Bling: Over-Blinged--Escaping the Debt Trap
Over-Blinged: Escaping the Debt Trap
Have you ever noticed in life that is typically a lot easier and a lot more fun to get into trouble than to get out of it? Same with getting dirty...like giving a little boy an expensive white shirt, sending him outside to play, and telling him not to get dirty. Impossible! It is way easy and fun to get dirty…far more difficult staying or getting clean.
That general reality is certainly true when it comes to money and money problems. It is easy and fun to get into money trouble, but not so easy and not so fun getting out of it. Can you relate to that—how easy and fun it is to get into money problems? The truth is, there are a lot of people willing to help you have fun getting into a financial mess…and they seem so nice! When you came in today, you received a Chase Oaks Church credit card application. It is only a joke, but I bet a lot of people in here thought it might be for real, because there are credit card applications every where now. I bet I get on average one credit card application a day…and it feels so good because they say that I am pre-approved! How nice! In this life, where we all want people’s acceptance and approval, these nice credit card people tell me that I am pre-approved. Who else is that nice, before they even know me to say, “I don’t know you yet, but you are pre-approved.” Here are some I got just this week, from all these nice companies and banks that want to help me. I also hear on the radio how I can get into a house with no money down and low payments on balloon mortgages…how cool is that! What a great country!
So in a world where it is very easy to get into a financial mess, guess what happens? Most people get into a financial mess…and that is American reality. 7 out of 10 Americans live paycheck to paycheck…that means if you drive down your street, just count the houses. They may look very wealthy, great houses and cars, but 7 out of 10 of them are living paycheck to paycheck. The average American unpaid credit card balances total 9,000 dollars, where people pay minimums month by month. For those people, if they continued to pay the minimum payments it would take 31 years and they would be 23,000 dollars over that time. Last year, more people declared bankruptcy than graduated from college. Another reality that blows me away is this: After 30 to 50 years of work, 80% of Americans will reach retirement age with less than $250 in savings. How sad is that!
Those are stats for all America though…maybe things here in Collin county are different. Think again! We are worse! I’m holding a Dallas Morning News article that focused on Collin County, and the bottom-line is: we are in deep doo-doo. Not every day you can say doo-doo in a sermon. Collin County is the riches county in Texas and in the top 1% nationwide. On average, Collin county residents have more credit card debt and a lower net worth than all the other counties around the country identified as high income counties. The average due on a car loan in Collin county is just under 20,000 dollars, which is the highest of other similar counties, and we have significantly more bankruptcies and foreclosures. High income does not get us out of getting into money problems.
Today we are going to see what God says about getting into and out of trouble in this area of life…even more specifically we are going to get his perspective and help about debt…and the kind of debt I am talking about today is dumb debt. The Bible does not teach that debt is bad or that all debt is dumb…but it does give significant warnings and help about dumb debt. What is dumb debt? Debt caused by over-spending, debt for assets that lose value, debt caused by un-disciplined spending, debt where we get upside down, meaning where we really can’t afford to repay or repay easily.
In a world that says, “Go ahead. Get it now! Pay for it later,” the Bible gives us a very different perspective that every one of us in this room needs to hear in a culture that makes it so easy to get into money messes. And we all want that. Money problems and pressures just stink. They rob our joy and peace…just awful. Some of you right now have yet to get messy, and that’s awesome. Please hear what God will say to stay on a good track. Others of you are in the mud pretty deep, and there is divine help for you here. So, first, let’s get God’s perspective about dumb debt and money troubles:
Get real about dumb debt
If we are going to be motivated to either stay out of money troubles or get out, we have to get real about the problem. And God helps us do that, by giving his perspective…a very different perspective than what we hear in our culture that makes it so easy to get into trouble. We are going to be in the book of Proverbs today, where God gives wisdom for various areas of life, including finances. Hear what he says about debt in Proverbs 22:7: The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. A simple little proverb, but full of wisdom and warning. The word for servant sounds nice, picture someone in a tux…but the word is the word for slave. What God is saying is that when I choose to borrow money, at that point I become a slave to the lender. I give my freedom away and enslave myself to that person or bank, working to pay it off. I give them my freedom.
