read and all your friends watch "The Bachelor," well, here's a clue, okay? Here's what's going on. If this is all you know about is reality TV, that's not a reality. Probably we need to change our diet, you know. And you don't read a book. And so Charlie Tremendous Jones said, "Five years from today, you'll be the same person you are today, except for the books you read, the people you meet." I mean, don't be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." And you know this. The studies have shown that over a 10-year period of time, that your income will approximate, will become within 10 to 20 percent of the average of your 10 closest friends' income. Because you have the same habits, they've got the same diet, they've got into your self that they've got. If you want to learn scripture, hang out with people that know scripture and are memorizing scripture. You want to have a filthy mouth, hang out with people with a filthy mouth, you'll have it. You can't stop yourself from doing it. You will become who you hang around with. And all the studies show that we have a tendency now. That's not to say I'm some kind of snob and I don't have any friends aren't rich friends, not that at all. I have lots of friends, but my closest hangs are people I want to be like. That's my closest ones. Now, I'll talk to anybody. But like when our daughters were, you know, our daughters are growing up, they're grown and married, two wonderful men now. But, you know, they're in high school and they're wanting to go on a date. We didn't do missionary dating. You don't get to date little Johnny the weed head and lead him to Jesus. That's not gonna work, okay? We're not doing this. Little Johnny can go to camp and get saved again, you know, we'll work on this, right? And so, no, uh-huh. You come up in our house, pick up one of our daughters, honk your horn, you better be delivering pizza, alright? So coming in talking to the old man, you know, be cleaning my gun when you get home, you know the song, right? And so, I mean, this is kind of thing I'm teaching. Dad, all the boys in youth group are scared of you. Good. Good. Keeps away two things you don't want: baby doll, you don't want jerks, and you don't want wusses. And if I can keep both those away, and then I teach you how to keep them away, you can pick good. And guess what? They both picked good. They both picked good. They're married studs, man. I got some sons-in-law, unbelievable. Love Jesus, love their wife, love their kids. I mean, fight for their family. I got, man, my sons-in-law are awesome. It was an accident. Started praying for my sons-in-law when my daughters were born. And praying still praying for my son's wife because he hadn't found her, but he'll get around to it. And, you know, but you see what I'm saying, y'all? And you become who you hang around with. And you need to make these choices very, very carefully.
The third thing, or the fourth thing, is you need to save and invest. "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil." Wise people save money. That's what this means. Oil is a sign of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. It was used to anoint kings, and it was used to keep the oil burning in the Holy of Holies. And so it was used in the marketplace like we use green President's faces as a medium of exchange. If you had a carafe of oil, you were ready to do business. It was a sign of wealth. There were two classes of people: poor people and rich people. Most of the people were poor people. This is the Mediterranean, we're talking. They ate hummus and olives, no meat, a little bit of bread, maybe maybe a fish if they got some meat. But that was it. Rich people ate what we eat every day: spices, good meat, Charleston food scene, you know what I'm saying, right? Cooking it up, right? You know what I'm saying? That that's fine food. Stores of choice food and oil. Food, choice food, and oil are symbols of wealth. So let's read that again: "In the house of the wise are stores of money." Wise people save money. Why? Well, start with, we save for an emergency, right? Grandma said she said, "Save for a what? Rainy day." Visual aid. It's gonna rain. It's gonna rain. You're gonna have a car wreck, you're gonna lose your job, something's gonna happen, you're gonna need some money. "Dave, you need to be positive." I'm positive it's gonna rain. Something's gonna come up. This one I don't understand. "Unexpected pregnancy." Say what? Okay, but people come up with all kinds of things that are emergencies, right? And something's gonna happen. And then you need to save and invest so you retire with dignity. You know, I'm gonna spend everything I make and hope the government, which is well known for its ability to handle money, will take care of me. Dumb idea. They can't find. I mean, they don't, I'm not even sure some of them have opposable thumbs up there, you know what I'm saying? It's just ridiculous. And we're counting on them in some whacked-out kind of way to come be that they're not coming. There is no white horse, there is no Calvary. Your it, you and me and Jesus, okay? You are in charge of your destiny. And that's great news. It's great news. And so I'm all worried about the election. And I'm not worried about the election because I've made money under both parties. Turns out it wasn't up to them in either case. I've lost money under both parties. None of them sent me a check. They all just want money. They're extracting like a tick, extracting blood all the time. That's all they do. This is the deal. So, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil." By the way, the rest of that one says, "and a foolish man devours all he has." If you spend everything you make, the Bible just called you a fool again. I've been a fool, call me a fool too. And I decided to change.
