"Make it Make Cents"

Make It Make Cents

Today we are going to look at Proverbs chapter 6 that looks at a father giving advice to his sons. Here is a parent giving advise and counsel to their children in Proverbs.

Proverbs 6:5-6 (NLT)

Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net. 6  Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!

Here we find a father giving counsel to his children about the dangers of debt. Talking about how debt can negatively impact someone’s life. I feel compelled to address this because even now credit card debt has increased 15%. Our goal is to live a debt free life. Thing is that we can’t live a debt free life if we keep incurring debt. Here are some of us in thousands of dollars’ worth of debt and using credit cards to get in more debt. Here is Solomon, the wisest man living, dead, or unborn. Solomon says that you must be careful with debt because there is so much danger with debt. He says, “make sure you live a debt free life.” The bible says that “we should owe no man anything except love.”

Solomon says that “the borrower is a slave to the lender.”In Solomon’s day that was literal. If you borrowed from somebody and couldn’t pay them back, you had to work for them until you paid that debt off in work. It is still true now. Not literally, but figuratively. Some of you want to help feed the hungry. Some of you want to be a blessing. Some of you want to give to the Lord more than what you are giving. But your slave master wouldn’t let you. Mastercard said that you are going to pay me. Visa said
you need to break me off first. You want to help the poor, but you can’t do it because “the borrower is a slave to the lender.” It’s something about living a debt free life that Solomon is trying to get a cross to us.

Here are a few tips to help you get out of debt.

 Pray – managing money is spiritual because all of it belongs to God; when you pray, you must repent. Why… “owe no man anything except love.” So, when you are making monthly payments on things that depreciate, you have sinned against God. You
sinned against God because you are making a monthly payment or owing on a car, clothes, watch, shoes, consumer loans or credit cards. So, we need to pray to ask God to forgive me of my sins and then…

 Work hard – you must work; it’s a good 4 letter word. You must work to get out of debt

 Pay/Give to God – Be obedient and generous. You can’t beat God’s giving. He will give you even more

 Pay yourself with reserves and savings – put some money away

 Pay your taxes on time and in full – IRS don’t play. They will take everything you have

 Live within my means – Don’t try to keep up with the Jones’. And don’t let money burn a hole in your pocket

 Do these things on a consistent and regular basis

 Renee and I do not make monthly payments on things that depreciate in value; been debt free for 15 years

#1 Impacts You Financially

The issue with many of us is not our revenue, it is our expenses. If you want to get out of debt, you must control your expenses. We are making monthly payments on things that depreciate in value. And if you are using a credit card, you are paying them back with interest. They are charging us to use their money. If you save your money, you are paying cost; not cost plus interest.

 Some of us could make different financial decisions had we not entered into debt

#2 Impacts Your Family And Friends

Proverbs 6:1-2 (NLT)

My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger— 2  if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said

Proverbs 22:26-27 (NLT)

Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else. 27  If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.

 Don’t co-sign for a loan for anybody

 Co-signing is not a small favor; quit asking people to do that.

 When you start borrowing from family and friends, it impacts the nature of that relationship

 It ain’t the same anymore (give example)

 When I was in school for my MBA, I had to take a finance class and we did a case study on bank loans

 We would meet every week and discuss hundreds of billions of dollars that the bank has

 One of my classmates was a loan officer

 He said that they would have a system in place to check and see how this person works, do they pay their bills on time and spending habits

 They have a system in place with hundreds of billions of dollars; they would refuse to loan the person money unless you co-sign; if you don’t throw your weight behind it, the loan is not going to happen

 Reason being that they know the person can’t pay it back; that’s why they have your name so they can come after you when the person doesn’t pay it back

 Here is a bank with hundreds of billons of dollars and they won’t loan it to them; the bank is a billionaire business and won’t give the person a loan

 I only have thousands of dollars; why am I giving it to them

 What I’ve determined that if I can’t afford to lose it or give it to you, you ain’t getting it from me

 I will not co-sign or give you a loan; you ain’t bout to mess my credit; there is danger to debt

 How someone spends the money they’ve earned is none of your concern, nor is it ANY of your business.

 It also gets in the way of family

 One of the top reasons for divorce in America is money

 Not because you are not making it, but because you don’t know what to do with what you make

#3 Impacts Your Future

What you do with your right now impacts your not yet What you do with your today affects your tomorrow 

Proverbs 6:3-4 (NLT)

Follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. 4  Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do.

Proverbs 11:15 (NLT)

There’s danger in putting up security for a stranger’s debt; it’s safer not to guarantee another person’s debt.

Some of us have already messed up. We have signed for credit cards and/or we have co-signed for someone Solomon says that we can overcome it. He said make it make cents. But you first must swallow your pride

Example – Prodigal Son (make it make cents)

 You have operated outside of Gods will

 Signed up for some things you should not have/

Solomon says make it make cents. This is what it looks like in Proverbs 6. You have figured out the dangers of debt because you are living it in your life, but this is what you are going to do

Verse 5 – Have some gazelle sense. Have the sense of a gazelle where you are able to deal with your failures of your past.

 Gazelles are able to jump at least 10 feet

 That is how they deal with opposition or obstacles

 They just out jump them to be protected

 Give illustration

 Instead of going back to the danger he got out of, he got over it

 We need to have some gazelle sense and just get over it! (bad business, people who took advantage, financial mistakes, bad money in relationships)

 If you are going to get the victory in your life and move away from the dangers of debt, you are going to make it make cents and just get over it

 Learn how to forgive; not forget – including yourself

Verse 5 – Have some gazelle speed.

 Gazelles can run 30 miles per hour

 That’s how they get away from their predator

 It’s called flight or fight

 You must have gazelle sense to know when to run

 Some of us just need to run and keep running

 Give illustration

 When they offer you a 10% discount on the credit card, but it comes with a 18% interest rate

 Make it make cents – run from the offers and temptations

Verse 5 – A bird escaping a snare or a trap

 Birds have enough sense not to get caught in the traps

 That’s what we are dealing with right now

 These companies know that when we sign up for debt we are going to be jacked up for years to come

 Must have bird sense to rise above the traps in our present

 Birds just fly higher, build homes higher, and rest in higher places than the opposition to not get trapped

 These systems are in place to mess us up, but we must learn to rise above early to secure our future

 The devil knows if he can discourage early, you will not reach God’s will, plan and purpose in your life

Verse 6 – You need ant sense

 Ants work and ants work hard

 After you pray then you go to work

 You are not really praying if you are not willing to participate in your prayer… Go To Work!

 You are not going to get out of debt if you don’t work

 Some stuff you got to get over

 Some stuff you need to run from

 Some stuff you must rise above

 Other stuff you must work through it; there no other way around it

 Ants do not have a boss of any kind, but they have enough sense to get up everyday to go to work

 I like working… cause I like my house, car, lifestyle, vacations and I love my wife (got to have a JOB)

 Those same ants work hard and they save; they set some aside for themselves as a reserve

 Every time you get an increase, you should be saving

 Give illustration (100% percentage spending; can’t go over otherwise you will fall into debt)

Once you learn to make it make cents… get over it, run from it and work through it, you will experience a different type of peace and freedom. You owe it to yourself to be debt free and be the best you!