I know a lot of you won’t remember this mini-series, but how many of you remember the movie series called Roots? Do you remember Kunta-Kinte…what a name, great name. I was a little kid when that mini-series came out, probably my youngest son’s age, about 11. It really marked me, because I had thought about slavery before, heard about it in school…but that mini-series made it come alive to me…just how awful that reality was in our history and our culture. I couldn’t believe that one group of human beings would do that to another group…and right here in our own country…my ancestors. My 11 year old brain just couldn’t wrap itself around that reality…why would anyone enslave another human being?
What God is asking here though is a different question, which is this, “Why would anyone choose to sell themselves into slavery by getting into dumb debt?” What God is saying is exactly this: when you and I borrow money and go into debt, then we choose to be enslaved. Our lives are no longer our own…they are now lived to pay off that debt. Many of you in this room know what it feels like to be in that kind of slavery, the slavery of debt. It is awful. It is hard to even breathe in the prison of debt, especially deep debt.
People become a slave in every way, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and relationally. Emotionally, when deeply indebted, we trade our joy and peace for pressure, anxiety, and depression. Physically, we can’t do what we want to do…we are chained to our debt. Spiritually, we lose the ability to do what God wants us to do, to be generous over here or to move or do some ministry trip or effort…and we just can’t. Relationally, debt slavery and the pressure and anxiety eat away at intimacy and unity in the family. Debt slavery is awful, so the warning is of course to stay away from it…to get real about it. In our culture, getting into dumb debt is so easy. Last year, credit card companies sent out 6 billion credit card applications. It seems harmless on the front end, and then the prison doors shut.
A few weeks ago, I heard someone’s story about getting out of debt—which was a success story. They were a newly married couple just starting out in life. Each of them had some school loan debt that they had to pay off, totaling about 20,000 dollars. His car debt was about the same. Their parents couldn’t help with the wedding, and they wanted a wedding like their friends had, so their wedding and honeymoon put them about 40 thousand dollars in debt. They got married, and bought a home, another car, and went into more debt for furniture. So, by their second year of marriage, they were upside down to the tune of about 140,000 dollars, not including their mortgage. It happened so fast that they didn’t even notice what was happening. Then reality hit. They went to a money manager in their church who helped them devise a plan. They got really disciplined and through several years of hard work got out of debt prison…but the wife said something that stuck with me. When they realized their problem, she said her big prayer was this, “God, please help us get to the place where we are worth nothing. I just want to be worth nothing again!” She just wanted to get back to zero.
What God is saying is this, “Why choose to enslave yourself? Why choose that kind of stress?” We are going to talk about how to get out of the debt prison in a few minutes, but first let’s talk about why we get into it…because like the couple I just mentioned, getting into debt problems is so easy and fast you hardly know it is even happening. If they were here, they would say, “On the front end, if you are not in debt trouble now, stay out!”And one way to stay out is to identify what makes it so easy to get into, the enslavers. Let’s talk about two slave traders, two enslavers in our culture:
a) Instant gratification
We want what we want and want it now. The Bible talks about the importance of discipline and planning, but that way of living is hard…easier just to get it now and pay for it later. At times my kids will say to me, when they want to buy something, and I’ll say, “We just don’t need to be buying that now…can’t afford it.” And they’ll say, “Just put it on credit card!” Where did they learn that? Out shopping with mom I guess?
Our culture has become nuts here. It is typical, normal now for the average person just out of college with the first job to expect to live on the same level it took his or her parents 25 years to get to when it comes to stuff. People just assume they are supposed to have a new car, a nice place to live, nice clothes, electronics, and furniture. Or even when you get a little older with kids or even after that and you enter into other people’s homes that have nicer stuff…you think, “I should have this too.”
The Bible tells us to learn to be content with what we have, to let wealth grow slowly, to wait and be patient…but all that is hard to do. Yet, there is something really great about it when we do…not just that it keeps us out of debt trouble but it actually gives us freedom and joy. I think back to those early years of our marriage, when I was in graduate school and Christy was working, we didn’t make very much money and we didn’t have that much stuff. We ate a lot of ramen noodles and 30 cent frozen pot pies. But we had so much fun in those years. We weren’t any less happy then than we are now. I actually miss those pot pies. That was such a fun time of life. When we went out to dinner, it was really special. I miss that.