The last one is this: God loves a cheerful giver. He loves a cheerful giver. And this is all about generosity. Oh, yes, it's about the tithe. The tithe to your local church. You're an evangelical Christian? Yes, tithe to your local church. Absolutely. That's a baseline. That's a starting point. But this is all about cheerfulness. It's about your generosity. It's not just a transfer of funds. Generosity is a spirit where you decide to be a generous person. Generous people are more attractive. They smile. They are not grouchy. It's not all about them. They're the ones that open the door. They're the ones when the grocery bag has the bottom dropped and your groceries are rolling all over the parking lot, they're the ones out there helping you pick it up. These are the people that when they go out to eat after church, they leave a tip. You cheap Christians. Servers don't want even want to work on Sunday because of us. Ridiculous. Well, us, I'm not. I leave big tips. Big tips because it's a form of generosity. When they didn't give me good service? Oh, shut up. Carrying a tray that weighs more than you. Figure it out. They parked your car in the rain and the heat. Shut up. Give him some money. They park your hundred thirty thousand dollar car and you give them three dollars. What are you, a nut? That's Ferris Bueller parking the car there. Take care of that, man. I get my twenty-dollar bill. My car's still sitting there when I come out. It's amazing. Besides that, the guy's working his way through college or something, right? And he says, "Better than I deserve." That's his code for, "I'm getting out of debt." If they say that, you gotta give them a double tip. So I gave him 40. My wife's like, "I'm gonna park your car." "No, you're not. You're not. You're not working your way out of college. You've already put up with me for 30 years, so it's alright." Generosity is a spirit. It changes everything in your life. And God loves when we are cheerful givers because we're made over in His image, and He's a giver. He gave His only begotten Son. He's a giver. We can't call ourselves in His image until we change our posture and our spirit about this. But it's awful tough to give if you're broke, if you're in debt, and you haven't saved any money, and you don't have a plan, and you're not hanging out with other people who are givers. And some change. You get to decide today. It'll change your life. When scripture intersects your life, the truth of God intersects your life, it moves from your head and travels 18 inches into your heart. It changes your behavior, and changes the trajectory of your life. It will change your family tree. You will change everyone with your last name that follows you if you do these things. It's that powerful. Because there's this great plus sign on the scope of history, and it's the cross. And it's an opportunity. That His mercies are new every morning. I get the opportunity to do it again. You have the opportunity to, thank you Jesus for your grace. In spite of all the bad things that I've done, and I am, in spite of all of that, I'm so much better than I was. But I'm still not even close. Thank goodness. Poor Sharon's not married to the same guy she married all these years later. He's a lot better husband. He's a lot better daddy. He's a lot better leader than he was when he was 32 years old, open this company. He's a lot better at money than he was. He keeps getting better and learning and growing and learning and growing. Still not there, still not there. But I'm a lot better than I was. And it's been a wild ride, y'all. It's the most, it's the most fun journey you can. If you don't know this guy named Jesus, oh my goodness, you're missing out on the roller coaster ride of your life. It's so thrilling. You will throw your hands up and go, "Woohoo!" And you, oh man, it just, it's a, it's unbelievable. The sorrows are deeper, and the joys are higher. It changes everything. It changes everything. And when you move this money piece around, it gives you the tools to be that in the marketplace and to be that for your family and to get this monkey off your back and get that elephant out of the room because he's got to go.
God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for these folks. Thank you for these pastors, generations of pastoring this church. And what just wonderful men and women are here. Thank you for letting me be a part of this family this weekend. And God, we just pray blessings and mercy and grace and healing on the families that are sitting here. And, Father, some people are sitting here that are still got their arms crossed. And Father, that's between you and them. Be gentle with them. Don't hit 'em any harder than you have to get their attention. Love 'em, Lord. Love 'em well. In Jesus' name, Amen.