If you are young, new in your career, perhaps single or newly married, let me encourage you to enjoy the fact that you are just going to be broke for a while…that you aren’t going to have much stuff yet. That’s the way it is supposed to be. Learn to be content. Enjoy the adventure of that, and be smart at the front end of your life when it comes to money. Your friends may seem to be a lot better off for a while, but they are just selling themselves into slavery and they will pay for that later. Those in your 30’s and 40’s where your friends seem to have more than you, don’t be fooled by that. Stay free. Learn to put off purchases until they really make sense. That’s true for all of us, whatever lifestage we are in.
b) Impulsive spending
Anybody here ever buy anything on impulse that seemed so significant then but later you think, “Why did I buy that?” You may not even use it any more or even have it any more, but at the time you felt like you just had to get it. That’s why this clothes steamer is up here on the stage. One day Christy sent me to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a pillow I think, and I came back with this. I was so proud of myself. It was twenty percent off, and I thought, “How great! I won’t have to send stuff to the cleaners. Think of all the money I will save.” Christy didn’t share my excitement, thought I was just stupid…but I assured her how wise the purchase was. That night, I got out all these shirts, and I steamed them. I was excited. But guess what…now the thing sits in our bathtub as kind of a really bad decorative accessory. What made sense then, makes little sense now.
Credit cards make it so easy to spend on impulse that we can get into debt slavery really quickly…because we are such good rationalizers. In the heat of the moment, at the store especially, or on the car lot, we can rationalize just about anything. That’s why it is wise to wait…to give it a day or two…ask God about a purchase, talk to some wise people around you. Don’t allow impulsive spending to enslave you.
Debt is slavery, and if you choose dumb debt then you are giving your freedom, your joy, your peace away very cheaply. Don’t do it. Be ruthless about preserving your freedom. If you can’t have a credit card without staying out of the pattern of unpaid balances, get rid of it. Don’t be fooled by the debt trap.
Get real about debt. Don’t be fooled by this culture. Hear what God is saying. It is not easy to stay out of debt trouble, but it is far easier to stay out than to get out…which is what we will talk about next. The Bible gives us wisdom about staying out of dumb debt, but also wisdom about how to get out of it. Turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs 6:1-5: My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Here Solomon is talking about a certain form of dumb debt, where someone has co-signed on a loan on behalf of another person who can’t afford to pay it and then guess who is in debt prison…not just that other guy, but you! What he says though applies to that kind of dumb debt or any kind of dumb debt…once you are in it, get out of it. Hear the intensity. He says, “Don’t do anything else. Don’t sleep…get busy getting out of that dumb debt. Like a gazelle running from the hunter, get out of debt!”
Here is a gazelle, wonderful animals. Have you ever seen these guys on Animal Planet or Discovery? Amazing! Have you ever seen them run from a predator? They don’t do it casually, look at their watch and think, “Hmmn…probably about time to get moving on this.” They take off. Gazelles don’t have much to defend themselves against human hunters or predators like Cheetahs that can run 70 miles an hour…but what they do have is an incredible ability to get to top speed really quickly and stay that way for a long time. They can reach their top speed of 50 miles an hour under four seconds, which is faster than a Ferrari. This particular type of gazelle gets into a sprint in one big leap, which warns all the other gazelles to get busy running, too.
God is saying, when it comes to staying out of dumb debt or getting out of dumb debt, act like a gazelle. Leap into action and intense concentration until you are safely away from trouble. Focus on getting out of debt with gazelle intensity until you are out of it, and once out of it, stay out.
I want us to get this picture in our minds, so let’s watch the screens at a scene of a cheetah running after a gazelle. When you see the cheetah, I want you to picture a credit card company, one of those people that give away free tee shirts if you sign up for their credit card…again, what nice people. Watch the screens.
Clip.
Isn’t that great? I’ve watched that over and over again, and never get tired of it. In fact, go ahead and run it one more time, because this is such a great picture of Proverbs 6. Like that guy, we have to hit it with incredible intensity.
More practically, how do we go about getting out of debt trouble or money trouble once we’ve dug the hole? Proverbs gives us some more help. Proverbs 14:23 says, All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. There is no shortcut here. It takes discipline, and it is hard. I wish I could say it is easy, but it isn’t. It is possible, but demands incredible discipline to get out of debt. It also takes the commitment to pay the loans back. God doesn’t give us the shortcut of not paying off our debts. The Bible says that evil people take out loans or borrow money and then don’t repay. The plan to get out of debt is a repayment plan. Christians keep their word. They repay their debts.
So, getting out of debt takes commitment, discipline, and gazelle-type intensity…but now let’s talk about a plan. Next week we will see what the Bible says about planning, which is a lot…but let’s talk about a plan to get out of debt. Proverbs 21:5 says, The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Let me say at the front end that I stole this from Dave Ramsey, because he has helped thousands of people get out of debt and I’ve helped very few. Here are his five steps to get out of the debt prison:
1) Quit borrowing more money. You aren’t going to get out of an avalanche by praying for more snow. Make a commitment to accrue no new debt, which may take plastic surgery, cutting up some credit cards.
2) Set aside a small emergency fund. Stuff happens, so set aside a small amount of money, a couple of thousand dollars, to handle car breaking down type of stuff.
3) Pay off the smallest balance first. This isn’t biblical but psychological. It is the power of small wins. You start by paying off the easiest one to pay off and get a quick win, which is encouraging…then you take the money and what you are not paying on that small one, and put it toward the next bigger one and keep going.
4) Acquire more money to pay off more debt. Selling assets is a great idea. We get people who get in a financial hole sometimes who come to the church for help. I remember one couple who came in who had no financial margin, and they both drove up to the church to meet me to see how the church might give them money to help. They both drove up in new luxury cars, each worth probably 40 to 50 thousand dollars. They didn’t even think about selling their cars. You can also gain more money by working more, or getting a second job. I’m not saying this is easy, but we are talking about gazelle intensity here. Deliver pizzas on the weekends. Do something on the side.
5) Pray. I don’t think Dave Ramsey stuck this here to be cute or as a token spiritual thing to say, but it is because he knows what I know: that God promises to enable and empower us to do what he asks us to do. Since he has told us to do the hard work of getting out of dumb debt, then he will also help us do so.
And that is a very encouraging thing to me, because I have seen people very deeply buried financially, where it just seemed impossible on the front end. Yet, they get going with the steps up here, and pray for God’s enablement, and God shows up in the middle of their discipline and miracles happen. Things just start happening financially…and my experience has been that people get out of the hole quicker than they thought. I’m not saying that God made it easy or that they didn’t have to be disciplined over a long period of time…but I am saying that I have seen God show up and people do what they never thought they could in a shorter time frame than they ever thought they could.
Let’s show that gazelle clip again. I just want to see it again. In the clip, think of God coming alongside you like this guy does the gazelle. The gazelle is not just sitting…the gazelle is running…but then the guy comes and gives a big boost. That’s not a bad picture of divine enablement. He comes alongside our running and helps us run.
That couple I talked about earlier, where the wife prayed to be worth nothing. It took them four years, but they did it. The day that they got out from under all dumb debt, they celebrated with their life group at their church and had a “worth-nothing party.” They had shared the process with their life group, and others who were in similar financial holes had joined the journey, too…so it was a huge encouragement to all of them. As she shared her story, she talked about divine enablement…how God enabled them to do something hard, but gave them strength and even joy in the middle of it. She talked about what God did in their marriage and spiritual lives as they got this area of life together. She was sad that they got into a hole, yet thankful for how God used all that in their lives.
As we said at the beginning, getting into a financial mess is very easy. Our culture guarantees and encourages it. If you are on the front end of that mess, get real about dumb debt and avoid going to that prison. Next week we will talk about wise management of resources from God’s perspective, and it is amazing how practical the Bible is there. If you are in a financial mess, be encouraged that God’s help is available to you. He has told you what to do. Stop digging the hole deeper, and get to work getting out. With gazelle intensity, escape the trap you are in. I’d encourage you to share it with others, in your life group perhaps, who can encourage you and help you—and chances are they need to do the same thing you are doing anyway.
I want us to close the message today with an encouraging and challenging word from God that is really a theme verse for this series on Bling. This is Hebrews 13:5-6 from the Message translation: Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you," we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?
Don’t be obsessed with stuff, because what we do have already is so significant. We have God, and God unlike riches will never leave us. He is talking about learning to be content with the fact that we have God—what more do we need? And even if we do forget that and get ourselves into a mess, the great news is that he won’t leave us. He is there for us. We don’t have to be afraid. He will help us do what he instructs us to do. Let’s go to him for help now, to be content with having him and to handle money and stuff with wisdom.
Pray.